San Francisco Trip Report

[Guest guest]

I took my 16-year-old daughter (she has Celiac, I don't) to San

Francisco last weekend. I printed out a recent thread about San

Francisco from this list to take with us for ideas. We drove up

Friday night after dinner.

Early Saturday morning, we drove over to the Whole Food in the SOMA

area to buy some stuff for Saturday and Sunday breakfast. We were

hoping to find some baked goods like GF muffins or bagels or

something, but unfortunately their selection wasn't very good compared

to the one in Los Gatos that we usually go to. The only fresh GF

baked goods were cupcakes. Everything else was frozen, and even

there, there wasn't much beyond plain bread. So, we resigned to just

buying fruit, as well as some rice chips for snacks.

After breakfast, we went to Chinatown and took a walking tour, after

which we went to Fisherman's Warf, and decided to eat at the

Rainforest Cafe. My daughter ordered a hamburger without the bun. We

asked if the fries were GF, and the waiter sent the manager over to

talk to us. The manager asked the chef, and found that the fryer oil

was shared with breaded items, so it was not GF, so she got a salad

instead. We then walked to Ghiradelli Square and shared a peanut

butter hot fudge sundae. We didn't bother to check for GF status of it

because they were very busy, but it didn't seem to have any

gluten-containing components, so we went for it, and she was fine.

After that we went back to our hotel and relaxed for a bit, then went

to Haight St. and walked around a bit, then ate at an Ethiopian

restaurant there called Axum Cafe. She had never had Ethiopian food

before, but had wanted to try it, as she likes Indian food. We

ordered the vegetarian sampler and Beef Tibs. We asked the waitress

to have the dishes NOT put on top of the injera (bread), as is

traditionally done. She said, " I'll try...the kitchen doesn't always

listen...etc. " I had to impress upon her how important it was, and

then the said she'd make sure. The food there was sub-par compared to

other Ethiopian food that I've had. My daughter didn't really care

for the vegetarian dishes, and the beef dish was too spicy for her.

Oh well.

Sunday morning, we ate our fruit, then did a self-guided tour of SF

State University (she is considering applying there). Our planned

destination for lunch was Eagle Pizza. She was so excited because she

hasn't had a chance to have fresh pizza since being diagnosed a few

months ago. On the way over, I decided to call and make sure that

they had GF crusts available. We were sorely disappointed when we got

an answering machine message stating that they were closed in

observance of " Indigenous People's Day " . It sounds to me like a lousy

excuse to be closed on a Sunday to me. If you want to promote an

obscure holiday, wouldn't it be better to be OPEN, and put up displays

to educate people, rather than being closed on a holiday that few

people observe??? But I digress...

So, we went through the list, and decided to try Cafe Gratitude, due

to the good reviews that I read on this list, and the fact that it is

100% GF. Definitely a " different " experience. It is also vegan, and

mostly all raw foods. I ordered the Thai quinoa bowl (which I thought

was pretty good), and the carrot/avocado soup (which was WAAAAY too

salty; I should have sent it back, but I didn't). My daughter ordered

the marinara " pizza " which was some sort of buckwheat cracker, with a

little marinara sauce spread on, topped with raw tomatoes, some sort

of cheese, and a big pile of sprouts. She didn't like it at all. She

also ordered a chocolate mint shake, which she didn't like because it

had fresh ground mint leaves in it. I ended up drinking it, and she

ordered a vanilla shake which she liked. The food was very expensive

for what it was. We spent over $40 for lunch for the two of us.

That was our last meal for the trip. We say Beach Blanked Babylon

that afternoon, then drove home in time for dinner. Overall, it was

fairly disappointing, GF-wise, though we did have a good time overall.

-Joe

[Guest guest]

Sorry you had a disappointing experience. Unless you or your daughter don't

like Vietnamese food, add Zadin to your itinerary next time. Everyone I've

taken, both GF & not, has really enjoyed it.

Sharon W