I'm Gaga for LuLu

I welcome you now to a restaurant review.

On Thursday, I had the pleasure of going to San Francisco for dinner at Restaurant LuLu. I was meeting a friend from high school who was in town. My friend C and I met at the restaurant at 7:30 and it was really busy inside. The nice thing I noticed was that though there were a lot of people in LuLu's, it didn't sound like it. You didn't feel you had to shout to be heard. The music was at a minimum volume, which is what I prefer.

The host brought us to our table. Now, I will complain about the chairs. Though the chairs were cushiony and comfy, you didn't have a lot of room to move them and they didn't move from the table so easily when you wanted to excuse yourself to go to the ladies room. Other than that, everything at our table was fine. Our waitress was very attentive and sweet. She came over several times to ask us if we wanted anything to drink. At this point, C and I were gabbing away and barely looking at the menu. Eventually we both ordered an Aromatic Whites flight ($10.50) We received 4 generous tastings, the wines were:

1. Piepoul de Pinet, Dm. des Lauriers, Coteaux du Languedoc 2005
2. Chenin Blanc, Chateau du Hureau, Saumur-Champigny, Loire Valley 2004
3. Riesling 'Glintzberg' Domaine Roland Schmitt, Alsace 2004
4. Gruner Veltliner, Glatzer, Carnutum, Austria 2005

The wines were all very tasty. I preferred #1 and #3. They all had strong fruity overtones, in fact C and I agreed that the Riesling smelled like bananas (though it didn't taste anything like it, it just had the smell.) It was very interesting to say the least.

When we ordered our food, the waitress recommend that we order a couple of appetizer plates and split a pizza (according to the host, their pizza is the best!) We decided to take their advice and we settled on a Bowl of Baby Lettuce and Bread with Vinaigrette, Portabella Beignets with Garlic Aioli sauce, and a Pizza with Heirloom Tomatoes. Most of it was delicious.

Here's what I thought of the food:

1. The salad of baby lettuce with bread and vinaigrette was okay. There were some parts of the salad that I found too bitter. I wasn't a fan of it.
2. The Portabella Beignets were superb. Very delicious. The Portabellas are sliced lengthwise in 3/4 inch thick slices, lightly breaded, then lightly deep fried. It sounds fatty, but it melts in your mouth as you eat it. The garlic aioli adds a lot to the taste as well.
3. The pizza was very tasty. I love heirloom tomatoes and these were delicious. The pizza had red and yellow sliced heirloom tomatoes. The pizzas are made the old-school Italian way -- they are on a thin crust baked in a wood-fire brick oven. It was marvelous.

The nice thing about the whole meal was that it didn't cost too much at all. We split the bill down the middle and it ended up being about $42 per person (including the tip). Not bad for San Francisco.

I would recommend it to anyone who likes wine because they have an extensive wine list. It'd be great for a first date -- not too fancy, but nice enough to impress your date. Be there or be square. If you're ever in SF, stop by for a wine tasting or sample some small plates.