Cafe Jacqueline, San Francisco

Sample Menu:

• Appetizer: escargots
• First course: french onion soup crusted with gruyère
• Entree: lobster soufflé
• Dessert: Grand Marnier soufflé

While You're Waiting: Take a look at the plaques hanging above the tables—they commemorate wedding proposals that have happened over Café Jacqueline meals since its 1979 founding. The rose-adorned tables really do inspire romance.

Accolades

• The mushroom soufflé came in at number 5 on SF Weekly's 2011 list of San Francisco's 92 best meals.
• On an episode of Food Network’s The Best Thing I Ever Ate, Alton Brown raves, “The strawberry soufflé at Café Jacqueline is the best soufflé I’ve ever had, hands down.”
• Made Zagat’s lists of Top Romantic Restaurants, Top French Restaurants, and Best Dessert Specialists, among others

Cuisine Lesson: Soufflés

This delicate, featherweight cake, originating in France, can be savory or sweet. It serves as the axis of many a slapstick or cartoon gag, thanks to its physically finicky nature: the puffy, aerated texture comes from the vigorous whipping of egg whites, which froth into gravity-thwarting peaks. Once the ingredients are combined, beaten, and poured into a ramekin, the soufflé is gently placed into the oven, where it fluffs up even higher and, eventually, deflates again—especially if a Vaudevillian or animated character manages to disrupt it.