That’s right, an hour drive turned into a 13 hour trip. Despite the nasty weather, Miriam and I drove to San Francisco yesterday around noon. The rain was pounding and visibility was pretty awful, so we drove slowly. Plus a piece of Park Presidio (a major road in SF) was shut and the detour added a few minutes. Still, we felt lucky to make it in just an hour and a half.

As I got ready to go home in the evening, I promised my hosts I would call 511 (local traffic advisory, also at 511.org) before leaving, but of course I forgot. Shortly after crossing the Golden Gate, I heard on the radio that highway 101 (which I was on) was closed at the Novato Narrows (inbetween where I was and my house). I pulled off at an exit and called 511 to verify. Yep. Highway closed, travellers advised to avoid the area and take alternate routes.

Only there are no alternate routes. To the east you can take highway 37 to Lakeville highway (about 40 min detour with normal traffic) but Lakeville is a fast, dangerous (1 lane in each direction, no divider), rural road in the best of conditions, and it was still pouring rain with little visibility. And it turns out that 37 was flooded near 101 too (the news reports say they were able to divert traffic this way, but it took 2 hours!). To the west you can go through Novato and take Novato Blvd to the Petaluma Pt Reyes road to the D Street Extension into Petaluma (also about 40 mins extra) but it is dark, rural, and I had no way of knowing if it was even open.

Because the 101 closure happened at the north end of Novato, the next town up was Petaluma, about 12 miles away, with the next exit maybe 5 miles up. In a prolonged emergency, they could have routed northbound traffic (the only one affected by the flooding, though southbound flooded and closed elsewhere) into the southbound lanes. And maybe they did, but the radio and 511 didn’t say and the flashing sign they set up before the closure just said it was closed. (The news says the entire freeway had to be closed and no lanes were usable.)

So Miriam and I drove to a friend’s empty house in Novato (after getting gas and picking up the keys in San Rafael) and spent the night. Miriam managed to sleep through all of this. She was out maybe 5 mins after leaving our friend’s house in SF and didn’t wake up until I brought her inside. And what an angel. Not only was she polite and sweet (though needy) during my hours of helping a friend pack, but she woke right up in Novato and helped me traipse around the house looking for sheets.

We woke up this morning and the rain had stopped and the highway was open (though highway 37 and some others are still closed). At the place where the closure was reported, I could see why…the huge (multiple acres) lake to the east there must have overflowed its banks. Only there isn’t a lake there, just pasture. Most of the year anyway.

We got home at 9:30am, about 13 hours after leaving San Francisco. Thank God for cell phones and generous friends. It could have been a lot worse.

News:

Press Democrat, Jan 26, 2008: Deluge closes 101 at county line

“As the water rose, freeway traffic was able to get by in single lanes, but by 8 p.m. the CHP was forced to close the highway entirely. Traffic was reported to be backed up for miles at times in both directions. Eventually, Highway 101 was closed between Petaluma and Atherton in Marin. Vehicles were stalled in water and had to be towed out”

Press Democrat, Jan 26, 2008: More showers on the way

“The Friday evening commute on Highway 101 turned to disastrous gridlock when the San Antonio Creek overflowed south of Petaluma. The highway, which was closed at 8 p.m., finally was opened to traffic at 5 a.m. this morning.”

Marin Independent Journal, Jan 25, 2008: Marin reels as slow storm keeps ‘pumping rain’

Drivers in both directions were diverted to Highway 37 and Sonoma County side roads, said Officer Tom Stewart of the California Highway Patrol. A drive time of more than 2 hours was reported between Novato and Petaluma.”

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

I mostly eat at their Daly City (just south of San Francisco) location but have been several times to Concord, CA and a couple locations north of San Jose. I have eaten once in Los Angeles. We generally go three times a year: on each of our birthdays and on Christmas.

Prices, hours, and specials vary some depending on location. Here is the current information for our closest location, subject to change:

Daly City, CA Pacific Plaza 1901 Junipero Serra Blvd. #A Daly City, CA 94014 Tel: 650-997-0882 Fax: 650-997-0822

Restaurant Hours Lunch 11:30am – 2:30pm (Mon – Fri) 11:30am – 3:00pm (Sat, Sun & Holidays) Dinner 5:30pm – 9:00pm (Mon-Thurs) 5:30pm – 9:30pm (Fri-Sat) 5:00pm – 9:00pm (Sun & Holidays)

Price <effective from August 1, 2007> Adult Lunch $14.95 (Mon-Fri) $16.95 (Sat, Sun, Holidays) Dinner $24.95 (Mon-Thurs) $26.95 (Fri, Sat, Sun, Holidays) Children(Under 12 yrs. Old) Lunch 5 feet & under 1/2 Price 4 feet & under $ 5.95 3 feet & under Free Dinner 5 feet & under 1/2 Price 4 feet & under $ 6.95 3 feet & under Free

*20%Off – Seniors 65 or Older (Dinner only) *Soft drinks included

Specials: A complimentary half shell Lobster per adult buffet ( Added value, Fri-Sun Dinner only)Birthday Promotion – Free Birthday Meal on your birthday Valid Photo I.D./ Must be accompanied by at least one paying adult

Promotions: KIDS EAT FREE- MONDAY THRU FRIDAY (Limited Time Offer) Children under 12 years old and under 5ft./ Must be accompanied by one paying adult per child“Christmas Special“* (Tuesday,December 25th,2007 ) - Open All Day 11:30am – 9:00pm / All Day Serving Dinner & Special Menu : $26.95 per person - Special Menu:Turkey, Prime Rib, Lamb Chop, A complimentary half shell Lobster per adult & much more… – Special Promotion - Kids eat FREE with one paying adult. - Buy one Beer, Get second one for $1.00 (S) & $2.00 (L)

There is enough there that people eating only sushi will have plenty to choose from, and friends who hate both sushi and seafood can also be satisfied. It’s kid friendly (be sure to ask for a balloon!) and they’ll sing happy birthday to you (also free on your birthday if you come with a paying adult).

We discovered this place when living on the San Francisco peninsula. A friend and I had a habit of eating at a Palo Alto sushi buffet on Christmas day (thus keeping alive the rule that Jews eat Asian food on Christian holidays…Chinese (and in areas that have them, other Asian) places tend to be all that’s open). All of a sudden, our regular spot started closing on Christmas and we drove around looking for an alternative, and found Todai. Now it’s Michael’s and my tradition, and one we’re teaching our daughter.

It used to be that Todai, and other open restaurants, were a haven from Christmas madness. They were their ordinary selves, filled with fellow Jews, Asian immigrants, and others who either weren’t Christian or chose not to celebrate. Now, Todai plays Christmas music, decorates the place, has special “American” food, and warmly greets customers with “Merry Christmas.” Fortunately, the food is still good enough to make up for those changes.

You can look at their menu online, but the offerings change frequently, and no location has everything at once. They have sushi and sashimi, cold salads, raw and cooked cold seafood, fresh cut fruit, various hot entrees and side dishes, soup and udon, and desserts.

They make most of their foods on site, which makes it a lot easier to navigate dietary restrictions. Although some of the components for their food arepre-made (and many are frozen), they cut up their own fruit, put together their toppings, and make the sushi. I’ve found the staff to be very helpful and kind. They offer to special order foods if they’re not horribly busy and the staff who doesn’t speak English (perhaps half, in my experience) takes the time to bring you someone who can.

If you’re used to paying top dollar for high quality sushi, this is not the place for you. The food is good but it’s not great and you will likely be disappointed. Still, it has a homemade flair to it, is mostly fresh (with some frozen elements), and isn’t nearly as junky as most restaurant food of its class. I react badly to preservatives and such, but always do fine there.

If you’re gluten sensitive, beware. Many dishes have soy sauce added. The sushi is pretty safe (avoid the one with tempura batter) and the staff will tell you which one or two (if any) have a soy sauce topping. The hot foods often have soy sauce and of course some are breaded. They don’t blink an eye though to your bringing outside foods, so go ahead and bring some wheat-free tamari and enjoy your sushi. I asked about the tempura once and it is possible it is gluten-free, but I can’t remember for sure. The batter has egg so I couldn’t eat it anyway.

A surprising number of foods there have egg. The fried rice and the Thai noodles both did but there was another noodle dish that was safe, along with the plain rice. My favorite offering there is the lobster, which is only available for dinner on weekends and holidays. I gave it up a while ago when I discovered the topping was a mixture of miso and egg yolk. But this last Christmas I asked if they’d be willing to make some without the topping and they did. It tends to be a bit dry, so it needs something, but it was still good. And Miriam didn’t get sick from that meal (she will if there is the slightest trace of egg in anything). I don’t know if their miso is gluten-free…Miriam and I both can cheat with gluten and dairy once in a while, just not orange or egg.

This floored me, and will turn away any serious sushi fan, but many of the rolled sushis have mayonnaise in them. The plain fish over rice kind are safe, but maybe 2/3 of the rolled ones have mayonnaise. Some have cooked egg as a filling too. And watch out for fake crab which has egg. Again, the staff is great and, since they made these themselves, they know what is in them. Fortunately, the selection is large enough that I had at least a dozen kinds I could eat. Some of the Todai locations have a smaller sushi area than Daly City and there are only 4-6 kinds I can eat.

Being an Asian restaurant, there isn’t a lot of dairy, but you will need to ask. The crab legs (the warm ones, not the cold ones) were swimming in butter and there is cream cheese in a couple of the sushis . Sometimes one of the cold salads has cheese in it. Most of the dishes are okay; it’s the more American ones that generally have butter or cheese.

If you eat seafood but not meat, or if you’re avoiding raw seafood, or perhaps just shellfish, you will have no problems finding a good selection of foods. There may be some cross-contamination with shellfish, so be careful if that is a concern.

Now, if you are avoiding all animal foods, you’ll have less to choose from. There will still be a couple of sushis. They always have the rice in the tofu skin and one or two purely vegetable rolls. You can ask them to make you some fish-free rolls too and they probably will if you explain why (they don’t do foods to order there like a sit-down restaurant, but they’ve been very accommodating of allergies and other food restrictions). There will be rice and noodles and salads (not just basic lettuce, but some delicious and interesting ones like seaweed) and probably soups (I haven’t asked about stock). If you eat egg, there is vegetable tempura too.

Lowcarb is quite possible here too. Sashimi and raw shellfish, some of the cooked meats and fish, seaweed or cucumber salad, green salad, stirfry vegetables, edamane, and melon for dessert.

Drinks there are basic. Soft drinks, coffee, and tea come with the meal but I don’t drink any of those so I can’t review them. For an extra price, there is juice, beer, sake, and some other things. They usually have a special on one or more alcohol.

Then there is dessert. The fresh fruit is usually near the sushi, not the dessert area. Unfortunately, they choose the same set of fruits over and over so they’re not always in season. You can see them cut them up from a whole piece of fruit but that doesn’t mean they are any good. The watermelon I had on Christmas was so bad I nearly spit it out, but my daughter loved it and asked for more. The honeydew was barely tolerable. But if you get these in the summer, they’re fine. They often have a cooked banana and cream dish.

Watch out for shared tongs if you react to any of the fruit. Some places are more separate than others. For the Los Angeles Todai, I didn’t feel comfortable with any of the fruit because of shared tongs near the orange slices. But the staff brought my daughter a big plate of freshly cut melon from the kitchen.

They usually have a crepe area and they are good (but not for us anymore due to the eggs, and wheat). They cook them to order and add whipped cream and/or fresh or canned fruit.

There is generally also an ice cream dispenser. They used to have a green tea ice cream (possibly it’s still in some locations) that was not only good but vegan too. I really miss it. Now they have nonfat (lowfat?) vanilla and chocolate ice cream that has milk but no eggs. We had some vanilla on Michael’s birthday last September because we wanted something to stick a candle in that Miriam could eat. It was watery and overly sweet and tasted like chemicals. Miriam enjoyed it but Michael and I thought it was pretty nasty. Do ask at your location because you might have something different.

The standard dessert display is really nice. Many cakes and tarts all in bite-sized pieces so you can have several without filling up. They are frozen and the restaurant cuts them up. They generally have cookies and often creme brule and white chocolate. We have checked a couple of times and every last one of these things has egg in it. I haven’t asked about gluten or dairy. My guess is that there will be several choices for those restrictions. Okay, on Christmas they did have one egg-free dessert: tapioca pudding. Which would have been fine except it was bright green-blue and I wouldn’t let Miriam so much as see it. Fortunately, she’s happy with fruit.

All in all, I enjoy my outings there and always have a huge variety to fill up on. My favorites are lobster, broiled oysters, sushi, sashimi if they have the seared ahi which is amazing, and cold salads, especially the seaweed and cucumber. I look forward to being able to eat eggs again some day (I’m not allergic to them myself) so I can have more sushi and tempura.

I couldn’t eat there too often, but it is a fun three time a year treat.

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

I got the recommendation for Alive last year, when Michael and I were planning a special dinner for our first wedding anniversary. But I got very ill and we canceled. This year, our second anniversary, we found ourselves needing to be in San Francisco the day after our anniversary, with time to kill before evening rush hour was over. So off we went.

Not exactly a romantic celebration with a 2 year old along, but what can you do? I told Miriam we were going to a place with lots of fruits and vegetables and she spent all day excitedly asking where the vegetables were.

Alive Restaurant
http://www.aliveveggie.com/
1972 Lombard St
San Francisco, CA 94123
(415) 923-1052

Alive is a vegan raw restaurant tucked away in northern San Francisco, a very easy on and off to the Golden Gate Bridge. Parking is difficult, though the website shows some garages, but it’s not one of the busier areas, for cars or foot traffic.

The restaurant is small, very small. One padded bench along the side wall was half the seating for all but one table. There were 4 tables for 2 and 1 table for 6 (8 if cramped). On the other side of the room was a round table with 3 chairs (4 would fit only by blocking the walking space).

I’ll have to start with the negatives…for a place concerned about health, they are quite unhealthy. In that small space were a dozen or more paraffin candles, all lit and burning. Since the ceiling was high, this wasn’t so bad. The larger problem was the bathroom, which had an oversized blue candle with some sort of synthetic scent. It clung to me all evening.

As I ate my meal, I kept smelling that candle. I couldn’t figure it out. Then I realized it was on my hands. I never use soap in public places; I only washed my hands with water and rubbed them dry with a paper towel. I figured the paper towel had picked up scent from the candle. It was distracting and I was starting to get a migraine.

It wasn’t until most of the way through the meal that I discovered the smell was actually from the cloth napkins. They were all washed in some horrid scented detergent! What a shock. I’ve never seen that at a restaurant before. Usually places who care about the smell and taste of their food try hard not to have competing smells, especially synthetic and banal ones like detergent.

I asked for paper napkins and dipped them in my water glass to scrub my hands. But the damage was done. That detergent (and the bathroom candle) was all I could smell for the rest of the night. My head hurt, I was a bit spacey, and I know I didn’t get the full food experience I was paying for. Despite washing my hands with some water at the car, I had to smell that for the hour drive home. I was not in good shape when I arrived.

The food, at least, was pretty good. We shared everything and gave bites to Miriam on a separate plate. Service was very good and we had no trouble getting additional plates and bowls and etc as needed.

We had:

- Shitake Mushroom Miso Soup with Pumpkin (Hot, Cooked) $9.95

This was the one non-raw thing on the menu. It was good but simple. We needed something warming after spending some time in the San Francisco summer winds, and it did the trick. It wasn’t anything special though, just a basic broth with chunks of pumpkin and other vegetables.

- Rapini King Trumpet Mushroom Salad with an Almond Miso Sauce $9

A very nice salad. The dressing was quite good and there was a yeasty pungent flavor we couldn’t quite place that made the salad taste like it had blue cheese on it.

Alive does salads beautifully. Every ingredient is fresh and cut perfectly. Cutting vegetables doesn’t seem like a big deal, until you compare a basic salad with a well-done one. The salad had a mix of textures yet every piece was just the right size and wasn’t difficult to eat. You didn’t feel like you were chomping your way through rabbit food…it was delicate, crunchy, and fresh.

- Spicy Korean Chili Zucchini Ribbons with Seasonal Vegetables & Pinenuts $12

We were hoping for a noodle dish here, but it turned out to be another salad. The noodles (thin strips of zucchini) were there, but just a small layer on the bottom. It was a delicious salad, don’t get me wrong, but it left us feeling like we had a bunch of salad for dinner, with a couple of sides.

The dressing here was good but not particularly spicy. Miriam wanted more soup, but it was gone, so I gave her dressing in a bowl and she loved it. The dressing and the vegetable/nut mix were different from the first salad, but not so much that it felt like we were eating more than one dish.

- Sun Dried Tomato Shitake Mushroom Torte $15

I’m not sure what made this a torte, but at least it wasn’t salad. Here we had a base of crunchy nut cream (thick enough to stand on its own but not so thick that it set up like a quiche) with mushrooms and tomato puree on top. It was the only dish that felt like a meal. I liked it but it wasn’t anything special. It felt unfinished…like something I might make at home because I don’t have experience with the subtleties of raw “cooking.”

For dessert we shared:

- Almond Cheesecake (not on the online menu)

Very nice. And I felt like I was getting some protein here. The texture was amazing, like a medium to light cheesecake (no New York cheesecake here, but even places that use dairy and eggs can’t usually achieve that). The crust was incredible and I want that recipe! It was carrot based and I believe it had some nuts in it too. It had the texture of a gramhn cracker crust and a nice nutty flavor. The cheesecake was topped with a raspberry sauce that was rich and flavorful.

The cheesecake itself was good but, unfortunately, it had that same yeasty flavor the mushroom salad did. Michael didn’t mind it but I don’t like cheesecake that tastes like blue cheese (and, in this application, it tasted more like yeast than blue cheese). It didn’t keep me from polishing off my half, but it was distracting.

We only drank water (filtered or spring water at just the right temperature, slightly cooler than the air). One of the dishes, I’m not sure which, came with some seed crackers. Nice but not extraordinary.

All in all, I have to say I was disappointed. It’s not that the food was bad (indeed, I liked the food very much), but I was expecting so much more. I was lucky enough to have had a lunch catered by Roxanne’s (a now defunct vegan raw restaurant in Marin County) a couple of years ago. The food was sublime. Combinations you never would have thought of, with amazing textures and wraps from unusual sources. A lot of thought went into their food.

We chatted with the owners of Alive after our meal (since we arrived just after 5pm for dinner, we were the only customers). I asked a few questions about ingredients to pass along to my allergy-laden friends. The owner/chef (not sure who was who) said some things that surprised us.

This sort of food was “transitional,” he told us. Most raw foodists just eat salads. The food served here was generally only for people getting used to eating raw and for special occaisions. We found that odd. Of course almost no one eats daily with the special flourishes a good restaurant puts on their food. We generally simplify.

I’ve known raw foodists who eat nothing but whole fruits or vegetables or a few nuts. They never “cook.” And I’ve known raw foodists who love to create unusual and complex dishes on a regular basis. But I have never heard of anyone who is making a living with raw cooking but puts it down.

Unfortunately, this showed in the food. The energy, the love of cooking and food, the art that I saw in Roxanne’s food (even without going to the restaurant) was absent here. It’s not that they didn’t take care in preparing our meal; they did. It’s that the dishes were simple and without imagination. This isn’t a bad thing, but it’s not what I was expecting.

Aside from the crackers and the cheesecake crust, nothing appeared to be dehydrated (not counting sun dried tomatoes), which is supposedly a hallmark of raw cuisine. The cheesecake and torte had been blended or food processed but pretty much everything else seems to have been just cut up. Expertly cut up, mind you, but nothing much else.

As for allergies…of course there is no meat, fish, eggs, or dairy here. No traces of it either. They use soy sauce and it is wheat-free. Their miso is wheat-free and they avoid gluten (barley in this case) too. Two of the dishes have some gluten in them but they can easily avoid it for anyone who asks. Soy is a bit harder but I believe the soy sauce was the only source and it may have only been in salad dressings.

Only one dish had oranges in it and I didn’t see a lot of citrus. I don’t think there were legumes beyond the soy sauce, and they don’t use grains. Because everything is made from scratch, you avoid preservatives, additives, and the staff can tell you what contains what.

Overall, I enjoyed the food and would happily eat it again, though I would balance the dishes better to have more things other than salad. The prices were a bit high for a regular meal though, and higher than seems reasonable to me for “lunch food.” You do need additional dishes to get a full meal and I was hungry a couple hours later, despite eating a decent lunch with protein in it.

I could not go back, however, until the restaurant addressed the chemical issue. Since it’s impossible to wash fragranced detergent smells out of fabric, this would mean waiting a year or two after they switched detergents so they could cycle through their napkins and get new ones. The scented bathroom is another issue, since the restaurant is a distance away from me, but it’s not as vital as being able to have a scent-free meal.

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

We had an appointment in San Francisco last Wednesday and got together with friends at a Korean restaurant I’d read good things about on the net. It did not disappoint.

Han Il Kwan
1802 Balboa Street, San Francisco, CA 94118
(Outer Richmond neighborhood)
(415) 752-4447

Review & Menu

Our party consisted of me (no eggs, dairy, gluten (some soy sauce ok), oranges, or meat), my husband (no pork, prefers no dairy or red meat), my 2.5 year old daughter (same restrictions as me plus no chocolate), a friend from Canada (celiac–no traces of gluten, no traces of dairy or egg, nothing spicy), her husband (no restrictions), and a local friend (no scallops).

Korean food is a bit more complicated than other cuisines for groups likeours. If we all ate the same things, it wouldn’t be a problem, but with several folks unable to tolerate even trace amounts of certain foods, sharing bowls and cooking space was difficult, but we made it work.

Han Il Kwan follows the Korean tradition of cooking at your table, on a grill mounted in the middle. Some Korean places also have hot pots, others have staff cook your food in front of you, and then there are many that don’t do tableside cooking at all. You order the meat or fish of your choice and then you get soup and about a dozen different side dishes, which vary. You don’t order these extras, you simply get what they have, and you can have refills as needed.

Since we arrived early (before 6pm) we were the only customers in the restaurant. Oddly though, the staff treated us like the restaurant was doing a good business. Not like it was full and busy, but certainly not the attentiveness you’d except being the sole table. As the restaurant filled up (including a Korean tour bus that parked out front and sent a couple dozen people to the back room), the service levels didn’t change at all.

The staff was accommodating, with moderate English, and worked with us to keep the allergic among us safe. They did a good job and the meal came off well.

When my friend with celiac phoned them earlier in the day, they said the only meat that was premarinated was the beef. But it turned out that all the meat and fish was marinated. The basic one was soy sauce and sugar. It wasn’t clear if there were others but the waitress confirmed that all of them had soy sauce (which has wheat in it). Fortunately, it wasn’t a problem to get some of our dishes without the marinade.

We ordered Bul Go Gi (“tender BBQ beef marinates in house special sauce” $17.95), BBQ chicken minus the marinade ($15.95), Seafood mix (“grilled octopus, squid, scallops, prawn with special sauce”; we got oysters instead of scallops; they were marinated separately, $16.95), Broiled marinated mackerel (no marinade), and a large container of soup (hot pot). The soup on the menu was $7.95 but they said it came with the meal, so I’m not sure how they billed us, since we only had 4 main dishes for 5 adults. The soup is “soft bean curd, meat, & vegetable in hot sauce” or so I believe. They made ours with no meat or soy sauce and it contained about 10 small bowls worth.

The fish was cooked in the kitchen but the beef, chicken, and seafood mix were served raw, to be cooked on the gas grill in the middle of our table. Lifting out the cover reduced our usable eating space to very little and it was quite crowded, even though the booth easily sat 6. The grill’s cooking space was perhaps 14″x14″ and each dish was large enough to cover the grill twice.

I can imagine how this is supposed to work, with a table sharing everything. You put a little of each dish on the grill and serve it immediately when it is cooked. Each person gets a couple bites of each dish and, by the time they are finished, the next batch is ready. Unfortunately, we didn’t have that luxury. We had to cook the chicken first, so as not to contaminate the grill with marinade, then all the seafood, then the beef. The grill isn’t particularly hot and the food cooks slowly. I didn’t time it but I would guess a half hour passed between starting the chicken and finishing grilling the beef. The grill had many holes in it but was not mesh. There was no visible oil or grease used. It appeared to be either cast iron or cast aluminum.

We weren’t hungry while waiting though. Not only did we have the soup, but we had side dishes. A good dozen or so of them. The staff helpfully pointed out which ones contained forbidden ingredients. There were some pancakes with pork and egg (and probably wheat but we didn’t bother to ask since non of the gluten-free folks ate egg) but no other meat or egg. Four of the dishes had soy sauce in them, so we kept them all together and we instituted a “clean chopsticks” rule where we took some extra chopsticks and kept them with the no-soy sauce dishes for putting more on our plates.

Soy sauce dishes: There was a fish dish that must have been a paste molded into a block, then sliced. Some crunchy dried anchovies. A cubic rectangle of something that was a cross between jello and soft tofu and was quite good. And a root vegetable.

I can’t remember all the non-soy sauce side dishes but they included 2 kinds of pickled radish. One thick strips of daikon and the other was cubes which the staff said was radish but not daikon. These were my favorites, but I’m a sucker for radish. There was a basic kim chee, pickled bean sprouts, pickled cucumber, and a couple others. Nothing was spicy, though occasionally one of us would get a burst of hotness from the pieces of chili that flavored many of the dishes. Even the simple dishes were full of flavor. Either from the very fresh vegetables or from the sauces, mostly vinegar and tomato. I loved them all (tried all but the pancake).

There was a plate of lettuce but it was too bulky and a bit wet. I love lettuce wraps but the flavors of the other foods were subtle enough that the lettuce just diluted it. The beef dish came with a paste which I didn’t try. And each of us got a bowl of white sticky rice (which went very well with the side dish juices).

I just drank water, which was hard to get and in small glasses. Two of the adults shared Korean beer ($6 for a bottle easily the size of 2 regular beers) and one had a sake, served very hot. I tasted the sake and it was amazing. Smooth. I’m fairly clueless about sake but even I could tell this was worlds beyond what I’ve had before. It was nice at room temperature too, but much better when hot.

For dessert, they brought us bowls of sweetened rice water, which was nice. I thought I saw cookies going to another table, so they may have changed it to accommodate our allergies, which was thoughtful of them.

When I looked up reviews of the various Korean restaurants in San Francisco, the ones with tableside cooking got bad reviews for air quality. This one got raves. There are large vent fans over each table and they are very effective. I barely smelled a thing besides the food. The fans were quiet too…I’m not even sure ours was on.

I was quite pleasantly surprised at the ease at which we negotiated the allergy situation. Had the entire group chosen to share all the foods, it would have been even easier. Eggs are used a lot in Korean food, but we only encountered one dish with it (they may have held some back). The only wheat seemed to be in the soy sauce (and maybe the pancake…there were some noodle dishes too but I don’t know which kind). There was no dairy anywhere as far as I could tell. I believe the only soy was in the tofu
and soy sauce.

We all had a great time. They didn’t mind that we stayed for quite some time chatting. And the overall cost was pretty reasonable considering what you get.

I would definitely return if I had the chance.

Although the restaurant had a variety of foods, I’m tagging it for lowcarb (easy to avoid the rice) and for the various allergens we didn’t have trouble navigating). If this were a full list, I’d add in the meats, but it’s not, so I won’t. A vegetarian could eat there (and would enjoy many of the side dishes and the soup) but I can’t guarentee the vegetable dishes were in fact 100% vegetarian and that’s not the focus of the restaurant.

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.