About a week ago, some of us ladies got together for dinner. We left our husbands, and most of us left our kids, to have a quiet relaxing night out. These days, a nice dinner out on the town is just what the doctor ordered (I know, party animals over here). Plans are no longer made spontaniously. It takes countless emails and a lot of advanced notice to get together. But we finally did it, we all came together for dinner at Betelnut!

Betelnut is an Asian Fusion restaurant in the Marina district of San Francisco. It’s a great place to try many different dishes and share them with your dining partners. I was the last one to arrive (parking is horrendous on Friday nights), and so I didn’t participate in the selection of dishes. I’ve been here before and knew this place was good, plus one of the girls in the group knows the place well, and was completely trusted with the dish selections.

The dish selections touched upon every section of the menu. We started with Betelnut’s “Seductive Starters”:

From left to right: Chili Crusted Calamari – $11.75, Cecilia’s Minced Chicken & Lup Cheong with Lettuce Cups – $11.88, Crispy Cauliflower with Tribal Salt & Pepper – $7.25

The lettuce cups were tasty, same as the first time I had them. I haven’t had the cauliflower before, and honestly I’ve never been a huge fan of cauliflower, but this dish was delicious. Than there was the calamari. I generally like calamari for an appetizer, it’s always a pretty safe choice. So I just popped one in my mouth, and instantly, and might I say very unexpectedly, felt the heat. Let’s just say the calamari is not for the weak hearted.

We continued to move down the menu, and the dishes kept coming. On to the salad and the dumplings.

Green Papaya, Shrimp, Grapefruit, Herbs & “Nuoc Cham” – $9.95

“Shui Jiao” Pork Dumplings & Szechuan-Peppercorn Broth – $10.25, “Little Dragon” Dumplings of Pork & Shrimp with Ginger Vinegar – $11.50

The salad was fabulous, and very refreshing. I thoroughly enjoyed the dumplings.

We moved on to the sizzling steak and some noodles (sorry no photo of the noodles).

Sizzling Iron Plate Ribeye Steak, Spring Onions with Roasted Garlic – $20.95, Penang Rice Noodles, Rock Crab, Shrimp, Sprouts, Chives, Chili-soy – $14.50. We asked for two orders of the steak, prepared two different ways, medium well and medium. I won’t lie, I tried both, and both were delicious. Not chewy at all.

Last and certainly not least is of course the dessert. We took one look at the dessert menu and unanimously decided that we are trying everything. I know what you’re thinking, “overdoing it much on the food?”. In reality the restaurant offers four desserts, and since there were 7 of us, trying all of them seemed completely appropriate.

If I am not mistaken, all of the desserts were under $9. We had the chocolate cake with the fabulous warm gooey chocolaty filling, the mochi ice cream (I particularly enjoyed the little caramel side), the tapioca pudding, and the fried bananas with ice cream. I think I speak for all of us when I say that the tapioca pudding is an acquired taste and none of us were too thrilled with it. However, we were all very happy with the other three desserts, and let’s be honest, probably would have gone for seconds (am I the only one to admit this?), but decided to maintain our composure.

So here it is, Betelnut in San Francisco. I’ve had it twice and I am certainly coming back!