Isn't this a great way to start off a New Year's resolution? A biscuit taco from Taco Bell's breakfast menu! Actually this was the morning meal deal that came with a hash brown and a medium drink for about $4. I wasn't going to do the meal but turns out this place has Diet Mountain Dew on the fill your own soda fountain and seriously, do you think I'm gonna pass that up?! These things actually came out awhile ago but I just hadn't gotten around to trying them. They just built one of those new Taco Bell Cantina things in my hood. They serve beer and wine and have lots of wood accents, you  know, it's all white trash fancy. One morning I rolled in with the intention of chowing down. Originally I ordered one with bacon (duh!), egg and cheese. But when I got it, the bacon were bits and they were cold. As in, didn't get warmed up in the microwave or whatever. Nothing is worse than cold bacon bits as the parts that are fat get all creamy like lard. Totally unappealing. I took it back and they didn't even blink an eye and just gave me one with sausage, egg and cheese instead. Fortunately, the sausage was cooked, though it wasn't like hot of the skillet. The eggs were more crumbled than scrambled and it gave them a weird texture as if they were originally either powdered or frozen then cooked up, odd. They also were not hot of the griddle and this lukewarm-ness kept the cheese from even getting close to melting. You can see that in the picture. The biscuit taco itself did actually taste like a doughy biscuit, though it didn't hold together well and cracked open along the bottom, much like a crunchy taco shell would do. Eating it all together, you get the flavor sense of an egg, cheese and sausage biscuit that is just ever so off and not quite right. It definitely is not a replacement for the real thing. Though if you are drunk or hungover, you could probably trick yourself into believing it is tasty and will help soak up all that alcohol. (Isn't that what Taco Bell food is all about?) As for the hash browns, yeah, um, potatoes and grease. Pretty fast food standard there. As a Southerner, I'll take a pass on getting this again, it is kind of a sacrilege to eating the real thing. A shame really when there are so few quick affordable food options for this type of thing in San Francisco. It wasn't a total loss. I was able to get in two Diet Mtn. Dew refills plus another to go for my walk to work, so there

was

that.  

• It's restaurant week in San Francisco and SFEater runs down some of the best and worst deals to be had. So check those menu prices folks!
• Plus, Eater national released a list of essential restaurants and it is a little light on SF places.
• Hoodline highlights a not your average corner store type place.
• Oldest gay bar left in the city changes hands and most likely gay bar mantle. But there is always Twin Peaks!
• The restaurant of the future? Don't know about that, but it is the most expensive project. 
• Nachoria in Burlingame--a reason to go there now.
• Not all micro brews are experiencing a renaissance in the Bay Area.
• 7x7 runs down some new restaurant openings to be on the lookout for in 2016.
• The fallout from Magnolia/Smokestacks recent bankruptcy continues as founding Chef Dennis Lee bails.
• Buckshot restaurant, bar and gameroom has called it quits. That location sees another eatery bite the dust.  
• It's a stroll through San Francisco's restaurant past with this story of Hot House.
• And look, another story on The Perennial, that restaurant of the future. They sure know how to get press. 
• Forbes runs down the effect of the minimum wage on restaurant jobs in SF. Hasn't this already been covered?
• This just rolled into Moscone for the next few days if you want to get your fancy eats on.
• And finally, here's the list of the 2016 Good Food Award winners--I think there are some SF places in there. The lists are soooo long.