Andalu

(415)621-2211
3198 16th St.
(at Guerrore)
San Francisco, CA
(Mission district)

Price: $-$$
Rating: 8 (Rating & price key)
Last visit: 04/10/05

Great small plates, with a good variety of with flights to accompany them. We went here for my sister's 25th birthday and the 6 of us had a fun time sampling various dishes, none particularly expensive (but they are pretty small - count on two-ish dishes per person). The dishes I got a taste of were: Cambazola Cheese Fondue with Fuji Apples and Asian Pears ($8 - a lovely velvety fondue and tasty vehicles for the cheese), Baby Beet and Blood Orange Salad with Arugula ($8 - good, although my least favorite of the evening. A decent palette-cleanser anyways), Crispy Mac & Cheese with Herb Tomato Vinaigrette ($5 - definitely get this - it's a tasty fancy riff on the classic), Dungeness Crabcake with Harissa Mayo & Mache Salad ($10 - very good indeed, with lots of crab and a crunchy batter), Moroccan Cigars with Ground Lamb, Spices & Mint-Yogurt Sauce ($6 - one of my favorites of the evening, very meaty and served with an excellent dip), Duck Confit with Mustard Lentils ($9 - crispy skin and tasty meat, but the lentils were unremarkable), Grilled Lamb Sirloin w/Green Garlic Mashed Potatoes & Herbed Demi ($11 - very good, although we didn't order it, more on that later), and Coca-cola Braised Spare-ribs with White Bean Salad ($11 - tender and moist, fell right off the bone. Finally, a good use for Coke :). Pacing would have been perfect (unusual for a small plate place) except that we were mistakenly delivered two of the lamb sirloin fillets by a confused table runner, and the coca-cola ribs we had actually ordered arrived later, to everyone's confusion (if we'd gotten the two orders of ribs when we were supposed to, and not the lamb, things would have arrived in two well-timed waves). Service was casual, but knowledgable and attentive. The space is somewhat sparely decorated, but it's pleasant, and the noise level on our Sunday night visit was tolerable. Desserts were good all around - Fresh Donut Holes with Castilla Hot Cocoa ($7 - I only got a little bit of this before Sarah delcared the cocoa off-limits to everyone else, but it was very good :), Arborio Rice Pudding w/Carmelized Pineapple and Toasted Coconut ($6 - good from the one bite I had), a cheese plate ($6 - yummy, and with a very nice quince paste) and raspberry sorbet (much less tart than the one at Ciao Bella, but very fruity and nice). Our wine flights were fun, but nothing I tasted (I tried some of the French Progressive, Three Pinots, and California Progressive, $14-15 each for three 3-oz tastings) would make me run out and buy a bottle of it.