L’actuel

Belgian cuisine. downstairs bistro upstairs more formal. excellent mussels, steak and tartar. located near bell centre.
This restaurant has been around forever but continues to deliver very good food. Fries with homemade mayo are sublime. If you can have fries only once a month — this is the place (all you can eat fries).

after a long trek walking blindly from the commerce to main street to college area and back to downtown i was parched and huungry!
with little energy in the tank i luckily stumbled across this wonderful little nook that resembles one of my favorite spots in north beach coz of its small but well designed layout, semi outdoor seating, charming staff and cool bar setup which worked well for solo-​dining.
camille kindly welcomed me with a bonjour and continued speaking french, i responded in japanese then english– in part being tired and to not come off as an invalid that can’t attempt to speak the native tongue.
to cool off i ordered a hoegaarden and watched some of the local news which seemed to only highlight the recent concert of sir john mccartney… camille kindly navigated me through the menu that had filet mignon prepared like 15 different ways and i ended up of selecting one of the naked versions which only had peppercorns, so i could enjoy the natural flavors.
blown away!
the service was impeccable, from the floor staff to the efficiency of the kitchen. seemed like the only issue was the need to upgrade their ordering touch-​screen which camille had to go fred flintstone on a few times to make it work.
will be back on my return trip and hopefully better equipped with some french.