San Francisco
Long-overdue visit to the famed Banh Mi Ba Le in Oakland, where the banh mi were indeed as delicious as promised, and the location was very much as promised as well. As a fan of sandwiches and banh mi in particular, though, I am not quite sure I will rave about them quite as much as some other friends do, even if they are pretty damned good.
Fuddruckers was the next stop, with the last one in California being not too too far away from Banh Mi Ba Le in Concord. Sue really wanted to go, so why not? I expected an ordinary burger place and was quite surprised when it was a full-on establishment with its own fresh-baked cookies, arcade, and enough bits of Americana to feel straight out of the midwest. The burger was pretty good too, a step up from a fast food burger but definitely more rustic than fancy. Having just had banh mi, we kind of held off on more food as, well, we were quite full at this point. We then took the scenic route back to Pearl's as the travel time was exactly the same, catching some great views of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge as well as the Golden Gate Bridge on the return.
More board games (Tiny Mountain Goats is quite fun, Love Letter is simple enough it's almost hard to explain, yet still a bit of challenge), then off to Thanh Long for their OG take on garlic noodles and crab. They are excellent, although the menu is actually somewhat more limited than it seems, at least for groups. The waitress was pretty open with her commentary about portions and stuff, so it was crab and prawn/garlic noodle all the way. Ophelia said this was some of the best garlic noodle she'd ever had, and that tracks as Thanh Long is indeed very well regarded.
Wrapped up with Hong Kong-style desserts at Golden Island Cafe, where Sue's mango sago lead off as the most impressive, although everything else was good as well. Then we packed up and took Petula home, making yet another trek across the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, soaking in its impressive display of lights at night on the way, before wrapping up the night completely.