At my last job, there wasn’t a big selection of lunch places in the immediate area. We were kind of trapped at the office unless we hauled ass down 101 to get to SSF (aka South San Francisco aka South City). [side note: for my non CA peeps, South SF isn't the south side of SF, it's another city, just north of the airport]. Grand Ave in SSF has a lot to offer and if I wasn’t down there, I was at the Taco Van for Taco Tuesday.
But of course once I LEFT that job I find out there’s supposedly a good Argentinian place on Grand that I must have walked by hundreds of times without noticing. It wasn’t until recently that I finally realized where Villa Del Sol was.So, one night recently when I was bored and hungry (just like most nights) and in the neighborhood, I decided to give it a try. For those in a hurry, I’ll cut to the chase and tell you what I had: Beef Empanada (casera), Asado de Tira (had to try that cut and report back to Jodi, my steak-partner-in-crime), some chimichuri on the side, a glass of Malbec and for dessert the Flan completo (which means home-made flan w/ a dollop of dulce de leche and some whipped cream on top). In short – NICE. Would I go back? Yup! Now some details. VDS is over on Grand across from the Library/City Hall area. It’s a smallish restaurant that’s kind of quaint and unassuming. It seems to look different depending on what night you go by. Sometimes they have the TV on for soccer games or concerts, sometimes they have actual singers there performing. When I was there it was a bit of a slow night, there were only four tables taken including mine. I wound up being the last customer and talked to the owner(?) and the manager for a bit. They told me that in June a singer would be around for some of the weekends. I’d like to go back and check out what it’d be like to eat there when someone’s performing. It seems like it’d change the dynamics of the small elegant, but neighborhood-y restuarant – but not in a bad way. I’m just interested in how it’d change it. Notes on the food:
the beef empanada was great. They have the fried style (instead of baked) but it wasn’t greasy at all. I could’ve eaten a dozen of them and just had some wine. The steak was great too. It’s hard to describe an Asado de Tira cut, but basically it’s a short-rib(s) steak that’s cut cross-wise across the bones. I’ve never cooked one myself, but I’d have to assume that you’d cook it on the bones (if they’re long) before letting the meat side(s) hit the grill, but I could be wrong. Different restaurants will give you different sized servings (number of ribs). Villa del Sol’s serving size was very nice so I was happy. It wasn’t seasoned much (certainly much less than El Raigon) but it didn’t need to be. My steak came with some nice fries and a side salad. I tried their chimichuri sauce as well and dug it. Mmm. I’d like to comment on the quality of their flan (it was nice!) but there was an incident in ’95 where I said a friend’s (Adriana Chico of Guadalajara) flan was possibly the best I had ever tasted which led to shock from my family and problems with our friends, the Flores family, as my blasphemous opinion got back to Sra Flores (who arguably makes the best flan in the world). I’m not cut-off, but I haven’t had Flores-Flan in quite a long time.. . . So due to “the incident” I won’t comment on the nice dessert at Villa del Sol. They also have homemade Alfajores, so I’ll have to try those next time. The only weakness of Villa del Sol would be their wine list (I hate writing that). But I think they’d let me take my own in next time- especially if I offered the staff a glass. They were out of a few items and I wound up having a nice glass of something random which wasn’t bad. But still, I have some stuff I’d like to have with a nice steak soon. So if you find yourself down in So.SF and have time for a nice dinner, swing by Villa del Sol. Great food at a reasonable cost. Oh, and you don’t have to speak spanish there if you don’t know it (or don’t want to). Someone had told me that the owners didn’t speak English, which isn’t true.
