Ramblas, San Francisco

Ramblas is located at 557 Valencia St in San Francisco.  This past Sunday, Rachel was in the mood for a tapas style meal (small dishes) and we both felt the urge to head back to an old favorite in the Mission district.  Ramblas offers very authentic Spanish style tapas and some great tasting Sangria to boot.

On this trip we ventured a bit outside of our normal fare and tried a couple dishes that were recommended by our server.  The Organic House-Made Flatbread came with a fromage blanc (from cowgirl creamery) two very flavorful sauces - a house made salsa verde and a romesco that had an incredible hearty tomato flavor.  Rachel ordered the Star Route Farms Mixed Greens which were very tasty but we both agreed that the various ingredients (pine nuts, dry jack, fennel) seemed to get lost in the dish.  Maybe it was a bit overcooked?  

We ordered the Organic Squash Empanadillas made of Redwood Hill Farm goat cheese, roasted winter squash, currants, pine nuts, pistachio, pecan and fall spices with a pimento aioli sauce on the side.  They were tasty and perfect bite sized pieces.  Of course we had to order our favorite Tortilla Espanola which they prepared vegetarian (without jamon serrano).  It had winter root vegetables, wild mushrooms and sherry caramelized onions with an aioli sauce on the side.  I would be satisfied with just one big entree of Tortilla Espanola and Ramblas serves theirs up with a lot of flavor, perfectly complimented with the aioli sauce.

As I powered through a perfectly cooked Flat Iron Steak (organic grass-fed beef, chive potato cake, piperade, roasted scallion, capers and a very tasty port reduction) - Rachel had room for one more dish. To round out our tapas dining experience, Rachel ordered the Organic Coke Farms Escarole - which in all honesty fell short of its adventurous name.  I think it may have been overcooked - but we both agreed it too salty.

We seemed to strike out in the service department this past Sunday as both our brunch at Bacar and dinner at Ramblas ended with poor service.  The attitude and personality of our server at Ramblas however made up for the longer than desired 'commercial breaks' towards the end of the meal.  No worries though - because we'll be back!   Happy hour special runs 4-7pm I believe.  Ramblas web site.

Comments

[Justin]

Great post. My personal experience of going there has been that the dishes are hit and miss, but the good ones are worth going back for. The time I went we were a group of five so we ordered almost every dish on the menu and the majority of the dishes were pretty good. I would have to agree about the service, the staff is great, but when yo need to get their attention it can be a bit of a wait. You didn't say anything about the price. They are $4 - $12 with most on the upper end. We ordered about 3 each which was just enough food and averaged about $25-30 a person without alcohol. All in all it's a nice place to bring a date or friends from out of town.

[Raul]

Would definitely have to agree with dishes being hit or miss and it does take about 3 dishes to quench your appetite there, thanks for the post Justin