Food and drink
These newcomers or new menus cover the gamut, from elevated Greek food to Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches.
Alongside this month’s full restaurant reviews — Popi’s Oysterette (all-day oyster bar/seafood), Mattina (Cal-Italian all-day cafe and restaurant), Back to Back (pizza, natural wines, creative small plates), Xica (modern Mexican), Hed VeryThai (Thai) — these six are also worth visiting, with last month’s standouts here. As always, I’ve personally vetted, visited or ordered from each place reviewed:
Greek Feast: Estiatorio Ornos
Michael Mina’s Estiatorio Ornos will be two years old this September. In a city rife with Mediterranean food but few Greek restaurants, it’s one of our Greek greats. Kokkari is the unbeatable upscale Greek restaurant in the nation, a still-packed SF legend since 1989. Where Kokkari is rustic and heartwarming, Ornos is sleek and luxurious in pristine white and salmon pink. Ornos is a pampering experience, from the fish cart and fish sommelier to dreamy caviar service, smartly gone Greek with caviar scooped on top of warm pita bits, zucchini chips and tiropita phyllo pastry filled with cheese and egg. Another win: they just launched brunch with live jazz, a three-course, $75 prix fixe menu and kid’s menus.
On my recent return, standout dishes from executive chef Daniela Vergara included a spectacular off-menu endive salad of red endive loaded with capers, lemon, shaved cheese and breadcrumbs. This should be a permanent menu fixture, like their spanakopita salad last visit. Both are refreshingly atypical salads. Spicy lamb hummus is not remotely “gamey,” if you fear that in lamb. Tender za’tar-spiced meat over pitch-perfect chickpea hummus makes it one of Ornos’ best dishes.
Us dining regulars have had thousands of ahi crudos by this point. But don’t skip this new addition. This truly “wow” moment of a silky square cut of ahi tuna atop a square falafel crouton layered with creamy tahina and salata baladi — an Egyptian Persian cucumber and pepper salad — melds chef Mina’s Egyptian heritage with the restaurant’s Greek themes in creative deliciousness.
Heartwarmingly working his way up from busboy to lead bartender at SF Mina restaurants for over a decade, Jose Luis Merino Calderon was recently promoted, creating his first cocktail menu in collaboration with MINA Group’s director of beverage Mike Lay. The menu is themed around the Greek myth of creation with a generous use of Mediterranean and Greek spirits like mastiha. A bracing twist on a classic Vesper, Chaos is a standout cocktail, even better in its elevated version, God of Olympus. Featuring only Greek spirits (Kastra Elion Greek Vodka, Grace Greek Gin, Mastiha dry liqueur), the bracing Olympus is served icy cold at the bar for two out of a giant sculpted ice block.
While I could use more basil in the Gaia cocktail, a twist on a Gin Basil Smash, Kronos is the other surprising standout cocktail. I’ve tasted no end of fat-washed, Old Fashioned-style cocktails washed with all manner of animals and fruits over the last two decades. But I haven’t had a fat-washed cocktail done well with lamb. Calderon starts with Russell’s 6-Year Rye Whiskey, infused in-house with lamb, balanced by maple, Amaro Nonino and cherry cacao bitters. This could easily be an overwrought, gamey, oily mess. Instead, balance is the key to subtle meatiness without gaminess, though it still tastes like lamb. Sweetness and spice is likewise delicately integrated, with the drink’s silky texture confirming its elegance.
// 252 California Street, EstiatorioOrnos.com
Fermented Japanese Foods Haven: Aedan Koji Kitchen
Though open since May 2022, still too few locals know about Aedan Koji Kitchen, a rare shop focused solely around miso and Japanese fermented foods. Japan-born owner Mariko Grady has been serving her intricate, healthful foods for years at the SF Ferry Plaza Farmers Market and various Bay Area shops and through the great La Cocina’s incubator kitchen program. Her wood-lined brick-and-mortar on the east side of the Mission is a treasure that feels like I just stepped into Japan. It’s a counter and to-go only, FYI.
You may find steaming warm, just-made onigiri (Japanese rice balls) filled with red beans freshly wrapped on the counter, next to fridges lined with Japanese juices and sodas, house misos, shio koji marinades, other fermented sauces and artisanal items. Miso- and koji-making kits and classes draw a loyal following.
Tuesday through Friday, the takeout menu is short but oh-so-sweet, the food leaving me feeling nurtured and healthy. There’s a daily bento box with choice of tofu soboro, chicken or shio koji-marinated salmon, all with fermented rice, tamagoyaki (Japanese egg/omelet) and fermented and miso-touched veggie bites. There is also a donburi rice bowl, and on Mondays, an onigiri bento box. There’s miso soup and irresistible, sweet amazake, a fermented rice drink spiced with turmeric, cardamom and ginger — horchata lovers, pay attention! I caught their utterly comforting Japanese chicken curry bento box special. They use produce from their tiny backyard garden, planted by Grady and her husband. The all-female staff on my visits have been the sweetest: friendly, kind, leaving me feeling as cared for as the food does.
// 613 York Street, www.aedansf.com
Vietnamese Sandwich Perfection: Banh Mi Crunch
Just open in April 2023 in the bustling Inner Sunset, Banh Mi Crunch serves some of the best banh mi (Vietnamese sandwiches) in the city out of the gate. That’s saying a lot with the hundreds of “real deal” banh mi shops in the Bay Area. I’d put it up there just behind my longtime fave, the legendary Saigon Sandwich in the Tenderloin’s Little Saigon area. Saigon’s humble, decades-old shop turns out banh mi that transports me back to my life-changing month in Vietnam as a girl over 20 years ago, down to that quintessential French bread flaky crunch.
Banh Mi Crunch comes close to that achievement, first off nailing the bread, then the ratio of dressing (mayo, etc.) to keep the sandwiches from being dry. The five spice chicken banh mi is comforting and tender, but the one I’d go back for again (and again) is the signature Banh Mi Crunch Combo. Starting with traditional pork pate, a banh mi staple in Vietnam, the addition of sliced roast pork, ham and Maggi sauce give the sando nuance and texture. It nearly dissolves in your mouth with the traditional banh mi pickled carrot, daikon, cilantro, cucumbers and jalapeño. Even better, it’s family-run by a daughter and parents who are as sweet and thorough as they could be. Grab sandwiches (I hear they give a free one if you order four) for a picnic in Golden Gate Park a block away.
// 646 Irving Street, www.yelp.com/biz/banh-mi-crunch-san-francisco-2
Modern Filipino Delights: Abaca
Returning to Abaca inside the Kimpton Alton Hotel is ever a joy, feasting on food from chef Francis Ang, one of the best modern Filipino chefs in the nation (my full review here). Latest joys on the menu were many. Kabocha squash okoy fritters are vegan, a damn crave-worthy fried platter of thinly shaved squash aromatic with black garlic, pinakurat vinegar and herbs. There are skewers in a range of meats, but beef lengua (tongue) in truffle mushroom gravy and beef hearts kaldereta in tomato jam and olive tapenade were flavor-packed standouts. The biggest bite delight was Kaluga caviar nestled in beef tendon chicharrons over smoked ube mousse, a prime example of how creatively chef Ang plays with and elevates his roots. It’s all perfect with cocktails, like their killer, neon green Limang Piso cocktail of ginger-infused Reyka vodka, Capurro Pisco, buko pandan leaf, lemon, lime oleo saccharum.
// 2700 Jones Street, www.restaurantabaca.com
Spring Blooming from Pizza to Pasta: Fiorella Sunset
Fiorella Sunset is ever a crowd-pleaser for a range of palates with its well-crafted, approachable modern Italian food, even better on that cozy retractable rooftop or by the fireplace downstairs. A pre-or post-meal cocktail in tiny Bar Nonnina hidden upstairs makes it a full evening, sipping drinks like a Sicilian Sour, playing off a classic New York Sour, a bourbon sour with a float of Lambrusco wine. They recently started serving Spring delights, including a Zuckerman Farms asparagus risotto and spring onion crostini layered with cow’s milk robiola cheese, peas and preserved Meyer lemon on Saltwater Bakeshop’s sourdough from nearby Pacifica (a longtime fave on the coast south of SF).
A pea tendril stracciatella pizza laden with green garlic, pecorino and fior di latte cheeses, Meyer lemon and speck, evokes Germanic Italian/Northern Italy cuisine. Housemade rigatoncini pasta in pork and beef Bolognese sauce is prime example of the all-ages comfort Fiorella does so well. Finish with a childhood-worthy creamsicle gelato made with cara cara navel oranges, whimsically coated in cocoa nibs and a house chocolate “magic shell.”
// 1240 9th Avenue, www.fiorella-sf.com
East Bay Farm-to-Table Treasure: Juanita & Maude, Albany
Since 2017, Juanita & Maude is this small East Bay town’s best — alongside the legendary dive bar with quality cocktails, Hotsy Totsy Club. Intimate and welcoming, J&M feels in the spirit of classic Berkeley restaurants that launched farm-to-table long before it trended globally in the 1960s-70s Bay Area. It’s farm-to-table, thoughtful New American food named after chef Scott Eastman’s mother and grandmother.
The ricotta gnudi is a house signature, fluffy and dissolve-in-the-mouth with Italy leanings, recently spring-fresh with asparagus, basil pine nut pesto, pecorino and parmesan cheeses, with lemon zest to brighten it up. Salads are that true SF Bay Area salad perfection the rest of the world doesn’t come close to achieving or understanding, like perfect little gems and arugula in horseradish ranch with prosciutto cotto, snap peas, provolone, basil and mint. They also do right by seasonal cocktails, like There’s No Wrong Way (gin, snap peas, dry vermouth, hazelnuts) or Gonna Move You (pisco, mango, pandan leaf, Szechuan pepper, verjus, tajin). It’s a quintessential East Bay restaurant, still going strong.
// 825 San Pablo Avenue, Albany; www.juanitaandmaude.com
Virginia Miller is a San Francisco-based food & drink writer.
