Toyose

After our visit to Thane's, our GPS guided us to the freeway and onto a street that passed through the Saint Francis Wood neighborhood in the City. These were some of the homes we saw off of Monterey Street as we made our way to the Outer Sunset District where my cousin lives.

She's not really related to me by blood but because our parents knew each other and were good friends since the late 60's, it's easier to say "cousin" than family friend. Within our culture, it's pretty common for Filipinos to call older family friends, "Uncle" and "Auntie" out of respect. Therefore, any kids from any uncle or auntie were considered 'cousins'.

We didn't really grow up together but reconnected in the mid-80's when their family visited San Diego again after having lived in the Bay Area. My brother, sister and I kept in contact with her and her older siblings over the years. Last year, we couldn't connect because of our schedules but we were able to meet up with her during our 2009 trip (see older post, "Bay Shabu Shabu" in West Portal; you can see how much shorter my hair was two years ago!)

Her neighborhood is so cool - it's in the outer Sunset and literally a block away from the Beach. We told her we wanted to have dinner in her neighborhood...

Although we didn't eat here, The Pizza Place on Noriega (yes, that's the real name) on 46th, we parked nearby...

Below, the Noriega Produce Market, described by one yelper as a mini Whole Foods. As much as I wanted to check it out, we were all quite hungry and ready to have dinner at a place that my Robsessed cousin was curious about...

She'd been wondering about this place for so long, having seen it lined up with folks late at night, thinking, "Is there some sort of night club here?" because it seemed so happening. Well, we were about to find out about Toyose, a nondescript garage fronted restaurant with an interesting sign...

Is this Korean for WTF? But seriously, she had no idea (as did we) why there was a winking smirking green haired chicken on the sign...

The interior was quite rustic. Very wooden. It seemed quite cramped. We were seated in a semi-private booth. Down the hall was another eating area. No nightclub though.

We opened the menu to see our choices.

Lots of different dishes to choose from...

This was the first Korean restaurant I've been to that served popcorn as an appetizer. Is this normal?

The adults (okay, my cousin and I) ordered a Peach Soju to share ($11). We thought it would be served in a big martini glass or something but instead, the milky peach soju was in one of those tall pourable oil/vinegar bottles. The waitress brought out three shot glasses as well, so looks like Bert would be joining us...

Cheers! That's me in the purple/gray plaid shirt (Tar-jay!). Bert thought the drinks were weak as in only one or two shots worth of actual soju in that container. Maybe it had a bit more in it, but yes, it wasn't as strong as it could have been but I still liked it since I'm such a lightweight.

We ordered several dishes for us to share. Her husband and son were on their way home (also impeded by traffic caused by the suicidal jumper) and their oldest daughter was out as well. It was just us, my cousin and their daughter who hung out with TC that night. These were the Beef Potstickers which were served with a hot dipping sauce.

We had only four small pachan (dried anchoives, kim chee, bean sprouts and pickled vegetables with seawee). Now this was the biggest rip off, the fried rice (with chicken and shrimp). I thought  the
portion  was rather small for the price, but maybe these prices are to be expected in the city.

We also ordered bulgogi which had regular mushrooms in them. I've only had them with shiittakes at other places but hey, just go with it, right? They did not serve their bulgogi with lettuce here. Also, this dish was supposed to come with calamari but we opted to just have more meat instead of including the squid.

I can't even remember what this was, but they were fried vegetables I believe...

This was a "Call" button that every booth had. My cousin's daughter pressed it towards the end of our meal and our waitress came to us in a flash! Very nifty.

TC pointed out the "bad words" on the wall next to me. Nice.

While the atmosphere was nice and cozy, I thought the prices were a bit steeper than what I'm used to seeing in San Diego Korean restaurants. It was quite busy in here as well and it wasn't even 8 pm yet. While the clientele was largely Asian, it wasn't  just Koreans here (judging from the different languages I heard that night)...Our waitresses were supernice too.

Dessert would be rather closeby...