Bay Food

900 Grayson - Berkeley - 3.5/4 stars

2007-08-15T20:41:00.000-07:00

Visited on:
Several times, last visit on August 13, 2007.

Experience:
This is the fun part of Emeryville area. Artists live here by the galore, artisan shops open here by the bundle, cute little restaurants operate around tiny corners, everything is quite low key, but great if you know where to find them. 900 Grayson is such a place. Even the name is very unassuming: if you know the name, you know where to find it. And that's how I identify with the food they present here - laid-back and easy.

Tons of people come here for brunch on the weekends. I don't think they take reservations, so if you bring 5 of your closest friends with you, you'll end up waiting for more than an hour. During brunch they serve a lot of breakfast items and some lunch items. Plenty of organic ingredients and sustainable farmed produce.

This is what we started with on this day: Potter Creek.

I have no idea if it is related to Harry Potter or not, though probably not. It's simple breakfast fare with great execution. The scrambled eggs is among the best I've ever had, creamy and slightly sagging in the middle, beautifully yellow and yielding on the outside. Light herbs bring out an enticing aroma that you shall not kill with ketchup.

Acme toasts are lightly buttered then grilled. Note that hash brown - the menu said clearly that they do not serve diner food. No ma'am, this is gourmet version of hash brown with Idaho potatoes, crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside. Easy on the palate, even for the most adamant breakfast rejecters.

Then, we got a bit more adventuresome: Miss Piggy and the General

Again, I have no idea who that General is, but I can sure tell you, that bun is sooooooooooooooo soft. Really soft. It looks like ciabatta, but nooooo. It is very soft, soaking up the homemade barbecue sauce easily while slurping in the juice from homemade slaw. The pork is tender, very well accompanied by the caramelized onion. I wouldn't call it authentic pulled pork by any means, but I think it serves its purpose well here - a soft sandwich that's easy to chew. It might be a bit sweet for some, I personally don't mind sweetness. This is one of the interesting dishes that the different ingredients don't really stand well on its own. You need to take a big bite and mull over how the different pieces work together as a dish. This is more than a team effort - it's synergy. The fries are a bit uneven, some are over fried, but on principle alone, no one should finish that much fries either.

On yet another day, we had the waffle.

This is one seriously good waffle, though not exactly Belgian. I would say that it is a pancake with texture, because usually waffles are a lot thicker. This place serves them thin and light, using the grids to add to the texture of the hot cakes. Even without that glob of butter I would say it is fantastic. With that...even better.

If there is a good-for-you version of corned beef, this must be it.
The Tomboy.

You can see the beef, but you can't taste it, because both taste and texture are very nicely wrapped up by potatoes and the gooey egg yolk flowing from the poached egg. Parsnip is very refreshing, though I would like to have more fuji apple in there. But then, it wouldn't be corned beef, would it?

Then a large cup of chai...very sweet.

900 Grayson doesn't really hit you with gastronomic meteors, but when you wake up in the morning and just want to treat your mouth to something light and breezy, this is the place to go.

Basic information:
900 Grayson
Telephone: 510 704 9900
Business hours: Mon - Fri - 8am - 3:30pm
Sat - 8am - 2:30pm

Bouchon - Yountville - 5 stars

2007-08-15T15:20:00.001-07:00

Visited on:
August 11, 2007.

Experience:
My first visit to Bouchon was way back when Venetian just opened, and I stepped in Bouchon Las Vegas for a brunch. I remember the lobster buffet, but that was about it. Nothing that impressed me very much. For the past few years, I never got up enough interest to try Bouchon Yountville, simply because I really couldn’t remember anything interesting from my previous visit to its sibling.

Then, along came Michelin. I trust the Michelin guide in several areas, mainly French, Italian, Mediterranean, etc...The European cuisines, so to speak. (On a side note: NEVER trust Michelin for Chinese/Asian cuisine if you have some basic understanding of what these things should taste like.) While their 2 star choices sometimes left me baffled – I didn’t really enjoy my Guy Savoy visit – I found their 1 star and 3 star choices to be more than satisfactory. So, when the occasion rose, I planned the trip to Bouchon. Booking 2 weeks ahead of time scored me a table at 5:45. I’m pretty certain this is the first round of seating for the evening. So be warned: book early!

Yountville is this quaint little town that is imbibed with flavorful smells, either from the kitchens or from the sun-baked grape leaves. There are several delightful hotels there, like the Villagio, and a bunch of Michelin stars clustered around. Not too far from its 1-star mate - Bistro Jeanty – sits Bouchon, unassuming red canvas with a nice little patio area, kind of like the bistro that you’d walk into for a quick bite down in the Provence.

Not so for the interior décor – alabaster white high ceilings with fresco, golden gilded mirrors, discreet golden lamp fixtures, it looked just like a poster Parisian café, like le Grand Café or Café des Fleurs. The only part that baffled me a lot was the indoor plant. I still cannot understand the need for the tall, green, leafy thing in there. Maybe that’s where Paris meets California.

This is how they provide you with the menu there – around the napkin.

I personally think it is cute, hope they use biodegradable paper. The menu presents a very nice round of popular Parisien café food, though of different…categories, shall we say. Normally you don’t find Plat de Fruits de la Mer appearing on the same menu with Croque Madam AND ris de veau. But again, you normally don’t find a $16 Croque Madam either. All in all, I’d say that the menu at Bouchon tries to collect as many French café/bistro favorites in one menu as possible. A true something-for-everybody. Which of course, tempted us to order beyond our normal capacity.

Fanny Bay Oysters from British Columbia ($16 approx)

Do you see how clean the shells are? How even the sizes are? This is what you get when you pay $16/half dozen vs $8/half dozen – the handpick process. Normally I wouldn’t go for Fanny Bay, because they are too “fat” for my taste, but I make an exception in summer. I wasn’t disappointed. Slightly briny in taste, but the sweetness flowing out from the white bulbous body more than make up for the brininess, esp. coupled with the wine vinegar. Bouchon’s recipe departs from the original of red wine vinegar + raw onion by adding a lot of black pepper. I won’t know how it would work on the lighter variety of Pacific oysters, like Sweetwater or Kumamoto, but it works well with Fanny Bay.

Ris de Veau ($15 approx)

Or sweetbread, as it is known. I won’t go into specifics about where that came from, you can find out more here, but it’s perfectly okay if you don’t read up about it. The only thing that one needs to know about sweetbread, is that it can either be great or horrible, depending on how talented the chef is. In this case, Bouchon scored a 100 in my score card. It is soft, but not mushy, offering that essential resistance to your bite which is the mark of fresh and healthy organs. I’d compare it with a nice, silky tofu, only the tofu dissolves more cleanly, while the sweetbread tends to linger and curl around your taste buds. The mustard sauce is lightly sweet, flavorful enough to enhance the natural sweetness of the sweetbread, removing any trace of gaminess, but does not take away its earthy undertone. Amazing cherry tomatoes, exquisite bundle of tartness and sweetness. Perfect for refreshing the palate. I thought I would’ve hated the lettuce leaves, because they looked so forlorn and squishy, but to my great surprise, it was crunchy!! Almost like a salad!! I personally prefer cooked lettuce, because it removes the grassy taste, leaving only the nice sweet juices, but it’s so hard to do it well. Bouchon excelled right here. A fabulous start of a meal.

Soup of the day – Corn with fresh cream and fried onion strings

Drinking the soup is like drinking liquefied organic corn, fully ripened to its prime maturity, all starchiness gone, offering up a clarity bright as sunshine. Fresh cream adds a bit more smoothness to the liquid with sauteed onion strings to add a crunchy texture to the soup. This is when I realized why I loved the dishes here so much – somehow, they manage to extract that elixir of taste from every ingredient and magnified it to encompass the entire plate. Just like parfum is the most exquisite nuance of flower fragrance, devoid of any impurity that distorts it essence, so are Bouchon’s dishes, yet the flavor and texture profile is distinctly French. The perfect, perfect marriage of French cuisine with the Californian cuisine spirit.

Salade de Chevre Chaud ($9.50)

This is not really the Chevre Chaud I expected, though I have had chevre chaud like this before in Paris. Slightly heated, not quite melted, herb encrusted – mostly rosemary. The salad leaves are only slightly flavored, no more than EVOO, salt, and a bit of vinegar. So the cheese became the dressing for the salad. Nice use of ingredients, but that’s not all. The point of amazement here is the size of the leaves. This is a poster child case of how perfect technique and understanding of the eating action enhances natural flavors. My friend said that eating salad reminds her of being a cow, because you chew and chew. No matter how fresh salad leaves are, they are still a kind of grass, so eventually you would taste that underlying bitterness + rough fibers that make up their leaves before you can swallow. Not so in Bouchon. The size of the individual leaves is just enough so that within 2 quick bites you can swallow, BEFORE you had time to feel the grittiness of the fibers. Truly amazing salad experience.

Aile de Raie ($26?)

Raie = ray. Aile = wings. So: Wing of Ray. Don’t you get the sense that those ray fins should taste really, really good when you go into an aquarium? Yes, they do taste really, really good. Tender and smooth long muscles, good firm texture but never dry because of the glucose from the soft bones, it is just about my favorite fish, but it is not that easy to cook. For some reason, a lot of restaurants over-grill the fin, so it would become a dry and chewy mess. I think it is because they remove the bones before grilling. Bouchon leaves the bone in to grill, then removes the bones at the table. I so wanted to break decorum and ask the server to leave me the soft bones to gnaw for a bit, but I restrained myself. The ray is baked with a slice of lemon with a bunch of thyme balanced on top. That’s not for decoration – I could really taste a slight ting from the lemon, mellowed by the thyme on the skin. Underneath the fish piled caramelized onions. Again, full, strong flavor, nice resisting texture, a really good juxtaposition to the silkiness of the fish. Loved the olive oil + olive tapenade sauce. Just the right balance between saltiness and sweetness, a nice Mediterranean interpretation.

Lamb shank ($32)

It is good. Lamb is not too soft and I like my lean meat to have a bit more of fight remaining in it. Otherwise, all nice juice/flavor would leak out. The interesting thing about the lamb is that it has a hint of smokiness, like…hickory, maybe. Perhaps that’s the wood they used to grill the lamb? In any case, lamb was very good – part easily at the point of the nice, a substantial texture to bit into, very little work required for chewing. The shredded carrots were both sweet and sour, offsetting the nice smokiness of the meat. But all of the above was as expected. I’d be an idiot not to realize by now that Bouchon would serve up a great dish. What took me by surprise was how a component of this dish exceeded great. It was sublime. It was mind-blowing. It was a revelation. The component is: the humble, everyday staple starch – mashed potatoes. I can't believe I didn't take a picture of it!!!! You probably wouldn’t believe me, but I really almost cried when I first tasted the mashed potatoes. First was the texture – so silky, so soft, so “melting”…so beyond my imagination of how potatoes could taste. Second was the taste. I thought I had tried all variety of organic potatoes available to me through the major markets, vendors, farmer’s market, you name it. Nothing EVER came close to the cleanness of the gentle and warm potato sweetness presented in this dish. Corn soup realization once again. It might sound melodramatic, but some dishes really could touch your heart deeply because of the amount of care and attention poured into it by the chef, the careful thought and consideration that went into the devising and delivery of the dish, and the idea that someone took so much time and effort in preparing something so simple for your 5 minute enjoyment. I guess this is why cuisine art touches me so much, because it is so very personal.

Shoestring French Fries

I think I saw this on Antony Bourdain’s show in which he declared that Bounchon had the best shoestring French Fries ever. Don't know about that, but definitely very good fries. Crispy exterior fracture with the slightest pressure, potato goodness oozing out from the break. A tad of oregano. Who needs ketchup???

Profiteroles with mint and vanilla ice cream

Even though I couldn’t manage any more, I managed this. Great crispy choux, minty minty mint ice cream and creamy creamy vanilla ice cream. Loved the dark chocolate sauce. A very satisfactory finish to the meal.

All in all, a perfect evening. I’ll be back, most assuredly!
This also gave me a great boost of enthusiasm for French Laundry. I'll make it there yet!

Basic information:

Bouchon

Phone: (707) 944-8037

Hours of Operation: 11:30am - 12:30am daily

Wood Tavern - Rockridge - 4 stars

2007-07-10T15:03:00.000-07:00

Visited on:

June 15, 2007

Comments:

Great new restaurant, very delicious, excellent addition to the Oakland Rockridge community.

Experience:

That night we just decided to go to a new restaurant to try something new. The new Wooden Tavern seems to be the perfect choice. Replacing the vegetarian Grasshopper, it is located next to one of the best chocolateries in the Bay Area. We called ahead to inquire about availability and was informed that we might just make the last walk-in table. True to the hostess's word, when we arrived, we had the perfect cozy table ready for us. Lots of great ambiance too, with the wooden beams and beautiful abstract landscape paintings. And onto the dinner.

We started with a wonderful salad with shaved parmiggiano and caramelized sweet bell peppers. Now, I don't know what those seed-like...seeds are, not sesame, but they have a really good texture! Kind of like tomato seeds, actually. Very delicately flavored, nice citrusy contrast with the sweet caramelized bell peppers.

But what blew my mind was the lamb carpaccio. I knew it was a risk when I ordered it, but I went ahead with it anyway. The worst scenario was that it could be inedible, no big deal, but this time, I scored big. Move out of the way, beef carpaccio. Lamb carpaccio is the only way to go! Soft, tender, snowflake meltiness, so much better than beef with same amount of fat, because lamb is by nature more silky. Then there's that hint of lamb taste. It was not gamey. It was very elegant, if I were to describe it in colors, I would say that it is a rich and earthy orange with a vein of dark red running through, strong, exciting, yet sophisticated. Shaved parmesan cheese, watercress, and whole black pepper + EVOO just enhanced the entire dish. Seriously yummy.

For the main dish, we debated between pork chop and duck, but picked pork chop because it looked so good going to other people's table. We were not disappointed either. Pork chop was beautifully pinkish in the middle, soft and juicy all the way, extremely tender. Fresh corn and peas bring a summer sweetness to the overall dish. Mouthwateringly good...

I had the Wicked Fish Stew, I have to admit that I was very attracted by the name "wicked". It was right! I especially loved the monk fish in it: soft but spongy at the same time, the ideal characteristics of the fish. Really sweet shrimps, really fresh clams and mussels, but my, the soup is sooooooooooo spicy!! The reason is because of the spicy sausages in there, but the sausages were among the most memorable ingredients of the evening. After a few mouthfuls, strangely, the spiciness would grow on you and you would just keep drinking even though it burned in your mouth. Huh...like opium?? Just can't give it up!

Unfortunately, the desserts did not look very inspiring, so we skipped it.

More duck breasts made its way past us...must try it next time.

Basic information:

6317 College Avenue, Oakland, CA 94620

(510) 654-6607

Grand Cafe - San Francisco - 3 stars

2007-07-10T10:30:00.000-07:00

Visited on:

June 8, 2007

Comments:

Very impressive looking restaurant, why so few people for breakfast?

Experience:

That day was a day of accidents. Canteen isn't open on weekdays, Slow Club isn't open on Monday, but I wanted breakfast in the city, so we went to Grand Cafe. Very beautiful interior with two floor high sculptures and Muscha posters, stain glass windows everywhere. Very art deco in style. I only wanted a light breakfast, so ordered two items with my friend.

This is a tarte tartine with egg salad and caviar. Now, anyone who has had a regular tarte tartine knows that this should only be a piece of baguette smeared with butter and maybe jam. (Which reminds me of my first experience of tarte tartine: I just arrived in Paris and went to this cafe for breakfast. Being new there and to the French language, I totally confused tarte tartine with tarte tatin - reveresed apple pie. So imagine my surprise when I saw this! *Huh...this looked nothing like the tarte tatin that I had last night....*) Grand Cafe indeed serves up a grand tarte tartine. Tastes very good too. Egg salad is not too sour with just the right amount of mayonnaise and the baby spinach leaves were nicely mixed with the salad so you don't get a raw leaf stained with mayo taste. Shredded raw beets is a nice touch that compliments the mustard undertone in French mayo very well. There was more caviar than I expected, I think it is farmed Oestra - all the better. Wild caviar should be left the way it is: wild. The sharp saltiness of the caviar mixed with egg salad and spinach made it all the better.

My friend had an egg benedict. Which is good, but of course cannot compare to Canteen's, but what could? Lots of meaty mushrooms and ham underneath that contrasted nicely with tomatoes. Good enough on a regular day.

One thing that is worth mentioning: the orange juice is very good, but they just pour for you before you could see that it was 4.25 a wineglass glass. So, just be mindful of this. Apart from that, nice decor, great ambiance, totally friendly personnel. Nice breakfast experience in all.

Basic information:
501 Geary Street (between Shannon St & Taylor St), SF

(415) 292-0101

www.grandcafe-sf.com

Canteen - San Francisco - 5 stars

2007-07-10T09:52:00.000-07:00

Visited on:
Many times, latest on July 1, 2007.

Comments:
Five stars, best breakfast restaurant in SF, best egg Benedict anywhere. Best pancake ever tasted, though it is not exactly an American pancake.

Experience:
The restaurant itself is very small, adjacent to the now Academy of Arts student houses. It is kind of hard to tell from the outside, but if you see lots of people crammed inside a small space, that is Canteen. However, I've been there around 12, 12:30 a couple of times and I never had to wait. Brunch hours are the busiest for sure.

So today we started with their brioche. It is sometimes off the menu, so need to ask. Each small fluffy lump is about 3 inches high, about 1/3 of the size of a regular loaf of brioche. Golden top, soft powder sugar, melting bread warm from the oven. Hmm...who needs those extra 2/3 of a loaf?

Brioche

The next dish to come up is a tomato and prawn cold soup. Imagine our surprise when it was "white"! The first taste made us all gasp in surprise - it does taste like nothing but tomatoes, but such clarity in the texture! Refreshingly crisp with shredded basil, just like waking up on a sea cliff and draw in your first deep breathe of the morning with a hint of seafood on the sea breeze. If that air could be had for breakfast, it would taste something like this soup. Prawns are very juicy and sweet. There are 5 of them, quite generous!

Tomato and prawn soup

Next is fish hash, which is truffles compared to your regular button mushroom of a hash. Nice chunky pieces of soft fish with even creamier potatoes in a light but savory saffrony sauce. Then add in that poached egg...so incredibly yummy.

Then of course la piece de resistance - Egg Benedicte. There was an unfortunate accident today: one of the eggs was broken when served. Quel horreur! When I showed it to the chef, he immediately tossed that egg into the trash and offered me another plate on him. How could I turn him down? When the second plate arrived, I could tell that the first plate was done by sous-chef, because this time it was as my memory: the white splits open at the lightest pressure of the knife, warm yolk runneth down along the grilled ham and muffin...a mouthful is a moment of bliss in culinary paradise. And did I mention the sauce? Amazing, amazing hollandaise...so light in texture that it was like the foam of regular hollandaise but with the full flavor and body of a much thicker sauce. We had no trouble finishing plus moping up the second plate, no sir!
Egg Benedict - first plate: see egg on upper corner broken?

Egg Benedict - second plate: must be done by the chef himself

The night before, I was watching Iron Chef "pork chop", so I was seized with an unreasonable longing for pork chop, as many fans of the shows would have experienced frequently. And guess what? Pork chop showed up in Canteen's daily changing menu that day! What can I say...must be dharma. Of course I had to order it, and this beautiful piece of pork arrived. Where there was fat, there was the perfect melding of fat and lean meat, soft as a ripe peach. Where there was only lean meat, it was perfectly pinkish in the middle with a nice firm but yielding texture, dripping with juice. The white beans added the un-needed but much appreciated extra protein. Honey mustard sauce gave an extra kick that saves the dish from being to heavy for a breakfast item. Now, this is what I call a breakfast steak!

Pork chop

Finally, the dessert. Think of a thick slice of really great crepe with fresh strawberry compote hidden underneath, then you have an idea of what the pancake is like. It has a strong taste of egg, and high quality eggs too, no mistake about that. It is like the homemade crepes that my mom used to make me for breakfast, so I feel nostalgic about the dish. My friend who went there for the first time was totally stunned by her first bite that she couldn't speak for a long time. Later, she told us that she could feel tears welling to her eyes. Now she's been called one of the most stoic, expressionless people you could ever meet, so this is high compliments indeed from her. Warm, actually hot pancake, thin in the middle to accommodate the compote, thick on the edges to add extra chewiness to a slice so you can taste the dough as well as the compote. Sour cream sauce again light as a dream, brown sugar syrup is only a dark shadow of sweetness that highlighted the slight tang of fresh strawberries. I cannot think of a more perfect pancake dish than this.

Strawberry pancake with sour cream and brown sugar syrup

Four people, absolutely full, about $65 for all dishes (I added in the price of the egg benedict) and one orange juice, one latte, tip not included. Very satisfactory as usual, love Canteen, can't wait to come back, say...next week.:p

Basic information:
http://www.sfcanteen.com/

817 Sutter Street, SF

415 928 8870

They also serve lunch and dinner, brunch on weekends only. They recently changed their business hours, so call ahead to ask and reserve for dinner.

My experience with Michael Bauer's Bay Area 100, 2007- well, 19 of them anyway.

2007-06-28T12:25:00.000-07:00

My response to Michael Bauer's Bay Area 100. Many restaurants I haven't tried yet. Must make an effort. Here are the ones I have tried: 19 out of a hundred.

Canteen
Excellent, exceptional choice. Not only the food is good, but also really amazing creativity. Egg Benedicte is the most amazing poached egg to be had anywhere – how could egg white melt in your mouth like snow?!?! Sauce hollandaise is more foam than cream, so you get all the flavor without the stickiness. Fantastic strawberry pancake too. A more soft, dewy, eggy concoction than the usual version, slightly thicker at the edges so you can better appreciate the texture and butter/egg perfection, thinner toward the middle for a great marriage with strawberry compote. As for the meat dishes…did the chef make his vocation to ensure that everything melts in your morning-tired mouth? The halibut fades away like a dream with the slightest jaw pressure, leaving the lasting sweetness of fish flesh. Lamb is delicately flavorful, very appropriate for breakfast dish. And have I mentioned the fantastic French toast and out-of-the-world brioche? In all, a must of the musts.

Tartine Bakery
Tartine is a pilgrimage. Standing in the line is a part of the ritual. You worship the fruit tart that you managed to obtain before the person behind you, but you envy the banana cream tart the person in front of you snitched. You want to be a cow here – four stomachs, but you can’t, so you always leave with longing eyes. The croques are nothing short of a meal in itself, very satisfying and delicious. I have never managed to buy a loaf of bread here. Somehow, the universe always conspired against me so it was always sold out 10 minutes before I got there. Good. Then I get more reasons to keep trying.

Bay Wolf (Oakland)
Great winter restaurant. Pretty good summer restaurant too if you want something heavier and richer, or if you just want good food that feels very right to your palate, like an old friend. They make very good cold charcuterie and pates, always serve up huge portions, so beware of that. The décor is really traditional and most of the clientele are older people in 50s+, but who cares. Retro is the new edgy.

Koi Palace (Daly City)
I wouldn’t frequent this place if I were you. You’d be force-fed: ppl placing dim sum on your table then stamp the sheet without even asking for your approval. You might get involved in a gun fight: a shuttle driver told me how he had to stop his friend from pulling a gun out after grappling with another guy in the restaurant over “whose table is that.” A family member had an $800 dinner there – the restaurant just said: we have good fish and good crab today. Care to try? There are better choices out there for dim sum.

Yank Sing
Speaking of better choices for dim sum, this is not one of them. When you see glass tea pots in a Chinese restaurant, you know this is a place that satisfies the fantasy of non-Asians while serving mediocre food in beautiful dishes.

Bistro Jeanty (Yountville)
Oh…how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. You serve authentic bistro food that I miss so much about France. You have this fun communal table at which I grabbed the bread of my neighbors by mistake, but they offered it to me anyway. Your portions are satisfying, so when my friend and I finished 3 appetizers, 2 main dishes, 2 side dishes, and started to attack the half-foot tall rice pudding, my neighbor couldn’t restraint themselves from commenting: my, you surely could eat! Pig trotters, sweetbread, escargots, great lamb, all choices are good, the more exotic “organs” a dish has, the better. San Francisco location is not so good. 20% decrease in food-wow.

Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton
Top notch fine dining experience. Friendly but highly trained servers. Fantastic tasting menu. I have a posting in the blog somewhere. Check it out.

Vik's Chaat Corner (Berkeley)
They serve a lot of things here, they taste pretty good, but I guess I’m not the best judge.

Delfina
When I want to impress on visitors what California cuisine and San Francisco dining experience is like, I take them to Delfina. Oh, and Delfina Pizzeria is not to be missed too. You could even throw in a visit to next-door Tartine, then grab some late night snack from the other next-door Bi-Rite. A gourmet street, 18^th street is.

Oliveto (Oakland)
Best pasta place in town – hands down. The effort spent on each pasta dish is very laudatory, plain presentation, but the smell, the taste, the oomph of the sauce! Like the one time I had salt-packed mullet roe tagliatelle, or the nettle fettucine, and let’s not forget the Bolognaise paparadelle…I’m drooling. Previous part-owner went to open Fra Mani – my favorite salami brand now.

Pizzaiolo (Oakland)
I went there on a bad night – my pizza was burnt. Can’t comment rightly, but I’d be very surprised if it could be better than Delfina Pizzeria.

A Cote (Oakland)
Great drinks, great little dishes, a bit on the heavy and oily side, but very good nonetheless. My favorite tapas place. My only complaint is: why so many people know about this place?!?!?! The wait without reservation is a nightmare…

Chez Panisse (Berkeley)
Ever since my unfortunate experience at Chez Panisse on a Monday night, I stopped going. I prefer its café, but to me, it is still nothing too exceptional. Good, but not something that I get a craving for – unlike Oliveto, Delfina, Tartine, even Dining Room.

Zuni Cafe
Burger heaven…you have to get the burger…read my lips: you have to get the burger. Granted, the other dishes are good, because this is a very good restaurant, but the burger blows out your mind, it reveals a whole new chapter about burger that you never knew, it enlightens your comprehension of patty between bread, it is epiphany. Do you know how a good aioli and bread combination could draw out the finer undertones of minced meat so all the fragrance, fat, and flavor of the meat rushes at you, tastes so much better than just having the meat alone? Just like the right cheese with the right wine. That’s how good the burger is – perfect vintage of a perfect year.

Limon
Grilled foie gras and scallops at a Peruvian restaurant. How unexpected. How mouthwatering good. I tried 80% of their menu already and everything has been good. My only complaint is that I wish they’d change their menu more often. My previous review.

Hog Island Oyster Co.
This is not my favorite oyster company, and definitely not my favorite locale for getting oyster. Nothing beats Tamales Bay in winter months.

Swan Oyster Depot
Crab. Lots of crab. For those who want Dungeness but can’t be bothered to peel, this is the right place. But eating cold seafood at 10am in the morning in November with that howling wind at your back, sitting on a cold stainless steel chair at a stainless steel bar…Well, that’s the only way you can get in. My review from August 2006.

Cesar (Berkeley)
I like this place, but the portions are quite small. Room is small too. Good tapas, a bit different from A Cote: lighter in fare. Nice place to have a drink with friends.

Zarzuela
I haven’t been here after its change in ownership, but before, their paella was amazing and it was the top tapas Spanish tapas place for me in the city. Period. I should go back again.

Away for a while....

2006-10-17T00:30:00.000-07:00

For work and for trying out new food.

So, stay tuned until I come back with exotic food tales from Taiwan!

Tied House - Mountain View - 3 stars

2006-10-12T08:57:00.000-07:00

Visited on: Sep. 29, 2006

Comments: Average -> Recommended

Ordered items:
Blackened catfish

Garlic fries

Fried calamari

Beers

Bread

General description:
Came here with colleagues for happy hour drinking. $2 a beer, half off selected appetizers. We ordered them all. The natchos is not outstanding, but the garlic tossed French fries are rather fine, fried calamari is also plenty, goes well with the beer. The blacked fish is, however, a bit small, there’s only about six pieces of fish in one dish. Could have hoped for more, but tastes pretty good, surprisingly spicy in its flavoring, and the fish is still juicy. Beer variety is also pretty good, but nothing as spectacular as some of the Irish pubs in Mountain View. I probably would choose somewhere else for happy hour gathering for a party of 8 or less. For more people, however, the airy barn feeling with its nice patio filled with gorgeous morning glories should be a good choice. The menu looks very adventurous, featuring New Orleans specialties like alligator sausage and wild boar sausage, and it has a weekly rotation of wild game burger – buffalo, elk, wild boar, and a couple others. My colleague said that the wild game burger is good. I need to try it some other time.

Basic information:
http://www.tiedhouse.com/

Maruichi - Milpitas - 4 stars

2006-10-12T08:40:00.000-07:00

Visited on: Often, last visited on Oct. 3, 2006

Comments: Recommended

Ordered items: All ramens on the menu.
Kuro ramen

Maruichi special with pork-chicken bone broth

Cold ramen

General description:
There are many types of broth based soup in Asia. However, I suppose ramen holds a special place among all the others, for it is unique in its complexity within its own breed. For chow fun, you get beef or chicken, taste pretty much the same, but when you get a pork-bone broth ramen and soy bean sauce broth ramen, the only similarity is as if you say you look like your next door neighbor. Aside from the fact that you are both humans and share the same feature components, you are nothing like each other. Same goes for ramen. The broth base is everything, but the noodles and the accompaniments are what make the broth base divine.

Maruichi Milpitas is a branch of the Mountain View original. I’ve never been to Maruichi Mountain View before, but I can honestly say that Maruichi Milpitas has came a long way since it just opened. Now, the kuro/black ramen based on black sesame oil is no longer greasy but found its broth/oil balance, miso ramen is fully comforting in its warmth and that delightful miso blend of mellowness/sharpness, and the Maruichi special with its abundant accompaniments serves up both taste and value. I like the char siu, the roasted poark, a lot better now, more tender and firm to the bite. When I immerse the soft boiled egg with its semi-ripe, sunset golden yolk into the broth and taste a bite, let the broth melt the yolk in your mouth, a moment of content washes over me. The thin and al-dented ramen noodles trap the soup within its curls very well, and order an extra portion of mentaiko to kick it up a notch. Or you can simply order the special, when you get to choose from pork-bone soup base or kuro soup base, and comes with roasted pork, buro pork (three layer, slow stewed lean/fat/lean cut), scallions, bean sprouts, black fungus, mentaiko, and dryed seawood. A very satisfying meal in itself.

For summer its has cold ramen, prepared cold and dry, and you can add broth to it from a small sake bottle. It is also good, because it comes with crunchy and heat-dispelling accompaniments like cucumber and chilled bean sprouts.

In any case, needs to either come early or come late, since many people are seeking comfort from work or weather in this small restaurant.

Basic information:
530 Barber Lane Milpitas, CA 95035
(408) 434-5991

Beef Noodle Soup (牛肉麵) from my colleague

2006-10-06T14:04:00.000-07:00

This beef noodle soup (牛肉麵) was made by my colleague and his wife. The recipe they used is said to be from Taipei Yuanshan Hotel (台北圓山飯店)’s chef. It was definitely very different from the taste of other beef noodle soup/牛肉麵that I had before. For one thing, it used a special ingredient: Chinese barbeque XaCha sauce, 沙茶醬. The brand? Of course red bull’s 牛頭牌沙茶醬. The usage of the xacha sauce gave the noodle soup an underlying level of complexity that is hard to achieve through regular stock. This is unsurprising, as xacha sauce itself is a blend of sweetness, spiciness, and soy bean sauce-like taste. However, xacha is usually eaten as a dipping sauce for hot pot or used to stir fry things. I was very surprised when I heard about the ingredient’s importance in the recipe, but once I tasted the broth, I realized that it made total sense. The beef in the soup came from boneless spare ribs, and the mixture of fat and lean in the spare ribs gave the broth its substantiality without turning it to an oily, clinging mess. The fat also kept the beef from drying up in its 3 hours long cooking process. I was informed that the “3 hour rule” must be followed utterly with full respect, otherwise the beef will fail. I have no doubt that this is how it should be.

Okra was served as a side, drizzled with thick soy bean sauce(醬油膏), a type of sauce that is thicker in texture with more profoundness in flavor than regular soy bean sauce. The other side dish is bean curd with thousand year preserved eggs and shredded roasted pork (肉鬆皮蛋豆腐). There are two schools of thought on how this dish should be eaten: eat the tofu, and get a bite of preserved eggs to go with it; or mash everything up together and eat it. To me, the second way is the “right” way. Glad to know that colleague’s wife thinks so too. The photo is from before it was mashed up.

Excellent meal all around, big thanks to my colleague and his lovely wife. Hope that we’ll be invited back again when he sees this blog.

Better Bento - Sunnyvale - 3 stars

2006-10-06T11:40:00.000-07:00

Visited on: Often

Comments: Recommended for lunch

Ordered items:
Teriyaki chicken
Oyako don
Tofu don
Daily special
Onigiri
Curry with katsu / chicken katsu

General description:
Japanese home cooking in a box. You can get the combo, which is a pretty good deal, for you get to pick two items out of three, or you can order different kinds of curry and different kinds of don. I like their chicken katsu curry and oyako don very much. For vegetarians, there is tofu don, but you might want to ask about that broth, it could be bonito stock. What I like the best, though, is their onigiri. It is nothing special, just white rice wrapping some pan fried salmon inside with a piece of nori on the outside, but it just tastes very very comforting. If you can’t finish it, leave it for the next morning, add tea or hot water to it, then you’ll have yourself a bowl of chazuke for breakfast. Their daily special is also a good deal, usually with one grilled and one fried main items in the box, with additional side dieshes. Most appetizing.

Basic information:
550 Lakeside Dr Ste 1
Sunnyvale, CA 94085
(408) 720-8889
M-F 11am-2:30pm
M, T, F: 5-8pm
Lunch/ Dinner box: $5.75 - $7.25

Windows on the Water - Morro Bay - 3.5 stars

2006-10-03T20:26:00.000-07:00

Visited on: August 4, 2006

Comments: Recommended

Ordered items:
Ocean Rose Abalone – Locally Raised
Japanese Cucumber & Seaweed Salad, Wasabi and Yuzu Tobikos, Sweet Soya $14

Roman Style" Artichokes
Lemon Aioli, Roasted Garlic Puree, Fresh Herbs $9

Pacific Bouillabaisse
Clams, Calamari, Prawns, Mussels, Pacific Fish, Crab, Saffron Infused Broth, Spicy Rouille $25

Fried local sand dabs with mashed potatoes

Lamb braised in pancetta, rabbit, and duck with spring vegetables.

General description:
I saw this restaurant from Rachel Ray’s program, and thought it is worth a visit. The town itself is beautiful, filled with adorable little shops selling everything from postcards to exquisite jewelry from Israel. If you visit the restaurant, don’t forget to visit a shell store at the end of the street. The most complete collection of shells and corals I’ve ever seen in California is ranged there. I almost bought myself a fan of bewitching pink coral. Back to the restaurant. All the windows literally open towards the water and Morro Rock, and you can see boats and seals, both bobbing up and down on the water, ignoring the raucous seagulls. On weekends, the restaurant has musicians and a singer singing old favorites. Locals would visit there, and get up and dance to the music. A homey kind of romantic.

Dishes are very well executed. Abalone surprised me a little bit with its tempura skin, but enjoyably tender. Artichoke hearts were a little to the bitter side, and I wish there were two more of them. I enjoyed the bouillabaisse very much, although to me it is more like a cioppino. Shell fish especially clams are featured to great effect. Deep fried sand dabs are also very well done, crispiness matching well with the creamier sauce. The star of the evening, however, is undoubtedly the lamb, braised in pancetta, duck, and rabbit, garnished with baby spring vegetables. Totally decadent, utterly delicious. The lamb is tender and the juicy, not only from its own juice, but also the juice cooked from mixing three types of meats together: saltiness and greasiness from the pancetta, intense darkness from the duck, and wild gamey flavors from the rabbit. What’s amazing is that you can still taste small chunks of duck, rabbit, and pancetta within the sauce, making it an interesting mix with the main lamb slices and spring vegetables. Definitely a dish that reminds me of a roman repast.

Basic information:
Windows on the Water
699 Embarcadero
Morro Bay, Ca 93442
805-772-0677
Open Daily 5:00 P.M.
http://www.windowsonthewater.net

Restaurant O opening again

2006-10-02T17:06:00.000-07:00

Read about this on the newspaper: Restaurant O's chef Justin Perez is reopening his restaurant at the same location in Campbell. Expect NY swanky decor and items like fettucine with fire roasted Dungeness crab, or pizza with wild boar and chanterelle. Looking at its website, I see past offerings include elk, rabbits, foie gras, wild boar, and other kinds of seasonal games. Seems like the chef intents to continue his original line of cuisine.

What intrigues me is that the chef's main business seems to be in catering rather than dining. It would be interesting to try this place, and figure our how the chef's background influences the cuisine style, either positively or negatively.

Some basic information:
http://www.restaurant-o.com
2081 South Winchester Boulevard | Campbell, CA 95008
restaurant . 408.871.3135

The restaurant is said to open in late autumn.

The Spice Islands Cafe - Mountain View - 3.5 starsMalaysian and Singaporea

2006-10-01T18:38:00.000-07:00

Visited on: Sep. 22, 2006

Comments: Recommended

Ordered items:
Mustard spinach stirred fried with shrimp sauce

Pork curry

Pineapple rice

Hainan chicken

Katong laksa

Roti prata

General description:
I’ve been looking for a good Malaysian and Singaporean place for ages, and I seem to have found a rather good one in Spice Islands. It has many Malaysian dishes, with some Singaporean favorites like roti prata and Hainan chicken rice. The mustard spinach stirred fried with shrimp sauce (馬來風光?) is really good, the restaurant is not timid about lathering on the pungent seasoning, so the dish is memorable instead of bland. That bowl of Kantong laksa is huge. There were six of us, and we each could get one full small bowl out of it. Pineapple fried rice is definitely not a staple in either Malaysian or Singaporean cuisine, but hey, I like it. The only weak point is the pork curry, and even that is good, just not what I expected. It was like a mild version of its Thai or Burmese cousin. Hainan chicken rice is generous with the chicken, which is tender, moist, and sweet. On a par with the Hainan chicken rice of Prima Taste. A good spot for lunch. Next time I’ll have to try their ice kachang. I haven’t gone back to Singapore for a while, so I’m definitely missing that. Ah, the land of perpetual summer…

Basic information:
210 Hope St. (corner of Villa St. and Hope St.)
(650) 961-0628
Hours:
Lunch: Sun-Fri 11am-3pm
Dinner: Sun-Thu 5pm-9:30pm, Fri-Sat 5pm-10:30pm
Laksa around $8, most dishes around $10 - $12.

Michelin Guide Bay Area: Star Restaurants

2006-10-01T12:30:00.000-07:00

The Michelin Guide result just came out, on Oct. 4, 2006. Not many surprises.
I think it is pretty fair, based on my experience in Chez Panisse, Bistro Jeanty, and the Dining Room, and my previous experiences with 1 and 2 star restaurants in France.

I personally think that it is fair that Chez Panisse does not get more than 1 star, Bistro Jeanty deserves its 1 star, and the Dining Room should be more than 1 star, but maybe not quite up to 2 stars. If there is 1.5 star, it should get one.

So, 2006 winners are as following:

ONE STAR

Fleur de Lys	San Francisco	Financial District
Rubicon	San Francisco	Financial District
Bushi-Tei	San Francisco	Marina District
Quince	San Francisco	Marina District
Range	San Francisco	Mission District
Acquerello	San Francisco	Nob Hill
La Folie	San Francisco	Nob Hill
Masa's	San Francisco	Nob Hill
Ritz-Carlton Dining Room	San Francisco	Nob Hill
Gary Danko	San Francisco	North Beach
Boulevard	San Francisco	South of Market
Fifth Floor	San Francisco	South of Market
Chez Panisse	Berkeley	East of San Francisco
Sushi-Ran	Sausalito	North of San Francisco
Chez TJ	Mountain View	South of San Francisco
Auberge du Soleil	Rutherford	Napa Valley
Bistro Jeanty	Yountville	Napa Valley
Bouchon	Yountville	Napa Valley
La Toque	Rutherford	Napa Valley
Terra	St. Helena	Napa Valley
Dry Creek Kitchen	Healdsburg	Russian River Valley
Farmhouse Inn & Restaurant	Forestville	Russian River Valley
K & L Bistro	Sebastopol	Russian River Valley

TWO STARS

Aqua	San Francisco	Financial District
Michael Mina	San Francisco	Financial District
Manresa	Los Gatos	South of San Francisco
Cyrus	Healdsburg	Russian River Valley

THREE STARS

The French Laundry

Yountville

Napa Valley

Fentons Creamery & Restaurant - Oakland -3.5 stars

2006-10-01T10:32:00.000-07:00

Visited on: Sep. 18, 2006

Comments: Recommended, go for portion and decent ice cream. Pretty good pie too!

Ordered items:
Banana boat, the big one

Blueberry pie a la mode with light coconut pineapple ice cream

General description:
A huge, huge ice cream parlor, with many many types of ice creams, and rich rich creations that are downright decadent and messy. Everything overflows: the topping, the scoops, the syrup, the fudge...It is an awesome show of sugar addiction and guaranteed to satisfy kids' ice cream craving. If you like creamy ice cream, this place is for you. I won't say that it is the best ice cream that really showcases the flavors, but it is definitely very nostalgic, the way strawberry ice cream tasted before someone came up with the idea of only using real fruits and organic ones at that. There is a certain charm for artificial flavoring, just like that moment of epiphany of tea-dipped madeleine on the tongue. Might not be the best of tastes, but certainly memory invoking.

Four of us managed to finish the large banana boat and the nice, warm blueberry pie with berry-filled fillings and soft pie crust that melts with the fillings. Fenton's is the ultimate self-indulgences, and I'll be sure come back to indulge myself more.

Basic information:
Fentons Creamery & Restaurant
4226 Piedmont Avenue in Oakland, California
11am to 11pm everyday of the week, and on Friday and Saturday open until midnight
Phone: 510-658-7000
http://www.fentonscreamery.com/

Hyde Street Bistro - San Francisco - 3 stars

2006-10-01T10:08:00.000-07:00

Visited on:Sep. 22, 2006

Comments: A little bit less than recommended because of uneveness in quality, but not without its own merits, especially the margret de canard. That is one outstanding dish.

Ordered items:
Terrine de lapin

Chevre chaud

Escargot

Bouillabasse

Margret de canard

General description:
Small and crowded, just like a bistro in Paris, serving similar foods as well, so I was really excited upon seeing its menu. However, the uneven execution put a damper on my enthusiasm. I like the terrine, but I think it was done too greasy, so instead of a solid mouthful that you get to chew on and mull over the strong dark flavors, you get too much greasiness that you just want to wash away soon. Escargots is lacking in flavor, and a slight bitterness of sloppy cleaning of the snail entrails. Sauce is very good, though. Chevre chaud is too stingy, really unable to appreciate the chevre with such thing slices, and since it is wrapped in filo, makes it even harder as your tongue is not in direct contact with the cheese. How I miss the Parisien cafes where they served up a complete piece of chevre, wonderfully cooked…

On the other hand, the restaurant really shone in its main dishes, a very pleasant surprise. The bouillabaisse has many ingredients in it, shell fish well cooked, fish slightly overdone. The taste is there, but texture wise, it is actually more like a ciopino. I’d want it to be even thicker and creamier, like La Provence’s version. The margret de canard, on the other hand, is a poster child of margret de canard. Succulent, thick pieces of dark meat, drizzled in fruity sauce, every chew brings out more juice from the meat, and the texture is like burnt velvet, lingering, tenacious, and bold, yet tender to swallow.

The servers, however, are a fun bunch. Celebrate a birthday there. I won’t give away the surprise, but it is definitely a lot more than just bringing a cake to your table. The familiar “bah ouai…” brings back many nostalgic memories to be savored along with my duck.

Basic information:
1521 Hyde Street
San Francisco, CA 94109
(415) 292-4415
$19 - $26 for main dishes, $8-$11 for appetizers

Pizzeria Delfina - San Francisco - 5 stars

2006-10-01T09:58:00.000-07:00

Visited on: Sep. 21, 2006

Comments: Highly recommended for pies

Ordered items:
Cherry tomato, ricotta, and basil pie

Don't the tomatoes look delicious?

Create your own burst of flavors!

Homemade sausages

An interesting dessert that we did not try - baked apples

General description:
Delfina is one restaurant I enjoy very much in San Francisco, but I’ve never been to Delfina Pizzeria before. I definitely missed out! It is really small, which only added to the homey and warm feeling of a neighborhood spot. Appetizers look delicious from the counter, but we decided to save our stomach for the pie and the daily special: sausage. The cherry tomatoes, ricotta, and basil pie we ordered was wonderful. The crust is as thin as the ones I had in Naples in Italy, and perfect for the fold-and-eat style favored by the pizza originators. Intensely flavorful cherry tomatoes paired with ricotta plays a beautiful symphony on the tongue, all flavor, no grease. Add a sprinkled of fresh grated Grana Padano cheese, or crush your own stem of oregano over the pie, and add a sprinkling of red pepper flakes, and the flavor becomes as sharp or as mellow as you’d like. Even the crust rim, which I usually leave aside because of undercooking/overcooking/greasiness or simple futile attempts to assuage my diet guilt, was consumed gustily. That’s where you taste the dough, and it has that whiff of fresh, clear bread fragrance that just brings a sense of overall wellbeing.

I also like the homemade sausages. Very meaty but again, never greasy. The sauerkraute piled on top cleared away the remaining oiliness that enabled me to finish my portion even after eating half of a pie.

The staff is fun, and seeing them dancing in the kitchen while tossing/making/baking the pie made you feel like you are also a part of the action, which made it not only a delicious experience, but also a very fun experience.

Basic information:
3611 18th Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 437-6800
www.pizzeriadelfina.com
Hours:
Mon 5:30 p.m.-10:00 p.m.
Tue-Thu 11:30 a.m.-10:00 p.m.
Fri 11:30 a.m.-11:00 p.m.
Sat 12:00 p.m.-11:00 p.m.
Sun 12:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m.
Around $12-$18 per pie.

Little Sheep - Union City - Unknown

2006-10-01T09:21:00.000-07:00

Updates:
Recent visits by friends informed me that the soup quality has lowered.
Reduced from highly recommended to unknown.

Visited on: Often. Latest visit: Sep. 23, 2006

Comments: Highly recommended

Ordered items:
Premium lamb, beef, intestines, winter melon, bead curds, frozen bean curds, assorted vegetables
This is the basic broths: red and white. Have a taste of the white before you put anything in it.

Order as many items as you like, and put the thinly sliced meat into water.

A few seconds later, ready to eat!

Everything else goes into the pot, doesn't that look yummy!

General description:
This is one legendary hot pot place, originated from China, one of the most popular hot pot chains there. With good reason, too. The soup base consists of dozens of herbs, which not only gave it a distinct flavor that is aromatic and earthily powerful, but also has holistic medicinal quality that balances the body and nourishes the ki. The hot pot has two types of soups: white and red. Just in Little Sheep’s case, red does not come from hot pepper oil, like so many inferior hot pots, but from spices. The result is that the spiciness only stays in your mouth without going to the stomach that made your next bathroom visit a truly interesting experience. The herbs also help with digestion, so even if you eat a lot, you don’t feel bloated.

The way to eat a Little Sheep hot pot is to do it like a shabu-shabu with the thinly sliced meats – take a slice of meat, dip it into water, wave it around until it is cooked in mere seconds, and just eat it. Everything else should be put into the pot until fully cooked. However, remember that ingredients will absorb the broth, so if you are not sure about your palate toughness, do not things in the spicy section of the pot for long, or just order a plain white pot (though you'd been missing out if you do that). What’s special about Little Sheep’s broth is that it is fully flavored, so they’ll not give you any dipping sauce, making it an anomaly of Chinese hot pots, but in a very good way. Thinly sliced lamb is very tender, better than beef, and their frozen bean curd is a must try, most excellent and goes very well with the broth. If you see the broth running low, ask for more broth.

This Little Sheep is the first direct operated Little Sheep in the US, other franchise spots are in the LA area. I like the one in Monterey Par, CA very much. The Union City Little Sheep is slightly different in the cuts of meat it uses and presentation is a lot better, but all these are reflected on the price. Call to reserve before you go, otherwise it is going to be one long wait.

Basic information:
34396 Alvarado Niles Road
Union City, CA 94587
(510) 675-9919
Hot pot items from $3.50 and above

Kaita - San Jose - 3 stars

2006-10-01T08:48:00.000-07:00

Visited on: Often. Latest visit: Sep. 25, 2006

Comments: Recommended for lunch and dinner.

Ordered items:
Grilled beef tongue

Japanese hamburger

Miso marinated tuna with Kaitan soup and sashimi

Salmon-ikura don

General description:
Kaita is in the middle of San Jose Japantown, a good place to get some nice Japanese dishes. Although on the expensive size, Kaita turns out a pretty good array of daily specials that are always quite interesting. A small selection of fish is available for sushi, quality is not bad. Read the daily board and pick from there. The only items I’d avoid are the udon that goes with the daily menu, and hamburger meat. They said they use flat udon, but frankly speaking, I have yet to have any udon that should be as soft, squishy, and breaks apart when I try to lift it from the soup. Either it is bad quality flat udon, or their cooking ruined it. Hamburger meat was really, really dense, and not a bit of juice in sight.

Basic information:

From Kaita

215 Jackson StreetSan Jose, CA 95112
(408) 287-5551
$7.00 and upwards for set meal
Has small izakaya style dishes in the evening

Crustacean - San Francisco - 2.5/3stars

2006-09-30T10:09:00.000-07:00

Date visited: Sep. 2, 2006

Type of cuisine: Asian fusion / Vietnamese

Comments: Average

Ordered dishes:
Lobster salad with mango salsa: $18
Roasted crab: Under $40
Garlic noodles: $9.50

General impressions:
A trying-hard-to-impress restaurant with dress code.
Vietnamese fusion cuisine, known for its roasted crabs.Good service. Very hard to park.Very fresh lobster, okay mango salsa. Could be better.Interesting crab, but the crab is quite thin and not really meaty. Too early in the season, perhaps. Cuisine style does not really bring out all the sweetness and characteristic of a Dungeness crab.Garlic noodles: good first impression, full garlic flavor with sweetness. Firm, chewy noodles. When cold, became greasy.
Note:Would go to PPQ instead.

Basic info:
1475 Polk StSan Francisco, CA 94109
(415) 776-2722Mon-Thu 5pm-9:30pm; Fri-Sat 11:30am-3:30pm, 5pm-10:30pm; Sun 11:30am-3:30pm, 5pm-9:30pm Crab: Under $40

Swan Oyster Depot - San Francisco - 4 stars

2006-09-30T09:56:00.000-07:00

Date visited:Sometime in late August

Type of cuisine:
Raw seafood bar

Comments: Recommended for chowder and crab, oysters are a little bit above the average for the price (I still believe going to Tomales Bay is the way to go)

Ordered items:
Clam chowder
Seafood mix cocktail with bay shrimps, one prawn, one oyster, Dungeness crab meat
Open oysters: Fanny Bay, Tomales Bay, Miyagi
Little neck clams
Smoked salmon

General impression:Very, very hard to get a seat. It is a chrome bar with bar stools. No more than 16 seats, probably. Need to stand in the cold.Nice friendly service, but quite forgetful. Totally forgot about what kind of oyster I ordered, just gave me whatever he had on hand.Very fresh seafood, reasonably priced, good variety of oysters.Saw others eating crab salad, big portion, nice chunks of crab meat.Fantastic chowder. It is of a light variation, so ppl who like thick creamy soup might not like it as much. I like a robust flavor of clam that shines through without the hinderance of cream, so I love it. Can actually bite into pieces of clam. Quite a rarity.Amazing smoked salmon. Tender as toro, melts in the mouth without unpleasant fishiness. Served with some bay shrimps, very sweet, a lot better than expected.Good variety of seafood in the cocktail, but so much cocktail sauce that I tasted more sauce than seafood.Oysters....so so. I would still go to Tomales Bay to get the fresh ones directly. Could satisfy a craving if one doesn't want to drive.

Basic info:
1517 Polk StSan Francisco, CA 94109-3606
4156731101
Mon-Sat 8am-5:30pmCash only
Oyster: $1.75 each Seafood salad: $15 Seafood cocktails: Under $10 Whole crab: $25-$30 Chowder: Under $5

Trattoria La Siciliana - Berkeley/Oakland - 3.5 stars

2006-09-30T09:54:00.000-07:00

Date visited: Sep. 10, 2006

Type of cuisine: Sicilian Italian

Comments: Recommended

Ordered dishes:
Marinated clam, shrimp, mussel salad
Bon Appetit mentioned risotto: artichokes, sun-dried tomato, etc.
Linguini al Nero: black squid ink sauce with fresh squid

General impressions:
Cute decor, very compact, two floor high, very noisy. Nice European feeling.
Mediocre salad with good ingredients but lacking finesse in implementation.
Outstanding risotto. Beautiful taste of sun-dried tomatoes, excellent usage of artichokes for texture. Amazing creamy rice grains with the right amount of hardness in the core. Layers of taste, great execution. Best in a long while.
Good linguini. Genuine sauce, full bodied flavor in the sauce, good al dente in pasta, real fresh squid, but overall lacking the extra kick that pushes really good to great.
Very pushy servers. Keeps wanting us to order Family size: double portion of everything, double cost. Not necessary. The amount of food ordered left four girls very full and happy. Supposedly a $8 will be charged, but was not charged.
Need to go early, fills up very quickly with long, long queues outside the door.

Basic info:
2993 College Avenue Berkeley, CA 94705
(510) 704-1474 Tuesday - Sunday 5:30pm-10pm Cash only.
Antipasti: $7-$10 Pasta: $12-$19 Risotto: $14 - $19 Carne & Pesce: Forgot

PPQ Dungeness Island - San Francisco - 4 stars

2006-09-30T08:53:00.000-07:00

Date visited: Sep. 6, 2006

Type of cuisine: Vietnamese / Crab

Comments: Highly recommended

Ordered items:
Fish maul and crab soup: $7.95
Roasted Crab: $32.95

From PPQ

Garlic Noodles: $6.75

From PPQ

General impression:
Easy parking. Free 1hr validation at nearby parking lot.Seems easy to get a table.Good servers, fast response.Many types of crabs: pepper & salt, butter aka oven roasted, curry, chili, and a couple others.Good soup, uses the Cantonese kind of dried fish maul. Large bowl for a small order.Very very good crab. Fresh and meaty, with really really nice sauce. Garlic smells wonderful, permeats the entire crab. Very thoughtful in how the sauce is applied to the crab too. Instead of crab dipped in sauce, you get crab cooked in sauce.Really good garlic noodles. Slightly browned, had to be cooked in a wok. Not as sweet as Crustacean, but not as cloying or oily too. Same chewy texture. Large portion.Note:Prefer here to Crustacean. Can make a mess without worried about making a scene, which is how a crab should be eaten. Will be back again.

Basic info:
2332 Clement St San Francisco, CA 94121 (415) 386-8266 Wed-Mon 11am-10pm
Crab: SeasonalDishes: Under $20
Dinner for two: $46.50: Imperial rolls / Cabbage with chicken salad / Roasted Crab / Garlic Noodles / Fried banana - desert

Angelfish - Alameda - 3.5 stars

2006-09-30T08:50:00.000-07:00

Updates:
Recent visits in May and June prompted me to lower the recommendation to 3.5 stars, because on both occasions, the chef was drunk, sushi rice was soggy, and the sous chef made sushi for us even though we were doing omakase and asked specifically for the owner chef.

Date visited: First: Sep. 5, 2006. ;Latest: Sep. 30, 2006

Type of cuisine: Authentic Japanese sushi and other cuisine

Comments: Recommended

Ordered items:
Hirame fin / Hirame / Suzuki


From Angelfish

Oh-Buro (Yellowtail)

From Angelfish

White Tuna

From Angelfish

Uni

From Angelfish

Toro Sake

From Angelfish

Maguro and Toro

From Angelfish

Mirugai

From Angelfish

Fried yellowtail with ponzu and spicy radish

From Angelfish

Grilled taco (octopus)

From Angelfish

Anago

From Angelfish

General impression:
Could be hard to get a seat here, best come early. Saturday more slow. Definitely sit at the bar for sushi, otherwise you get Mexican or second chef made sushi. Look to the board for today's specials.Very fresh fish. Chef also knows his fish well. Cutting and nigiri making technique could be improved upon. A bit sloppy in the edges of the fish slices. Rice grains over dry. However, even with all these problems, it is still genuine Japanese style sushi, and quite palaptable when my favorite Hideki-san is away.Also, some new fish I've never had here. Suzuki is really good, sweet and chewy, fragrance brought out by a leaf of shiso. Aji is very small, but good in freshness. Katsuo is overcharred on the outside, should be 1-2 mm only, not the 4mm I got.Hirame is from a nice part of the fish, good texture and firmness with a clarity in the taste.White tuna...fantastic. The rich taste of hamachi without the oilyness. Refreshing yet rich is the best description I have.Maguro from near bone, yum. Fatty salmon, very very good. I don't like salmon as a rule, but this I'll eat. Probably king salmon. Abalone...not good. Too hard and not fragrant enough. That $26.50 a pair abalone I had in 大和 in 築地 is definitely a treasured memory. Saba...not good. Probably he's a friend of Hideki-san's, the flavoring is definitely close, but way too salty and heavy-handed. Chef treated us a bowl of fish + clam soup each. Very very tasty. Probably can't be ordered from the menu, cuz it has a lot of fish bones in it, but definitely beautiful in its taste. Broth is dominated by the clam but supported by the delicacy of white fish. Reminds me of 紅目鰱. Will probably visit once in a while for new fish.Seems to have a lot of cooked Japanese dishes.

Updates:
Sep. 30, 2006: Bumped this place up to a highly recommended because of the grilled taco sushi. Out of the world and bold taste. The tough exterior was removed, leaving only smooth and juicy meat. The texture is between the crunchiness of mirugai and the tenacious sweetness of ika. Blowtorch grilled, adding a layer of cooked fragrance, with the dollop of ume and leave of shiso to enhance the natural beauty of octopus. A totally new experience for me. Chef's treat, too. I would definitely come here for an omakase. However, had the first five sushi made by the apprentice. Such a waste of beautiful fish. His gestures are totally wrong, resulting in a hard brick of sushi rice that tasted flat, dry, grainy, but in Chef Taka's hands, the sushi rice came out perfectly fine. A lesson to be learnt here: trust only Taka's hands. Another chef's treat is the deep fried yellowtail in ponzu and spicy radish. Used the dark meat of the fish, so it is more oily and has heavier taste. Most suitable part for the dish.

Basic info:
883 Island Dr Ste C-2Alameda, CA 94502-6798
5107490460
http://www.angelfish-restaurant.com/
Refer to website for menu and price

The Dining Room - San Francisco - 5 stars

2006-09-30T08:44:00.000-07:00

Date:Jan. 14, 2006

Type of cuisine:Fine French-Californian

Comments:
Highly recommended

General Impressions:
We had the 9 course tasting menu on Jan. 14, 2006. The chef has amazing talents. All the dishes are extremely clever, but with a whimsical sense of humor, so you feel intrigued by the chef's personality and consideration. Server/Manager? told us that the chef would go down to the farmers market every week with his truck to pick up the ingredients. No wonder he used a lot of satsuma, blood orange, and kanpachi. All seasonal ingredients.

Lovely restuarant, interesting combination of decor, classic furniture in reds and golds, and modern paintings in lots of greens and blues. Perfectly echoing the style of his dishes: a beautiful balance of lightness and richness. Quite nice serving staff, know how to make the guests feel comfortable with the the right kind of quips while offering impeccable service. The only two faux-pas that occurred the entire evening is that my water glass was filled only when it was below 30% full, and they tried to add plain water to my sparkling water. The first one I can live with, the second one only happened once, so overall, still top-notch service.

We don't drink, so can't comment on the wine list. I can, however, commend them highly on the choice of sparkling water: Hilden. Very crisp texture, not too flavorful in minerals to obstruct the dishes, bubbles just the right size to cleanse the palate without numbing them. Not many resturants understand the importance of matching sparkling water with their dishes. Ex: recommending Perrier...ughh...

So, cut through the chase: the menu. *Big thanks to the poster above (Laurie?) for putting up THEIR menu in such details. Then I just need to make a few changes instead of dragging up my food besotted memories...

Each course has two versions. The top ones go together as a set, and the bottom ones as a set.

Oh, gifts from the chef:

1. Chestnut chicken soup
Wonderful start. Very fitting with the season.

2. Sashimi
Kanpachi, topped with thin slices of red raddish, and ponzu sauce.

I don't know...I thought hirame would be a better choice, because it is lighter, sweeter, and chewier. Winter is also a great season for it. My companion thought kanpachi is better, because it is fattier. Ah well.

3. Sea urchin panna cotta with avocado and Dungeness crab

Bold use of sea urchin. Tastes pretty good though, but I'd like to taste more sea urchin, and perhaps use Boston sea urchin, which has a stronger, darker flavor, thsn the lighter, sweeter kind used here (maybe Santa Barbara?).

Nine Course Menu

Salsify Soup
golden osetra caviar, miagi oyster
Oyster is buried at the bottom of the bowl, and caviar is placed at the top.

Matsutake Consommé
foie gras ravioli, matsutake consomme, yuzu sorbet
Yuzu sorbet is advised to be eaten between bites to cleanse the palate. Very fragrant matsutake consumme, with a little bit of cooked garlic it to give it an undertone of spiciness.
~~
Sashimi Of Blue Fin Tuna
geoduck, shaved radishes, shiso and orange gelée, smoked maldon sea salt

Grilled day boat scallops
Grilled scallops sitting on a bed of sliced avocados, surrounded by cooked(grilled?) blood orange slices, topped with baby clover and cilantro, drizzled with satsuma vinegrette.

Beautiful dish, wonderful balance of warmth from orange and coldness from the avocado and vegi. Scallops are cut about 1/2 from the length so it becomes even more chewable and tender, releasing all the sweetness to balance the tartness of blood oranges.
~~
Turbot
Black truffles on top, accompanied by asparagues and other vegetables. A rich sauce.

Black Cod
A two layered dish, really. The top layer is a piece of grilled black cod. Wonderfully done. Crispy on the top, juicy in the middle. Poured over with some coconut juice and lime sauce the dripped through holes in the top layer of the dish to the bottom, hidden from me. After I finished the black cod, the server removed the top dish, and revealed:
Prawn ravioli, leeks, and artichoke heart. My guess is that the artichoke heart has been precooked in white wine. Then all topped with a bit of chives.

All supurb.
~~
Maine Lobster
red wine braised oxtail, chanterelles, red onions

Very bold pairing, to use red wine/oxtail as sauce for the lobster. Worked out extremely well, and the red onions served to remove the slight greasiness left by the oxtail sauce.

Maine Lobster
Golden oestra caviar, celery root, cooked cabbage heart, and salsify sauce with celery root reduction.

Delicious caviar piled on top of the lobster, which enhanced the flavor of the lobster, the smooth taste of celery root smothers the sharp saltiness of the caviar, and finally the cooked cabbage's slight bitterness rounded up the entire process. The theme of citrus fruit is still present in this dish, can taste but can't see. In the sauce, I think.
~~
Chilled Foie Gras
pinot gris gelée, housemade quince jam, mache, candied pecans, grilled bread

The bread is less than perfect, being a bit too greasy on the fingers. Otherwise, perfect follow up to the lobster.

Hot Foie Gras
spicy pickled huckleberries, crouton, apple juice infused with black pepper

Hot foie gras as grilling the raw liver. Beautifully done, just the right balance of rawness and richness. Huckleberries a bit too sweet for me, might be a personal thing. Still, a very stronge statement of change in the taste/style of the tasting menu. Great transitional dish. Follows up wonderfully with the previous lobster. We tried imagining what it would be like if our dishes switched at this point, and our common conclusion was that it would be disastrous: too greasy on one side, and too clashing with the creaminess of the salsify sauce on the other.

~~

Squab Breast ****
Squab liver mousse, garlic slivers, pomegranate seeds, cardamom broth, and a slice of squab liver

Squab so tender and rich...and just the right choice for a winter menu. Using the liver as flavoring is another ingenious touch.

Red Pondicherry Crusted Duck Breast
cipollini onions, brocauli florets, satsuma mandarins

I've never had brocauli before, only wondered about them a lot. I'll stop wondering and start eating them. The sweetness of cauliflower mated with the crunchiness of brocauli. Perfect combination. Duck breast is so amazingly tender tender tender...the best
~~

Milk Fed Veal Tenderloin
Topped with bone marrow, veal in the middle, wilted spinach at the bottom, surrounded by potatoes (fingerlings, maybe?), port reduction sauce.

Milk Fed Veal Tenderloin
Lightly fried chicken on the top, veal in the middle, with candy cap mushroom (I think) risotto at the bottom, finished with a tangerine sauce.

I can't believe it is chicken. I really can't. So juicy and tender, melts in your mouth. Contrasts with the firm, lean, tenderness of veal. Then adding the chewiness of the risotto, with the occasional bites of candy cap. Heavenly. Of course, tangerine sauce, ending to the citrus theme.
~~
Beet Sorbet
Blood orange gelee

It tastes very...beet. I'm not too fond of red beets, but my companion loved it. Said it was perfect finish to the veal.

Tangerine Sorbet
Lemongrass gelee

Loved this. Only hope it was bigger...:p
~~
Cinnamon Panna Cotta
lemongrass soup, pomegranate seeds, fresh fruits, apple chips

Chocolate brownie
White and dark chocolate mouse, hazelnut chocolate brownie, some kind of liquor for sauce, dried black raisins, some nuts in salt (server couldn't tell me what kind of nuts), might be hazel? Didn't eat them. Not nuts on nuts (sorry for the pun).

Brownie? The most misleading term ever! The texture is actually more like a wafer. Very good with the smooth mouse. I'm not a chocolate or hazelnut lover, but even I find this desert highly satisfactory. Genius.

~~
Conclusion: delightful evening. Must try.

Basic info:
Ritz Carlton San Francisco Tuesday through Thursday, 6 to 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. http://www.ritzcarlton.com/hotels/san_francisco/dining/venues/dining_room/default.asp

Universal Cafe - San Francisco - 3.5 stars

2006-09-30T08:42:00.000-07:00

Date visited: Sep. 2, 2006

Type of cuisine: Californian Organic

Comments: Recommended

Ordered items:
Salad from Blue Heron farm
Cheese tasting plate

General impression:
Really, really out of the way. So unexpected.Small restaurant, very modern decor.Lovely, large portion salad. Nice organic veggie.Wondeful cheeses with amazing walnut-cranberry bread. A very hard tomme, a very nice blue, and a very nice cream. Accompanied by tiny champagne grapes and fig jam, drizzeled with lavender honey, brings out the fragrance of the cheeses.Loved their bread. Acme?Too hasty in this visit. Must go again.

Basic info:
2814 19th streetSF, CA(415) 821-4608Tue-Sun 5:30pm-10pmSat-Sun 9:30am-2:30pm
www.universalcafe.net
Refer to website for menu and price

La Provence - San Francisco - 4 stars

2006-09-30T08:36:00.000-07:00

Updates:
Revisited in March, 2007. Still good!

Date visited: August 26, 2006

Type of cuisine: Southern France

Comments:Highly recommended

Ordered items:
Duck rillete
Provence pie in filo
Fish soup
Gigot d'agneau
St. Tropez pie

General impression:
A gem of a restaurant, small and cozy, full with the beautiful yellow of La Provence.Very very authentic family cooking of the Provence region. My comfort food of all time.Wonderful rillette, liver adds that strong dark flavor loved by all who loves rillete.Pie is savory yet light, very delicious blend of ingredients.Amazing fish soup, just like Bouillabasse that I had in Marsailles, esp. with the bread with spread to be immersed in the soup....that's the real way to go!! Succulent fish and shellfish filled the plate, redolent with the fragrance of saffron.Tender, succulent lamp slices, juicy and red, super yummy.Pie to die for, light and fluffy as clouds, with a hint of citrus jam that cleanses away the heaviness of the meal.So satisfied....

Basic info:
1001 Guerrero St.San Francisco, CA 94110(415) 643-4333
Tue-Fri 5:30pm-11pmSat 10am-3pm; 5:30pm-11pmSun 10am-3pm; 5:30pm-11pm
http://www.laprovencerestaurant.net/
Refer to website for menu and price

Top Dog - Berkeley - 4 stars

2006-09-30T08:33:00.000-07:00

Date visited: Often

Type of cuisine: Ethnic hot dogs

Comments: Recommended

Ordered items:
Top dog
Brockenwurst
Bird Dog
Linguica

General impression:
Small storefront with lots of Berkeley students working up a late night appetite.Many condiments, best of which is free sauerkraut. How nice is that....A large variety of dogs, I like them all, except for Bird Dog. It was recommended to me with chili topping. Unfortunately, the one time I tasted it, it had no chili on it.I might need to get it again.Brockenwurst is very soft and tender, and you can taste the milk in it. Linguica has that nice earthy and dark flavor that blends very well with chili. In Berkeley alone there are several Top Dogs, my friend said that this one is better than the one on Milvia.

Basic info:
2534 Durant Ave Berkeley, CA 94704-1771
5108435967
Mon-Thu 10am-2am;Fri 10am-3am;Sat 11am-3am;Sun 11am-2am
Cash only
http://www.topdoghotdogs.com/
Refer to website for menu and price

Koryo Korean BBQ - Oakland - 4 stars

2006-09-30T08:30:00.000-07:00

Updates:
Found a new place nearby that serves similar, slightly less good, but cheaper Korean BBQ with excellent service. So I'm still doing 4 stars, but with a suggestion that you can look elsewhere for similar offerings.

Date visited: Often
Type of cuisine: Korean BBQ
Comments:Highly recommended

Ordered items:
Spicy chicken BBQ: Under $20
Pork BBQ: : Under $20
Beef BBQ: : Under $20
Seafood pancake: Around $12
Dol Solt Bimbibop:: Around $15

General impression:
Its distinctive character is that you BBQ with high purity charcoal instead of a grill, so very nice smoky flavor.Of course, your meat gets burnt a lot easier too.I like their pancake and dol solt bbb a lot too. The pancake has a lot of scallions in there, so no worry about too much dough. Dol Solt bbb is always served very hot, so can use that stone pot to grill the rice, giving it a nice, browned fragrance.High quality food open late at night. How nice...

Basic info:
2556 Telegraph Ave Ste 8Berkeley, CA 94704-2921
5105482525
Opens very late, up to 2am everyday

Extreme Pizza - Chain - 3.5 stars

2006-09-30T08:28:00.000-07:00

Date visited: Often

Type of cuisine: Gourmet Californian Pizza

Comments: Recommended

Ordered items: All on the pizza menu

General impression:
This is one pizza delivery whose quality is consistent, tastes delicious, and has great buffalo chicken wings that are not over greasy. Anything with lots of vegetable piled on the pie is a good choice here. However, if you can get to their shops and grab their speciality of the day, you get stuff that's off the menu. My personal favorites are:Drag it through the garden, Pandora's boxGreen with envy, and Buffalo chicken wings.

Basic info:
www.extremepizza.com

Palace Korean BBQ - Sunnyvale - 4 stars

2006-09-30T08:26:00.000-07:00

Date visited: Often

Type of cuisine: Korean BBQ buffet

Comments: Highly Recommended, but only as buffet

General impression:

It's big, it's noisy, it's super smoky, but just look at the variety of meat available for BBQ, you'll realize that you are in Korean BBQ paradise. For dinner, the best bang for the buck is the bone-on meat roll. Okay, I admit I don't know its actual name. It is this roll of thinly sliced meat with a bone wrapped in the middle. What I do know is that it is one of the most expensive items you can order in a Korean restaurant. In Koryo of Berkeley, this item would cost around $26.50. Palace BBQ serves it up in unlimited buffet! How awesome is that...Other meats include chicken, pork, regular pork, and seafood as well. I like the grilled squid a lot.There are also a lot of Korean/Chinese cooked dishes, Korean rice dishes, cold noodles, and some fruits. All in all, a good place to have a high-cholestrol, meat-centric meal.

Basic info:
Address: 1092 E. El Camino Real, Sunnyvale
Phone: 408/554-9292
Hours: Lunch 11:30am-3pm; dinner 5-10pm; closed Mon.
Format:BuffetAround $22.50 per person for dinner.

Koryo Sushi - Oakland - 2.5 stars

2006-09-30T08:24:00.000-07:00

Date visited: Often

Type of cuisine: Korean-influenced Japanese sushi

Comments:Average

General impression:
From the name you can tell that it is operated by the same family as Koryo of Berkeley. In fact, they are next to each other. I'm putting this under Berkeley because it is on Telegraph, and actually at the border between Berkeley and Oakland. The best thing about this restaurant is that it opens really, really late. So if you want sushi in the wee hours of the morning, here is where you'd get it. They also use a lot of Korean ingredients in their sushi, and expect "SPICY" when you order spicy items. No kidding there. It is definitely burn-your-mouth spicy rolls!I had their sukiyaki and grilled squid, and I cannot recommend it at all. The sukiyaki is too sweet, squid too rubbery. Come here for therolls. However, if it is around 9ish, I'd recommend Sushi House, as Koryo Sushi is a bit more pricy.

Basic info:
4390 Telegraph Avenue Suite GOakland CA 94609Phone: (510) 594-0661Tuesday – Thursday, 5:00 p.m. – 1:30 a.m.Friday – Saturday, 5:00 p.m. – 2:30 a.m.Sunday, 5:00 p.m. – 11:30 p.m.
http://www.koryosushi.net/
Rolls:Around $10 for 8 pieces.Meals: Around $12 for a bento box.

Darda Seafood Restaurant - Milpitas - 4 stars

2006-09-30T08:21:00.000-07:00

Visited on: Often

Type of cuisine:Chinese Islamic

Comments: Highly recommended

Ordered items:
Sesame bread
Lamb with Chinese Pickled Cabbage Soup
Lamb with Pickled Cabbage Warm Pot
Braised Lamb StewHouse bread in lamb soup
Beef / Lamb Home Made Chow Mein

General description:
This is an Islamic Chinese restaurant, meaning that no pork will be served here. So you can't go wrong if you order anything with lamb, they are all really, really good. The name "Seafood Restaurant" is somewhat misleading though, because you'd be sorely disappointed if you come here looking for fresh, jump-out-of-water seafood. Here, they are good at warm pots, braised dishes, noodles, and bread, all considered as staple dishes from Northern and Northeastern Chinese cuisine. Their pickled cabbage is particularly good, plentiful, sour, and crunchy. The soup version is just as good as the warm pot version. If you have the house bread in lamb soup, remember to tear up the bread into corn kernel sizes and immerse them inside the soup to eat. The homemade chow mein is also a misleading term. A direct translation would actually be knife-sliced noodles. This is how it is made: the chef will make a ball of dough, about the size of one and half palm length, then stand away from a huge pot of boiling water, holding the dough in his hand, and start to slice 3 inche long, 1/2 to 1 inch wide slices of dough into the water. As he slices, he'll turn the dough at the same time, so each noodle has a triangular shape to it, rather than flat pieces. This angle gives this type of noodles its special chewiness. Usually, the speed at which the chef does it is nothing short of acrobatic. Darda makes a very good dish out of the noodles, must be tried.

Basic information:
296 Barber CourtMilpitas, CA 95035Tel: (408) 433-5199 Mon-Thur 11:00 - 2:30, 5:00 - 9:30Fri-Sun 11:00 - 3:00, 4:30 - 9:30
www.dardaseafood.com
For price and menu items, please refer to the website.

Limon - San Francisco - 4 stars

2006-09-30T08:17:00.000-07:00

Visited on: Often

Cuisine type: Peruvian

Comments: Highly recommended
Note: the 1 star taken is because their menu doesn't change often enough.

Ordered items:
Vieres con Foie Gras
Pan seared scallops and foie gras served over a creamy yucca puree with fig sauce and purple corn reduction
Empanada: Don Walter Pastry filled with sautéed beef, onions, olives, raisins and eggs served with rocoto cream sauce
Calamares Limon: Braised whole calamari stuffed with aji Amarillo, shrimp and breadcrumbs, served with saffron cream sauce and tomato-crispy leek salad
Ceviche Limon: Fresh halibut with mixed seafood marinated in lime juice, served with yam, Peruvian corn and mussels in a salsa criolla
Parihuela ( Peruvian Bouillabaise): Fish, scallops, clams, mussels, prawns, calamari, and crab in a red pepper, wine tomato broth
Chuleton Carlitos: 12 oz. pork chop served over sautéed bacon-cabbage potato hash and a mushroom ragout
Pechuga de Pato: Pan roasted Muscovy duck breast, over foie gras tacu-tacu, sautéed tatsoi and duck jus
Arroz con Mariscos: Clams, scallops, mussels, shrimp and calamari cooked with saffron rice in a pepper shrimp sauce

General description:
A very modern and chic restaurant in the Missions. Hard to park, but so worth it.Everything I've ordered here has been good.Soft and succulent blend of foie gras and sweet tender scallops.The savoriest empanada I've ever had.Fresh calamari with naturally sweet shrimp stuffing that smells heavenly because of the light saffron sauce.Awesome blend of ceviche, where you get a bit of everything to taste.Amazing parihuela, everything is as it should be, a light broth instead of a creamy one.Very tender pork, with the right amount of pink and juice oozing out of the beautifully grilled meat.Lightly browned duck, so tender and moist, rich sauce full of powerful but not overpowering earthy tastes.Arroz con Mariscos is kind of like a Peruvian paella, but more moist than the Spanish version. Very tasty, a little bit of pepper adds that kick which brings seafood sweetness to life.

Basic information:
524 Valencia StreetSan Francisco, California415.252.0918 telMon-Thurs: 11:30-3:00 5:00 -10:30Friday: 11:30-3:00 5:00 -11:00Saturday: 12:00-11:00Sunday: 12:00-10:00
http://limon-sf.com
For price and menu items, please refer to the website.

Moscow and Tbilisi Bakery - San Francisco - 3 stars

2006-09-30T08:15:00.000-07:00

Visited on: Sep. 9, 2006

Cuisine type:Russian bakery

Comment: Recommended

Ordered items:
White meringue
Meat pirosky
Cherry napolean

General description:
I was shocked by the size of the pirosky they sold. They're about 10 inches long!! This is a lot larger than the well-known Pirosky Pirosky. Also, the dough looks different, more like a deep fried and breaded donut than the smooth bread exterior in Pirosky Pirosky. The filling is very savory, with a lot of meat, and the thickness of the dough is just right to balance the filling, yet not so thin that the juice of the filling will leak out to make a gooey mess. If worried about the oil, use kitchen towel to soak it up, but it's not that bad. Cherry napolean is very good, nice thick cream without being over sweet, delicious cherry compote. A huge slab of it, about 7 inches long, 3 inches wide, 3 inches high. Meringue must be the size of a softball, but so crumbly, and melts entirely in your mouth like a dream, not one bit of stickiness that sometimes appear in poorly made meringue. Will go again. The counter opposite of the pastries is said to be Georgian food, but as I have no experience in Georgian food, cannot be the judge of the quality just from the looks of it.

Basic information:
5540 Geary BoulevardSan Francisco, CA 94121(415) 668-6959
Pirosky: $1.75 Meringue: $1.00 Napolean: $2.00 Other pastries: Usually under $5.00

Ici - Berkeley/Oakland - 4.5 stars

2006-09-30T08:14:00.000-07:00

Visited on: Sep. 10, 2006

Cuisine type: Handmade ice cream

Comment: Highly recommended

Ordered items:
Plum and raspberry sorbet
Ginger and caramel
Black mission fig
Honey lavender

General description:
Pastry chef from Chez Panisse proves his mettle here. Really nice ice cream with special flavors not often seen anywhere else. One small gives you two scoops, fairly good. Ice cream is very finely textured, not a lot of air in there, I believe that's due to careful churning. Ginger is very strong of ginger, honey lavender lets honey take the stage with lavender as a fragrant backdrop, excellent balance. Mission fig tastes very creamy, and plum/raspberry sorbet is definitely on the tart side, and I love its tartness. You can taste the plum too, and the sorbet texture is also very fine, without the tiny icicles one sometimes find in sorbet. No seating area, the line moves fairly fast.

Basic information:
2948 College Ave (@ Ashby)Berkeley CA 94705510-665-6054Hrs: 11-9 Tues Sunkid's $2.50small $3.50Large $4.50Pint $7.75Quart $14.75Bombessmall (serves 2-4) $16.50Medium (serves 6-8) $28.50large (serves 10-12) $38.50

2 Chez Vietnamese Restaurant - Sunnyvale - 3 stars

2006-09-30T08:11:00.000-07:00

Visited on: Often

Cuisine type:Vietnamese

Comment: Recommended

Ordered items:
Roasted pork and shredded pork with fried egg over rice
Roasted pork and shrimp vermicelli
House special wokBeef stew with French baguette
Pork stew with egg and rice
Curry Chicken

General description:
A good place for a quick bite. I particularly like their beef stew with French baguette, very tender beef and nice broth. The roasted pork and shrimp vermicelli is also rather good, served with whole lettuce leaves, basil leaves, and cilantro leaves to wrap around roasted pork or shrimp and a slice of compressed vermicelli cut into a triangle, then dipped into fish sauce. Nice contrast of texture and flavor there. The roasted pork rice is also very good, love anything that ends with "stew" in that place. Try to avoid their pho, though. Definitely not the best item to get in 2 Chez.

Basic information:
548 Lawrence Expwy(408)749-1719SunnyvaleAppetizers: $5.50 - $8.50Main dish: $6.75 - $8.90

Beard Papa - San Francisco - 3.5/4 stars

2006-09-30T08:06:00.000-07:00

Visited on: Sep. 13, 2006

Cuisine type: Japanese pastry, specializing in puff

Comment: Highly recommended, but should be eaten very very quickly, preferably right away. AND get a napkin, the filling is sooooo rich and drippy. All in a most excellent way.

Note: The 3.5/4 is because sometimes the quality could be inconsistent.

Ordered items:
Vanilla bean puff
Chocolate puff
Cheesecake stick
Pumpkin puff
General description:
Before even entering the store, you can smell the wonderful aroma of fresh baked pastry, totally tantalizing. Beard Papa is a Japanese chain with franchises around the world. I first learned about it in Asia, so I'm really excited to learn that a store opened in SF. The crust is as good as I remembered: crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, lightly salted to balance the sweetness of the fillings. All shells are baked fresh in the day, and custard make several times in the day, hand-filled on the spot. Definitely not your frozen-unfrozen puff. So yummy. Vanilla very refreshing, and chocolate is a smooth dark chocolate. The flavor of the week is caramel, but I didn't get it. I'm so full after 2 puffs...

Updates:
Sep. 23, 2006: Just visited again, tried the pumpkin puff. Not as sweet as others. Equally good.

Basic information:
99 Yerba Buena Laneon Mission Streetbetween 3rd & 4th Streets415.978.9972Mon-Sat: 10am-8pmSun: 10am-6:30pm http://www.beardpapasf.comPls refer to website for menu and price

Sketch - Berkeley - 4 stars

2006-09-30T08:01:00.000-07:00

Visited on: Several times

Cuisine type: Organic handmade ice cream

Comment:Recommended, for distinct flavors, smooth textures, and a lovely location.Highly recommended for its granitas....

Ordered items:
Earl Grey
Lavender
Sour plum granita
Lemon granita

General description:
This is another place in Berkeley that serves organic and homemade ice cream. Now to be honest, I have to say that I like Ici better, simply for better texture and a more full bodied taste, but Sketch has some pretty unique flavors, like Earl Grey, Lavender. However, there is one thing that they do, and I haven't been able to find anywhere else: granita. Granita is like shaved ice made with flavored ice. If you don't know what shaved ice is, then think of tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny ice chips from a block of ice made from, say, lemon juice. It is eye-rolling refreshing on a hot summer day, and I can't recommend it enough. To me, this is better than the ice cream. Also, the sour plum granita.....yumm yummm....To my surprise, it tasted very much like Old Granny's Sour Plum Juice (阿婆酸梅汁) in Danshui (淡水), a city in Taiwan. Another great thing going for it is location. It is in the middle of Fourth Street in Berkeley, full of trendy shops and interesting restaurants. If in Berkeley, definitely worth a visit.

Basic information:
1809A 4th StreetBerkeley, CA 94170(510) 665-5650Mon-Thu, Sun 12:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.Fri-Sat 12:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m.http://www.sketchicecream.com/*The website doesn't really provide much except for address and phone

Sushi on the Run - Los Gatos - 2.5/3 stars

2006-09-30T08:00:00.000-07:00

Visited on: September 15, 2006

Cuisine type: Japanese style sushi

Comment: Recommended, if you like your sushi big and filling.

Ordered items:
Hamachi
Maguro - Zuke (soy-bean sauce marinated maguro)
Ika
Unagi
Saba
Tuna-Negi maki
Ume maki

General description:
Freshness, quality, and portion of the fish is definitely superb. The amount of fish given in this place is equal to the double of any other

place. Amazing technique for making mashed maguro: scraping it off the skin with a spoon. Definitely old school there. Nice unagi, very thick and juicy. Ika carved with intricate patterns to enhance its texture and chewability, if you know what I mean. Zuke was done "a lot" faster than I am used to seeing, but as the maguro is of great quality, no complaints there. Hamachi is buttery and melts on the tongue. All in all, iIf I came here for sashimi, I'd probably be in sashimi paradise.

However, I came here for sushi, most particularly nigiri. Now, although there is no "rule" about this, the preferred way of eating a piece of nigiri is to put the whole thing in your mouth at once. There is an obvious reason why: if you try to bite a piece of nigiri into half, the remaining half will probably crumble in your hands. The shape is simply not designed to be bitten into half. The not-so-obvious reason is that one of sushi chef's main skill is to ensure that the proportion of rice, fish, and any condiments is perfectly balanced to create a tight little cosmos of flavor. Well, there is no way I'll be able to fit this chef's nigiri in my mouth, unless I can put my fist in my mouth, which I most assuredly can't do. Sushi rice is too mushy and wet, yet parts from the fish at the first opportunity, leaving me with the task of combining them back together.

This is a tiny place of 8 stools and a sushi chef with a big attitude. Come to get your fill of delicious fish and leave amazingly full. However, if you are looking for something a bit more delicate, I'd recommend Angelfish. And of course, the one and only Hideki-san, who's on vacation right now...

Basic information:
114 N. Santa Cruz Ave. Los Gatos, CA Tues-Sat: Noon-2:30pm Tues-Thurs: 5pm-9:30pm Fri-Sat: 5pm-10pm Sunday: 12:30pm-4pm Closed Monday Phone 408-354-1125 http://sushi-on-the-run.com Please refer to the menu for items and price

Seasalt - Berkeley - 4.5 stars

2006-09-30T07:48:00.000-07:00

Visited on: September 17, 2006

Comments: Highly recommended

Ordered items:
Oysters on the half shell: Tomales Bay Miyagi, Kumamoto, Beausoleil
Monkfish liver torchon with cucumber, sea urchin and american sturgeon caviar 10

From Seasalt_0920

grilled local sardines with watercress, mint, lemon and roasted red pepper vinaigrette 12.5

From Seasalt_0920

Grilled California squids

From Seasalt_0920

Grilled bigeye tuna with sweet potatoe puree, bok choy and green curry sauce 22

From Seasalt_0920

Cabbage slaw with basil, mint and lime 5
Nectarine frangipane tart with creme fraiche ice cream

From Seasalt_0920

General descriptions:
Beautiful, small restaurant in Berkeley, done in a warm industrial style. I know, these two terms don't seem to go together, but it really is. A high gray ceiling with bronze walls, but a beautiful azure lighting. Really beautiful. Open kitchen, so you see the chefs cook. In fact, I know when my dishes are ready, because I can see the chefs placing it on the counter right behind my table.

The dishes do the restaurant full justice too. I really love the chef's cooking concept: everything on the plate is meant to be eaten together, in one bite. The flavors of the different items presented on a dish is meant to come together and make a beautiful, harmonious melody. When you do this, you'll realize that the flavors are perfectly balanced, no need to have garnish or a bite of vegetable to cleanse the palate, refresh the taste buds. None whatsoever. Take the monkfish liver for example: the liver for softness and buttery texture, sea urchin to bring in an extra portion of seafood sweetness, the caviar to add in a sharp saltiness to contrast the sweetness, with cucumber coulis to mellow that saltiness, and tiny alfafa sprout heads to add in a bit of crunchiness to balance out the overall softness, preventing it from becoming mushy. The second reason I really admire this restaurant is the chef's boldness to take contrasting ingredients and work them together for a totally new experience. There's no "fushion" here. You can't find a trace of ethnic origin of the dishes. Rather, it's all "creative" cuisine. I was so surprised at how well that peanutty yet slightly spicy green curry works with the lightly sweet sweet potato puree in bringing out the sweetness of the tuna, soften the grilled outer edge and the metallic after taste tuna lean meat has, and the bok choy brings in just the right amount of green sweetness to refresh the entire mouthful. I'll sum up Seasalt in four words: Daring creativity, impeccable execution.

The only disappointment of the evening is the dessert. The creme fraiche ice cream is just awesome, the right slightly tart taste, the right fluffy texture, totally right on. The tart........well...let's just say that I expected it to be crispy and fluffy too, not something I have to tear with my hands to get a piece. Yes, my hands, because they only gave me a fork, no knife. The taste of the pie itself though, is still very very good.

Basic info:
2512 San Pablo AvenueBerkeley, CA 94702 (510) 883-1720Mon-Sun 11:30 a.m.-10:00 p.m. http://www.seasaltrestaurant.com/For price and items, please refer to the website.

City View - San Francisco - 5 stars

2006-09-30T07:46:00.000-07:00

Visited on: Often

Comments: Highly recommended. Best dim sum ever had in San Francisco Bay Area.

Ordered items:
Dumplings:
Shrimp dumpling 蝦餃Pork / chicken / prawn / scallop xiumei 豬肉燒賣,雞肉燒賣,蝦燒賣,帶子燒賣Cilantro and prawn dumpling 香菜蝦餃Soup dumpling 灌湯餃Spinach and prawn dumpling 波菜蝦餃Shark fin dumpling 魚翅餃Seafood dumpling 三鮮餃

Others:
Bean curd wrap 腐皮捲Beef ball 牛肉丸Cha Xiu bun baked/steamed 蒸叉燒包,烤叉燒包Cha Xiu / Prawn / Beef wrapped in rice noodle 叉燒 / 蝦 / 牛肉腸粉Cha Xiu pastry 叉燒酥Steamed turnip cake 蒸蘿蔔糕Cow stomach 牛百葉Cow guts mix 燉牛雜 Chicken feet 鳳爪Spare pork ribs 排骨Preserved egg and pork porridge 皮蛋瘦肉粥Steamed sticky rice bowl 燒臘飯Sticky rice chicken 糯米雞Deep fried taro and pork dumpling 芋頭豬肉酥

Sweets:
Egg custard tart 蛋塔 Custard bun - baked 烤奶黃包Mango pudding 芒果布丁Chinese donut 沙庸 (probably the wrong character) Almond pudding 杏仁布丁Soy bean pudding 豆花

General descriptions:
What can I say? This is the best, most authentic dim sum place in San Francisco, even the whole bay area. Yang Sim is too Americanized, with its pretty tea service, tiny portion, diluted flavors, and lack of authentic items. Koi Palace...good food, poor service, outrageous wait staff. Not to say that City View does not have its share of Americanized items. I definitely would not recommend ordering Peking duck there. How to identify their specialty? Easy. Anything with that transparent dumpling skin, any type of xiumei except chicken (but I think it is a problem with chicken, not their technique), all types of rice noodle, anything in the form of a baked bun or looks like a flaky pastry, they do very well. Their chicken feet, spare pork ribs, and cow guts are all very good too. Love their desserts, all are tremendously good, especially the custard bun. Not too sweet, excellent bouncy bun bread, crispy crust on the top, and when you get them warm...oh my god. The steamed turnip cake is amazingly good too. Much better than the regular grilled kind, you get to taste the sweetness of the turnip more. Highly recommended, and go early! Things tend to run out after 12:00.

Basic info:
662 Commercial StreetSan Francisco, CA 94111 (415) 398-2838 Daily 11:00am - 2:30pmSat & Sun 10:00am - 2:30pmGenerally about $15 to $20 per person

Barney's - Chain - 3 stars

2006-09-30T07:43:00.000-07:00

Visited on: Often, latest visit: September 18, 2006

Comments: Recommended, nice thick burgers

Ordere items:
Barney's burger
Big Barney's burger
Western burger
Baja burger
Guacamole burger
Teriyaki burger
Pesto burger
Milano tofu burger
Milkshakes
Steak French fries

General comments:
There are several Barney's location, and I've been to the Piedmont, the College, and the Berkeley. I believe the College one is the best, and go in the evenings. Somehow, the chef on that shift really knows the best about how to make a big, juicy burger. Barney's uses USDA choice chuck, so it really tastes like beef, not unknown protein flakes lumped together. They have many different kinds of toppings, and I've found out through experience that the best kind is the type with some kind of rich sauce. Yesterday I ordered the pesto burger for the first time, and the baguette was a bit hard to bite down, so I'd still recommend bun over baguette. Their milkshake is very, very good, made with Dreyer's ice cream, and served in a tin cup. Supposedly their Turkish coffee milkshake is outstanding, but as I don't drink coffee, I can't say for sure. Tofu burger was a very pleasant surprise. It is not just tofu, it is a tofu patty with bits of vegetables mixed in there, so it is actually flavored, and goes very well with the toppings. I like their steak-cut French fries too. Crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside. Overall, I would recommend this place to people with burger cravings and looking for something under $8. If you have a higher budget and looking for "real gourmet" burger though, I'd recommend Cafe Zuni's burger.

Basic information:
4162 Piedmont Ave. Oakland 510-655-7180 Please call for opening hours. I believe they close at 10pm.http://www.barneyshamburgers.com/For menu and price information, please refer to the website

Valerios Bakery - San Jose - 3 stars

2006-09-30T07:41:00.000-07:00

Visited on: September 19, 2006

Comments: Above average / recommended

Ordered items:
Chicken pie
Spanish bread
Pan de Salbo (?)
Steamed pork bun: $1
Total: $2.60

General description:
This place was discovered by pure accident. I was attracted by its aroma and interesting array of breads arranged in the window. Never one to miss an ethnic bakery, I ventured inside, only to discover a whole counter full of never seen before breads, pastries, and some delicious smelling but mysterious cooked dishes. The people were speaking in an Asian dialet, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Anyway, I picked up the four items, and it was cheap, and a lot more delicious than I expected! The Spanish bread looked like a croissant shape butter roll, but in fact is sprinkled with something that is lightly salted, and filled with a kind of light custard. It is really interesting, and quite good. I like the Pan de Salbo (I think that's what it's called...) too, lots of butter, lots of sugar, lots of custard, and smells great. When I got them, they were still slightly warm, and more goodies were being taken out of the oven in the back of the bakery. Only after visiting its website did I realize that it is a Filipino bakery, one type of food I've never tried before, and established since 1979! Now, the bread is not so good that you are missing a pastry feast of your life if you never had it, but for novelty's sake, it IS quite different, and there are some special items that I have to go back and try, like that Kalamay, sticky rice with dark coconut glaze...

Basic info:
2518 Berryessa Rd.San Jose, CA 95132(408) 254-9490Call for operation hourshttp://www.valeriosbakery.com/Visit website for item details

Hong Kong Saigon Seafood Harbor - San Jose - 4 stars

2006-09-30T07:36:00.000-07:00

Last visited on: September 20, 2006. Often visited

Comments: Highly recommended for fresh seafood, recommended for other dishes

Ordered items:
Roasted pork, duck, squab
Steamed chicken
Preserved egg and pork porridge
Steamed bamboo rice
Dim Sum
Alaskan crab - steamed
Fresh fish cooked two styles
Stir fried clams with bamboo shoots and basil
Stir fried giant clam with preserved olives and black bean sauce
Tio-chiu cold crab
Clay pots, etc.
Daily soup

General comments:
Not many people know of this location yet, but a lot of people have frequented its other location: in Richmond, next to Daimo, where it sadly burned down sometime in July. I can confirm it is the same restaurant, because it has the same owner, same manager, same staff, same decor, and the same awesome dried abalones and shark fins in its glass case. The manager told me that they are planning to open in that location again.

New place or not, this new Saigon is as good as the last one. I read online about many average reviews, and I believe it is out of misconception of what type of restaurant it is. This is a restaurant with two different regional cuisines: Tio-Chiu (a city of Canton), and Hong Kong. Hong Kong claims the same cultural roots as Canton, but has evolved somewhat differently. Tio-Chiu itself is another story: different language, different environment, different cuisine. So when you come here, you can expect some very special ingredients and tastes being presented in the dishes. For the Tio-Chiu dishes, I do not claim to know whether it is authentic or not, but though the combination of ingredients is not familiar, the overall taste has its own logic and balance. If you can read the Chinese menu, then you can see which items are from Tio-Chiu, if you can't, then ask. I would say that it is so-so for its Hong Kong dishes, so avoid, unless you have something you like very much. On the other hand, their steamed chicken is very tasty. Fully presents the natural sweetness of chicken, unless oil chicken that relies more on the sauce.

Very, very good restaurant for fresh seafood. Soooooooo many different kinds of live seafood. Currently, they have live spiny lobsters for $35 each. I had it in their Richmond restaurant. Incomparable. The way a lobster should taste. (I never acknowledged Boston lobster as real lobsters. To me, they are just large shrimps. Only rock lobsters are real lobsters.) Another memorable experience: I steamed a whole live Alaskan crab for 3 of us to share. Costed $200, but well worth it. The flesh is so succulent and sweet that I almost weeped at the experience. The body is a lot better than the legs actually, but usually you can only get frozen legs, and the body parts attached acquired that fishy taste much more easily, lacking the protection of the shells. I also had an Australian emperor crab there. Think of dungeness, and times it by five for thickness, two for width. It was lightly fried and then stir fried. The chunks of tender but dense crab meat, drizzled with the delicious yellow eggs/guts...crab heaven. A must for any serious crustacean lovers.

Basic information:1135 N. Lawrence ExpwySunnyvale, CA 94089(408) 734-2828 Hours: 11:00 a.m.-11:00 p.m. Mon.-Fri.; 10:00 a.m. -11:00 p.m. Sat.-Sun.Fresh seafood price is seasonal, varieties change oftenOther dishes betwee $8.75 - $20