Dine About Town SF - Trip #1

Dine About Town, a two-week event where restaurants participate to provide a special menu featuring "food they're known for" for a set price, is a great way to promote local eateries that we never get to try due to pricing or location or just the fact that we know nothing about the quality of the food!  Restaurants can decide to participate in lunch, dinner, or both.  Lunch is a two-course meal for a small price of $17.95, and dinner is a grand three-course meal for $34.95.  The Dine About Town event in San Francisco is probably the biggest and best one of them all, and for some unknown reason (laziness maybe?), it was not until this year that I'm participating for the first time.

I think a smart way to tackle Dine About Town is to go with a group of friends so that you can try everything offered on the menu.  We did a triple date for brunch on a rainy and cold Sunday afternoon, and went to Butterfly at Pier 33 in the Embarcadero.  Butterfly was my choice as my sister S went here a couple of times and each time her food pictures looked delicious.

On the Brunch menu:

First Course, a choice of -
1. Fire fried calamari, tobasco remoulade, ponzu marinated cucumbers
2. Mushroom cappuccino soup, white truffle oil, porcini powder
3. Kalua pig, butter lettuce cups, bbq hoisin dipping sauce

Second Course, a choice of-

1. Shaking beef cobb salad, apple wood smoked bacon, maytag blue cheese, prosciutto, avocado
2. Shrimp and scrambled eggs tostada with avocado and salsa verde (not pictured)
3. Smoked salmon scramble with texas toast and tobiko crème fraiche (not pictured)
4. Grilled chicken salad club sandwich with french fries

The spiciest drink I've ever had! Thai-spiced caipirinha.

If I were to rate the best dish out of the entire meal, the kalua pig in butter lettuce cups takes the prize.  The kalua pig was tender and flavorful, the hoisin sauce refreshing with the strong flavor of BBQ, and the crunchy freshess of the lettuce were a great combination in my mouth. Overall, I thought the meal was just alright, nothing too amazing but nothing too bad - a good start for my first Dine About Town adventure.  This meal was later topped off with a scoop of Honey Lavender from Bi-Rite Creamery in the Mission, which we drove in the rain and stood outside in the cold to eat, but it was a perfect end to this Sunday brunch.

Now on to dinner...