SF: Grassland Hot Pot

 

 

After the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, we were starving. Although I had eaten half a sandwich from Clancey’s, we decided to see if we could get into Aziza early. We had 9 p.m. reservations. Unfortunately, they were full and couldn’t accommodate us early. They couldn’t even let us hang out at the bar as it was super packed as well. So what to do? We tried to get a drink elsewhere but somehow the Outer Richmond wasn’t in the mood to favor us that night. We went from bar to bar to finally we decided to try a different restaurant. Although it sounded completely the polar opposite of what we originally wanted (Moroccan), Chinese hot pot sounded really good on this cool night.

And that my friends, is how the Minty ended up at the strangest hot pot place ever. Enter Grassland, also possibly disguised as another restaurant bearing a different name but also serves hot pot. We saw they had all-you-can-eat. I figured this would be the way to go and we merrily marked off our wants and desires. About half the food came. Although we were beginning to see our folly, we decided to insist on some of the items we wanted to be brought to us. Whatever stars were aligned this night were definitely not in our favor. The appetizers we got (after we ate almost all our meal) were terrible. It was a good thing I was full. Still, it wasn’t a terrible meal. It was just lackadaisical service and even if I lived in San Francisco, I would not return.

I was glad to see the raw beef wasn’t very frozen looking.

I ate almost all that tripe! Yum, tripe. Carina remarked our shrimp were particularly fresh.

 

Compared to the broth from Mon Land in L.A., I liked Mon Land more. Service may be more brusque there but at least they’re not lazy and don’t try to cheat you! I really wanted the tofu platter and eventually we got it only to discover most of it the fried sort. The frozen (fresh is too soft) tofu is the way to go.

 

Grassland Hot Pot

2239 Clement St., San Francisco, CA 94121 – (415) 666-1818