I heard so many good things about the food in San Francisco (especially from one of my fave bloggers, Feisty Foodie). I was incredibly excited when I was asked to travel there for business (I had never been) and extended the trip to include leisure travel with Mike over Christmas week. I was so excited to try so many different restaurants in SF (plus I knew it was prime artichoke growing territory… MMM!) and we planned the last 2 days in Napa where more wonderful nomming was to take place.
It was just my luck that I came down with a wicked case of food poisoning or a stomach bug about an hour before leaving for the airport. (I do not wish having stomach problems like that on an airplane to my worst enemy!) It actually had me completely in bed for 24 hours after the trip and sans food for the first two days. I somehow dragged myself to work on Day 2 but it wasn’t pretty (I was so bad off that I never would have gone in had they not paid for me to fly out there and I knew I actually had to SHOW UP or risk them not reimbursing me). By the end of that evening, I was finally feeling semi-capable of nourishment and went with chicken soup from Westin’s room service. It was actually quite tasty and I’m pretty convinced it was slightly magical as that was the turning point.
By the next night I convinced myself I was well enough to eat again. We were staying in the Union Square area and used our Urban Spoon iPhone app to pull up a convenient restaurant. First Crush sounded like a good place so we went for it without much research (very uncommon for me!)
We started with something that sounded right up my alley: roasted winter squash with chestnuts, pearl onions, squash puree, and pomegranate reduction. It was really, really good! I was a bit dissapointed that there weren’t more (and bigger) chestnuts since I love them, however, I got over this very quickly with the amazing flavor combination and freshness of the ingredients.
Mike went with the pistachio crusted wild hawaiian walu with rainbow carrotes, roasted fingerlings, fried shallots, and glace de veau. The crust was perfect and the fish was moist and flavorful.
I ordered the artichokes braised a la barigoule with toasted barley, flageolets, sunchokes, and lemon oil. It was good but I was expecting a bit more robust artichoke flavor. (I think I expect too much of my favorite veggie). I really enjoyed it, however, and I’m glad I ordered this dish.
Overall, for a random restaurant in the middle of an unknown city, I thought we found a gem. None of the desserts sounded especially appealing (which was surprising for a wine place… I always expect those 2 to go together) so we skipped. What we ordered, however, was especially fresh and very tasty. We enjoyed this first meal at First Crush very much.
Total Nom Points: 6.5 out of 10
