It’s Tuesday. The room is dimly lit with the warm orange glow of Edison bulbs and tea candles. The sounds and smells of the kitchen waft into dining room and join the low roar of people filling the air. It's time for an epic dinner at San Francisco's, Lolinda..
Located in San Francisco’s mission district, Lolinda, with its red neon sign and dark steel façade, makes for an ominous presence for the un-initiated. Those who dare step past its threshold, are greeted by friendly staff and a warm and inviting, almost cozy, place to drink, eat, laugh and enjoy. And enjoy we will! Tonight I’m joined by my fiancée Adelei who’s bravely put aside her wedding diet in the name of an epic dinner as well my friend, fellow food lover and mentor, Russell.
We’re seated in the dining room with a view of the kitchen and its huge Gaucho Grill, which is already sizzling away. We meet our server for the evening, order drinks and begin to try to narrow down our menu choices. I’m hungry, which is tough because it starts to make everything on the menu look good. Russ has some great suggestions for our “first course” and after a few minutes of menu-jeopardy it’s time to fire up Cisco Spark, because what would a live blog be without real time food-envy, and start ordering!
We decide on the Ceviche de Pescado with Ono, aji amarillo, sweet potato and fried corn; Tartar de Carne (beef tartar with pickles, olives, horseradish aioli, toast) and Empanada de Carne (with beef, raisins, egg, potato, olives and chimichurri). The Ceviche is first to the table and is nothing short of incredible. The fish is clean and citrusy with some great bright notes from the cilantro a little heat from the aji Amarillo. The Tartar de Carne and the Empanada arrive next and while I liked the Empanada, the magic Lolinda’s chef worked with the Tartar upstaged our other choices. The Tartar’s clean flavor, had no hint of that blood or iron taste that can ruin even a great presentation. That along with arugula on top of the grilled toast which was a great accompaniment.
For the second course we chose Vigorón which is pork belly served with cabbage, jalapeño, crispy yucca and lime; Pulpo (aka: octopus) served with potatoes, frisée, salsa verde and an aioli and Hueso Asado (aka: Bone Marrow). Served with crostini's and large flake salt. The pork belly’s crispy exterior was seared perfectly but, it was the other two courses that stole the show for me. Octopus can be a chewy, rubbery and generally un-enjoyable affair, but Lolinda worked their secret magic again and what arrived on the plate was one of the most tender, flavorful and enjoyable pieces of Spanish octopus I've ever had. We closed out course two with the Hueso Asado. I don't know who the kitchen convinced to wrestle these monster bones away from the waitress at the Flintstone drive-up but it was completely worth it. It was everything you could want from roasted marrow. Creamy. Rich. Buttery. And with the added large flake salt, Heaven.
For the main course we chose Entraña (skirt steak) and Chuleta (pork chop). Skirt steak is one of my favorite cuts, and is seeing an emergence in popularity lately as people realize just how awesome it can be when prepared correctly. Lolinda grills theirs to a perfect medium rare and serves it with a bright and herbaceous chimichurri. Damn good. If the Entraña was Batman then the Chuleta, would definitely be Robin. My definition of a perfect pork chop includes that it be: bone in, smoked, simply seasoned, and it MUST NOT be dry…. Lolinda, unsurprisingly, kills it again here. Fresh herbs. Lightly seasoned. Lightly smoked. Bone in. Juicy but, not soggy. It was so good I finally just gave up on manners picked up the bone and chewed on it to get the last remnants of its porky wonderful-ness.
Before dessert I’m inclined to stop for a second and talk about lemonade. I am a huge, HUGE, fan of lemonade. One might even go so far as to say I'm a connoisseur of the stuff. It's a simple concoction. It's lemons and water and sugar. But somehow, people constantly manage to screw it up. Too much or too little of any one ingredient can make or break a great lemonade, and it's a fine line between. Lolinda has figured out this fine line and walks it confidently. If you wind up at Lolinda, I highly suggest you order one. Trust me. You won't regret it.
For our final course we chose the perfect ending to this incredible meal…crispy, warm, doughy, cinnamon and sugar dusted churros.
I love churros. I can, and have eaten them for almost every meal of the day. Lolinda serves theirs with dark chocolate and a dulce de leche sauce. Stick a fork in me. I am done. We close out the evening laughing and talking with one another. To those who would ask me “would you recommend coming here?” my answer could only be “Absolutely.”
- Dustin Kaplan, Consulting Services Engineer for LookingPoint, Inc.