The Englishman and I were recently in San Francisco/Napa/Sonoma to tour some potential wedding venues and visit our favorite friends who live in the city. On our first night there, we ventured down to the Mission District to dine at Lot 7.
Lot 7 is a seafood restaurant that specializes in small plates and a menu that seems to be pretty seasonal. Since our group of 4 was game to try a bunch of different things, we decided to order a few dishes and share amongst the table while enjoying a delicious bottle of Chenin Blanc (I wish I could remember the name).
No meal is complete without some french fries, so we started with a dish of those. They were good, crispy and nicely salted. Of course, these don’t hold a candle to the truffle Parmesan fries that I had at El Dorado Kitchen the following day, but they were still nice.
Next up was the Yellowtail Carpaccio, which was thinly sliced yellowtail served with radish and cucumber. The fish was light and you could taste the freshness in each bite.
After the yellowtail, we dug in to a couple of salads, the first being a Smoked Trout Salad.
I was a bit skeptical of the smoked trout (I generally don’t like smoked fish), but this salad was incredibly flavorful and delicious! It came with potatoes and a fig vinaigrette, and I found myself going back for seconds and thirds of the salad.
The other salad we dined on was a Goat Cheese and Beet Salad which was topped with a delicious fruit vinaigrette.
Unfortunately this salad also came with walnuts (which was not on the menu), and since I am allergic, I could only really eat a bit of the goat cheese and beets and had to avoid the rest.
Last but not least was the Beer Battered Fish n’ Chips which came with beer battered cod and of course more french fries.
I really liked the batter that the cod was fried in, and the Englishman (who has high fish n’ chip standards) also enjoyed the dish.
We were seriously considering dessert, but the waitress told us there was only 1 dessert left which didn’t sound too tempting so we decided to pass.
Overall, I really enjoyed Lot 7. The service was a tad on the slow side and I was disappointed that they ran out of menu items before the evening was over, but the food was solid and the restaurant had a nice vibe to it. I don’t know if I would come back since there are so many other places I want to try in the city, but if you are a local, it’s a good place to have in your rotation.
On a completely unrelated note, if you ever make it up to Sonoma (downtown Sonoma specifically), be sure to visit El Dorado Kitchen and have some of their truffle Parmesan fries. Life changing, I tell you.
