Jonathan Kauffman

Chabaa's Secret Thai Menu Gets Official Translation

Nearly two years after former SF Weekly restaurant critic Jonathan Kauffman discovered and then had translated the "secret" Thai menu at Chabaa to run here on SFoodie, the restaurant (which has locations in the Sunset and Tenderloin) has officially decoded the offerings for everyone. It's even charm ... More >>

SF Weekly Food Critic Jonathan Kauffman Is Moving On

Here's some bittersweet news for anyone who has vicariously savored the San Francisco meals Jonathan Kauffman captures in the exacting, inventive prose of his weekly review column. After two years of serving as SF Weekly's lead food critic and writer, Kauffman is moving on to a new gig as the S.F. e ... More >>

Please Save the Windows at Johnson's Bar-B-Que for Posterity

Johnson's Bar-B-Que on San Bruno closed last year after owner Joe Johnson passed away. But the storefront remains vacant for now, and SFoodie confesses we're relieved. Is there any way to get San Francisco's Historic Preservation Commission to designate the slogans on the windows a city landmark? (I ... More >>

San Francisco's 10 Best Sandwiches

​Given the care that San Francisco cooks lavish on the humblest of vegetables, it's no surprise that sandwich-making in this town qualifies as an artisanal pursuit. Even journeyman makers hunt down the perfect bread for their masterpieces and whisk together small-batch mayonnaise. In fact, we're s ... More >>

Tayyibaat Meat & Grill Is Serving Afghan-American Fast Food

In the Tenderloin's halal-restaurant district these days, you can find sausage pizzas as well as nihari beef, great kufta tajines, and a half-decent massamun curry. Tayyibaat Meat & Grill, which opened two weeks ago, is adding to the mix burgers, Afghan kabobs, and rotisserie chickens. It's the ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

Roostertail: Roast Chicken for a Wednesday Night Feast

Jonathan KauffmanRoostertail's rotisserie chicken with salsa verde.If roast chicken were a newspaper story, it's what we'd call an "evergreen" -- a dish that you can run anytime to fill a hole in the schedule, one that's guaranteed to get a good response. Which is why it was hard to see Roostertail ... More >>

San Francisco's Top 10 Burritos

Within five minutes of arguing with any San Franciscan about the best burrito in town, it becomes clear that what makes a great burrito is different for all of us. For some people, greatness is impossible without girth. For others, the quality and quantity of the meat is most important, and a few st ... More >>

The Poongaloong Challenge, Mood Food, Super Duper and Pearl's Deluxe Bring More Burgers

The past 24 hours in gossip, innuendo, and cold hard facts about the San Francisco food scene. Yesterday Jonathan Kauffman shared Ed Lee's Poongaloong recipe - just as appetizing as it sounds. The Lee-created casserole anchored by hamburger meat, macaroni, and half-bottle of ketchup, didn't entice ... More >>

Margherita-ville: Checking Out FiDi's Cupola Pizzeria and Pachino

Jonathan KauffmanCupola Pizzeria's pizza margherita, $13.50​Generation X seemed to devote a lot of time in our 20s complaining about being in the shadow of the baby boom generation. So I feel a certain empathy for the pizza restaurants that opened over the spring and summer this year, in the shado ... More >>

New Fluffy Snow Serves Taiwanese Shaved Ice in the Sunset

Jonathan KauffmanMango shaved ice with fresh mango and egg custard, $5.75​Can shaved ice be cute or cuddly? Fluffy Snow hopes so. The two-week old shop, which opened on Noriega, has all the hallmarks of a fro-yo shop: pastel walls, the smell of warm vanilla (the source: a pan of egg white tarts), ... More >>

Pan Lido's Pastelitos Have the Right Touch

Jonathan KauffmanPan Lido's pastelito de mango.​You see rows of pastelitos at every Salvadoran bakery in town -- and there are more of them in San Francisco than SFoodie can count. With their swollen centers, pregnant with jams, and edges twisted as neatly as a ballerina's chignon, they look ... More >>

Ocean Pearl: No Restaurant for Young Men

Jonathan KauffmanOcean Pearl's scallops and fish with mushrooms.​Rice Plate Journal is a yearlong project to canvas Chinatown, block by block, discovering the good, the bad, and the hopelessly mediocre. Maximum entrée price: $10. Ocean Pearl may only be a half a block west of Stockton Street, bu ... More >>

This Is How the Word "Artisanal" Becomes Meaningless

Jonathan KauffmanArtisan water​ Walking up Union Street last night, SFoodie passed a spa advertising "artisinal facials." And then we saw this -- on a water filter. Artisan water? Can someone from Merriam-Webster's stage an intervention? Follow us on Twitter: @sfoodie, and like us on Facebook.

S.F. Rising: Spot Bagel Plays with Seeds, Chiles, and Corn

Jonathan KauffmanSpot Bagels: double onion, plain, cinnamon raisin, and the Frieda.​ Red boxes with clear plastic doors began appearing in local markets like Bi-Rite and Good Life a few weeks ago, labeled with the name of the Bay Area's newest bakery, Spot Bagel. Tantalizingly empty at first, the ... More >>

Fringale Keeps Its Classics Fresh

Jonathan KauffmanDuck confit from Fringale, $19.​Black Hole Dining is a series about restaurants that have been around so long they've slipped into a media black hole. It's an odd feeling to look over the menu of a restaurant you haven't been to for 15 years and spot a specific dish you remember. ... More >>

Successful Kibbi at Palmyra, Failed Milk Campaigns and Herbicides

​Today's notes on national stories, local trends, random tastes, and other bycatch dredged up from the food media. Jonathan KauffmanPalmyra's kibbi plate.​ 1. Kibbi. I finally got a chance to stop at Palmyra, the Syrian restaurant on the corner of Haight and Pierce that still looks an awful lot ... More >>

Previewing San Francisco's New Fresh & Easy Markets

Jonathan KauffmanFresh & Easy's prepared salads are attractively packaged.​Wednesday, June 22, is opening day for the Richmond District Fresh & Easy, a Britain-based grocery chain spreading across California with the speed of kudzu vines in Georgia. Owned by Tesco, Fresh & Easy opened ... More >>

Five Happiness' Tea-Smoked Duck

Jonathan KauffmanA half-order of tea-smoked duck from Five Happiness, $11.75.​ When no less a culinary icon than Cecilia Chiang tells you that Five Happiness -- a 38-year-old restaurant in the Inner Richmond you've passed thousands of times -- makes a great Peking duck, you listen. But when you st ... More >>

Sonoma Report: Russian River's Belgian Flight, Iron Horse's Food Truck Fridays

Jonathan KauffmanRussian River Brewing's Belgian-style beer sampler, $8.​ A few of my vacation days last week were spent rambling around Sonoma, passing from the beer world to the wine world and back again. The difference between the two connoisseur cultures always cracks me up: the Springsteen-pl ... More >>

Pork Can Now Officially Be Pink, A Taste of Seesaw's Smorrebrod

​Today's notes on national stories, local trends, random tastes, and other bycatch dredged up from the food media. 1. Pink Pork. The big news of the day is that the USDA has just lowered its recommended serving temperature for whole cuts of pork, from 160 degrees Farenheit to 145. (The serving te ... More >>

Take a Look ― Best Of San Francisco 2011 Is All Wrapped Up

Steph L./YelpSee Best New Restaurant.​​It's done: Receipts for burgers and marrow-stuffed-squid have long been smoothed out and submitted, conversations about which Brazilian snack shop deserves a drive ― SF Weekly's Best of San Francisco 2011 issue is stacked in free boxes across town ... More >>

Haggis on a Stick, South Asian Fusion, Making the Easter Bunny Cry

​Today's notes on national stories, local trends, random tastes, and other bycatch dredged up from the food media.1. The good kind of scary. Thrillist came out with a list of five fried dishes that I think are supposed to be unnerving but just look delicious. On the bucket list: Bar Agricole's fr ... More >>

S.F. Rising: House of Bagels' Marble Rye

Jonathan KauffmanMarble rye from House of Bagels.​ S.F. Rising is a weekly survey of bread in San Francisco ― the baked and the fried, the artisan and the novelty.Marble Rye Source: House of Bagels, 5030 Geary (at 15th Ave.), 752-6000Price: $7.35 for a half-loaf Toast-appropriateness: 1/10

Jonathan Kauffman Lives Large, Bar Dogwood Thinks Small

​The past 72 hours in gossip, innuendo, and cold hard facts about the San Francisco restaurant scene. This is not Jonathan Kauffman.​Dear diary: Grub Street asked our own Jonathan Kauffman to document a typical week's worth of food-critic consumption, and Kauffman obliged with a snapshot of ... More >>

One Month In, San Francisco's Best Things to Eat and Drink

Jonathan KauffmanGoat taco (foreground) from the El Norteño truck.​ It's been a month since we began our daily countdown of our 92 favorite things to eat and drink in San Francisco, 2011 edition. Along the way, we'll pause to catch our breath, rounding up the favorites on our list so far, an ... More >>

Top 10 Food Stories in San Francisco 2010

Jun BelenLumpia from 2010's breakout Hapa SF Filipino food truck.​Deciding on the top 10 food story threads of any year is tricky (did the things we ate in the past two month somehow obliterate all memory of those from the prior 10?) but this year the task was especially arduous. It was a year ... More >>

The Best Holiday Treats of 2010

Jonathan KauffmanFruitcake from Schubert's Bakery.​Friday, December 24, 2010 We began this year's SFoodie Advent Calendar on Dec. 1, long before dog-eared rolls of Christmas wrap found their way out of closets, or we'd assembled 2010's official holiday party outfit (thanks, H&M!), or even bef ... More >>

SFoodie Advent Calendar, Day 13: Cookies and More Cookies!

Jonathan KauffmanDestination Bakery's gingerbread girl.​ The SFoodie Advent Calendar counts down the days before Christmas/Nondenominationalwinterholiday, one treat at a time.​SFoodie has learned over the past three weeks that sugar cookies decorated to OCD standards aren't as common in this cit ... More >>

SFoodie Advent Calendar, Day 4: Cranberry Verrine from Citizen Cake

Jonathan KauffmanCitizen Cake's cranberry verrine, $5.​The SFoodie Advent Calendar counts down the days before Christmas/Nondenominationalwinterholiday, one treat at a time.Citizen Cake: The Pac Heights Sequel has a few sugar cookies in its case right now, decorated with OCD flair, but SFoodie's e ... More >>

San Dong House B.B.Q. Gets Rough with Hand-Pulled Noodles

Luis Chong/YelpSan Dong's noodle maker going aggro on a hunk of dough.​Centuries before prom couples took their seats at Benihana to watch some chef butterfly shrimp on a flattop, noodle shops in China were treating customers to the spectacle of the thwack, tour-de-force tours de main in which ... More >>

The Five Best Things We Had for Lunch in October

Jonathan KauffmanTamales La Oaxaquena's chicken tamale, $4.​Monday, November 1, 2010 Gringo-style tacos, pork dumplings with some surprising sourcing, a new barbecue favorite, Oaxacan street food, and a crazy-ass sandwich: Five memorable things we lunched on in October, reprised here as SFood ... More >>

Thermidor's 'Tasty Tacos' Stand

Jonathan KauffmanThermidor's tacos, two for $5.​Monday, October 18, 2010Thermidor's been taking advantage of the Indian summer -- well, what little of an Indian summer we've had -- to set out a fleet of chairs and tables in Mint Plaza. Last week, they added a cooking stand that appears at irregula ... More >>

San Francisco's Best Latino Taco Trucks

Jonathan KauffmanEl Norteno tacos, clockwise from top left: goat, al pastor, chicken, tongue.​It was Eat Real that shamed us: So much food served up from trucks, so little of it, Jonathan Kauffman and I realized, from mobile vendors who toughed the sometimes mean streets of San Francisco long ... More >>

If You're Stopping at Los Compadres, Get the Steak

Jonathan KauffmanClockwise from top: Al pastor, lengua, carne asada, three for $5.​ Monday, October 4, 2010 There are a lot of San Franciscans out there compensating for all the times they called a taco truck a "roach coach" by hyping street food as the most brilliant amazing superdelicious food t ... More >>

The Fried Chicken Sandwich at Macellato

Jonathan KauffmanFried chicken sandwich, $8.22.​What do you do with a space you grew out of? This week Andrea Froncillo and Mario Ascione, owners of Caffe Macaroni Sciue Sciue, turned their teensy original location into a minuscule sandwich shop. The carmine walls and shiny pressed-tin ceiling (wh ... More >>

Meatloaf Sandwich from Fatted Calf on Fell

Jonathan KauffmanFatted Calf's meatloaf sandwich, $9.50.​Friday, September 24, 2010The Hayes Valley outpost of Taylor Beotticher's Fatted Calf Charcuterie opened yesterday, all exposed concrete and oxblood tile, chrome cases and blond wood shelves. Over the lunch hour, customers steadily filed in, ... More >>

Fresh Eats: Our weekly roundup of SFoodie news

Shopping the Cookbook Aisles of the Big Book Sale

Jonathan KauffmanThe cookbook table at the Big Book Sale today at noon.​As Joe Eskenazi mentioned yesterday on the Snitch, SFoodie's sister blog, today is the first official day of the Friends of the Public Library's annual Big Book Sale at Fort Mason. This year brings more books and more days: It ... More >>

Roam's Caramelized Pineapple Soda

Jonathan KauffmanCaramelized pineapple soda, $2.49.​The beef burgers at Roam Artisan Burger are just fine ― in terms of thickness and quality, the median between In-N-Out and your average $12 bistro burger, with bonus points for grass-feddiness ― but the caramelized pineapple soda is fantastic ... More >>

Jonathan Kauffman Eats at Viva Goa, Wonders What 'Authentic' Means

Nilofer M./YelpViva Goa's malabari jinga.​Fuck authenticity, a word used ― in the context of food we approve of ― like Vaseline on memory's lens. When it's food we don't exactly like, it can be a cudgel. But what can ever be "authentic" about a cuisine re-created 5,000 miles from its sourc ... More >>

Jonathan Kauffman: Hog and Rocks Avoids Most Dude-Food Clichés

David E./YelpHog and Rocks manages to straddle the eat-drink divide.​In today's "Eat" column, SF Weekly restaurant critic Jonathan Kauffman traces the rise of places that straddle the line between food and drink. Kauffman: Something is shifting in San Francisco. The secret cabal that sets our ... More >>

Nombe's Odango, San Francisco's Best Balls (Non-Reproductive Class)

Jonathan KauffmanNombe's rice balls are pressed, skewered, fried, and grilled.​ Yesterday's post about the World Testicle Cooking Championship in Serbia reminded SFoodie that we've been meaning to write about an entirely different class of ball: the odango ($5) at Nombe. While most odango are form ... More >>

Four Barrel Throws a Party With Coffee, Cake, and Pony Rides

Jonathan KauffmanThe line at 12:45 p.m.​Four Barrel Coffee (375 Valencia, at 14th St.) is throwing itself a party for its two-year anniversary. A big one. There are balloons and cake, a photo booth and music, free coffee for everyone ― hence the line out the door ― and pony rides. (Thanks to B ... More >>

This Year's Eat Real Festival Is Bigger, Better Organized, and More Entertaining

Jonathan KauffmanThere are moments like this at Eat Real, but they're rare.​ In their second year, the organizers of the Bay Area's back-to-back street food festivals have clearly learned from the surprise throngs and food shortages of last year. Last week, John Birdsall commented how much better ... More >>

Jonathan Kauffman Speaks! (on KQED's Forum)

Our favorite morsel from the Web. If you missed it yesterday ― SF Weekly food critic Jonathan Kauffman's vocal turn on KQED's Forum with Michael Krasny ― we embed for your pleasure: Kauffman shared air with San Francisco food editor Jan Newberry, Stett Holbrook (ditto for Metro Silicon Valley) ... More >>

California Through the Foam: Jonathan Kauffman Checks Out Sons and Daughters

aL Z./YelpFoam party: Sons and Daughters' porcini noodles with teensy turnips.​Tired of the same old dichotomy that places Northern California's farm-to-table cuisine far form the glossy geometry of so-called molecular gastronomy? So are we. So is Jonathan Kauffman. In today's "Eat" column, SF ... More >>

Get Your Earbuds Ready: Jonathan Kauffman to Appear on KQED's Forum Tomorrow

​After eight months as SF Weekly restaurant critic and SFoodie blogger, Jonathan Kauffman has tweaked the tenor of Bay Area food coverage with his writing voice. Tomorrow on KQED's Forum radio chat show, he'll attempt to do the same with his speaking voice. Kauffman joins Forum host Michael Kr ... More >>

When Pink Ice Cream Isn't Gay Enough: Tranny Smackdown at Humphry Slocombe

Jonathan KauffmanOne. Tranny. Mess.​Last night, the corner of 24th Street and Harrison transformed into 110 percent queer space: A rainbow arch of balloons. A DJ spinning crackety-queen house. A Beach Blanket Babylon star in a giant pink dress. A waifish sailor in dress whites. Jane Wiedlin of th ... More >>

No French Revolution at Prospect, Says Jonathan Kauffman

Lara Hata/SF WeeklyProspect: Equal parts urbane and gargantuan.​In the weeks before launching in late June, food blogdom's narrative called for Prospect to be the hipper, edgier spawn of Boulevard. Food blogdom got it wrong, notes food critic Jonathan Kauffman in today's "Eat" column in SF Wee ... More >>