Soung and David are here this weekend. And last night Toby and I went met up with them to play some pool and get some eats. I have developed a really bad habit since moving to San Francisco. My older brother’s wife gave us a Zagat guide at our wedding party (as part of one of the greatest cross-country drive packages ever) and I can’t stop reading it. Lately, I have begun pulling it out as we walk through San Francisco neighborhoods such as the Haight-Ashbury, Cole Valley and the Tenderloin (which are a few of the areas we were hanging out in last night).

By the end of our time here, I will know every restaurant in the Bay Area. I am sure of it. So last night, as we wandered by restaurants in the Haight-Ashbury area, I began reading reviews out loud for everyone to hear.

By the time we had made our way through Haight-Ashbury and into Cole Valley, I had read over 7 reviews, out loud, as we walked down the street. How annoying is that? And how important has food become to me? Very.

Anyway, we finally settled here as my trusty new bible gave it a 24 for food, a 19 for dining, and a 21 for service. This is what the review reads:

Cole Valley’s bacchanalian boite has taken ‘mercy on the recession-inflicted’, ‘jumping on the small-plate bandwagon’ and offering ‘lower-costing entrees’—all the better to ‘taste everything’ among the ‘taller-than’ the-Transamerica-Pyramid’ ‘Cal-Asian fusion’ dishes and ‘match it with flights’; the ‘cutting-edge’ interior also has had a ‘marvelous’ makeover, but the ‘signature shitake dumplings and bananamisu’, and the ability of walk-ins ‘to order in the adjacent wine bar’ remain.

I’m not entirely sure what all that crap means. I tend to get lost within all their quotation marks. But what I can say is this: The food was excellent. It really was. And the dumplings were indeed ncredible. My face salivates thinking about them now. Soung and I had something called a Tuna Tower and-in spite of the name-was also quite good.

So today is David’s Birthday (shown on the left) and I think we’re going to see them again later tonight after they have a huge birthday dinner and we have eat sushi with Cathy. I can only hope, that judging by the quickness of our having east-coast visitors, we’ll be blessed by many more and frequently.

Who’s next? I want to go here before the chef moves to New York.