Samovar Tea Lounge

730 Howard St
Yerba Buena Gardens - Upper Terrace (between 3rd St & 4th St)
San Francisco, CA 94103

Hours:

Mon-Wed, Sun 10 am - 8 pm

Thu-Sat 10 am - 9 pm

Accepts Credit Cards: 

Yes

Parking:

 

Garage, Street

 I've tried brunch here and it's wonderful. The wild mushroom and gruyere sandwich is amazing. I recommend sharing with a friend as the portions are generous.  I love the location, the atmosphere, the staff, and most importantly the teas. They have an awesome collection of teas that are truly unique and exotic in all categories, whether it is, white, green, black, or herbal. Although their food is not top-notch, some of them are quite good and they go fairly well with the teas. This makes Samovar Tea Lounge a wonderful place for Saturday or Sunday afternoons for lunch. The place does get packed quite easily, so please be sure to avoid the 12-1pm hours. They do have tables outside as well, so it's perfect to go on a sunny day. As long as you are dressed warm enough, it's not bad at all to sit outside.

(tea) Environment

Samovar Tea Lounge is not exactly the best place to get your studies done during the busy 12-4pm hours. But, when I want to get some serious reading done, I plug in a ear plug, drink a few cups of Ocean of Wisdom, and start reading. 20-30 minutes into the reading, my mind clears, and I become extremely focused to the point where I no longer become conscious of the people around me. I find this tea to be particularly interesting. I don't know if I am the only one who has felt it this way, or if this is the only tea with such effects. I am still trying to figure that out.

(write about why u feel good at the tea) 
Samovar has a great collection of teas. Although it might appear pricey to some, think of this as a genuine delicacy, with unusually amazing health benefits. This is not the average Tazo tea bag we are talking about. Once you get into it, you will not, for a moment, think that these teas are overpriced. When you get to the Samovar Tea Lounge here, you'll also think that it's well worth the bucks, because there is no better place with the atmosphere that Samovar provides. 

Roxie Market & Deli

Environment

1901 San Jose Ave

(between Havelock St & Santa Ynez Ave)

San Francisco, CA 94112

Neighborhood: Mission Terrace

  It is  a really great place to get a sandwich. My very first sandwich was a Hot roast beef with provolone cheese on DUTCH CRUNCH. Since the first day, i've always chosen Dutch Crunch ! i highly recommend the Roxie Special too. When i am walking inside there wasn't anything different from any other liquor store.  It was small, crowded, chips, cigarettes, lotto, etc.  Then I see the menu for sandwiches on the wall.  So, I looked at the menu and inquired about the Roxie's Special  which has mortadella, ham, salami, artichoke hearts and jalapeno's. This was the perfect sandwich.  The flavor of the meats and condiments were married together perfectly. 

Environment 

This place seems like a small Spanish supermarket. Only street parking available but you can find spots easily. If you try to find a place to eat with others, it may not suitable place. but it is really great place for getting to-go sandwich. During lunch hours, it's crowed because of all the people ordering.  It does take some time for you to receive your sandwich after you order it.  BUT, it is well worth the wait.

Price

They have three different sizes-Junior,   Regular, and Super size. It prices $5.$8 and $10 without tax. Compare to Subway sandwich, this place is slightly expensive. BUT quality of food is much better.

Direction From SFSU by driving

Go toward City College of San Francisco. You would be on the Ocean  ave. Pass the CCSF on the left, and go straight on the ocean avenue. at the end of the avenue, you would meet the San Jose ave. Make a left turn on the San Jose ave. Keep on the ave for 2-3 minutes, you would find the entrance of Roxie market & deli on the right side of your car like picture above.

Zanze's Cheese Cake

2405 Ocean Ave
(between San Fernando Way & Junipero Serra Blvd)
San Francisco, CA 94127

Hours:

Wed-Fri 11 am - 6 pm

Sat 10 am - 4 pm

Parking: 

street 

The cheesecake is so soft and light. It doesn’t have a graham cracker crust like typical cheesecakes. They give you a fishing line to cut because a regular knife will ruin your slice. I think instead of using cream cheese, they use cottage cheese, which gives it its fluffy light texture. It’s one of those hidden gems of history in San Francisco. I've been coming here at least once a year for the last five years since I was introduced to it. I love the consistency of their cheesecakes because it's so light and FLUFFY! It's almost as if it melts in your mouth.

 

Wise advice: call and place an order for a cheesecake before heading there to pick up, prefer a day or a few days ahead because these cheesecakes run out fast!

About the cheese cake

The above picture is the New York cheese cake. The New York cheesecake is made with the traditional combo of cream cheese, heavy cream, eggs, and sugar, and it is dense, rich, and crumbly.  The cheese cake has neither a graham cracker crust nor crust at all, but the cake is actually sitting atop a shortbread crust. The flavor of the cream cheese filling is really good, though–not too cheesy, not too eggy, not too sweet.  The texture is a little too thick for my liking, and it had a tendency to stick to the roof of my mouth, it is about classic new york cheesecake.

 

The Chicago cheesecake is made with cream cheese, sugar, eggs, sour cream, vanilla, and salt. And the Chicago cheesecake is absolutely delicious–simultaneously sweet and tangy with a surprisingly smooth, silky texture.  This cake sported a shortbread crust as well, I also liked the fact that the Chicago cake which have a custard pie, and it didn’t leave any discernable cheesy aftertaste, which I did get a bit of from the previous specimen.  The cheese cake has light cheesecake with such impressive, deep flavor.

Katana-Ya

430 Geary St
(at Mason St)
San Francisco, CA 94102

Hours: Mon-Sun 11:30 am - 1 am

Experience 

I had the Katanaya Ramen here. It was pretty fantastic. The fried chicken and gyozas are a great addition to the ramen, although I'd rather have them on the side so that they stay crispy instead of being swamped by soup. I got the spicy miso soup and it was really good. Not too rich, but just right. The medium spicy packs a pretty good punch, so I probably won't venture into the extra spicy realm. The major selling point for the ramen here I think is the noodles. They are a perfect consistency. Nice and chewy, the right thickness and they give you a decent amount of the noodles.

Environment 

This place is really tiny.The atmosphere inside is cozy, and it has to be because it's so small and casual. Service is decent.  It has a counter/sushi bar and maybe 10 tables in it. We went on a Tuesday evening at about 7:30 and still had to wait about 45 minutes, so be prepared for a wait. Since this restaurant is kinda near the T-loin, you get a lot of homeless folks asking you for change and some randoms yelling things. Not too strange for SF, but it's good to know ahead of time.

Price

The prices are a bit high I'd say for ramen. The one I had, which I believe is the most expensive was about $13. The others started around 9 or 10 bucks, so not exactly your every day budget ramen place, I'd definitely recommend this place and come back here again.

Bi-Rite Creamery

3692 18th St
(between Dolores St & Oakwood St)
San Francisco, CA 94110




Bi-Rite is the coziest ice cream shop with an awesome location, right down the street from Tartine and across the street from Dolores Park. At Bi-Rite the ice-cream is made in small batches, the ingredients are organic and all their packaging is biodegradable.

The ice cream consistency is great -- creamy, thick, and dense... just the way real ice cream should be.

On the real though, almost every single flavor offered is superb and unique. Balsamic Strawberry, Mexican Chocolate with salted peanuts, Malted Vanilla with peanut brittle and milk chocolate,  Brown Sugar with caramel swirl and their Mint Chip is naturally color-less which i love !


Parking was annoying. As I was circling around looking for a space, I noticed a really long line twisting almost around the corner. I thought it was a line to a club or something but when I finally found a spot, I headed closer and realized it was a line just for a darn scoop of ice cream!

The line seemed a bit long, but it moved fast, plus the ice cream is well WORTH the wait anyhow.  If I lived in SF, I would frequent this place at least once a week and withstand the long line. The place is small and can only seat so many people but there's a huge park across the creamery so tight seating's not a big deal.


Taste descriptions

Salted caramel--some say it's too sweet, but I thought it was perfection. It's one of my favorite things in the world and I got to taste it in ice cream form. It was orgasmic I tell you.


Roasted banana--yup, tastes just like bananas but with a hint of something more savory rather than sweet. It was amazing as well.


Ginger and brown sugar - The ginger tastes like my favorite ginger candy from Ranch 99. It was so amazingly gingery delicious! The brown sugar was delicious too, but not as delicious as the other three.

**If you prefer not to wait, you can get a pre-packed pint of their ice cream at their Bi-Rite market a couple of steps down.

**Takes credit card

Blue Bottle Coffee and Co.

315 Linden St
(between Gough St & Octavia St)
San Francisco, CA 94102
Neighborhood: Hayes Valley

I like coffee.  Great coffee.  Coffee that has distinctive flavors from the regions it is cultivated from and that does not just taste just like burned black water.  I like this sort of coffee so much that I need it at any cost.  Blue Bottle provides this product exactly.

My experiences

Cute little location is in a cute little alley next to Dark Garden

Long line.  Make sure you have plenty of coins in the meter because this place is always crowded. 

Great coffee.  We ordered the drip, took a long time since they make each cup separately.  But oh it was so good and I'm not even that big a of a coffee fan.

Beans.  They have ready to purchase beans packed if you are looking to bring some of that Blue Bottle goodness home.  Although, there were like 10 options.  If you tell them what you like, the machine you have, the type of drinks you'll make, they can recommend. 

I recommend the drip coffee or their cappuccinos. Each drip is prepared individually just for you and the espresso drinks are fantastic! It's definitely not the place you go to if you need a coffee on the go. Just be prepared to wait patiently in line and enjoy the moment.