Michael Bauer in his blog talks about a growing number of diners starting to complain about amateur restaurant bloggers that are taking pictures during their meal.  As someone that loves blogging about food, I think its bullshit that I can’t take a picture of the food that I purchased.  In addition, the restaurant should encourage this behavior since it does create buzz about the restaurant and encourage other diners to visit the resturant.  Some resturants even go so far to comp bloggers to get some buzz going.  What do you guys think?

I watched the Spazmatics play last night at La Barca and I have a lukewarm opinion of the band.  Talent wise the band can play all the requisite music very well but the show with the costumes is weak.  Too phony too much of a show rather than just rocking out.

The Spazmatics are a “concept” that is franchised across several cities.  In each city a group of guys picks out a set of costumes along the guidelines of the owner of the act.  When you rent out the band you are renting a show rather then a certain band which I think sucks.  Its disappointing to know that such a funny concept is being repeated over and over again like the McDonalds of music acts.  I know everyone has to earn a living, but I’ve always thought of bands as being artists rather than workers.

I visited the new Genki Ramen last night in beautiful San Francisco, CA.  The interior of Genki is very stylish.  Plasma Televisions adorn the walls blasting Japanese Pop videos.  The tables are stained a deep red and decorated with logos and carvings.  Everything looks custom made.

The menu was pretty standard noodle house fare, with several appetizers such as edamame, chicken karaage, vegetable tempura, onigiri, and gyoza.  I also noticed several non-standard items for San Francisco.   These included a three types Okonomiyaki and unagi fried rice.

I ordered the Tempura Ramen and grilled Onigiri.  Here’s my rating:

-Food:  B+  The broth for the Ramen was delicious.  Since the restaurant house makes its own Charsu, I’m assuming they use the byproducts of that to make the broth.  One thing I noticed was that the broth itself wasn’t particularly salty which I thought was great.  The color was a milky brown almost like chocolate milk, with some oil droplets floating on the service.  The noodles were cooked perfectly and were served slightly al dente.  The grilled Onigiri was awful, it was brought to the table falling apart drenched in unagi sauce.  I wouldn’t order that again.

-Ambiance: A  The place is really nice.   The custom tables, the plasma televisions, special chopstick holders all add to a great experience.  Makes me wonder what they spent initially to adorn the restaurant.

-Service:  B+  Nothing to write about.

-Selection: B  The had all the Ramen house fare.   Nothing too exciting added or omitted from the menu

-Overall:  B+ The food was decent, the service was ok, the interior was flashy.  I definitely would go back and recommend this place to friends.

I feel like I’ve been searching San Francisco a long time for a great deli sandwich .  Yes, I’ve done the market deli thing, Cal Mart, Whole Foods, Mollie Stones.  I find you usually get a hard roll tripping with too much mayo, beat up flat leaf lettuce, huge slices of red onion, soggy tomatoes all made by someone with an attitude. 

So I’ve now migrated to the specialty shops: Marina Submarine, Mr. Submarine, Regency Deli, Le Petite Deli.  While the specialty shops tastes better, they usually aren’t the most accessible during by car.    Well I’ve figured out a perfect solution:  Kaju Foods on California St.  Yes Kaju is awesome.  They have all of the usual cafe sandwiches, roast beef, turkey, meatball, sausage, salami and Teriyaki beef.  I’ve tried several of the opinions and they’ve all been good.  I think my favorite so far has been the teriyaki beef because its  slightly unusual and the sandwich is served warm. 

SF Giants are having Japanese night this coming Monday May 21st.  What this consists of I don’t know, the ad mentioned that their will be some unique giveaways included in the ticket price.  I just hope its nothing like the Warner Bros Japanese Night.  That was a little awkward.

We’ve all heard about how cultural San Francisco supposedly is.  Yes, the city has, art, music, food, theater and fashion.  The one aspect where I feel we’re going back to the dark ages in the music scene in San Francisco bars.  Is it just me or does it seem the plague of 80s-90s Hard Rock Ballads has infested every bar in the city.  Nowadays I laugh as every bar continues to play the exact same music.  Guns and Roses, Journey, Boston, AC/DC etc.  What’s happened to the culture?  the innovation?  the ingenuity that San Francisco is known for?  I don’t know if I should blame the public or the bar management, I suppose everyone is complicit. Its  just another sign of the pending apocalypse.

Here’s my list of bars that are infested:

• Kells
• R Bar
• Bar None
• Swig
• Tonic
• Bigfoot
• Mauna Loa
• Fishbowl

In college my generation used to listen to this music as a joke now its become legit, what the fuck happened?