Yip on Victor's Pizzeria

Victor's Pizzeria * 1411 Polk St @ Pine * San Francisco, CA 94109 * (415)885-1660
Cuisine: Italian
Neighborhood: Nob Hill

A lot of hype proceeded my visit to this small scale, authentic Italian haven. My friend claims the pizza gives him "Homer Simpson drool." Now this I had to experience...

The Scene

You would hardly know there was seating to eat in if you didn't look close, since from the street and even when you first walk in it seems like a by-the-slice and take-away business. Once you get to the back dining room, they have a cute and nostalgic decor. It reminded me of a pizza place I used to go to with my family when I was little. They had exposed rafters with fake plastic grapes hanging all over the ceiling, draped in Christmas lights. While this is a little tacky, I kind of like it. It's sort of like (but not quite) the toys hanging from the ceiling in NYC's 21 club. There are also some oil paintings of Chianti bottles on the walls in old wooden frames and other old photographs of Italian seaside. Also, above the exposed rafters, they had two additional paintings on the wall, sort of hidden. I think they were painting of San Francisco, but I don't know what that was about. Kind of weird.

There was definately a solid authentic Italian feel. I half expected some Mafiosos to be traipsing through to the back room, but I guess they stay in North Beach...

The Menu

They are one of the few, the proud, the wonderful that actually offer you made-to-order slices. By this I mean, they have pre-made cheese slices that they will zap in the oven with almost any topping you ever wanted. I like this flexibility in a slices business, since my fav is cheese with tomatoes and mushrooms, and you can bet this combination is never available in the window counter of slices at any pizza joint. So they are already in the win column with me.

They also have an extensive menu of pizzas, calzones, salads and get this - homemade pasta with homemade sauce. I never expect any place to have homemade pasta anymore. I didn't actually try it since I was visiting this historic establishment for lunch (no late afternoon food coma for me, I say!), but when I looked around quite a few lunch patrons were enjoying the pasta. Can't forget to say the menu also had meatball subs, lasagna, and carrot cake (another fav!) for dessert.

One thing they were missing was some kind of lunch special like an eat-in salad/slice/soda special like Pizza Orgasmica has. But I don't want to forget to mention that they do have half orders of pasta, which would be perfect for lunch.

The Food

I don't know about "Homer Simpson drool" but it was pretty darn good. Pizza was yippity yummy. Sauce and cheese were perfectly portioned. Toppings were fresh. But salad had WAY too much dressing ... drowning couldn't describe. To their credit, I forgot to ask for it on the side or lightly applied, but still. We also received bread which was hot and fresh out of the oven. More homemade, more delish.

The Service

You have to track them down which is kind of disappointing since it was lunch time but not that busy. Clearly you are not going to a place like this for service, but we had to wait quite a bit to order and quite a bit more to collect our check after our meal was clearly completed.

The Bathroom

Well, kind of like Nick's Tacos and Mama's, I hope you don't have to use it. You have to walk through the kitchen and the dish washing area to use what is really the employee bathroom. It's not clean and well, that's all I have to say about that.

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In a spoonful, this place is super close to the Polk Street bars and would be a great grab-a-midnight-slice (made to your own specifications). It seems like it would be worth a trip to try to pasta, and if you're anywhere in the neighborhood, it would make a good "I don't want to cook tonight, but want a home cooked meal" take out option. Avoid the bathroom, and don't expect your server to have traditional Italian charm.

Yip gives it 3 spoons.

Yip on Frisson

Frisson * 244 Jackson St @ Battery * San Francisco, CA 94111 * (415) 956-3004
Cuisine: American / French
Neighborhood: Financial District

The Scene

The main dining room feels like something out of a 1960s movie. Think tweed, orange and funky lighting. It’s almost like there shouldn’t be tables, just floor pillows and a mattress floor like in the Playboy mansion. Only it feels cool and hip, not sleazy and full of Viagra. There's an outdoor heated garden patio, dim downstairs lounge, and three private rooms with a chef's table, a garden view or cinema setup.

The Menu

We went for Dine About Town and all three of us had choices from the special menu. I have been here a few times before (they often have a price fix menu) and felt confident not ordering off the main menu. We started with different apps: crab and lobster bisque and a mushroom and eggplant tart. We all had sole with sautéed spinach and fingerling potatoes. And dessert was a chocolate mouse all around. I was also excited because I had recently won a bottle of Cakebread Zinfandel at a wine party and brought it along for corkage with our meal, even though they have a great wine list and are really know for all of their specialty cocktails.

The Food

We all agreed out apps were very good. And the potatoes and spinach with the fish were some of the most delicious vegetables we have ever had. But the fish, well … it’s not ok for the main course to fall flat. It was not presented nicely on the plate and was basically tasteless. A girl from LA likes nothing less (except maybe bad plastic surgery – thank you Tara Reid for getting that under control) than consuming calories that aren’t worth every delicious bite. Dessert was acceptable but our waitress never came back to ask if we wanted coffee or after dinner drinks. More to come on her participation or lack there of in our overall experience …

The Service

Things started off great. They tried to give us a table that I found to be less than desirable, and the hostess picked up on it right away even before we sat down and asked if we wanted a different table. Love it. Anticipate and handle critical situations – a skill all waitstaff need a lesson in. Unfortunately, the waitress didn’t get this training. When we all ordered from the fixed price menu, the dinning torture began. I felt a little like we were being treated like we were paying with a coupon. She insisted we order our dessert choices upfront – like it wasn’t going to be ok if post main course I decided I wanted the cheese instead of the chocolate cake. And along with that, she never came back to see if we wanted coffee when the dessert arrived. They have runners that bring the food to the table, so I don’t honestly remember seeing much of her for the rest of the night. We were constantly filling our own wine glasses and waiting a considerable amount of time between courses. Service really needs some help here. At the end of the night I was looking for the manager to give him a piece of my mind and he was nowhere to be found either. I guess that says it all.

The Bathroom

Now, this is actually the fun part of this place. It’s hidden downstairs and is surprisingly co-ed. There is a long shared trough sink in the center of the room, and stalls along the outside walls. One huge mirror on the back wall for your makeup reapplication, though the light is pretty dim so don’t pull a Bridget Jones and get your eye shadow on your cheeks by mistake. An insider’s tip is that when a stall is occupied, a red light turns on atop the stall. Be careful of the sinks because for some reason the water seems to go everywhere.

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In a spoonful, you should plan to come just for the exquisite and exotically flavored cocktails. But even their apps at the bar fall flat to expectations for after work happy hour or a late night nosh (the bar stays open until 2am). The scene is totally hip and cool and the bathroom is worth a visit. I’d suggest stopping here for a drink to soak up the scene and the beautiful people, and then head next door to Kokkari for dinner you can expect to please you every time.

Yip gives it 2 spoons.