Adrie Reinders

Rustic dining

Tavern at Lark Creek, 234 Magnolia Avenue, Larkspur

The Tavern at Lark Creek is close to central San Francisco, the Wine Country and the East Bay, located on Magnolia Avenue in picturesque Larkspur.

Larkspur, located at only a 30 minute drive from down town San Francisco, north of the Golden Gate bridge, makes you feel like you entered a different world where it seems time stood still.
The area resonates peacefulness - with its large houses, winding roads, big gardens and the scent of flowers in the air.

In one of these older style villa’s, you will find the Tavern at Lark Creek. It exudes country living - a large fireplace, different rooms where food is served and lots of candles and low lights. The decor is precisely as you would expect in such an environment, a lot of wood and rather heavy furniture but very comfortable nevertheless. Service is great and friendly and the food well done and above all, with great flavours.

I had the crab chowder to start - followed by scallops which were delicious. Soft and well cooked, served with a light sauce with small green asparagus tips and wild mushrooms. Lovely flavours none of which overpowered the delicate taste of the scallops. For desert I had the home made Vanilla Icecream which was superb.

The whole pictures was excellent - in an environment where you could sit and chat comfortably with your table companions.

Food: 8
Comfort: 8
Service: 8
Price/Quality: 8

A Taste of Hawaii in San Francisco

Roy’s

575 Mission Street, San Francisco

The concierge of the E.Factor Travel Service and our Business Lounges, had recommended and reserved a table for us at Roy’s, a Hawaiian Fusion restaurant in the heart of San Fran.
Roy’s is beautifully decorated and has an unexpected menu with a mix of Hawaiian, European, Asian - quite a dramatic combination. As you’ll understand if you read my blogs regularly, I am not easily surprised when it comes to restaurants, but this definitely was the exception to the rule. I had the short ribs, and even this classic dish had a touch of Hawaii. My desert was another classic: creme brulée, which was delicious enough to want to lick the plate.

Service was professional, timely and friendly and seating very comfortable.

Food: 8.5
Service: 8
Comfort: 8
Price/Quality: 8.5

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Dutch design in San Fran
Credo

www.credosf.com
360 Pine Street
San Francisco, CA 94104
(415) 693-0360
I had dinner last night in Credo, a new restaurant in the heart of San Francisco which was designed by Piet Hein Eek. Piet Hein Eek became world famous with his furniture made from drift wood, which forms a main part of the decor in Credo. It looks nice and clean - lots of space, white walls decorated with famous sayings all starting with “I believe….” the english translation for the latin “Credo”. Tastefully done.
Unfortunately, like so many modern restaurants these days, the noise levels were too high and made it hard to have a comfortable conversation. This effect is emphasised by the bar in the middle of the restaurant. I never like that so much, drinking people always seem to make more noise then those around them.

Service was very good, professional and well instructed. Decor, as said, beautiful and reasonably comfortable. The food was excellent, I have to admit. Great dishes, mainly derived from Italian classics. I fancied the Pizza which was great, nice thin curst and fresh ingredients. For dessert a very non-Italian dish - Crema Catalan… superb!!

Food: 8,5
Service: 8
Comfort: 7.5
Price/quality: 8

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Lunch/meeting places in Amsterdam

Café Restaurant Dauphine
www.caferestaurantdauphine.nl
First of all, I’d like to mention Dauphine where I had a working lunch earlier this week. Dauphine is located very centrally near all the usual roads leading in/out of Amsterdam and, as an added bonus, with excellent parking. The restaurant decor is simple and moder, large and rather noisy. You have to reserve a table as it is always full to bursting! The service is fine, professional and quick, food is good and it’s one of those place people go to to be seen…

Wyndham Apollo Hotel Amsterdam
www.wyndhamapolloamsterdam.com
Second on my list is the Apollo Hotel - again, conveniently located with good parking. Rather quiet in the lounge area and a little old-fasioned to my taste. Service is good and it’s nice and quiet if you need that for your discussion.

Hilton Amsterdam Hotel

www.hilton.com
Lastly you have the Hitlon Hotel on the Apollolaan, very close to the main ring road (A10) and again with plenty of space for parking. Reasonably busy but never overly full. It’s one of those locations a lot of deals get closed. Great service, food is good but at a price.

Joyful Recognition

Straits Cafe Singapore Restaurant
www.straitsrestaurants.com
845 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94103-1923, United States
(415) 668-1783

In Europe - especially in the Netherlands - you will find a lot of great “original” indonesian restaurants - however in the US they are few and far between. If you do find one, the dishes often have much more of a Chinese flavour to it - never reminding me of the real Indonesian food I use to get during the years I spent in Indonesia as a youth. From that time on, I have always been a great fan of the so called “rijsttafel” - a feast of small sampler dishes with exquisite and varied flavours.

Just recently, I walked into Straits, a restaurant located in the central shopping mall in the heart of San Francisco. It is an eastern style restaurant with dishes from Singapore, Malasya and Indonesia and I have to admit to being incredibly pleasantly surprised with the food served - authentic, well prepared and delicious! Straits has about 6 restaurants around the US and is definitely worth trying. The beef and chicken dishes as well as the papaya salad I had was nicely spicy, and very fresh. Personnel was well informed and they even had a menu especially for those people that follow a gluten free diet. Impressive!
Comfort was average.

Food: 8.5
Service: 8.5
Comfort: 7.5
Price/Quality: 8

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A shining star under the Golden Gate Bridge

Murray Circle
Cavallo Point - the Lodge at the Golden Gate
601 Murray Circle, Fort Baker, Sausalito, CA 94965
(415) 339-4750

This week I was invited to have dinner at the restaurant at Cavallo Point called Murray Circle, a one star Michelin restaurant.
The already famous Chef Joseph Humphry is doing an excellent job here - coming from other locations where he won up to two Michelin stars that may not come as a surprise but still takes dedication to achieve.

As my starter I had Sunchoke Bisque, a very refined starter setting me up for a great meal. The main course was a dish with wood-grilled prawns, fennel and cucumber - again superb flavours all coming into their own. To finish I could not resist the Black Tea Creme Brulee - soft, creamy, delicate - one bite only inviting another. This all in all was probably one of the best dinners I have had on the West Coast.

The decor was a little too dark for my taste, it almost gave me the sense that I was in a living room instead of a restaurant, which was not entirely comfortable. Service was as you should expect in a top quality restaurant, friendly, knowledgeable, professional without being overbearing. All in all an excellent experience.

Food: 9.5
Service: 8.5
Comfort: 8
Price/Quality: 8.5

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A Different Place

Out The Door, Westfield Shopping Mall, 845 Market, San Francisco CA

The founder of Slanted Door, Charles Phan, really understands the restaurant business and proves so once again with “Out the Door” the restaurant he opened in the basement food court at Westfield San Francisco Center. Out the Door is a “Vietnamese” restaurant, in a big open space, and extremely popular. The decoration is modern and a bit minimalistic, but comfortable, noise level on the high side. It seats
130 people and you can definitely tell from the chatter around you.

The food is very fresh and the service is good, with servers with a sound knowledge of the food. For lunch I had fresh spring rolls ($7.50) plumped with curls of shrimp, slices of pork, mint and rice noodles and as a main-course a green papaya salad ($7.50) with tofu, pickled carrots and roasted peanuts. As I mentioned, all of it was fresh and light. When shopping in the Westfield, this is defnite place to go for a snack or a full meal.

Food: 8.5
Comfort: 7.5
Service: 8
Price/Quality: 8

De past 18 months I have written about restaurants and hotels all over the world - and have told you besides about the journeys and airports I have visited (unfortunately). I like sharing my experiences and will definitely continue, but to prevent everyone thinking I am merely sitting around in hotels and restaurants - I would love to offer the opportunity for a small number of guest writers to add their contribution.

Are you interested in joining? Write me at adrie@efactor.com and add your first post.
Suggestions are always welcome

A classic from Calabri

Restaurant Poggio, 777 Bridgeway, Sausalito CA

Restaurant Poggio is a real Italian classic, traditonal interior design - lots of wood and a typical Italian feel to it
Every day they have a special menu with dishes based on produce in season.

My menu consisted of a carpaccio. Whilst good, it was a little too cold and felt like it had been plated and kept refridgerated waiting for my order. As a main course, I had chargrilled Tuna with mashed potatoes - which was excellent. For desert I had a fresh Tangerine sorbet which was in one word delicious - and in a generous sizing.

Service was friendly and efficient but without a lot of the pleasant dramatics that I like so much about a real Italian place.

As I mentioned, the decor was heavy and classical but comfortable nevertheless.

Food: 8.5
Service: 7.5
Comfort: 7.5
Price/Quality: 7.5

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A shining star in Düsseldorf

Victorian Königstraße 3a 40212 Düsseldorf Tel. +49 211 - 86550

On the infamous Königs Allee in Düsseldorf you can find one the best restaurants in town. The “Kö” as it is commonly known is the heart of a world-famous shopping area which can easily be compared to Madison Avenue in New York, Michigan Avenue in Chicago or Monte Napoleone in Milan in terms of quality and style.

The restaurant is rather austere in terms of decor - typical of the boutiques and shops you find in this area, lots of chrome, white and mirrors. The host, who is a regular at the restaurant, ordered the chef’s nine-course special menu - all nouvelle cuisine-like, small, beautifully presented dishes. The taste was phenomenal although the main course (a meat dish) was not as tender as I had expected. But other then that I cannot fault it at all. Though the dishes were all light, nine course later you are still full!

Personell was as can be expected in a restaurant of this standard, very smooth and knowledgeable. As mentioned, the decor was rather cold and not to my personal taste. One thing that seemed odd to me is that the tables had been set in such a way that the waiter had to hand me my dish over someone else’s setting. One minor point in an otherwise perfect evening.

Definitely worth visiting should you happen to visit Düsseldorf

Food: 9
Service: 8.5
Comfort: 8
Price/Quality: As I was treated this time, I don’t know the price part, but I assume in line with a Michelin star ranked restaurant.