Dinner at the Matador, San Francisco
I feel so lucky to live so close to San Francisco. People travel all over the world to come to a city that has been in my backyard my whole life. My parents grew up in San Francisco. My dad and his mother grew up in the mission and my mom grew up in the Sunset district where it's foggy and cold and on really quiet days you can hear the monkey's from the zoo. My mom used to take me on tours of the city--she's a die hard fan, but my dad and I have always been more drawn to nature than a concrete jungle.
Maybe it's because I'm around my mom more now that my dad passed away, or maybe I'm just getting older and changing, but the city appeals to me much more and I'm excited to share my SF experiences with you all.
This weekend, Chris and I went to the city for our 5 year anniversary. We stayed at the Mark Hopkins Hotel (yes, it was so worth it) and we played tourist in the city. We took BART in so that we wouldn't have to worry about parking, and I have to tell you, the hike up to Nob Hill is a trek but hoofing it felt good once I had the right pair of shoes (blog post to come on that).
While we went to a bunch of different places, I wanted to focus on one thing at a time, so I'll be sharing our experiences in separate posts so that we can focus and allllsooo so this post doesn't get too long.
So, we get to the hotel, it's super nice we got upgraded to a suite with a living room and dining room. I felt super fancy. And then it was time to pick a dinner spot.
Well, that proved to be extremely challenging because you have so many options! As a vegan, it narrows down pretty substantially and I stumbled upon the Matador.
We went close to when they opened. There were a few people eating outside, but we got a nice place by the window inside. It was clean, and the music wasn't too loud but they played old classics you could enjoy and sing along to. The drinks looked really good, but Chris and I stuck with water.
They have a happy hour menu where you can get chips and salsa for a dollar and guacamole for $3 but I opted for the whole bowl of guac because I'm not trying to skimp on my guacamole.
They have a nice array of dishes to choose from. I had the tofu-rizo tacos (no dairy yay!) and Chris had the steak tacos. You can choose to get two or three and I have to say that it was the perfect amount of food.
The service was incredibly speedy and the staff was so friendly and kind to let me take photos of their beautiful place. The price was moderate, but I would def. spend the money and go again.
It's walkable from Nob Hill and Market St. and just one block over from the Color Factory.
Highly recommend!
xx
j