LIHO LIHO, SAN FRANCISCO

Thursday, September 10, 2015

We wanted to go here for my first visit to SF. And friend said we could go for lunch. And because I love ogling through menus, I looked this place up and they only provided a dinner menu.

I don't think they serve lunch here, said I

Oh, but they should, we can go check it out, said friend
And no, they do not serve lunch. We went around dinner time without a reservation and they told us the wait time to be >1 hour (I actually don't remember the time but it was long enough for us to be like, nope, we ain't waiting that long)

So the next time we decided to go, we showed up at 1645 and there was no one else but us in line. So we got a booth right upon their doors open (1700)

And ordered the following
This to start the meal

Duck liver toast. The bread was very substantial and we split this amongst 4, so 1/4 slice per person. Love the pineapple (exactly what I expected hawaiian cuisine to be like). Fois gras and fruit upped this dish, but its something that can be replicated at home (yes, you can do it too). Thin celery slices gave it a fresh taste, cut through rich slather of fois gras. Okay

Marinated squid, "salad"? Super crispy topping of tripe, cabbage, shallots. Acidic, sweet, and savoury mouthfuls in every bite. I loved it. The squid from what I remember was raw, and was probably 'cooked' like how people describe ceviche'd fish to be cooked. Good-Very Good

Grilled short rib, bone marrow, escargot. Too many good things in this one dish. The bed of mushrooms on bottom was too saturated with the sauce (too salty). Breading on marrow was excessive. Couldn't distinguish too much of what I ate from the marrow. Short rib was deboned = easy mouthfuls of meat. Unnecessary parmesan, it was salty enough. Okay

Fried cornish game hen. Wow so crispy and sweet/salty glaze was like hawaiian take on korean fried chicken. Everything about this was great but the white meat (I like the darker cuts), and again, what is with this overly salted veggies. Veggies were too salty, would be good if accompanied with white rice (something I thought I would never want to eat, cause I rarely crave for it) Because even the cilantro and shreds of what seemed like chinese veggie leaf didn't save the over-savoury sauce. Okay

Baked Hawaii. The caramelized pineapple ice cream was yum. Not the biggest fan of meringue in this form though (I like it in marshmallow form, you see) Chiffon at the bottom. Okay

Bruleed cardamom cheesecake. What does cardamom taste like? If you ate this cheesecake you still wouldn't know. I still like my home baked Japanese cheesecake more (or the Cheesecake Factory one because their whipped cream on the side is drool-worthy). Bad

Liholiho Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato


And so there was our meal of hawaiian-ish cuisine

Our waitress was not exceptionally skilled with her crumb sweeping. Which is a shame because I enjoy that moment so much - when the table is cleared with the swift motion of the metal sweeper.


P/S

In Napa Valley we didn't taste much wine, we didn't fine dine. 
We took pictures of a sad Niagara on the Lake. Okay so I shouldn't have expected the two to be any bit similar because the drought in California is quite real.
Rows of green on a backdrop of golden grass.

But it felt necessary to share some Napa pictures with you, dear reader

Dear readers, still a few more US posts before I get onto Canadian East Coast posts!


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