San Francisco: 'āina
Okay, I'm going to preface this post by reminding all of you that this blog is called "No Shame" for a reason. So without further ado...my sister and I planned a Pokemon raid day in the city back in July.
That's right. I'm a (recently turned) 30-year-old woman playing Pokemon Go. I may or may not also hum the theme song in my head as I'm playing.
What? No shame, right?
Anyway, once we figured out how to raid for legendary Pokemon, my sister and I knew that our best bet of taking one down would be along the Embarcadero where there are more Pokemon masters...er, people about. You can only have up to two raid passes a day, which means only two chances to beat and catch a legendary. Which also means a lot of time to kill in-between raids.
Of course we were going to fill that time with food because, duh.
I met my sister first thing in the morning at Aina. I could see the crowd outside a block away:
Luckily, my sister got there a bit before me and already put her name down. The wait wasn't actually that bad in the end, but the place was certainly packed to the rafters:
Our server had a newbie shadowing him, so he was uber peppy. (Either that or he's always like that.) He was all ready to give us all sorts of recommendations, but we already knew what we wanted.
My sister suggested eating brunch at Aina for one reason and one reason only. The malasadas ($7):
These Portuguese-style doughnut holes were rolled in coconut sugar and filled with a creamy guava custard:
I loved the tangy custard, especially with the burst of freshness from the sliced mint sprinkled on top. The dough part, on the other hand, not so much. It was just a bit too...what's the word? Yeasty? I could taste the yeast, if that makes any sense.
I let my sister enjoy her malasadas in peace. Meanwhile, I focused on the Punalu'u Bakery taro french toast ($11 for half portion):
The taro bread is apparently specially flown in from a bakery in Hawaii. Given how heavenly fluffy it was, I can understand why. It came accompanied by bacon, macadamia nut crumble, salted coconut caramel, fresh strawberries, and vanilla whipped cream with mint. The perfect bite had a little bit of everything.
To prevent sugar overload, we tacked on an order of kalbi loco moco ($19):
The kalbi short rib sat in smoked honshimeji mushroom jus next to a mound of short grain rice topped with sunny side up eggs, hearts of palm pico de gallo, and pea tendrils. A tad salty, but that meat was so incredibly tender. No knife necessary, just slide a fork in. We found ourselves chasing every rice grain to sop up all that delicious jus.
Aina was a lovely experience. Not cheap by any means, but lovely all the same. The service is friendly, and the decor is a hipster's dream. (So many succulents!) I'm not typically a fan of Asian fusion, but Aina does it right. I would definitely go back again.
'āina
900 22nd St
San Francisco, CA 94107
(415) 814-3815
http://www.ainasf.com/
That's right. I'm a (recently turned) 30-year-old woman playing Pokemon Go. I may or may not also hum the theme song in my head as I'm playing.
What? No shame, right?
Anyway, once we figured out how to raid for legendary Pokemon, my sister and I knew that our best bet of taking one down would be along the Embarcadero where there are more Pokemon masters...er, people about. You can only have up to two raid passes a day, which means only two chances to beat and catch a legendary. Which also means a lot of time to kill in-between raids.
Of course we were going to fill that time with food because, duh.
I met my sister first thing in the morning at Aina. I could see the crowd outside a block away:
Luckily, my sister got there a bit before me and already put her name down. The wait wasn't actually that bad in the end, but the place was certainly packed to the rafters:
Our server had a newbie shadowing him, so he was uber peppy. (Either that or he's always like that.) He was all ready to give us all sorts of recommendations, but we already knew what we wanted.
My sister suggested eating brunch at Aina for one reason and one reason only. The malasadas ($7):
These Portuguese-style doughnut holes were rolled in coconut sugar and filled with a creamy guava custard:
I loved the tangy custard, especially with the burst of freshness from the sliced mint sprinkled on top. The dough part, on the other hand, not so much. It was just a bit too...what's the word? Yeasty? I could taste the yeast, if that makes any sense.
I let my sister enjoy her malasadas in peace. Meanwhile, I focused on the Punalu'u Bakery taro french toast ($11 for half portion):
The taro bread is apparently specially flown in from a bakery in Hawaii. Given how heavenly fluffy it was, I can understand why. It came accompanied by bacon, macadamia nut crumble, salted coconut caramel, fresh strawberries, and vanilla whipped cream with mint. The perfect bite had a little bit of everything.
To prevent sugar overload, we tacked on an order of kalbi loco moco ($19):
The kalbi short rib sat in smoked honshimeji mushroom jus next to a mound of short grain rice topped with sunny side up eggs, hearts of palm pico de gallo, and pea tendrils. A tad salty, but that meat was so incredibly tender. No knife necessary, just slide a fork in. We found ourselves chasing every rice grain to sop up all that delicious jus.
Aina was a lovely experience. Not cheap by any means, but lovely all the same. The service is friendly, and the decor is a hipster's dream. (So many succulents!) I'm not typically a fan of Asian fusion, but Aina does it right. I would definitely go back again.
'āina
900 22nd St
San Francisco, CA 94107
(415) 814-3815
http://www.ainasf.com/
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