Food Friday: Dishcrawl SF

Not too long ago, I ate my way through three restaurants in the Mission thanks to Dishcrawl SF's "Miscrawl" event. It was my first time participating in a Dishcrawl, and luckily for me, the first time trying all three of the restaurants on the tasting tour. For those of you who may not be familiar, Dishcrawl is a community dedicated to culinary events. Dishcrawls take place all over (check to see if it's in a city you're in!), and allow foodies to experience different restaurants and cuisines. My first crawl took me to three restaurants: West of Pecos, Amber Dhara, and The Vetry -- all located on Valencia in the Mission. Click through to see what I ate and what I thought!


West of Pecos 550 Valencia Street 

The first stop of the crawl was West of Pecos. Couldn't have picked a better place to start, in my opinion. The tex-mex restaurant is known for its delightfully tasty cocktails (try the Devils Tooth if you're into bourbon!) and its flavorful dishes. We had a tasting plate of the apricot-rubbed ribs, cornbread, and brussel sprouts. Seriously - the whole plate was delicious. The brussel sprouts seemed to be glazed with some sort of sweet glaze and were roasted to perfection. The cornbread had a little bit of a kick, which I appreciated. And the ribs - let me start out by saying no one can make ribs like my family can, it's what we do. But, holy cow, did West of Pecos impress. The apricot rub was sweet and tangy and the meat was tender and fell right off the bone when you took a bite. West of Pecos was so good, that I've already been back since. If you're in SF and are in the area, do yourself a favor and make some time to check it out.







Amber Dhara 680 Valencia Street

Our next stop was Amber Dhara. I am a lover of spice and Indian food of all kind. In fact, one of my favorite things to do is hit up an Indian buffet for lunch. In all honestly, I'm not sure what it was that we had here - it seemed to be a mix of mushrooms (which I didn't try), a cauliflower or shrimp (seriously guys, I don't know what it was) dish, and pork belly. I can't place what exactly it was that I didn't like, but I felt that the flavors of the two dishes I tried did not compliment one another. The caluliflower/shrimp had this overwhelming coconut flavor that I just didn't care for. The pork belly was a little salty for my tastes too. I probably wouldn't go back to this one, but part of me does want to try and give it another chance just to see if what I'd order would be more to my liking.



The Vestry 777 Valencia Street 

Our last stop was the Vestry. Great overall vibe, seems to be a place for entertaining and music. We had a goose crostini, flatbread, and a shrimp dish. The shrimp was tasty - it definitely made up for the maybe-shrimp we had at the last stop. The flatbread was also good, but not my favorite thing ever - something about the cheese made it a little tougher to eat. It just had this funky smell that I could not put aside while eating it. And then there was the goose. I honestly, could not get the image of mother goose and geese flying high in the sky out of my mind, so I took a mini bite and set it aside. However, my friend who joined me on the crawl said she thought it was tasty. I'm a foodie you guys, but I have a weird picky-ness about me.


Overall, the crawl was fun. I count it as a win that I found one restaurant that I loved, and another win that I was able to try out some places I might not have otherwise tried. Thanks so much to Dishcrawl for having me - looking forward to attending more foodie events!