Savoring San Francisco

So this past week my date and I spent our vacation in San Francisco! (yes, he is the same date, I don't know why but I like calling him my date as opposed to my boyfriend when I'm blogging. Someone asked me about this so I thought I'd clarify, no serial dating here - I'm a one man kinda gal). San Francisco is definitely one of the foodie capitals of the world, absolutely amazing. We actually spent most of our time traveling outside of the city, so for each meal I'll let you know where it was we went because that whole part of the country seems to be dedicated to delicious food. I took so many pictures of our meals it was hard to pick which ones to show you guys...there's still a lot but I just couldn't help myself. Alright - here goes.

Let's start off in the Ferry Building. It reminded me a lot of Chelsea Market in the city, lots of adorable little food shops and a few restaurants. Every shop had it's own specialty and character - you could easily make a meal out of tasting a little bit of everything.

We had our fair share of tacos at Tacolicious in the Marina, it was some amazing price like ten tacos for thirty bucks, and that was plenty for three people. Not too shabby. 

Yes, that's Obama enjoying himself some tacos. Apparently I can't take a picture of a picture very well, sorry 'bout that. 

We spent a day at Muir Woods and Muir Beach (picture perfect) and had dinner at the Pelican Inn, right next to the beach. I was incredibly impressed with their food, everything was fresh and creative.

For another day adventure we drove down the coast to Monterey to visit the aquarium, drove the famous 17 mile drive, and then had dinner in Carmel. We ate at Little Napoli's, a fantastic Italian eatery that has a huge picture of Sinatra and about an hour long wait. Good thing they've got a wine bar next door to distract you from how hungry you are. Here are some pictures of the garlic bread, fried artichoke hearts, mushroom and garlic pizza (with WHOLE garlic cloves) and the limoncello white chocolate tartufo. Yum. 

The next trip was to Wine Country - we started off at Francis Ford Coppola's winery in Sonoma and loved it so much there we ended up staying for lunch. If you are a movie AND food AND wine lover, you'll be in heaven here. 

For dinner we ended up in the adorable little town of Healdsburg at a restaurant called Willi's. They only had small plates which was perfect, we got four to share and even tried oysters for the first time! For small plates there were so many tasty looking choices, but we ended up with a kale caesar salad with capers and toasted pine nuts, a chopped salad with olives and bleu cheese, fish tacos, and salmon over succotash. All of our meals were amazing, but this one was particularly memorable.

Some classy before and after oyster pictures:

Our last day there we had brunch at the Cliff House, amazing food with an amazing view. I loved reading about the history of the place on the back of their menu (I won't give it away, you'll have to read it yourself) and feeling like we had stepped back in time when we walked in. We split a shrimp cocktail, sourdough french toast, and eggs san francisco which were poached eggs over dungeness crab  and sourdough. Pretty fantastic. 

Last but not least - our final meal in San Francisco. We got to meet up with some of my family while we were there and I was SO excited when they suggested we go to Off the Grid. This is a genius weekly event in San Francisco where some of the city's favorite food trucks meet and throw a foodie party. I was awestruck and needed a couple of times circling around before I could figure out what I wanted. We ended up eating some handmade dumplings (I was too hungry, they were gone before I could take a picture) while waiting in line for some ramen. I'm pretty sure this is a foodie mecca that everyone needs to experience. 

Whew. That was a lot of food. Has anyone been to any of these places and has some stories to share? Anyone planning a trip there soon? We loved San Francisco and can't wait to go back to explore more of the food...I mean city.