House of Nanking

House of Nanking: San Francisco, CA

An endearing little place near Chinatown in San Francisco. Well .. its actually a darkish kind of place which can be surprisingly noisy. We chanced upon it while walking by, ate, liked it and have been coming back since. The owner-lady is a woman of few words. She sat the three of us down with 3 people from another group on a table meant for six. Thats the norm here. Vegetarian? (nod from us). You like musroom? (nod nod). Spicy? (nod). Tofu? (nod). Okay. That's it!! She made us the most amazing combo kind of thing with garlic sauce, musrooms and tofu. We didn't even touch the menu! Thats the way it is in Nanking. Tell them what you like ..  share tables with complete strangers .. go with the flow and enjoy the experience.

They also sometimes have a flowering kind of tea .. there the tea is wrapped in a dried flower and once they put it in hot water, the flower slowly opens up. Good show for the girls.

The green onion pancakes are highly recommended.
Definitely worth visiting. Be prepared to wait 30-40 mins. I once went here around 9pm and there was a 30 min wait in the rain outside!

Food: **** Ambiance: *** Price: $$
Last visited: late 2009

Adam's Mountain Cafe

Adams Mountain Cafe: Manitou Springs, CO

One of the few places, you immediately know you are going to like - Adam's Mountain Cafe is a nice restaurant in downtown Manitou Springs. Literally a stones throw away from the actual Manitou Springs, Adam's has a delightful atmosphere and a mouth watering menu. (I had a very tough time deciding what to order). Everyone there seemed to be drinking their Orange Spice Tea .. which is a sweet, hot concoction .. delightful and a must have in the Colorado winter.
The menu is .. slightly eclectic .. hopefully on purpose and features omelettes, sandwiches, pasta in addition to varied items hard to classify. There seemed to be plenty of vegetarian options available. I highly recommend the Senegalese Vegetables. They also seem to serve large portions of tempting looking salads with fresh avocados.
Adam's Mountain Cafe has a slightly admonishing note about how they cook everything fresh and individually and thus the food will take time to arrive; but our order was served quite promptly.
We entered the place hesitatingly, but left satisfied and happy. I also remember commenting about staying in Manitou Springs longer next time so I could try more from this place :-)

Food: *****
Ambiance: ****
Price: $$