Hog & Rocks

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Another gastropub in the city serving charcuterie (hog) and oysters (rocks).  Hog & Rocks also takes a unique approach to the standard bar food.

 Hog & Rocks offers 2 sample plates:  a 3 or 5 meat tasting.  Each of the meats comes with a "topping" that compliments each of the flavors as well as some flatbread.  From left to right: Broadbent (aged 13 months) with Fresno chili syrup, La Quercia Picante (aged 9 months) with pickled grapes, Recla Speck with olives.  I really like how they paired a condiment with each type of meat.  Spain was the only other place I had seen this type of presentation.  Each of these pairings matched the tastes of the meats perfectly.  The La Quercia with the pickled grapes was probably my favorite of the three.  The flatbread was a little too bland and soft for the meats. 

I strayed away from my usual order of kumamoto (almost $4 each here!) and decided to get the Miyagis and test out the $1 oysters, which today was Hood Canals from Washington.  Intense, slightly sweet, with a hit of seaweed flavor.  The Miyagis were super briny, and crisp.  Super delicious, its been awhile since I've had oysters and I forgot how much I love them.

Baked oyster with piquillo butter, ham, and breadcrumbs.  I usually prefer my oysters raw and rarely order baked oysters, but having to go with the theme of the restaurant I found it necessary.  There was way too many breadcrumbs on this oyster.  A tricky little dish, you have to avoid inhaling the breadcrumb for fear of choking.  Think powdered donuts.  Still not a fan of baked oysters.

Herb butter fries with oyster mayo and spicy ketchup.  Oyster mayo sounded interesting, but I wasn't sure how that was incorporated into the mayo.  The mayo was creamy and looked like normal mayo, but tasted a little richer in flavor.  The fries were crispy and tasty. 

A unique twist on potato skins.  These were beef tongue potato skins with gypsy peppers, mornay sauce, and paprika cream.  I really liked this dish.  I thought the beef tongue was cooked really well.

Whisky bbq meatballs with cheddar grits.  This is a popular dish here and I'm not sure why.  There wasn't anything spectacular about it.  It was just meatballs with bbq sauce.  Nothing special and something I think you could make just as good at home.

Duck heart skewers with anchovy and basil puree.  The duck hearts were really juicy.  Almost too tender because they were missing that chewy snap you usually get when you eat hearts.

As if I haven't been eating enough ice cream!  These mini ice cream sandwiches were made with chocolate and white chocolate chip cookies and Blue Bottle Vietnamese coffee ice cream.  The cookie was a little too soft and the flavors of everything just seemed to blur together (not in a good way). 

Address:                          Hog & Rocks

                                                3431 19th St.

                                                San Francisco, CA

Type:                                  American/gastropub/casual

Popular chomps:    BBQ meatball
                                                 raw oysters
                                                 chacuterie plate
                                                 beef tongue potato skins
                                                 duck heart skewers 

Chomp worthy:        raw oysters
                                               chacuterie plate
                                               duck heart skewers