San Francisco Roundup I: Amazing Grilled Octopus and Branzino at Kokkari and Disappointing Thrice-Cooked Bacon and Rice Cakes at Mission Chinese Food

I'm always up for perfectly grilled octopus and I was stoked to get exactly that at Kokkari, a Greek spot in San Francisco seemingly filled with business lunchers. I went there just for that and it didn't disappoint. The meat was soft and not to chewy -- add a refreshing squirt of lemon and we're good to go. I still dream about the octopus I had in Santorini, possibly one of the best meals with a view I've ever had.

The grilled branzino with braised greens, lemon and Cretan (!) olive oil was excellent. The quality of the fish was top notch. It was perfectly grilled with just the right amount of browned skin. Our server offered to de-bone it for us so we were able to jump right in for the flesh that was soft and flavorful. Just amazing. 

This is where it starts to go downhill. It got off to such a strong start but alas, the Chicken Souvlaki was dry and flavorless. The bulgur wheat salad was too cake-y and equally flavorless. Not even a dollop of tzatziki yogurt and cucumber sauce could salvage these duds. Thumbs way down.

We didn't expect anything too exciting for dessert but we didn't want something as sweet as baklava. We got the ouzo sorbet that came with prickly pear squares. The color of the sorbet was a curious fuchsia and had never had prickly pears so it was very odd. I was never a big fan of the clear, liquorice-like spirit but as a sorbet, it most definitely did not work and the pears didn't do much to temper the strong liquorice flavor. Not for me.

I finally ventured to Mission Chinese Food, the much-hyped, hip (without a real sign, naturally) and nouveau Chinese joint in the Mission that proclaims to serve "Americanized Oriental food" and catapulted its chef, Danny Bowien, to celebrity status. Many dishes were interesting in concept, like salted cod fried rice, but not great in execution. Most importantly, everything was so greasy that we could only have like two spoonfuls of each dish and could not consume any more of anything.

I understand Chinese food can be greasy but the Chinese food I had in China or even in San Gabriel Valley in LA isn't nearly this bad. I mean, the man just piled it on. Still, they were tasty upon first bite, at least. Take the thrice-cooked bacon rice cakes, the first image up top. The bacon was first boiled in water, cured and then pan fried, if I recall correctly. It also had sweet tofu skins that gave it a nice texture, bitter melons whose bitterness was tempered by the oil and salty sauce and Szechuan pepper for that tingling kick. Good but I wasn't that impressed with the "thrice-cooked bacon." What's the use of being cooked three times if it doesn't taste good?

The salted cod fried rice also came with Chinese sausages and interestingly, mackerel confit, which I couldn't find but probably made it even fishier, lettuce and egg with some fresh scallions and cilantro sprinkled on top. I did not like this dish despite loving salted cod and fried rice, not to mention sausage!

We thought we should get at least one vegetarian dish to balance all the porkiness (see pork belly below) and got the Mongolian long beans that was extremely salty and spicy. It came topped with horseradish bits that looked like shredded cheese. The flavors were too strong, even with a bowl of rice to go with it.

I got curious about the "Tiki Pork Belly" and it was indeed visually very Tiki with a pineapple and mini-parasol -- almost like a Pina Colada pork belly? The pork belly chunks had been slow-braised in soy caramel so it was tender and soft. It came with mandarin oranges, shaved coconuts and macadamia nuts. It seemed a bit gimmicky but overall not a bad dish.

Despite my first soso experience, I'd still like to return to try interesting-sounding dishes like tea-smoked eel, Kung Pao pastrami and breakfast fried rice. Will I be disappointed again?