Give Me Some Food

We foodies can be quite the control freaks when it comes to the question of where to dine. We always insist on going where we want to go and railroading our poor dining partners into thinking the same. In an effort to control my inner control freak (that’s a therapy session in itself), Amelia, Sarah and myself all came to the conclusion to dine at Baku in the Mission, an Asian fusion restaurant (the Asian part was Thai and the other part…well, the jury’s still out) that serves a $12.95 four course meal. Yay! Wait… now, I like a good reasonable prix fix menu like everyone else, but it started to dawn on me that $12.95 was really too cheap for a four course meal. When I returned from Baku I told Felix about the price and he said “yeah, for $12.95 you could also get a four course meal at McDonalds.”

Hmmm- I guess I didn’t think about it that way. Anyway, I arrived at the restaurant first and took a minute to survey the setting. I was getting mixed signals on whether I would enjoy the meal or not.

Good Sign: the server immediately brought me a glass of ice water with lemon. How kind. I bet the staff will be attentive. I would have even enjoyed the water if I hadn’t been sitting by the open door with the wind and the rain blowing in on me. But I didn’t want to be rude, so I drank it anyway.

Bad Sign: the delivery dude came in to get a takeout order. I like my delivery food to be delivered to my house, not to a table at a restaurant.

Good Sign: It had those same big screen TVs that Koh Samui and the Monkey has. I love The Monkey.

Bad Sign: The décor and setup. There was a full DJ booth taking up one corner- but no DJ. Every once in a while the server would restart the Christmas CD which went between Kenny G and a holiday rendition of “Stairway to Heaven.” Also, there was a Christmas tree right in the middle of the restaurant so the servers had a beast of a time dealing with the customers.

My eating partners, Sarah and Amelia, arrived (you’ll remember them as my teacher friends from the Medjool review) and we each ordered the four course deal- how could you not?
Ok- the highlights and lowlights:

Our first course was a butternut squash soup- modeled by Amelia:

 

We took our first taste- “Wow this really tastes like tomato soup” said Sarah.

It did. It tasted like someone mixed some butternut puree with tomato soup. This probably sounds disgusting but it wasn’t half bad- I think all of us finished our soup- it was just…well…weird.

Our second course was egg rolls- Sarah and I got the vegetarian ones which she will model here:

 

These were the most normal part of the meal. In fact, I would go as far to say that I liked them and their sweet chili sauce on the side. They were a little oily but that’s to be understood if you are going to partake.

Things went downhill from here.

I got the lamb curry for my main course.

The lamb was over cooked and the broccoli with it wasn't done. It was served with rice and chutney and the whole deal reminded me of a frozen dinner. Sarah got the Penne Pasta Pad Thai for her main course. You know how the Italians only serve certain pastas with certain sauces? Well, Thai food should follow this rule well. It looked weird and it was cold. I tasted a bite and it tasted overwhelmingly like fish sauce. We all barley touched our main courses.

The desserts were average- I got a ginger crème brulee-

but I didn’t finish it- and I always finish dessert. The desserts kind of tasted like they were processed- especially Sarah’s brownie.

Luckily, the weird food was counteracted by my wonderful company and a very nice mango martini. Isn't it always?

Baku
400 Valencia St. (at 15th)
415-437-4788