15th Street Fisheries

Date
3/9/10

Location
Fort Lauderdale, FL
1900 SE 15th Street, Fort Lauderdale

What I ate
Grilled swordfish with mushrooms, potatoes, and broccolini

What Kelly ate
Seared diver scallops with parmesan risotto and sweet onion marmalade
Trio of creme brulees - coffee, vanilla, chocolate-tarragon (I helped!)

Who went
Kelly, Grandma, Grandpa

Website
http://www.15streetfisheries.com/index.html

Thoughts
My grandparents have started the transition to being actual snowbirds, so Kelly and I met up with them when I was down in Florida for a visit.  Spending most of my time landlocked, I can't pass up the opportunity for fresh seafood and this place looked like it would fit the bill.  They embrace the nautical theme and have a bunch of seafood options.  That said, take a look at the menu before you go.  If you aren't that fond of seafood, there are limited options.  There are no vegetarian entrees.  Still, if you've going for fish, it has what you seek.

Note - I'm writing this review a few months after I actually ate the food, so my memory isn't quite as vivid as some other posts.

Simply put, the food was really good.  I probably could've used a slightly larger piece of fish, but that's being picky.  It was well-cooked and seasoned, and the sides were good complements, albeit unspectacular on their own.  I wish they had given me some of Kelly's onion marmalade instead; that was awesome.  I sampled a little and, honestly, the taste of that and the chocolate-tarragon creme brulee (more on that later) are the two tastes that stand out the most in my memory.  Everyone around the table spoke highly of their dishes, especially Kelly and Grandpa, both of whom had the scallops.  About those creme brulees - I need to get a set of ramekins and learn to cook them.  I've had a few flavored with herbs that seem like an odd idea but just taste great.  The chocolate-tarragon was no exception.  That said, the other two stood up really well, too.  The vanilla was classic, the coffee was the tastiest, and the chocolate-tarragon was the most interesting.

As far as the non-food aspects of the dinner, they were varied.  Our waitress was friendly and made good conversation, but she was a little pushy when it came to desserts.  They were quite good and I can understand why they were proud of their newly-hired dessert chef, but I prefer to make that decision with less prodding.  Being from out of town, I don't have a good handle on the prices.  They seem expensive, but that could just be because I don't live in a city and that's what things really cost.  Even still, it wasn't outlandish; I would still go there for a nice dinner out, but I wouldn't go there too regularly.  The dining room is upstairs and overlooks the water, with a view of things across the way.  After dinner, Kelly and I walked along the dock and admired the gaudy yachts.  Some day...

Recap
Pros - delicious food, great view
Cons - limited non-seafood menu (no vegetarian option)
Overall - Definitely worth the trip.  The food was great and it was pretty cool to overlook the water.  Maybe the novelty isn't there for non-tourists, but it sure worked for me.  It's certainly not a place to visit once a week, but if you're in the area and looking for a nice dinner out, give it a thought.

Brenda's French Soul Food

Date
5/16/2010

Location
652 Polk Street, San Francisco
I'm pretty sure this is smack-dab in the middle of Tenderloin

What I ate
Sampler of beignets (regular, chocolate, apple, crawfish) with Ally and Spiller
Grillades and grits

Who went
Ally, Spiller, Melissa, Dan, Sarah, Squid

Website
http://frenchsoulfood.com/home.htm 

Thoughts
First off, enormous hat tip to my friend Jeff.  He's out in San Francisco working in the restaurant scene and now has 6 new friends wanting to thank him for the awesome recommendation.  When I knew I needed culinary guidance, I immediately turned to him and he definitely didn't disappoint.

Let's get the boring things out of the way first.  Keep reading, the fun part is just after.  Yes, we had to wait.  I think it was about an hour.  We knew there would be a wait, but we didn't think it would be quite that long.  They ended up putting the seven of us at the counter, which worked fine.  The space is pretty small (max occupancy - 40) and there are a bunch of small tables.  It was a little odd to be right in front of the mirror, but it actually worked out well as we could use it to see from one end of the group to the other.  I can't talk about the non-food parts without talking about the great service.  The beingets were out within about a minute - our waitress said they make hundreds every Sunday - but the rest of the food was out only a few minutes later.  I was chatting with one of the waitresses as we were wrapping up (a fellow New Jerseyan from the county next to mine) and she passed me a sample of the delicious watermelon sweet tea.  Entirely unnecessary, but greatly appreciated.

Now, the fun stuff.  I knew I was in for a good food weekend from things like keeping tabs on my friend Jeff and following Mission Street Food, but I couldn't have predicted it would be this good.  The beignets were little pillows of wonderful.  The apple was really tasty, as was the crawfish.  The little touch of spicy Old Bay made it onto the other three sweet ones, and it made things even better.  The chocolate was so good I told Ally and Spiller that every day should start like this.  At first, I thought I'd be fine just getting my main dish, but I'm really happy that we started with the beignets.  Now, the amazing, I mean, main course.  I don't have grits often, but now I think I'm about to start.  The steak was so tender and the sauce was great; I think I have a new food memory to define "Creole".  I had my eggs over easy - tasty, but definitely not the focus - and was able to sop everything up with the gigantic biscuit.  It has been a very long time since I've had something this rich.  Often, I walk away from a good meal thinking that I should learn to cook it and tweak it.  With this, my goal is to try to recreate exactly the dish I had and I'm pretty sure it's going to be tough.  Wow.

P.S. I don't want to say that the quality is in the same league, but I was able to check something off the life list after a visit to In-n-Out Burger - Double double, Animal style.  Tasty!

Recap
Pros - amazing food, great service
Cons - beware the wait, somewhat cozy
Overall - Awesome.  Go.  I mean, like, right now.  The food was delicious.  The wait was long, but the food was entirely worth it.  Just assume you'll have to wait a little bit and adjust your schedule, and you will have a great Sunday.