We arrived relatively early, without reservations, and we were immediately seated. The waitress attended us promptly -- we got a lovely bread basket with some cool cornbread and hot, fresh sourdough bread. Off to a good start.

They have a bit of a drink menu featuring drinks along the vein of "blackened martini" and such. We ordered the Cuban cocktail made with light and dark rum, pineapple juice and lime -- it was semi-frozen, smooth and tasty.

The first thing we noticed is that everything on the menu was pretty expensive -- the waitress described the specials, including a blackened sole petrale (not a Gulf Coast fish!) and a "Lousiana" paella.

The crab cake appetizer ($10) arrived at the table first -- the three small crab cakes were flat and disappointing. They were about 2.5 inches and so full of bread that they were gooey and sticky and stuck to our teeth. They were a tad overspiced, drowning out the taste of what little crab was in there. The red cabbage slaw that garnished the plate was pretty tasty.

An older man wearing cooks whites and shorts with the requisite cheap plastic Mardi Gras beads (presumeably one of the owners) brought around a tray of jello shots (yay! lagniappe!) which he offered to diners. We waited for more than 30 minutes for our entrees. The jolly jello shot man came back and asked how we were doing, we said "we're waiting." "What did you order?" I quickly responded, "I forget, it's been so long since I ordered." That didn't speed our order much, but we both got a giggle out of my quick retort.

Gina ordered the "lick your fingers" BBQ plate ($22). Curled grilled sections of a quartered andouille sausage draped over a bowl of baked beans surrounded by a chicken breast, a chicken thigh, ribs and some other piece of meat I couldn't identify. Gina said the meat was pretty good but there was way more than one person could eat. She took most of it home with her. A piece of tough, overcooked corn on the cob was also on the plate -- if it was sweet corn, it was impossible to tell.

I ordered the red snapper entree ($22). I don't remember how they described it on the menu but if I knew it would be so disappointing I wouldn't have asked for it. The overcooked, dried out red snapper was topped with a runny sour cream sauce on a bed of "Mardi Gras" mashed potatoes. The potatoes were a bit runny (I like less milk in the potatoes) but were made from purple peruvian potatoes with horseradish cream to give them a bit of zing.

As we were leaving, the one of guys at the table next to us ordered the seafood paella -- it looked pretty appetizing with large pink shrimp on a bed of tomatoey rice. Another member of their party had ordered the sole petrale -- I hope it tasted as good as it looked. I don't know what the third guy was thinking because he ordered a plate of fried calamari instead of an entree. Can't judge fried seafood by the batter, so won't comment.

SUMMARY:
For this misguided meal, we paid $68 plus tip. We could've gone to Ebisu, House, 9th Ave or Organica. There are so many more, better, restaurant options in this area that I will not return to PJ's to pay their inflated prices for their disappointing food.

AMBIANCE:
If you plan to have a conversation, don't eat here. The tables are packed very close together -- this has two effects: it makes it noisy and crowded. The waitress was constantly asking me to move and holding plates of hot food over my head. This was more than disconcerting. The noise level was also affected by the music they kept cranking up louder and louder to drown out the conversations.

The bathroom situation is a bit strange -- for a restaurant that looks to hold about 50-60 people, they only have one bathroom (and it is dog-ugly!).

PARKING:
The 9th Avenue area is notoriously difficult to park. This is a densely populated Inner Sunset neighborhood with a LOT of good restaurants nearby. Even without the restaurants, parking would be tough.

There are a couple of public lots (off of Irving between 8th & 9th, the other between 6th & 7th) which were full for the 20 minutes or so we drove around looking for parking. We finally parked at the funeral home across from Ebisu for $6 -- there was plenty of space there and two cats in the windows of apartments above the lot guarded the cars (OK, the guy working there might've also done some of that).

You could take the MUNI -- N Judah passes right in front of PJ's -- or go during the day. Parking might be a bit easier (and lunch is better anyway).

Jennifer R. Accettola
Originally published on http://www.planetx.org/~jenn/