DINNER IN THE MARINA

A few weeks ago we were running an errand for a friend in SF. It was a Monday, and the errand ended up taking much longer than we'd expected. So rather than fight the traffic back across the Bay Bridge, we decided to stay in the city for dinner. We had picked a restaurant in the Marina district, but when we got there, it was closed for some strange reason (there was a note on the door, but we didn't really bother reading it). Luckily, just two doors down from the restaurant we had wanted to try was another restaurant which we'd found out about while watching "Check Please, Bay Area" (we really like this show and have visited a few places we've seen on it). The restaurant, Isa, was open and it was pretty empty inside (it was early), so we headed inside and grabbed a table for two.

They seated us at a cozy table near the front windows of the restaurant. The interior is really modern, and there's a cool covered garden area out back. The menu is really designed as small plates for sharing. I decided to get the prix fixe menu, which involved getting 2 plates for $21.95 and Tom ordered a few additional plates for himself. Tom started off with some of his favorites- raw oysters, which he thought were pretty good.

He followed this up with Grilled Honey Spiced Calamari with rice beans, arugula & lemon. I actually ordered this as my first plate in my prix fixe, but I ordered it for Tom, since I wasn't super hungry. Tom felt the calamari were well cooked, and I did have a few of the beans with arugula. He didn't feel it was the best combination of ingredients, but finished the plate off anyway.

Meanwhile, I got my second dish of Organic chicken with herbs under crispy skin & mashed potatoes.

I really liked my chicken and felt that it was a generous portion that pretty much filled me up. Meanwhile, Tom had a grilled flat iron steak as his main course, which he enjoyed a lot. It was well prepared and he can only describe it as "GOOOOOOOOOOD."

We finished off with dessert, which I'm having a hard time recalling right now, so I guess they weren't very memorable. As for service, it started off very good and attentive, but as the restaurant got my crowded, we got less attention and it definitely took longer to get our check. Overall we had an enjoyable dinner at Isa. I wouldn't rush back, but I certainly wouldn't mind going again in the future.