Tonight I decided to go out to dinner to Magnolia with my friend Sherman. Him and I had heard the about the place. My boyfriend said likes but I think it for the beer! It was right around the corner form where Sherman lived, so to save us some brain damage for thinking too much we decided to walk down the street to Magnolia.

Here we go, it was a beautiful night in San Francisco we sat outside feeling privileged to not share the crowded buzzing dinning room, our waiter was pleasant. I caught in the corner of my eyes a waiter with a Robinson Crusoe beard, I start wondering what island was I strand on and for how long? I am so glad he wasn’t my waiter. Sorry I have nothing against beards but when you work in a restaurant I think any kind of pilosity should be controlled and/or covered.

My first impression was that the menu was very confusing. Too many choices!  I felt overwhelmed. My biggest disappointment was the sausage menu. You can pick a homemade sausage (fabulous) with 2 side dishes. The side dishes are: fries, lentils, grilled escarole, sauerkraut... It all looks good but who wants to eat linguica with lentils and fries, or pork sausage with sauerkraut and lentils, none of the combination made sense to me and I passed on the sausage. A mistake?

I saw on the appetizer menu some Headcheese and I thought for a second, this is my kind of place. I love headcheese! Ok I agree one must have to have been born eating this to enjoy it but, the textures and the taste is so unique to me, this is the kind of thing that would make my mouth water just thinking of it. I go for it, then I get lost again in the different menus, no I don’t want a burger, I was recommended the “night special”: fried chicken with beans and green beans, another strange combination but I go for it not wanting to spend the night over this menu. Sherman grabs the fried Okra and fish and chips.  I realized there are a lot of fried things on that menu!! Gastropub doesn’t have to mean all things fried?

I was looking for to my headcheese and when it arrived I almost had a heart attack.

It was fried!!! Yes fried like everything else. Oh dear god I want to stab myself with the fork. The batter was nice though and I started to poke thru to get to the actual headcheese, one bite and that was it. Dégueulasse! The headcheese was hot, it had lost its aspic like consistency to the heat. It tasted almost like fried corned beef. Not my thing. The waiter ask if I had a problem with the dish and I said I was disappointed by the fact that the headcheese was fried, I wasn’t expecting this and it wasn’t mentioned on the menu. He apologized (by the way I still had to pay for it!). Sherman’s fried okras were just ok.

Then came my fried chicken. The batter was good, the meat was as dry as the desert. Sherman was served his dish. His fries came out so salted, it almost had formed a crust around each fries. The green bean and bean side dish with the chicken was just bland, strange and to tell you the truth I would have gone without. I took 2 bites of that plate. The best of the meal: the banana bread pudding.

Summary: The service was ok, our waiter nice. The food a big disappointment. Will I go back? maybe in a few month, to give it a last chance. Would I recommend this place? No. Or maybe only if you want a burger and a beer. My bill for 2: $99.51(with wine$42, tip not included) YIKES!!!