Food Like That: Recipes your mouth will like

I went to San Francisco on short notice last week, and ended up having some great meals. This is not hard in San Francisco: there are many great places to eat, everywhere from cheap and cheerful to some of the highest end restaurants in the world.

Two particular meals that stood out were Bar Tartine and Pizzeria Delfina. An interesting thing about these two restaurants is that they both have "sister" restaurants. Bar Tartine is partners with Bakery Tartine, and they get all their fresh bread from there. Pizzeria Delfina is the more casual companion to Delfina. I think these types of pairings allow restaurants to experiment and specialize at the same time. See how well the pastries are selling at the bakery, then bring it over to the restaurant. People are raving about a wild mushroom dish at the upscale Italian, bring it over to the pizzeria and throw it on a pizza so even more people can try it.

Bar Tartine is theoretically a French restaurant. I say theoretically, because to me, I always think of heavy sauces, and this was different. I won't say fusion, but there definitely seemed to be a San Francisco twist to the dishes.

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Probably my two favourite appetizers were the squid and pork belly (pictured) – which arrived at the table with the server saying "this is the best dish on the menu" – and the roast beef marrow. It doesn't hurt that the bread is made at the bakery. It came as a starter as well as grilled to accompany dishes like the marrow.

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All three of us opted for a meat dish as our main – duck, a French cut of beef that I can't recall now, and I had the lamb breast (pictured). Lamb breast? Yep. A thin cut across the breast, with the meat being of an interesting "striated" texture with a good, moist layer of fat as well. It kind of reminded me of brisket. This was braised and delicious and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Our server, Crystal, was knowledgeable (plus had the cutest dimples) and attentive. We came in without a reservation and got seated at the family table. We had brought a wine, but got recommended a very nice wine that we ended up drinking throughout the rest of the evening.

We got through our meal and decided that yes, we could see the dessert menu. We spotted an interesting looking Colheita port, which I had never heard of (wikipedia) -- it's a tawny port that is made out of a single year's vintage. This went nicely with the cheese plate we ordered. The one I remember best was infused with truffle oil.

That's it for Bar Tartine. This is long enough, so I'll save Pizzeria Delfina for another post.