Dining in SF (March 23, 2010)
Our plan this time was to go to SF on the train, take a bus to Kearny and Sutter, then walk the remaining block to Belden Place for dinner at Plouf (http://www.ploufsf.com/ ). Tuesday, March 23, 2010, was a warm sunny day. Judy and I walked to the Menlo Park Train Station. We purchased Day Pass tickets ($6 each for seniors), then caught the 5:19 train. As prearranged, we headed to the center car, where we found our friends (Martin and Heidi) who h
ad boarded at the California Avenue Station in Palo Alto. Left is the clock tower seen from the platform at the MP Station. In the background is the Menlo Center building (Kepler's Bookstore, Cafe Borrone and now also Cedro Ristorante). On the right is the train approaching the Menlo Park Station. This is a limited train, meaning that after San Carlos it skips a lot of stations. It was still warm. Martin had even come without a coat! You see him on the left surrounded by beautiful women (Heidi and Judy) at the SF Station. We walked across 4th Street to catch a #45 bus (the #30 would have been just as good) on Townsend (fare $0.75 for seniors). The bus turns to the NW on 3rd, which after Market becomes Kearny and heads N. We got off as planned as soon as the bus turned W onto Sutter. Belden Place is like a wide alley, pedestrian only, 1-block long, just east of Kearny. As usual it was full of tables and chairs from half a dozen restaurants. Plouf reminds me of a French bistro, in fact the staff is mostly French. Our waiter had a distinct French accent and to prove his authenticity his breath smelled of cigarette smoke. We decided to sit inside because the best outdoor seats (the ones near the heat lamps) were already taken. I think we made a good choice. We walked in pretty much on time for our 6:30 reservations. Since Happy Hour was until 7 pm, we all got a glass of white wine (French, but I've forgotten which one) and began to study the menu. It wasn't really a hard choice, we came for the mussels, and in fact they had a pris fixe of soup (onion) or salad, mussels with choice of 6 sauces, and desert for $25. We ordered 4! They have great bread (its San Francisco!). By the time our soups/salads came we had to order more bread, and more wine. This time we ordered a bottle of Beaucanon '08 Chardonnay Napa Valley, $36. (For future reference, corkage is $25.) The wine was just right. (Back home, we've tried to find it, but apparently you have to order it directly from the winery in St. Helena, $21 a bottle plus shipping.) The onion soup was not the heavy with cheese style. It was easy to eat. The vinaigrette dressing on the salad was slightly on the oil side, perfect. Then the moules came. Half way through dinner we realized that 2 of the mussel dishes had been switched, but not to worry, all the sauces were delicious. The mussels themselves were uniformly medium sized, attached to the shells, and the shells open and undamaged. Desert was either profiterole or creme brulee, both well prepared. After adding on the tax, which now includes a healthy-SF surcharge (what will happen to healthy-SF with the new health reforms?) and a 20% tip, the bill was $55 each person. Not bad. Now it was approaching 9 pm, so we headed out for the bus. First we went a block W on Bush. At the corner of Grant (entrance to Chinatown), we realized the next block was a fairly steep hill, so we dog-legged over to Sutter for the final block to Stockton where the returning bus would stop. Good thing we did, because Sutter actually runs through a tunnel underneath that big hill! The bus came rather quickly and we were back to the Caltrain station soon after 9 vpm. You can see us above waiting for the 9:40 train. The late night trains are all locals, so they take a little longer. We walked home from the MP train station about 11 pm. The route takes us right down the main shopping street of MP. The town is mostly closed up by 11, but we saw a few customers still sitting at the bar at The Left Bank (a nice restaurant), and at least 1 table still occupied at Marche (a very upscale restaurant). Presumably there was still life at Marq's, a real bar with food, which is on a side street, and we didn't inspect the British Banker's Club, which was probably still alive, otherwise downtown MP was sleeping, as we were soon thereafter. End of another adventure.