Firefly Restaurant

Continuing on with the scheduled recap of my journeys, the next stop on the itinerary was San Francisco. Despite oversleeping and missing my flight up north (I know! Can you believe I did that?), our event went relatively well. Later that night, an old college friend and I grabbed some grub to catch up and unwind from the long day.

After researching the choices that my friend gave me, we decided to dine at Firefly Restaurant in Noe Valley. With swoops of pleated fabric covering the ceilings and an eclectic yet elegant mix of art work, the main dining room at Firefly is filled with just enough warmth and whimsy to bridge the gap between the bright lights of the big city, and the homey expressions of a small town. Pretense is something you will not find here. Instead, Firefly's genteel bustle makes you feel like you walked into your, well, maybe not your home, but a friend's home for dinner.

Atmosphere aside, Firefly's menu is a bargain with nothing over $26 and a $36 3 course Pre Fixe Menu that is available Sunday through Thursday. Obviously, we jumped at that opportunity.

For my appetizer, I ordered the Heirloom Tomato Soup with Parmesan Pain Perdu and Teeny Tiny Basil. Honestly, this simple tomato soup had me on my knees in awe, well not literally on my knees but you get the picture.

Intensely flavorful and perfectly balanced, this soup warmed my body and soul simultaneously. Sweet but not too sweet, thick but not too thick, intense but not too intense- I felt like I was Goldilocks chancing upon the perfect chair/porridge/bed! The Parmesan pain perdu provided the right amount of texture to keep this soup interesting and I could not get enough of the dish as a whole.

Moving on to my main course, while their Roasted Chicken and Dumplings sounded homey and comforting, I opted for their California White Sea Bass with Pole Bean Ragout, Toybox Tomatoes, Speck Ham and Arugula Pistou.

The fish, while fresh and seasoned perfectly, did little to elicit much excitement from me. The speck was a little too salty for me and overpowered the delicate white fish. After that amazing first course, I wanted to like this dish more but there was nothing that stood out to me.

And lastly, for dessert I had a (and I forgot to write this down, so don't quote me on this) chocolate torte cake of some sort with house made chocolate chip mint ice cream. The cake was delicious and chocolately and was exactly what I craved after a nerve-wrecking morning of oversleeping and a busy day of work.

Despite my stress-eating-need for chocolate, the star of the plate really was the house made chocolate chip mint ice cream. Minty but not overpowering, you could really taste the fresh mint in it, rather than the usual sugar with essence of mint that one finds in their grocery store ice cream.

Details:
Firefly Restaurant
4288 24th Street
San Francisco, CA 94114
415-821-7652