When traveling with my dad, whom I've mentioned is not only diabetic but also falling victim to creeping dementia, we experience many moments of intersection between a real need to eat at regular intervals and an unreasonably dogged determination to eat something RIGHT NOW, but just not the thing my mom is offering him to tie him over until we figure out what to do about whatever the given meal.
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| What appears to be a golden Lab who just went for a swim, hanging on the wall @ Heaven's Dog. Food pics later. |
And quite frankly, he can be a real PITA about it, putting my mom in not only a crap mood, but also between a rock and a hard place, especially when she knows that the rest of us just aren't that hungry because we ALL ate a late lunch, are exhausted from walking all over Chinatown, and are just generally not ready to do anything about dinner at the moment.
But that's what happened last night at about 6:30 when my dad decided he was ready to have a proper dinner. Adding to my mom's frustration is that there is a very short list of foods that my dad considers to be a proper meal, almost all of them Korean or some other kind of Asian food.
So let's just say there was a lot of shortness and snapping going on last night as I was charged with the task of finding a nearby restaurant that would be a happy compromise for all involved and that in the end, I chose this place that we spied on our Monday night apres dinner walk in a bit of a huff, and that there was a lot of pissyness to go around between me, my mom, and my dad on our short walk from the hotel to the restaurant.
As it turns out, this place is Charles Phan's (of Slanted Door fame) foray into mostly Chinese-inspired cuisine, and everything we ordered was really well executed.
- the pork, shrimp and shiitake shumai
- steamed manila clams (very good for the most part but needed just a little bit of a citrus acid element)
- soy braised pork belly buns
- sweet sour spicy tiger prawns
- wuxi pork spare ribs
- tea marinated crispy duck
- wild mushroom noodles with what I think were shiitakes, oysters, and woodears
- sauteed pea sprouts with crispy fried shallots
It's nice to be able to take the kids every once in a while to a highly conceptualized restaurant and watch them soak up and even bask in the ambience. They both loved the food, and all the adults, even my dad, were pleased.
My only beef with the place is that between the older people and the younger people in our party, our server appeared to initially read us as people he didn't want occupying one of his tables (there was a lot of urban hipster chic going on among the clientele as you can imagine) and treated us fairly brusquely until it was apparent that we were going to spend enough money to be worth his while. Sometimes the people who work in these kinds of places forget for a moment that they're in the business of hospitality, but I do give him credit for turning it around in the end, for whatever reason.
Besides the really good food, generally minimal and sophisticated decor, interesting if somewhat conflicted ambience (Chinese food, paintings of dogs all over the walls, and American rock music in the background - not quite understanding the juxtaposition just yet), and an interesting beer, wine, and cocktail list are all reasons to give this place a go.
Heaven's Dog
1148 Mission Str. @ 7th
San Francisco, CA 94103
415.863.6008
www.heavensdog.com
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