How To Be A (Hayes) Valley Girl

by SheSaidThenSheSaid.com
(Northern California)

The Valley Girls - Denise & Kim

Kim - So like we went on a food tour called Gourmet Walks in the Hayes Valley in San Francisco and it was like totally bitchin.

Denise - Like for sure.

Kim - Our tour guide (and company founder) Andrea Nadel was like totally rad and like full of information about the Hayes area.

Denise - Like did you know that San Francisco has no three star Michelin rated restaurants?

Kim - As if!

Ok, enough of the valley talk! We really enjoyed this gourmet food walk. Hayes Valley is a hidden gem that we recently discovered and is a wonderful mix of restaurants, shops, galleries and cafes.

Our tour took us to several places The first was at the Samovar Tea Lounge House. We tried tea that was infused 3 times for 3 different tastings. Couldn't discern the difference that much but maybe we don't have a sophisticated "tea palate"?

Next was one of our favorite stops - and that was at Fritz, a chic cafe that serves Belgian Crepes to die for and fries with an array of over 20 delicious dipping sauces. We were served the fries and chose three sauces - White Truffle Artichoke, Pesto Mayonnaise and Kalamata Ketchup. Yum! We could have munched on these all day!

Next door to Fritz was Marino Mexican Seafood Restaurant where we had tasty fish tacos. Very fresh and satisfying. We walked across the street to check out True Sake. We aren't fans of sake but if you are they have a great variety to choose from.

After a nice walk through the Hayes neighborhood, past elegant Victorians and the San Francisco Zen Center, we stopped at Delessio, an organic deli. We were served a generous plate of a variety of cured meats with some bread and olives. The deli food and desserts on display looked incredible and we want to go back to try some of the dishes.

Ok, we were getting a little full by now but there's always room for dessert, right? Our last 3 stops were at Miette Confiserie, Citizen Cake Patisserie, and Christopher Elbow Artisanal Chocolates.

Miette Confiserie had European style macaroons which were good but don't expect there to be any coconut in them.

Elizabeth Faulkner (anyone who watches the Food channel may recognize that name) owns Citizen Cake. We sampled the most amazing cupcakes!

Christopher Elbow Artisanal Chocolate had some of the most beautifully decorated and delicious chocolate that we have ever tasted!

So with overstuffed but happy bellies we rolled ourselves back to our car. We were very impressed with our Hayes Valley tour. Our guide Andrea, was friendly and gave us a lot of interesting tidbits about the area. There were so many other restaurants that we didn't get to that looked delicious.

We liked the area so much we returned and gave our own little tour with other family members...more then once. (Ok, Fritz fries are amazing but enough of them already.)

We did go back for a wicked girls' night out (twelve of us) to Hayes Valley for food (Yeah, Fritz again) and then waddled down to the Orpheum to see Wicked, which was wonderful.

Denise - So like, I would recommend this tour to like all of my grody friends and family for sure.

Kim - Like, totally dude? like.