I'll Be Ready In Five Minutes: The House

I love Friday nights, just love 'em. I love that the week is (finally!) over, the weekend is (finally!) here and it's time to get gussied up and hit the town...

My "hitting the town" outfit...

I started my Friday night adventure by meeting up with Ian at one of his work happy hours at Cigar Bar, a fun little bar with an outdoor patio in North Beach. I thought the name of the place was cute, since it rhymed and all, but it turns out you can actually smoke (and maybe buy?) cigars there! Hence the patio and overall open-air feel to it...

Not a tobacco enthusiast, myself, I looked to the bar to get my fix...

While at said bar, I spotted someone who clearly knows a thing or two about enjoying life... I mean look at that spread! Chips and guac, mini burgers and fries, a lemondrop martini...! #ItsFridayNight

This cutie...

Ian being rude...

JK! That's totally my phone and I totally gave it to him and made him read something I wrote because I thought it was witty, ha! :)

My fix: G&T with Hendricks and both a lime and a cucumber, like duh

Ian's: Old Fashioned... Old news

After a few drinks and enough time spent with co-workers, we ducked out and continued to hit the town...

Ian took me to The House, a place that's long been on his list of Top 3 meals in San Francisco...

A teeny tiny unassuming looking spot, but don't let that fool you!

(Seriously, don't - this place is mindblowing amazing)

We had to wait a few minutes...

But soon we were seated and it was all smiles, all night...

The placemats have a cute little house cutout! It's the little things, amirite?

Along with water, you're served a little cucumber salad with vinegar and toasted sesame seeds...

I ate the whole thing before Ian looked up from the wine menu... oops!

(I swear that's a suuuper small plate)

We started with a few apps...

First up was one of their specials for the night... A sashimi platter with a ginger/soy/wasabi sauce on the side... Unreal. The freshest, most buttery sashimi of life with an expertly crafted little sauce that packed a major punch...

The other app was a fried salmon roll... I'm not sure what else was in it, but it was heaven. Yummy, savory salmon with a killer crunch...

Wine time, baby!

Mmmm, oh how it speaks to me...

My main was something of a dream. Grilled sea bass with a fancy soy sauce, garlic noodles, and green beans... AMAZING! Literally, the best meal I've had - I know I say that a lot, but This. Is. IT!

Ian had another one of the specials of the night for his entree... A boneless short rib situation with a black truffle cream sauce and potatoes... It had a little heat too, so something spicy was also in the mix...

#HatedIt...

I'm infamous for always declaring, "I like mine better", referring to either our drink or entree choices, but Ian fought me hard on this one. The meal was a blur and I don't think any words were exchanged during the 20 or so minutes that food was actually on our plates - Coming from the two chattiest people of life, that alone is a testament to how incredible this meal was...!

For the surprise (and lesson) of the night, we found out that the woman who was scrambling around trying to seat people was the owner and not, as everyone had assumed, the hostess. She thanked Ian and I for being so patient and nice about having to wait despite making a reservation, and sent over some free cake!