Matches the memories

I had a special reason to meet my friends Michael and Karen at Crustacean in San Francisco the other day. It was Michael's birthday! The request was to recommend a French/Vietnamese restaurant that was special. I remembered a number of happy meals at the Crustacean, and thought it also wasn't too far from the Orpheum, where Michael and Karen were going to see "Wicked" afterwards.

The neon crab on the building is actually a better beacon than the restaurant signage. An old friend of mine, Yves, dropped into town to say hi some years ago, and he was effusive in his praise of this restaurant and introduced me to it. I've been back many times since that first visit where I tasted their famous crab and garlic noodles.

We had a couple appetizers, the first which was the Steamed Seafood Dumplings. These were stuffed with black cod, prawn and eggplant. These were delicious!

We also tried an appetizer special that night, a Hot and Peppered Calamari dish. We thoroughly enjoyed these as well.

Karen had the special fish of the day, Basa, over garlic noodles. She was positive in her comments about this dish.

Michael insisted we each taste his Pan Roasted Halibut. It was wonderful! It was in a toasted sesame miso vinegrette with shitake and corn, accompanied by baby bok choy. This all was atop white cheddar Asian basil mashed potatoes. We all enjoyed our meal and the good atmosphere (not too noisy) where we could have a good dinner conversation. The service was attentive as well.

Note: My friend Zoomie pointed out that I hadn't included my dish! Here it is:

The Egg Noodles with Vegetables and Prawns was delightful! Plump shrimp with fresh vegetables and noodles - it's hard to beat!