Cuisine type: Modern twist on American classics
Atmosphere: pub style casual
Meal: brunch
Overall score: 8.4
We rarely end up spending more than a day or evening in San Francisco, and we’ve never spent the night in the city, so when we committed a whole weekend to the city we were ready and excited to experience some of the local treats. Our host recommended Magnolia as the best place for brunch, and since we started the day watching a football game (and skipped breakfast), it sounded like an awesome idea.
Turns out this place is not only a popular gastropub, but they brew their own beer. One of the most popular items on the menu is their beer tasting flight, for which you can pick any of their house made beers. We let our server do the choosing, and what she brought us was the following array of beers, ranging from mild and light to dark and rich: Pearly Baker’s Best Bitter, Kalifornia Kolsch, Big Cypress Brown (cask), Rosebud, Prescription Pale and Proving Ground IPA. The one that really resonated with me was Rosebud, which is what I later ordered with my meal as well, it had a perfect balance of sweet, tart and bitter.
For appetizer, we shared an order of scotch egg - I was excited to see it on the menu since I’ve had such positive experiences with it in the past, but their execution far exceeded my expectations. The egg inside was perfectly cooked, with a barely runny yolk, and the creaminess of the yolk perfectly complemented the crunchy sear on the outside of the ground turkey shell. It was served on top of a delicate and flavorful romanesco sauce and topped with arugula.
Since I can’t resist a well poached egg, I had to try the one on their brunch menu - two perfectly poached eggs (runny yolks, completely cooked whites), served with BBQ pork belly on top of creamy cheddar grits and topped with fried shallots. The pork belly was slow cooked to an incredible level of tenderness, then seared to crisp up on the outside, and then drenched in a homemade barbecue sauce. The grits were creamy, with a pleasant sharpness from the cheddar, and the crispy shallots offered a great textural contrast in the dish. If I were to find one flaw with this dish, it would be in the barbecue sauce - it was a bit too tart, maybe the tomato component a bit too pronounced for me against the flavor of the cheddar, but it was not a deterrent from the otherwise perfect brunch.
The rest of the menu was also a series of creative twists on American and British classics, and I look forward to trying their food again, along with the delicious in-house brews, of course.
Turns out this place is not only a popular gastropub, but they brew their own beer. One of the most popular items on the menu is their beer tasting flight, for which you can pick any of their house made beers. We let our server do the choosing, and what she brought us was the following array of beers, ranging from mild and light to dark and rich: Pearly Baker’s Best Bitter, Kalifornia Kolsch, Big Cypress Brown (cask), Rosebud, Prescription Pale and Proving Ground IPA. The one that really resonated with me was Rosebud, which is what I later ordered with my meal as well, it had a perfect balance of sweet, tart and bitter.
For appetizer, we shared an order of scotch egg - I was excited to see it on the menu since I’ve had such positive experiences with it in the past, but their execution far exceeded my expectations. The egg inside was perfectly cooked, with a barely runny yolk, and the creaminess of the yolk perfectly complemented the crunchy sear on the outside of the ground turkey shell. It was served on top of a delicate and flavorful romanesco sauce and topped with arugula.
Since I can’t resist a well poached egg, I had to try the one on their brunch menu - two perfectly poached eggs (runny yolks, completely cooked whites), served with BBQ pork belly on top of creamy cheddar grits and topped with fried shallots. The pork belly was slow cooked to an incredible level of tenderness, then seared to crisp up on the outside, and then drenched in a homemade barbecue sauce. The grits were creamy, with a pleasant sharpness from the cheddar, and the crispy shallots offered a great textural contrast in the dish. If I were to find one flaw with this dish, it would be in the barbecue sauce - it was a bit too tart, maybe the tomato component a bit too pronounced for me against the flavor of the cheddar, but it was not a deterrent from the otherwise perfect brunch.
The rest of the menu was also a series of creative twists on American and British classics, and I look forward to trying their food again, along with the delicious in-house brews, of course.
| Food | 9 |
| Drinks | 10 |
| Atmosphere | 9 |
| Service | 9 |
| Value | 8 |
Ben
The ultimate hipster place - almost cliche - it is actually a working hipster/hippie blend, working in a lot of the Haight-Ashbury culture and decor with a modern-American menu and large selection of craft beers. It is a thriving place that may only suffer from becoming too popular - I found the prices to be much too high for overgrown dive-bar vibe they seem to try to emulate. They offer a large selection of beers, including tasting menus and many beers brewed in-house. So, if you’re looking for beer, you won’t find much better. We had a beer tasting menu of in-house beers that I really enjoyed. The food was a little over-the-top in some instances, it seemed like they made too much of an effort to try to appear unique. For example, my chicken sandwich came with pickled jalapenos, fennel cabbage slaw, thin onions, fennel honey, and aoli. Sounds interesting, but the result was … average (too bready, dry chicken, overall meh). We had a scotch egg - which was solid, but again just seemed overpriced for the venue. I do think the over-the-top menu results in a real hit-or-miss experience, in that the other two at the table seemed to really enjoy their dishes. In principle and style (small brewery with creative food)t is the type of place I want to love, and in-all-fairness may have just been a “miss” for the day. I would prefer a place that would lose some of the pretense in the food ingredients and focus more on the execution, and drop the prices about 10-20%, which would still put it in the mid-upper scale SF bar food scene. Then again, the fact that it is always very packed suggests they have no reason to change anything (or there is a large demand for such a place).
| Food | 7 |
| Drinks | 10 |
| Atmosphere | 8 |
| Service | 8 |
| Value | 7 |
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