2223- Castro

It's so easy to get stuck in the same routine, eating at the same places, ordering the same dish, surrounded by the same people. Most of the time it's spawned by either pure laziness or a convenience factor. Some nights you just want to walk down the street to your local spot and know exactly what you are going to order without taking one peek at the menu. The purpose of our fantasy club is push us out of our comfort zone, explore unknown territory, cuisine, and people. Taste buds get ready...

First stop: 2223.

There are a lot of restaurants on my list of places to go, but 2223 had never made it onto my radar. I'll be honest though, I have never given the Castro a fair chance, even though it's a mecca full of amazing restaurants. The restaurant itself has been around for 16 years, according to our waiter. I think 16 years too long...

The food was decent, nothing spectacular. I have two knocks on the food, and then I will move on. Portions could have served a small army, and the sauce on the dishes could have drowned them. Now, I'm all for big portions, a good bang for your buck, but not when you are so stuffed after the first course that you kind of want to tell your waiter to put a hold on your main course. I do partially blame this on the waiter, seeing that they work there everyday, knowing the size of the portions, and not steering the patrons away from one less appetizer when the table is being gluttonous!

The Heirloom tomato tower, was something that I would recommend for a starter. The tomatoes were ripe, the eggplant was perfectly roasted, and the goat cheese was a nice twist instead mozzarella. But what made this dish genius was the toasted sourdough bread on top of the tower, layered with cheese and doused in olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The bread soaked up all of the juicy goodness from the tomatoes and roasted eggplant. It evaporated in your mouth leaving you with just a little bit of lingering goat cheese. Yum.

I choose the gnocchi for my entree. I'm not usually one for starchy items for my entree, but nothing else jumped out at me, and I figured it would be hard to mess up a pesto-cream based gnocchi. The actual pieces of gnocchi were very succulent, and the pesto-cream sauce was oh so sinful. The fresh vegetables were a nice touch, but overall the pesto-cream sauce overwhelmed the dish, making it hard for the other ingredients to shine through.

Lastly, the Sour Cherry Bread Pudding sent my food coma to another level... It was a wonderful desert, but like everything else it was just to much. To much ice cream, to much Carmel, and to much red wine syrup. But if you can make the room, and not feel to guilty, you should go for it.

Overall, I would not say that if you are not paying for the dinner, go and eat up. Otherwise I would pass on this one.

My score: 17

• Cost: 4 You do get a lot of food for the price.
• Ambiance: 2.5 Whoever designed the place needs to quit their day job.
• Taste: 3.5 If you like sauce, you'll be in heaven.
• Originality: 3 Nothing original, just overdone.
• Service: 4 Service was good and attentive.