Lunch at Chez Maman West

Tea Time Adventures is lunching at an old favorite today. Chez Maman has two restaurants in the City, and Angela first ventured into the Potrero branch with a visiting friend years ago. They found a warm neighborhood spot which was tiny, bustling and featuring a delicious menu. Since the Hayes Valley branch is on our side of town, Tea Time decided to check out and make a comparison.

We arrived in time for a late lunch (fortunately they aren't a restaurant that closes between lunch and dinner) so there was no wait for a table. The sun was warm and there wasn't a wind so we opted to dine alfresco*. After a quick gander at the menu we decided to share an appetizer and panini with a side of mac n cheese.

Roasted Garlic with delicious baked camembert cheese, toast points and a taste of greens. Perfection!

Mac n Cheese at the next level- just add truffles

The smoked salmon panini with side salad.

Later when we walked back over to J.K.'s hood, we stopped in and got delicious dangerous housemade gelato for a delightful dessert. She had been talking about Lush Gelato since the construction signage went up because Angela loves gelato. The running joke is that if you need Angela to go somewhere simply leave a trail of gelato bowls and she'll crawl right into your kidnapper van asking for more. (Please be prepared to continue to give her gelato once she's inside the van as well, or there will be trouble. Fair warning.)

Tea Time really enjoyed their flavors-- Chocolate and banana for J.K. and Salted Caramel for Angela. Lush has some exotic combos too, so get your tastebuds ready, any sunny day weather could be perfect for an afternoon of eating and walking.

*J.K. has a blowing napkins fear

Domo Arigato Mr. Nojo

Tea Time Alert--

Nojo's has temporarily closed as it was recently purchased by a global restaurant concern. We hope the rumors of it turning into a ramen shop are false... where will Tea Time go to get our Sundae Fix?? Also, we'll miss the Support Your Local Nojo t-shirts the staff wore. It's scheduled to reopen 10.01.15 under the new management. 
 

Nojo is a great not-so-new restaurant in the Hayes Valley hood. We originally found this city gem through Blackboard Eats, a local discount site. The coupon was for a five course "Seasonal Miso Omakase" tasting menu. It's a great deal for only $30, letting you taste a wide variety of their dishes.

The first course is a lovely salad, “little gems with creamy miso dressing.”  We forgot to take a picture of it. (Beginning Bloggers! Don't worry we'll soon be annoying regular diners at every flash.)  It was a normal butter lettuce salad, excepting the flat (homemade!) noodles which one diner liked for their creamy texture, but one diner didn't because they didn't "add" to the salad for her. 

The second course was miso soup, with a lot of little mushrooms and other bits and bobs floating around in it. Strong delicious smells and flavor in the beginning, but by the end of the bowl the tastes had homogenized. Perhaps a slightly smaller portion to enhance the flavor profiles?

Next up was a chicken skewer with garlic-barley miso butter. The sauce was light and the chicken hearty.

After that, the kitchen got confused and served us dessert, a beer and buckwheat crepe with a scoop of miso ice cream. "Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first."

Angela prefers a crispy crepe, but this one was good with a nice variety of textures. 

So after dessert, we had our fish. The Nojo menu said trout, but we were served an excellent piece of salmon with a white miso glaze, chives and forest mushrooms.

If you are able to go check out Nojo make sure to skip the crepe for dessert and get their Nojo Sundae! Please, eat one for us. (link stolen since she had the best photo–Thanks mystery Yelper!)


If you have any ideas about where we should eat, drop us a line! We are always on the lookout for tasty new-to-us eateries, be it at Tea Time, Lunch Time, or  Food Truck Time–really we are down to snack just about Any Time.