Do you know how many eating establishments there are in San Francisco that begin with the letter Q? The answer is not many. You could probably count them all on three fingers. Our first thought, and choice, was to try out the renowned Michael Tusk-owned restaurant, Quince, in Pacific Heights. Rumour has it he offers a wonderful chef's table and as we daydreamed about paying Michael a visit, images of us and our friends, all perfectly turned out and manicured with bouncy, shiny hair, laughing like actors and having a fabulous time in the kitchen with the chef, flashed happily through our imagination. Reality kicked in when we remembered we would need to plan such an exciting-sounding evening more than two weeks in advance. Not only that, we are meant to be tightening the purse strings and Quince's delicious-sounding three courses (before you even get to dessert), aren't exactly cheap.

Our next brainwave was to try and trick a Frenchman into eating a Quizno Sub sandwich. For comedic effect, we thought it would be hilarious to buy a dictaphone which we could hide and record his reaction to being faced with one of Quizno's over-filled subs. But then we remembered the sheer happiness we'd witnessed recently, in Paris, watching the same Frenchman enjoy his idea of a perfect sandwich and we just couldn't bring ourselves to be so cruel as to hit him with an ugly Quizno that we knew he would detest.

This left us with only one option, thankfully not regrettable. We headed off, in the direction of the Inner Richmond, to visit...