Birthday Dinner. Good friends surprised me with an awesome meal at McCormick & Kuleto's at Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco. The restaurant printed a special birthday menu which was quite the surprise! We enjoyed an oysters on the half-shell sampler and fried calamari before starting on the rest of the meal. The cup of clam chowder I started with was perfect! Nice balance of clam flavor and creaminess.

Yoshi had the Dungeness crab, and Sachiko had a 1/2 crab as their entrees.

I had the Petrale Sole from Coos Bay, Oregon that was parmesan crusted with fresh lemon and crispy capers. It was excellent. The crust managed to be crisp and light at the same time, and the fish was very fresh.

Dr. Kato had the Rockfish from Vancouver, B.C. which was blackened and served with Spanish rice, tomatillo coulis and tropical salsa. It was his first trip to the US, and he was quite impressed with everything including this dish.

Larry swam against the current and had a filet mignon with vegetables. He enjoyed every morsel!

Then McCormick's sent over a slice of deliciously rich chocolate cake with a lit candle and singing... it was very nice. A happy bookend to a lovely day from start to finish!