One of my pet peeves lately is the haphazard labeling of restaurants as “fusion”, when in reality, there’s nothing fusion about a restaurant’s cuisine! A fusion restaurant would have either two or more different traditional cuisines ‘fused’ to create a new genre that is neither one or the other. Whereas, some restaurants take their cuisine more down a contemporary path. Contemporary would just mean taking old classics and giving them a fresh twist to please modern palates and trends.

The House restaurant in San Francisco(their pictures are way better than my camera phone ones!) does a great job of creating a unique fusion that’s full of energy and life in every dish. Everything we ordered had a jolt of flavor; prodding your taste buds with every bite. It’s a refreshing and excellent blend of mostly Japanese flavors with new American contemporary techniques.

We started our lunch of with a round of appetizers to share. Haha, we definitely decided to pig out. The steamed mussels with garlic infused shrimp broth was awesome. The broth definitely made this dish. It was flavorful and addictive, I wanted to just drink the whole bowl lol.

You can never go wrong with soft shell crab. Crispy outside, soft inside. I wasn’t sure if it was stuffed with something, but I vaguely remember it being a good contrast to the crispy texture. It was one of their specials, but if they still offer it, it’s definitely worth a try.

I wish this photo came out better! But it was the grilled calamari with tomato sauce. Another one of their specials for the day. The calamari was slightly overcooked, which made it a little tough. Calamari is one of those tricky ingredients where in order for it to stay tender, you have to either flash fry it really quick, or let it stew for a while. Anywhere in between and it’s usually a little tough to chew.

The fried tempura greenbeans were nothing exciting, however the presentation was nice, and the sauce served inside the ‘structure’ was tasty.

We also ordered Sesame Soy glazed salmon, which was cooked perfectly! The glaze was sweet and salty as expected, and the salmon cooked slightly underdone in the center. Also, the Grilled Sea Bass with garlic ginger soy was tasty.

By far the most favorite dish was the Warm Wasabi house noodles with Grilled Pork. If you’re a fan of the flavor of wasabi, this is a MUST have dish! It is an interesting blend of warm wasabi flavor, with the sweetness of the grilled pork. We also ordered the Udon soup with grilled chicken and nori, which wasn’t anything extraordinary, but had a wonderful, clean broth that was great in it’s simplicity.

It was too bad by the time dessert came around, my mind was too preoccupied with the meal that I didn’t even think about taking anymore pictures lol. However, the nectarine and blackberry pie was sooo good. As well as the coconut creme brulee with passionfruit glaze. Both were awesome desserts.

I can’t wait to go back and try out their dinner menu! Being as good as it was, I wasn’t too shocked with the rating The House got on yelp – 4.5 out of 5. What did shock me was the number of reviews! I had never seen a restaurant have 590 reviews and STILL receive such a near perfect rating!! The numbers don’t lie, this place is well worth it. And the price is very affordable for the quality of food they are offering.