Namu Gaji [SF, Mission Dolores - Dolores & 18th]

I was at Tartine last Friday and after waiting in line and getting my loaf of spelt, decided to pop in to Namu Gaji on a whim for a pint before heading home.

I had their made-for-them rice-based beer, it was really refreshing and crisp. Reminded me of an excellent belgian saison ale, the name of which I can’t remember now.

Also had the beef ‘taco’, where the ‘tortilla’ is essentially nori. I am leery of these creations, but this one was quite marvelous. The beef was top notch and cooked perfectly and the flavour was well balanced. I ended with a shot of shochu, which was like a punch on the nose and unfortunately reminded me of rubbing alcohol and chemistry experiments at boarding school in England.

I wanted to take some fried chicken back home with me, but they reminded me it was available only at brunch and on Thursday nights. Next time!

All in all,still an excellent happy hour (and food) destination.

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Could you elaborate on that “taco” please? I love musubi so keep nori on hand. Might be fun to do something else with it. TIA.

Here we go, straight from the menu, it had seasoned rice and subtle kimchee flavor for sure, didn’t quite get a hint of the remoulade …

http://namusf.com/html/menus/gaji/NamuHappyHour.pdf

They taste fine, but they’re kind of a pain to eat. The seaweed disintegrates and the whole thing falls apart. Fun gimmicky idea that doesn’t really work

Thanks. I need to play around with that.

Agreed, although I liked the feeling of ending the kimchee and grilled beef journey with the nori.

A recent order of their fried chicken perplexed me. They slathered on the sauce, and by the time I took a bite, there was nothing crisp about it any more, partially negating the purpose of frying the chicken. Is the skin usually crisp? Is my order just sitting on their counter for too long?

The okonomiyaki was fine. I need to go back to the DOTM thread to find exemplary examples to compare to.