Author Archives: Max Hauser

About Max Hauser

Resident with acknowledged food obsession, active in Bay Area food and wine organizations 30 years. Dining in downtown MV regularly for 20 years and occasionally for 10 years before that.

Restaurant Scene: November 2025

Posted on November 17, 2025 by Max Hauser

Latest quarterly printed OMV Newsletter went out (by postal mail this time — experimentally — sent Nov 6, so neighborhood residents should have it by now) with my report of downtown-area restaurant news.  Once again, more changes happened after press … Continue reading →

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Restaurant Scene: August 2025

Posted on August 3, 2025 by Max Hauser

(Per our printed quarterly newsletter, now in press; late news added here, including Steins final demise.) Earlier this year, Tandoori Junction replaced Bay Biryanis, 698 W. Dana at Hope. Steins Beer Garden and Restaurant, 895 Villa at Bryant, was “saved” with a new owner taking over … Continue reading →

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Restaurant Scene: May 2025

Posted on May 6, 2025 by Max Hauser

Simply Sabor is the newest restaurant tenant inside Ava’s Market, 340 Castro, offering Mexican specialties. A license-change notice at 475 Castro (a dormant Korean table-top grilling restaurant) has shown a pending new business “Yakiniku Ginza”.  Yakiniku is a related grilled-food … Continue reading →

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Restaurant Scene: February 2025

Posted on February 4, 2025 by Max Hauser

New downtown-MV restaurants galore! (Listed as usual in approximate order of opening, projected opening, or other news.) Venerable popular Mediterranean Grill House (650 Castro #110, https://www.mediterraneangrillhouse.com/) undertook remodeling in December for “a new coffee and tea and dessert section called … Continue reading →

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Restaurant Scene: October 2024

Posted on October 12, 2024 by Max Hauser

216 Castro’s Quality Bourbons & Barbecue or QBB (BBQ spelled backwards, not by chance), which opened September 2017, celebrated its last day September 25 (thanks to Mark Flider for the tip). QBB’s managing partner John Andino, whom I first met … Continue reading →

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