We decided to go out for drinks in the burbs. Since K and I live in Ardmore/Havertown, I decided that Verdad in Bryn Mawr would be a nice option to try. It hasn’t been there that long, I think it’s now occupying the spot where Carmine used to be for what now seems to be a split second. Verdad bills themselves as latin influenced tapas. So it’s small plates here. It’s a pretty nice place. The people inside seemed fancy. We were certainly classing down the joint, ha. They have tons of tequila, sangria that you can see in these big jugs, and beers on draft as well.

I got a passion fruit margarita, which was rather awesome.It wasn’t super sweet, it was nice and boozy, and yet had plenty of passion fruit flavor. The girls both got the caipirinha, and they were also nice and boozy. They don’t skimp on the booze, which is nice, since the drinks are priced accordingly, and with main line prices.

K was feeling a bit peckish so she ordered the tortilla soup. Now I’ve had my share of mexican tortilla soup in my day, but this one was strange. It looked like creamy tomato soup, with some tortilla strips thrown on top. That’s not normal. There’s not nearly enough tortilla strips. The avocado is pretty invisible. It was just lacking… content! And K wasn’t crazy about it. At the end of the night, she realized it was pretty crappy. So the one food dish turned out to be disappointing, but I was definitely a fan of the drinks. I would certainly return for cocktails!

We was supposed to go rollerskating, but guess what? It didn’t happen. They were closed. And I should have known better. But since we were in the neighborhood, we stopped at Sidecar. Oh Sidecar, how I’ve missed you. For a really nice friday night, it wasn’t nearly as packed as I thought it would be.

I’d certainly missed Sidecar, the bar and restaurant, but I’d definitely missed their sidecar even more. This particular sidecar was actually different than the ones I’d had here before, but I still liked it. The coloring was completely different. There was no cherry inside. But I didn’t care. It was still strong, and it still tasted great. The rim was still sugared. I still could have had many of these.

H/A was especially hungry since he hadn’t eaten all day, like a jackass, so he ordered up the margarita pizza and the chicken fingers. The pizza was actually pretty good, and had an extremely crispy thin crust. It was just simple with sauce, mozzarella, and basil. I’ve had the chicken fingers before and had liked them, but these were different, and not as good. They were still ok though. I guess this was one of the things that changed when the chefs changed. I ate all the salad that came with the chicken fingers because I wanted greens and it was really good!

C wanted something sweet so she went with the strawberry and rhubarb pie. She didn’t know what rhubarb was but was told it was sweet so she went with it. I’ve always been fascinated by rhubarb so I was excited to try this. And you know what? I liked it! It is sweet! It’s incredible that something that looks like a big red celery can be put into a pie and be tasty. It was served with a dollop of whipped cream on top and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. As usual, the service was, um, ok. Let’s leave it at that!

I met up with J in the city for happy hour. She was thinking about this one mexican place in the Yerba Buena Center, but on the way there, we passed by Amber India. The happy hour menu was enticing. We went to the mexican place anyway, but then were immediately annoyed by the loud and incessant music, so we went back to Amber. It couldn’t have been a better idea.

Amber is a very swanky indian restaurant, which is a small chain in the bay area. The one in SF is pretty huge. We hung out in the bar area, which is beyond colorful. They have a kick ass happy hour menu with cheap drinks and $5 apps. We both got the amber rose, a lovely little cocktail featuring pureed raspberries and pomegranate juice, along with booze, of course. It was lovely! And especially lovely at $5!

We also decided to try out some of the appetizers. The Bhel Puri is on the left. It is rice puffs tossed with onions, raw mango, chutneys, and topped with savory noodles. The Batata Vada is at the top. They are spiced potato dumplings encased in garam flour batter. They are served with two different chutneys, the green one being much spicier than the other. The Pani Puri are on the bottom right. These little beauties are wheat puffs filled with spicy mint and cumin water, potatoes, and chick peas. All of these were excellent, each with their own level of kick. It’s definitely indian food, so if you don’t like things like curry or cumin or flavors reminiscent of that, then stay away! But if you’re an indian food lover, then you’ll love all of these. Really, for $5 each, how can you go wrong? These are awesome prices anywhere, so in San Francisco it’s a downright steal!