Kat's 9 Lives

What's a girl to do when she hated the Foodbuzz seminar because it was boring and no food was provided? Well let me tell you... I just leave and do my own thing! If you are not going to entertain me, at least FEED ME!! Ms. Lin an I just left and headed down to Macy's to shop and decide where to grub before meeting up with fellow bloggers. She suggested Frontera Fresco from Rick Bayless. Sounded good because I have been wanting to try his real restaurant but I haven't quite made my way there yet and this was a great way to cheat and cut corners. O=)
First off the bat, Ms. Lin wanted their Raspberry Prickly Pear Limeade ($1.95). At first I was skeptical because it had raspberries and I detest the taste of raspberries. IN the end it was refreshing and sweet, so a good choice on her part.As soon as I saw that they offered a Sweet Corn and Green Chile Tamale ($3.95), I had to have it! Mine! It's made with fresh Corn, Roasted Chiles, Creamy Goat Cheese, Ricotta and topped with Tomatillo Salsa. The tamale was well made and they loaded it with cheese. This had a lot of potential if it wasn't served luke warm/cold! The bites with sauce or cheese were colder because the tamale itself was barely heated. An extreme let down because I love tamales and to be made with sweet corn is what I always look for!
Ms. Lin and I decided to share the Roasted Chicken Quesadilla with Salad ($7.95). Man! Can that quesadilla be any smaller or flatter? If this was a "real" meal and not a snack, it would take almost 3-5 orders of this to fill me up. At that rate I might as well hit up a high-end restaurant for real food! Again, the quesadilla was not hot and the cheese was not melted. Huge negative points there because the whole point of quesadillas is to eat melted cheese! The flavor was decent but it's comparable to what I can get at Del Taco or Taco Bell really. We tried the different sauces and they were good but if I have to use sauces to pep up the dish... there's something wrong there too.
All in all not impressed. I am glad I tried it but not worth the $15 for this. Cold and unfulfilling are not words I would want my food to be described as.
Frontera Fresco
170 O'Farrell St
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 296-4349