Farmhouse Thai, Mission SF.
This is their Little Lao dinner set for 2, $59. I never order delivery because I just don’t think most food travels well, excessive fees, etc. but Uber Eats emailed me a $30 coupon [US30 promo code at checkout for those in SF] so I felt compelled to get delivery. This is a lot of food, comes with an extra pad see ew for a kid plus 2 Thai iced teas or beers (I ordered beers but they delivered iced teas). The papaya salad and beef shank were great. The pad Thai was so sweet I might as well have been eating a plate of Jolly Ranchers. The rest was basic sort of Americanized Thai.
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Yes, we found Farmhouse very disappointing in that respect. What’s worse is that Daughter Thai, which was going to be their ‘authentic’ Thai, started out so beautifully but later went downhill in an all-to-familiar sea of sugar.
The one thing that was very good at Farmhouse were the chicken wings - sweet sauced, but not overcooked or heavily battered. But I noticed recent photos show something different than what we got (we went when they had only been open for about 6 months), so I guess the recipe changed.
SE Asian food is drowning in sugar these days and it’s really disappointing. It’s lost the wonderful medley of tastes: bitter, tart, hot, salty, fishy, aromatic - with sugar as a contrast, not a main ingredient in every dish.
Other than some dishes at Kin Khao, Vegetarian Thai I’ve had has usually been like the trite “vegetarian entree” at a wedding. So I was pleased with the vegetarian version of this sampler platter. Most of it was sweet or tame enough for my toddlers, but there was a well thought out variety of meat alternatives in the mix, including a gluten “fried chicken”.
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Yeah, I hate to say anything negative about a restaurant in these hard times for them but I did have higher expectations based on what I’d read. The last time I had Thai was at Luv2Eat right before the pandemic in Los Angeles, and it is just in a such a different class compared to what you can get around here. Lers Ros has some good stuff but the menu is so massive it’s a bit of a minefield to navigate. I haven’t been to Kin Khao and it looks really good, but it is kind of pricey - I’m going to try is soon.
Very true. We were fortunate to be introduced to Thai food with Khan Toke in SF, which was one of the first, if not the first, upscale Thai in SF. We were living in the Richmond district at the time - mid-'70’s - and were wowed by the amazing flavors (and heat, whew!) of this cuisine.
Vietnamese food, same tale. In the early days you had to go with a Vietnamese friend because none of the staff in any of the restaurants in SF Chinatown spoke any English! So an emigre friend kindly would take us along and show us how to wrap fillings in lettuce leaves and rice papers. We went to Vietnamese banquets which were far beyond the “7 Beef” standards.
That cuisine also became progressively sweeter and sweeter. The curries are almost inedible these days. Temple Club owner/chef Geoffrey Deetz and I had a conversation about this depressing trend the last time we ate there. He said the food even in SE Asia itself is getting more and more sugary.
Ran across this article that talked about Thai food with a list of the interviewee’s fav LA Thai places. Makes for an interesting read:
Jan 2019: How Thai food took over America
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I don’t have any idea where to post about it but this thread might be it (feel free to move it).
I grabbed a brioche feuilletée from Maison Nico at the Ferry Building.
Brioche dough formed like croissants pretty much. Nice shatter on the outside, and butter doughiness on the inside. Sweetness reminds me of a morning bun actually, but all in all this thing is delicious and you probably need a trip to the local cardiologist…
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Where is Maison Nico? They must be new–I don’t remember them at the Ferry Building.
Maison Nico has an outdoor stand on Saturday’s for the Ferry Building Farmer’s market. Their brick and mortar opened 2 weekends ago where Nico used to operate at 710 Montgomery St.
As for the brioche feuilletèe, I thought it was good (perhaps a bit doughy in the center) but not great. The lamination on these look great and it all photographs well though. They also have a mini brioche feuilletèe, but they were sold out.
For something similar and smaller, I like the flavor and sweetness level of the Kouign Amann at Arsicault more.
However, I will revisit to try the meat pies (pâté en croûte), terrines, and other pastries (Parisian flan).
https://maisonnico.com/menu/
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I cut the loaf into toaster slices and just placed them in the toaster oven and baked them briefly to warm it up. Thought it was great.
But yeah definitely reminds me of a Kouign Amann as well. I really wish Dominique Ansel would open up in the bay, loved his DKA
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Oof the prices lol. I like them, but not that much…
I also wish they shipped their HK stuff:
Though… costs would probably be killer as well.
Probably cheaper (if not deadlier) to fly to LA and pick it up…
Edit: scratch that… the LA location is closed now 
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What’s chef Deetz doing these days do you know?
Yeah, I also went to Luv2Eat last year. Its definitely different from anything we have here.
I guess I will file my good memories of Daughter Thai. Had a few good meals there over the years but haven’t been back for a while.
Nari is good. I had a great meal there last year. But its more upscale.
Arrggh I had a reservation at Nari last April for my birthday dinner then Covid hit. Hopefully It will still be around when things are back to normal for indoor dining.
What’s chef Deetz doing these days do you know? (formerly Temple Club Vietnamese/Oakland>>
No, I try to keep up with the various foodie news sources but haven’t seen anything.
Another excellent Oakland chef is Joe Humphrey, formerly of Limewood/Claremont Hotel Berkeley and Farmer & The Fox/Cairdean Winery St. Helena. Joseph Paire took over as exec chef of Limewood in August 2020 but I hope Humphrey resurfaces somewhere one of these days. Great chef but these are rough times, sigh.
Is there a list of these foodie news sources? 
If not, could you please list some :).
We just got some (actually a lot) of sushi from Tekka SF (https://www.tekkasf.com), the small mom-and-pop (more like grandpa and grandma) place on 6th and Balboa. It was closed for the first half of the pandemic but opened a few months ago.
Prior to the pandemic, just trying to get a seat was an ordeal in its own right, which typically included waiting in line for 1+ hour, and counting the number of people in front of you, vs capacity that night etc. Its a small cute place with solid fish, and reasonable prices.
Takeout was as good if not better. We got a bunch of appetizers (agedashi tofu and eggplant, soft shell crab and beef tatami). the fried items were still warm, and came out reasonably ok. Their sashimi platter was very generous and between the 4 of us, we did not finish even one of these platters. They’ve also include unagi-don with it, which I definitely love 
Ordering is easy, you place an order, and they text to confirm. Order was ready, at the scheduled time. We ordered 5 days in advance, and since it might have been a wed pickup that was enough time.
Definitely recommended Sushi lunch for us with the leftovers today!
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Pearl 6101, SF
Cocktail- Sticky Monkey - mezcal, Olbia vermouth bianco & rosso, gentian liqueur, pommeau du Normandie
Acme Bread and Butter
Chicory Caesar -crispy prosciutto, roasted garlic croutons, shaved parmesan
Handkerchief pasta - white bolognese, grana padano, black pepper, herbs
Mafaldine pasta - braised lamb ragu, pecorino, mint.
I really dig this restaurant. Cocktail was fantastic. The chicory said is my favorite in SF, anchovy forward lemony dressing with crispy prosciutto and bitter chicory is so well balanced but boldly flavored. Excellent acme bread. The pasta flavors were great but steamed a bit too much in the 20 minute car ride after pickup. Glad they are surviving. One of my favorite restaurant spaces, I hope they make it through all the shutdowns.
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Re: takeout hits. I think we’ll be on a ramen kick for a bit. Orenchi in RWC is pretty tasty and quick.
Re: thai. Late to the party here, but my general experience is people from greater DC and LA especially who are used to the thai they got there, are very dissatisfied with NorCal thai. My experience with Farmhouse Menlo Park was OK, but we got a dish that should be sweet, a pinapple curry special, but on reflection, it was too sweet. Down here on the peninsula there’s a few places on can pick a few good menu options from, but generally we don’t eat much thai anymore (there was one particular trip to LA where I remembered how good the tastes were in thailand and… yeah).
I don’t order pad thai around here, because it’s code for “lemon chicken”, it’s that dish that gets americanized, even though it’s a perfectly fine dish that can be the star of a menu, I just stopped ordering it - it’s too hard to get right and few care to anymore.
I could make a less-bad list of south-peninsula-thai, but… meh.
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Try the Isaan section of the menu. Avoid the pad thai lol.
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