Cali Eats: O3 Bistro & Lounge

Date Visited: Late Dinner on Saturday Apr 12, 2014

Company: Walk-in for 5 

During our first night in San Francisco, we stayed at the HI near City Centre and decided to go to Smuggler's Cove, the famous rum bar which was just only about a 10 minute walk away. On our way, we decided to stop somewhere for a late dinner, a mission which seemed easier than it made out to be. After passing by a few restaurants, we finally decided to stop at O3 which situated at a busy intersection with very little people but a lot of traffic going by. We weren't looking for a nicer place like this but it was all that we found!

There was only about 2 other parties at the place as it was pretty late on Saturday for dinner. The place was very nicely decorated, clean, and modern. They had a variety of Thai cuisine on the menu from the classic pad thai to more authentic dishes. Their prices were all pretty reasonable, I guess which is standard for Thai food... $11 for Pad Thai is like every restaurant. I decided to be a bit adventurous as I wasn't extremely hungry and ordered a Pork Tom Kha Noodle Soup, which is Coconut milk soup, mushroom, tomatoes, bean sprouts, lemongrass, galangal, Kaffir lime leaves, green onion, and cilantro. I wasn't sure what exactly to expect but was pleasantly surprised with our meals. 

The presentation of all our dishes was very well done, I loved the huge soup bowl mine was in and all the colours present. The pork was very tender and went well with the broth... I was a bit unsure because the waitress seemed surprised I wanted pork with the Tom Kha and I wasn't sure how the pork pieces would be either. The overall flavour of the soup was very rich and milky, but not too salty. The spiciness was the perfect amount and really enhanced the flavours of all the unique vegetables. It was a great dish to warm your stomach and leave you pleasantly filled. I was pretty impressed with the portion sizes and prices because it seemed like a very classy restaurant which made me skeptical on going there with our budget.

Food: 4/5 - Was a bit adventurous with my choice and it paid off, all the other orders seemed delicious also.

Decor: 4/5 - Beautiful restaurant with dark wooded furniture and unique decor, seemed so fancy for how reasonable the prices were.

Service: 3/5 - Pretty typical for an Asian restaurant, wasn't too overbearing... actually quite friendly.

Willingness to go back: 3/5 - If I was passing by, I wouldn't object to eating here again!

Overall: 3.5/5

Website: http://o3restaurant.com

HUSH Restaurant, Patio & Bar

Date Visited: Dinner on Tuesday Jan 21, 2014
Company: Reservation for 5 ladies before seeing Les Miserables

There was a group of us going to see Les Miserables at Princess of Wales Theatre on Tuesday night and I wanted to find a place to have a quick dinner beforehand. There are a ton of restaurants in the area of all different types of cuisines. HUSH was a reasonably-priced, American restaurant that I've heard of through the -licious' events that seemed like the perfect place to go for a casual dinner. 

I made a reservation for 6PM and hoped that I could make it down from Oshawa in time after work, which we did... (that's if we didn't have a few wrong turns downtown). We parked at the Princess of Wales underground parking which was across the street and a few restaurants down from HUSH. Our table was right near the window and gave us a view of the lively King Street West. The lighting was very dim but the decor was very classy and urban which livened up the place. We had two different servers oddly, which was mentioned to us by the first one. It appeared that one took care of us in the beginning and then they switched but the first one was still around in the area (maybe they share the area?). 
There were a lot good choices on the menu and it was hard to decide! Their sandwiches and burgers all seemed delicious but I decided to go for the Seafood Linguine consisting of shrimp, lobster, baby spinach, grape tomatoes, fresh herbs, sun dried tomato pesto, broccoli & roasted garlic aioli, a classic choice for me. Our orders came surprisingly fast after they were placed, great for us because our show was at 7:30PM. Everyone's food looked amazing, we all got different things and the presentation for all of them looked spectacular. The Linguine had huge pieces of shrimp and lobster sticking out and lots of veggies mixed in the sauce. The sauce was very thick, almost like chowder, but I thought the flavour was great. I really enjoyed the tomato-y addition with the pesto, definitely different from other Seafood Linguine I've had. I also tasted some other veggies in the mix, like zucchini but all of the flavours blended together nicely. The pieces of toast were awesome for dipping in the excess sauce. The pasta also was cooked perfectly. 

As we were having our meals, we noticed someone else ordering a dessert that looked like fondue. We checked the dessert menu and found out they have S'mores, to share between 2-5. We had about half an hour before our show and asked our waiter if they would take more than 15 minutes to prepare and eat and he said no (of course), so we got them! He wasn't lying because he came out right away with them! They were such a cute idea. The waiter light the burner and the flames immediately shot up a brilliant blue. We each got our own poking stick with Marshmallows, Graham crackers, Caramel sauce, and Lindt Chocolate to share. We had a lot of fun cooking/burning our marshmallows and creating S'mores. My sweet tooth had its fill for a while after that though. I wasn't impressed that they didn't fill our water once or really check on us throughout the dinner. All our waters were empty and I wanted a drink after the dessert. 

We got our bills though and I mentioned in the reservation that we needed separate bills which they accommodated and even split up the dessert evenly for us. :)

Food: 3.5/5 - Really enjoyed everything! Their dishes offer a lot of variety and creativity with quality ingredients.
Decor: 2.5/5 - Very typical King St W decor... dim and chic at night, I'd like to see it in the day and apparently there's a patio in the summer!
Service: 2/5 - Not the best service but the food came very timely.
Willingness to go back: 4/5 - Definitely! So many things to try there, great reasonably priced spot in the area.
Overall: 3/5
Website: http://www.hushrestaurants.ca/