Pasión

Some truly fabulous restaurants and stores are starting to pop up in the Inner Sunset neighborhood, and lucky for me, I live within walking distance!

My friend Joanna came over last night, and we had planned to go for foot massages in the inner sunset. I've never been, but heard good things. After walking all the way there, it turns out they were booked solid, so we decided to grab dinner instead. The areas around 9th and Irving have so many options, but we decided to try out a brand new little restaurant that I keep hearing about, Pasion.

I have several favorite restaurants on rotation in the inner sunset, so I'll admit I was particularly judgmental when I walked in because I had high hopes and wanted to make sure this would live up to my standards.

The ambiance was nice--very fun crystal light fixtures, succulents, cool crowd. I was wedged into a booth seat and noticed the silverware was backwards (which is a pet peeve) but was able to get over it pretty quickly once I started drooling over the menu.

I started with a Paloma--a type of drink that Chris and I fell in love with in Mexico--tequila, grapefruit soda, and lime. Its like a lighter, crisper margarita.

On to the food...let me start by saying that normally I wouldn't go nuts over ceviche, but this was some of the best I've ever had. Joanna and I were literally spooning the sauce in our mouths, and sopping it up in our bread so none of it went to waste...

She started off with the house special:

Ceviche ¡Pasión!

ahi tuna, salmon, passion fruit, red onion, yellow pepper, cilantro, purple corn.

I had a bite and it was delicious, of course.

I chose shrimp:

Ceviche de Camarón
ecuadorian shrimp, tomato gazpacho juice, red onion, avocado mousse, chives, roasted garlic, yucca.

This was out of control good. It doesn't look like much, but the sauce was a light, gazpacho-y, spicey goodness, and I loved crunching on the little yucca chips. AND the shrimp was a perfect texture.

We both savored the ceviche for as long as possible until our server finally made an awkward comment about our next courses...

I decided on something semi-light since I ate a whole pizza for lunch (oops):

Ensalada Espinacas
spinach salad, shaved manchego, jicama, red peppers, guava vinaigrette, plantain croutons.

As I've mentioned before, anything with manchego cheese is a win in my book. The guava vinaigrette was light and delicious, the manchego incredible (but could've used more), and the plantain croutons were tasty. I hardly noticed the jicama since they'd clearly sliced thinly with a mandolin, but I guess it did add a nice crunch.

Joanna chose one of the entrees:

Salmón
sautéed loch duart salmon, crispy potato cake, lima bean salpicón, dill chimichurri, “chupe” cream.

Wow. I will definitely order this one next time I go. The salmon was done to perfection. She was nice enough to let me grab several 'perfect bites' so I could enjoy the potato cake, cream, quinoa salad and salmon all together. Delicious!!!

So how could we stop there? Of course we had to test out the dessert menu:

Volcan de Chocolate
spiced warm chocolate molten cake, lucuma gelato, chantilly cream

I liked this place so much that I decided to go back the next day to try out their brunch menu. Bottomless mimosas anyone? Unfortunately they are only open on the weekends, and that is probably a good thing considering my previous statement!