R&G Lounge

Incredible Chinese food in San Francisco's Chinatown.

There are plenty of mediocre, touristy and some plain dirty places to eat in San Francisco's Chinatown. To be honest, some of the better Chinese restaurants are in Clement Street. But, R&G Lounge is one of the few restaurants with excellent food and facilities that is perfect for dining with friends and family.

5 The bar at R&G

They've added a new bar on the street level. The restaurant remains popular and can get crowded,  so this is a nice area to hang around and wait for a table.

5  R&G Lounge Dining Area

The downstairs dining area is not very big as far as Chinese restaurants go. After all, it's not a dimsum place. They do serve dishes prepared with the ever elusive "XO Sauce".

5  Ginger and Onion Chicken

This time around, for lunch, we decide to try the ginger and onion chicken. While it is a far cry from it's Singaporean counterparts, it's still quite tasty. The main difference is they smother a ginger and green onion sauce over the steamed chicken. The sauce is quite good by itself.

5  Three Treasures

This is another dish I haven't tried here before called Three Treasures. The three treasures consist of tofu, eggplant and peppers stuffed with shrimp in a garlicky sauce.

There are plenty of other dishes to try (and I hope to try them soon!) but this combo was a nice light prelude to an afternoon of exploring San Francisco's Chinatown and it's neighbor, Little Italy.

Omni Hotel San Francisco

A great hotel experience.

The Omni Hotel San Francisco is located on California and Montgomery Streets in the financial district, a couple of blocks away from the Mandarin Oriental and the TransAmerica Pyramid.  It's also very close to Chinatown and Little Italy. It's a little off the beaten path but if you go on a weekend, it's relatively quiet.

5  Main Entrance on California Street

5  View from the grand staircase upon arrival.

The lobby has a grand staircase and a grand lobby.  It also has a lot of pocket areas where you can meet friends and a mezzanine lobby-bar area sometimes with live music during the cocktail hour.

5  Lobby with view of the grand staircase

5  Small pocket areas in the lobby provide a great area for meeting friends, private conversations or a cocktail.

5  The bedrooms are on the small-ish side but quite comfortable and clean. 

5 View of entertainment center with flat screen tv, mini-bar and desk area.

5 View of bathroom

The bathroom has a pocket door and the shower/tub has a really tall ceiling which is quite nice when you are sitting in your bubble bath (provided).

5  Amenities include a bubble bath and surprisingly - spray starch!

5  They do a double point fold on the toilet paper and gift wrap the emergency roll - nice!

5  The slippers appear when they turn down the beds. It comes with it's own floor mat.

5  The housekeeper left a nice note.  

While the hotel may not be so different from other great San Francisco hotels, what sets it apart is the great people and unobtrusive service.  The service was impeccable from the front desk, concierge and housekeeping.  I would definitely love to stay here again.

Coming Attractions

The upcoming Yves Saint Laurent exhibit at the De Young Museum, San Francisco.

Here's a good reason to return to San Francisco this winter. The opening of the Yves Saint Laurent exhibit at the MH De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. This will be the only US venue for this show.

© Andrew Rau. Courtesy of the Foundation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent

Yves died June 1st of this year so this exhibit is very timely.

I wonder if they have special YSL merhandise for this exhibit ala Murakami.  

Photo courtesy Foundation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent

5  Yves Saint Laurent (L) and Pierre Bergé (R).  

Yves partner, Pierre Berge, is involved in this exhibit.  There will be a lecture on YSL on November 1 by one of the Euro Vogue editors.

Original Sketch, Fall-Winter 1991. Foundation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent

5  Yves iconic "Le Smoking" jacket.

Photo: Alexandre Guirkinger. Foundation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent

5 This is from the famous Van Gogh collection of 1988.  The Sunflower jacket took six hundred hours of individually sewing 350,000 sequins and 100,000 ceramic bugle beads by the House of Lesage, who did a lot of Yves embroidery work.

Courtesy Foundation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent

5  Sketch from the 1976 Ballet Russe collection.  I believe this spawned all those peasant dresses from that period.

Courtesy Foundation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent

5  Fall Winter 1991 Goddess Gown

Courtesy Foundation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent

5 Fall-Winter 1990 Robe De Plume.

To find out more, click here.

'wichcraft san francisco

The Triumph of Design Over Cuisine

'wichcraft is Chef Tom Colicchio's foray into expanding his brand.  He is famously the chef of Craft and lately, the Head Judge of Top Chef, one of my favorite shows!  I believe the name is a play on the "wich" in sandwich and his Craft brand. Clever.

'wichcraft is a casual-dining-fast-food restaurant and I believe the philosophy is to focus on letting the ingredients "sing" without much fuss.  The San Francisco location is in the new Westfield mall (where the Bloomingdale's is).  Yet, it is not located in the food court.  By the way, the Westfield food court is populated by fast food gold standards such as Out The Door (brought to you by The Slanted Door) and Beard Papa's (japanese style cream puffs!)  To reach 'wichcraft, you'd have to go through the back of the mall, to Mission Street.  It's really almost at the loading dock.

The interior has a mid-century cafeteria look with a mezzanine for additional seating.  You order at the counter and they bring your food to your table.  It's a great space and surprisingly not crowded and very pleasant when we went there at noon.

5 I grabbed these cards thinking they were business cards but they are actually frequency cards.  Very cute design and logo.

The menu is very simple with a breakfast sandwich and staples available all day.  There are cold and warm sandwiches, soups and salads.  It's a bit pricey considering all the great places there are to eat  in SF, but I think it's a good variety and a great place to bring large groups of people.

5  I ordered the pulled pork sandwich. It was OK and slightly bland I found it necessary to douse it with some Tapatio hot sauce.  If the restaurant's focus is the ingredients, then I suggest they get better purveyors of meat and produce 'cause this sandwich wasn't singing.  The tomato soup was a bit better. Oh, they do throw in a bag of chips.  

5  The desserts look delicious but I was dead set on getting some cream puffs at Beard Papa's so I skipped.

Overall, this is a great model for the fast food restaurants of the future.  I expect something more special for the price and the Colicchio provenance.  Wolfgang Puck still has my buck when it comes to celebrity chef fast food.