Venture Frogs
1000 Van Ness
San Francisco
(415) 409-2550
Food type: Pan-Asian
Average entrée price: $9
Bender rating: 4
Credit cards: all major
Famous dish: Priceline Potstickers

Internet's on the Menu at Venture Frogs

Here's the gimmick: at Venture Frogs, all the dishes are named after high-tech companies and the venture capitalists that gave them life. What is surprising is how delicious the food is, and how well chef Eric Meas delineates the different flavors of Vietnam, regional China, Thailand and Korea.

For an appetizer, try the WebTV Korean pancake, grilled with shrimp and scallions; Softbank Satay with spicy peanut sauce; Benchmark baby back ribs (with a slighty messy, hot sauce); the Yahoo! Thai beef salad, with fresh mint leaves and slices of spicy, rare beef; or the Cisco Chinese chicken salad.

Main dishes, or "large plates," include AOL Miso-glazed cod -- a huge portion of the subtly flavored white fish served over thin noodles with peppery bok choy on the side and precious nuggets of oyster mushrooms -- and the Idealab! Curry chicken with coconut served in an iron pot. Others to try include Palm Pad Thai, the classic with shrimp, chicken, tofu and egg with roasted peanuts; Red Herring seafood iron pot with Vietnamese spicing; and CNET salmon in teriyaki sauce with rice and spinach.

Meas has a gift for enhancing the flavors of vegetables. A simple plate of french fries, for example, is dusted with star anise and Sichuan pepper-salt and served with a slightly sweet sauce (highly recommended), and a seemingly simple vegetable dish such as Business 2.0 bok choy and mushrooms works because the hearty crunchiness of the bok choy interplays with shiitake, oyster and enoki mushrooms in a mild sauce.

Most of the food is placed in the center of the table, meant to be shared. The high-ceilinged room is decorated with nearly two dozen video screens and light sculptures, and one wall is simply a floor-to-ceiling window looking out on the yuppies and street people of Van Ness.

The Cambodia-born Meas got most of his training in the French restaurants of New York, which is evident in the careful visual composition of the dishes. But the flavors are the real Asia. "I don't make 'fusion cuisine,'" he says. "Each dish keeps a unique regional flavor."

Many Asian restaurants treat dessert as an afterthought or an obligatory item tacked on for American diners -- not Venture Frogs, though. The Zappos.com ginger crème brulee is rich, creamy and mild; and LinkExchange flourless chocolate cake is served warm with Tahitian vanilla ice cream.

Many of the dishes are designed for a quick bite before the theater (the restaurant shares a building with the AMC 1000 Van Ness movie theater) and most are priced under $10. Venture Frogs is open late nights, too.

-- Lisa Tsering