Burgers, but don't drink too much!

I was really excited when we discovered a Barney's in our neighborhood. Not Barney's the department store, but BARNEY'S GOURMET HAMBURGERS. I grew up w/ one, in Oakland, which I thought was the only one, and they have awesome everything! It was crowded, but we were able to get counter seats. We ordered my usual portabello burger, a regular burger (don't remember what extras we got), and curly fries (with ranch dip, of course!). The fried veggie basket is also good, as well as the giant onion rings, but that would have been overkill. Oh, I also got a lemonade. Everything tasted great, even though I only ate half my burger (we also saved some fries too), and I asked the waitress for a lemonade REFILL. She brought me another one, and everything seemed fine. Until we got the bill... TWO LEMONADES!! We got the waitress' attention and asked about it, she said no refills. B**** If there were no refills, why didn't she just say that when I asked for a refill? I was so annoyed, I decided to skimp on her tip, because I thought she should have said something, and I refuse to go back. I'll go back to the Oakland one, I'm pretty sure they give free refills there. But be aware if you go to the Marina one.

Trendy Japanese, anyone?

With a name like ACE WASABI'S ROCK 'N' ROLL SUSHI, you know it's not your mama's sushi. No asian music playing softly in the background with the tinkling of a water feature and asian art on the walls, Ace Wasabi's traded that all in for modern rock blaring out and on the walls. Also include some made up sushi rolls. I don't remember everything we had, but it was good, even for someone like me that doesn't eat raw stuff (much to Mr. Calamari's chagrin). Oh, we probably had some assortment of rolls involving cooked ingredients, and an ahi tuna for him. And of course, fried or grilled calamari... I think we decided this was a good place to come with a group of people. Especially if he wants to try more of the raw stuff.

Asqew Skewers As Askew As You? Ask Q!

Try saying that ten times fast!! (I know, I'm a dork. You can always go read someone else's blog...)

Tonight we just wandered down Steiner, not really sure where we were going to eat. Mr. Calamari walks down this street to his shuttle stop, so he's been checking out the eats. Not wanting to spend a lot of money, we on ASQEW. The concept here is to pick an entree, most of which are some type meat on a skewer, then pick a side from a list of starches or salads. They also have some starters as well. We picked tofu & mushroom skewers w/ garlic mashed potatoes and Thai beef skewers with cilantro jasmine rice. The beef skewers were ok, a little on the well done side. The veggie skewers were really good, but it was the dipping sauces that really sealed the deal. The potatoes were creamy & fabulous. Oh, they also mix their own fruit
juices/punches, called quenchers. Mr. Calamari says we had a dessert, it was probably the grilled bananas (also on skewers) with caramel sauce only (hold the hot chocolate) and ice cream, and that it was a "work in progress." Maybe a nice way of saying it was just ok.

Local Pizza Joint

We saw this place while walking around exploring the neighborhood, the name caught our attention... PIZZA ORGASMICA. The menu is equally shocking, with pizzas named Menage a Trois, Doggie Style, Kama Sutra, The Farmer's Daughter, and Honeymoon. I'm not sure I'd want to try the Divorce pizza, with bleu cheese sauce, anchovies, garlic, onions, & clams topping, it's sure to make a stink in any relationship! Later we found out that our friend's parents own this building, and they used to own this place (under a different name). We had a half Garden of Eden and half Orgasmica, and cheesey garlic bread while waiting. Everything was so delicious we decided that we don't have to bother trying any of the other pizza places around (there's at least one on Union, and a couple on Chestnut). Will we keep that promise? We'll see...

Our First Day

We moved in today. After unloading our cars, we tried to settle in a little, though we didn't have that much at the time to unpack. A few hours later, we decided to go out, so we went to check out the local grocery store, which I'm happy to say is mostly organic, but I'm sad to say is pricey. While I walked around the isles checking out what they have, Mr. Calamari, of course, had found a local magazine and was reading the restaurant/dining section. There was a review for a restaurant close by that serves fancy comfort food, lobster mac & cheese w/ truffle oil, crab stuffed tater tots, I was sold. After taking the groceries back to the apt, we headed down to CIRCA, which was surprisingly close, just two blocks away. The inside looked fancy, dark w/ dangling strings of shiny crystal. I wondered if this look only worked for dark restaurants or if we could do this in our home. The menu is tapas style small plates, which works well for trying more things. We ordered the crab tater tots & lobster mac & cheese (of course) and also added a spinach salad, fancy french fries, and sliders. The crab tater tots were amazing, as was the mac & cheese (I've tried to replicate it w/ scallops & truffle oil, and just w/ truffle oil, but somehow, it doesn't taste as good). I don't remember what we had for dessert, Mr. Calamari might, but I'm guessing it was also really yummy. We are anxious to come back here to try more stuff from the menu, and are excited about how close by it is.