PPQ Dungeness Island

I apologize for my long break from the blogger world.  The holidays left me with little time to blog.  I was flying back and forth from Portland to LA during my time off, and when I get to LA all I do is eat and hang out without much time for blogging.  Plus, a lot of my free time has been spent trying to plan The Big Day.  Although it's quite a ways away, I like to peruse the internet seeing all the wonderful possibilities.  It's amazing to think what life would be like without the internet.

I still have to finish up blogging about my SF trip so many moons ago.  After Bottega and Gary Denko, were done with the White Man's food, and really need to color things up a shade of yellow.  Dim sum at Hong Kong Lounge really hit the spot and we wanted to keep the momentum going.  Weeners recommended PPQ which turned out to be disappointingly mediocre so I'm going to have to reconsider her recommendations from here on out.   PPQ is really know for their crab and garlic noodles.  I'm not sure if the restaurant is Vietnamese or Chinese since the food is sorta Chinese, but there is Vietnamese on the menu.  We decided to go off the set menu stuff and order a la carte.  Maybe thats where we went wrong because none of the things were ordered were very good.

Papaya Salad with Shrimp
I love papaya salad, but I didn't like this.  It was just sorta bland.  It lacked an adequate amount of acid or even salt. It was just a sweet bland taste.  The shrimp were flavorless.  The papaya had a good crunch I suppose, but the flavoring left much to be desired.

Fish Mau and Crabmeat Soup
Nothing spectacular going on here.  Not large pieces of anything that I could identify as being seafood.

Peppercorn Crab
The crab comes in various flavors, and I believe we went with the salt and pepper version.  The crab tasted as sad as he looks.  The meat was lacking and whatever there was of it was dry.  It didn't taste very fresh.  I think we were all disappointed but didn't want to outright complain.  The crab was more trouble than it was worth to eat.

Garlic Noodles
Ok, despite everything else tasting pretty underwhelming, I will admit that the noodles were quite delicious.  They may have been the best garlic noodles I've had, but I haven't really tried that many versions.  I haven't actually tried them at Thanh Long or Crustacean, but I think Triple F agrees that the noodles here are good if not better than those places.   They didn't taste overly buttery, oily, or garlicky.  I think it was a perfect balance of all those flavors.

Sauteed Eggplant with Garlic and Basil
I can't resist ordering this dish when I get a chance.  If I'm not with Dumpling Man, I'll be sure to have my way and get an order of this in.  This wasn't the best version I've had but it was one of the better dishes that night.

Braised String Beans
Not bad, not good.

Shaking Beef
Not bad, not good.

Steamed Shitake Seabass
Bad.  The fish was not fresh.  Some parts were rubbery, some were overcooked.  Completely unimpressive.

Don't go here.  It's not worth your time or your money.   The food is completely average and unexciting.  It's confused Chinese Vietnamese cuisine.  Maybe get the garlic noodles to go and make something better at home to eat it with.

PPQ Dungeness Island
2332 Clement St
San Francisco, CA 94121



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