Appealing TV: No Reservations In SF

It's so cute when tourists like Anthony come out here expecting a hippy dippy disneyland with crazy crap on every corner and every single person a carbon copy of the other, all marching in lock-step to Stalin or Jerry Garcia, and then realize zomg! There's diversity here! There's different kinds of people and things to do! There's variety!

Bourdain is ultimately a guy who is stuck up for no reason, because at the core, there's no there, there, just a reflexive contrarianism that ultimately is nihilistic and useless.

Well, too-cool-for-school is his schtick, so I don't mind that. I actually really liked the episode because he hit some of the spots that are my personal favorite (R&G for salt and pepper crab, Aub Zam Zam for old school bar). I thought the show was well-researched. I only wish he hated the Ferry Building just a little more because I find the prices ridiculously prohibitive, which he admits. I wish he didn't keept on calling San Franciscans crunchy, though. I only have one vegetarian friend, the rest are truly two-fisted drinkers who likes bloody cuisine.

I agree with Eugenia. I tune in (occasionally) to Bourdain for the snark and that's his schtick.

I don't blame him for heading to Oakland. For all of its holes-in-the-wall and hidden gems, Anthony Bourdain is the only way that city will ever show up on television except for a horrific crime story.

However, regardless of where Alice Waters resides, I get his point that her fingerprints are all over San Francisco. I don't really get his hatred of Waters and I view it as a slightly (or maybe even overtly) hypocritical overreaction. I mean, is it all that more distasteful to eat at Chez Panisse than Incanto? It sounds like his real issue is with smugness, which is bountiful in the bay area. However, if he wants to target smugness, he should look in the mirror.

But I guess that's his learning process. The theme of the show was how he discovered the dichotomy of eating in SF with it's vegan hippies and raw beef noshing foodies. Perhaps he doesn't get that without Waters and her extreme Slow Food, Vegan and Locavore fans, a cheap Red's Java House burger wouldn't taste as good.

"However, if he wants to target smugness, he should look in the mirror." HA! Seriously, when I read that, I yelled "HA!" It scared the guys in the office across the hall.

Can I just say that, whatever his flaws, he's still more compellingly self-aware than 90 percent of teevee foodies? Which I admit says less about Bourdain and more about the beast that created him.

Does anyone know the name of the Sushi resturant he visited in Oakland? The one without the Japanese sushi chef's. The chef had tattoooed sleeves, and the other chef told Anthony that 95% of the fish was flown in from Japan. I thought he said Sushi Stable or Sushi Shack. It's not mentioned in Rain Jokinen's article. The food looked amazing! Would love to check it out next time I'm in town.

The sushi restaurant wasn't in Oakland, it's in San Francisco and it's called Sebo. And I do mention it in the review. It's where they eat the sperm sacs.

Bourdain customarily goes the surrounding areas of the Cities that he profiles. I think its for simplicity's sake that it's not called DC metro area, but Washington DC. likewise with his travels in other parts of the world, so i'm not surprised he would include things outside the City limits.

I didn't watch the episode because I'm so tired of every out of towner focusing on the hippie crap. It's been done and it's no longer relevant. Glad he hit some normal places and it is funny (and smart) that he skipped the fish at Tadich Grill.