pho-get-a-bout-it!

February 19, 2008 at 12:22 am · Filed under vietnamese

Pho 84
354 17th St., Oakland

PHOto: yelp.com

The first time I went to this place, I had a lot of firsts. First time I had pho, or probably even Vietnamese food. Also one of the first times I went out to dinner with bbg and his folks. (Bonus info: bbg likes to call it “pho eighty pho” – haha, what a clever guy.) First time I ventured out to uptown Oakland after dark. Needless to say, this place has a bit of special meaning for me.

Make your way through the area’s maze of one way streets and you’ll stumble upon this little, but popular mom and pop pho place. It’s right next to the wig place, so you can’t miss it. I’m told (by the ever knowledgeable bbg) that pho places are often named pho with a number to signify the year they opened. Looks like this place opened about 24 years ago.

The place is small and usually packed. They just remodeled the joint, and I don’t really remember what it used to look like, but I hear it’s quite nicer. There are paintings of landscapes of Vietnam on the walls – a river scene, people in fields picking something, women in brightly colored outfits in fields of flowers. The pictures are nice and welcoming, colorful and warm. The interior is very Asian Ikea – with wooden tables and natural, deep green tones throughout. It’s nice.

On the menu tonight: hot and sweet soup, tofu rolls, beans and prawns, grilled chicken and grilled beef. Let’s start with the rolls! They’re served at room temperature and come wrapped in rice paper. The tofu is fried, and rolled up with bean sprouts, shredded cucumber, and cooked vermicelli noodles. The rolls are nice and fat and come with a very rich and somewhat spicy peanut sauce for dipping. The rolls are fresh and crunchy, very tasty and refreshing. The sauce is a nice flavoring and contrasts the rolls well since it’s very thick and heavy.

The soup! The soup is delicious. It’s sweet and extremely spicy with large chunks of veggies: tomatoes, celery, mushroom, and shreds of cabbage. The sweetness comes from the chunks of fresh pineapple (and perhaps coconut milk?). There’s also a little tangy-ness to the soup, probably from the citrus. The soup comes with a good serving of whole shrimp, cooked to perfection. While it’s very very good, it’s equally spicy! I loved the taste, but my lips were burning off my face after finishing one bowl. Also, a regular serving feeds just four people – get a large and have seconds.

The entrees came with special rice, a bed of vermicelli, and side salads. The salads were just iceberg lettuce with pickled shredded carrots with a light dressing. The veggies were all fresh, but it was pretty plain. Pho 84’s special rice is yellow because it’s been cooked in broth, but generally doesn’t taste too much more special than regular rice. Good, but not as amazing as others would make it. The vermicelli comes in pancake form – millions of little noodles squished together to line the bottom of the plate it comes on. Underneath the grilled chicken, the vermicelli soaks up the juices and becomes very very tasty. YUM.

The chicken and beef were about the same – run of the mill Asian bbq. Both dishes come with a sweet and little spicy sauce you can drizzle on your meat. The meat is pretty plain, but add the sauce and you’ve got something a little bit special. Add that to the special rice or the vermicelli and you’ve got choice chow. Everything by itself is just fine, but mix it all up and you’ve got an amazing dish.

Lastly, we had a dish of prawns with green beans. The beans were cooked, but still had some crisp, which was nice. The prawns were large and well cooked. The beans and prawns are drenched in a much heavier sauce, something closer to a bbq sauce thinned with soy sauce, with a rich and smoky flavor. Very good, but a little rich for me when we ran out of rice.

The service was very fast and friendly, once you get in to the door. The place is usually packed, so don’t expect to get in quickly without a little luck. A lot of people take out, another smart move, and more proof that the place is as good as everyone says it is.

Overall: Some really good food.  Really. ‘Nuff said.

Rating: 10/10!

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livin the dream

February 10, 2008 at 10:38 pm · Filed under chinese

Hai Sunhai-sun.jpg
3137 Laguna St. (x Lombard St.)

So, I’ve never been to this place in person. When bbg and I first moved in to our apartment, we didn’t know much about the city and we were open to experimenting (with food, that is). As such, when takeout menus appeared rubberbanded to our front door, we tried a couple out. Hai Sun caught our eye because, supposedly, they cook with very little oil. We figured that if we were gonna eat Chinese food, we could at least try to be healthy about it, so we made the call. Take out Chinese food in a tiny urban apartment? I must be an adult now.

Like I said, I’ve never physically been to the place, so I can’t say much about the interior or table service or anything like that. I have ordered from there about a dozen or so times since we’ve been in SF. Ordering on the phone seems to be the most painful part since the person taking your order doesn’t always have a firm grasp on the English language. It’s also pretty confusing when you only order two dishes instead of the normal 5 or 6. Ordering the food is semi ok, but giving directions on where you live can be tricky. Delivery is pretty speedy, even on a Saturday night. They’ll also call you if they can’t find your apartment or if your buzzer isn’t working.

The food is satisfying, but I wouldn’t say it’s the best ever. We usually get some kind of chow mein and a spicy beef dish. The menu boasts lots of different kinds of Chinese cuisine (Mongolian, Szechuan, Hunan, HK). I’m pretty ignorant and thus don’t know the difference between them. We’ve tried them all and the best seems to be Mongolian beef – very spicy. The dish comes with tones sliced onions and lots of long cut scallions. The onions add a nice, sweet crunch to the dish, which I enjoy. They also manage to soak up some of the flavor and are cooked enough to to be onion-y. I don’t really appreciate the scallions, so I pick them out. The meat itself is tender and comes in nice, thin slices. The sauce isn’t very oily, true to the Hai Sun promise, but rather it’s light, almost watery and used in an appropriate amount (read: not smothering the dish). And it’s hot! Your mouth and lips will be tingly for quite a while after you finish dinner.

Chow mein comes in different flavors: special, different meats, veggies, etc. After some hits and misses, we’ve settled on the BBQ pork. The noodles are a bit oily, but not as much as noodles you’d normally get at other restaurants. The pieces of meat are your typical Chinese BBQ pork, only in small bits. Besides the meat, the noodles come with shreds of cabbage that have a mustard-y flavor. Yuck. I usually pick these out since their flavor can be pretty strong. Otherwise, a good dish, always my favorite.

Overall: If you’re feeling lazy and you want some fast, and possibly healthy, Chinese food, this is a good option. Like most takeout places, I’ve ordered plenty of times, but I never order anything different once I’ve found the magic combo. Delivery is free, so I take advantage and only order two dishes, hah. Like I said, I’m livin’ the big city dream. I’ll probably never go there in person, and that’s fine.

Rating: 7/10

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korean food by japanese?

February 5, 2008 at 10:00 pm · Filed under asian, bbq, japanese, korean

Hahn’s Hibachi
535 Irving St. (x 6th Ave.)

Hahn’s is located in one of my favorite areas – Irving Street. Very Inner Sunset, this area is littered with restaurants and bars that are all pretty tasty and varied. A nice little walk from my apartment, bbg and I venture out there on weekend nights for grub. It’s a pretty good change in scenery, plus you feel better about gorging on (insert your favorite food here) and then walking the mile and a half home.

Anyway, we’ve passed by Hahn’s every time we’ve been to Irving. It’s one of those “oh we should go there some time” but you never ever go there type places. It’s small, couldn’t fit more than 20 people in the place that was probably once a cafe. The decor is simple if not lacking. There’s a counter immediately ahead of you when you enter the door. Many people stopped by to pick up orders, so it seems popular enough and convenient. When we first walked in, we were unsure of what we were supposed to do – order and sit or sit and wait to be served? No one was behind the counter, so we were bold and sat. The cashier/waitress came from out back and saw us and immediately brought us menus. It wasn’t hard to get her attention since we were the only customers there besides another couple. Perhaps it’d be slower if there were more take out orders or generally people in the place. It was quiet, but only because it was dead. A few times people came in to order and were talking with a friend or chatting on their cell phone and that was loud. I couldn’t imagine the ruckus if the place were packed. On to the food!

I ordered the soft tofu seafood soup for about $11 before tax and tip. The soup comes out boiling hot in one of those iron type bowls, which is set on a wooden plate. I was saddened that our waitress didn’t crack an egg in it, but oh well. The soup comes with rice and a lettuce salad. Waiting for the soup to cool down, I munched on the salad, which was pretty good eats. Typical iceberg lettuce, shredded, with some shredded carrots and topped with a miso-style dressing. Very good, maybe a bit too creamy.

The soups come at varying degrees of spiciness: mild, medium, and hot. I chose medium, which turned out to be a good idea since it was pretty spicy. Spicy, but not really more tasty. I think you just get to pick the level of burning your mouth experiences. The soup itself is very very very mildly fishy tasting, which is actually a good thing since I don’t like fishy-ness all that much. Sadly, that doesn’t mean that there were other flavors to compensate for the lack of fishy-ness. The soup is red, though I’m not sure why. It’s good, but pretty watery and doesn’t taste like much. Compared to other Korean tofu soups I’ve had, this was pretty mediocre.

As promised, the soup came with soft tofu, which was plentiful. I liked the big chunks throughout. They added substance to the plain soup. The soup had a couple pieces of shrimp and then pieces of an unidentified seafood. I want to say it was squid, but I really don’t know. It was white and came in skinny sort of tube shaped pieces and tasted mildly fishy. It was pretty chewy, but not impossibly so. Overall, it only slightly bothered me that I didn’t know what it was.

BBG got the BBQ spicy pork. The dish came with bean sprouts, salad, and rice. I ate his salad and he gobbled up the pork. It was spicy enough, but the portion was tiny (especially when compared to what you can get at Steve’s Korean BBQ in Berkeley). He was satisfied, but I’m sure he could’ve eaten a lot more.

Most people ordered the Bi Bim Bop and looking at other reviews on the place, it seems like that’s where it’s at. Maybe next time, if there is a next time for me. BBG said he’d go back, perhaps I’ll tag along. Lastly, aren’t hibachis Japanese? The place serves udon and tempura, so there’s more to the mystery.

Overall: Ok food for this small joint. Seems like it’s really made for takeout, generally nothing special. Considering the fact that there are about a billion other restaurants in the immediate area – ones I like a lot and others that I’d like to try, I probably won’t be back any time soon. Mediocre.

Rating: 3/10

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I’m back!

January 23, 2008 at 9:02 pm · Filed under asian, bbq, burger, hawaiian, smoothie

So it seems whenever I change jobs I end up forgetting about my blog for a bit of time. I’m sorry. 😦

But I’m back! The new job is settling down (at least I hope it is by now), so here’s a new post for your enjoyment. The first second of the new year. 🙂

Eva’s Hawaiian Cafe
731 Clement Ave. (x. 8th Ave.)

Photo: none. Still trying to get into the groove of things here.

Red A Bakery closed? No matter! Walk a couple blocks down Clement and you’ll find Eva’s Hawaiian Cafe. If you’ve ever been to L&L Hawaiian BBQ, then there are no surprises here. It seems that Eva’s is just another name for L&L as there’s L&L stuff throughout the place. I don’t really get why they call themselves Eva’s, maybe it’s a fancier version of L&L? Identity crisis? A franchise exercising independence? Mysteries abound, that didn’t stop us from trying.

Enter the place and you are immediately faced with a choice: take out or dine in? Cash register’s up front, so you could easily do either. In fact, whilst we ate many customers picked up food. The interior is brightly painted and pretty clean. There’s Hawaiian music blasting constantly, ranging from traditional sounding stuff to aloha-ized versions of pop songs. How could one not feel the aloha spirit here? The place tugs at your heart strings the entire time.

The menu is filled with Hawaiian favorites: loco moco, mix plate, pulled BBQ pork, etc. On this particular venture, bbg ordered the mix plate – rice only! And I had the teriyaki burger with fries and salad. All plates come with rice and the option of salad or macaroni salad. For myself, I picked the salad only because I thought burgers and fries AND macaroni salad would be overdoing it. My heart can only take so much! The menu also features tons of tropical drinks – smoothies and juices. I was loading up on fats, sugars would have to wait until next time. On a previous visit, bbg ordered the same thing (it’s his favorite) and I got the chicken katsu (the chicken version of my all time favorite Japanese dish).

The food! I thought the teriyaki burger would come with a slice of pineapple, but surprisingly it doesn’t. It did come with a single piece of tiny lettuce, a slice of tomato and onion, and the biggest glob of mayonnaise you’ve ever seen. Don’t get me wrong, I like mayo, but seriously, this was ridiculous. The burger was tasty, but I didn’t really get how it was Hawaiian since I didn’t really taste the teriyaki. I was disappointed with the lack of lettuce, but the other veggies (all two of them) were fresh and added to the flavor. I ended up scrapping off some of the mayo, but other than that, it was great. The fries reminded me of Ahn’s burger fries. They were crispy and plentiful, but not very flavorful. They needed more salt. The salad was average. It consisted of your general mixed greens, some shredded red cabbage, and some shredded carrots. The veggies, again, were fresh, which is great. The salad was tossed in a light dressing, so light that I couldn’t really taste it. I think it was ranch, but I’m not sure.

The mix plate, I’m told, was excellent. The beauty of a mix plate is that you get every type of meat: pork, chicken, and beef! All BBQ’d in the same sauce and grilled to perfection. Higher quality of meat than the Red A, but probably just as tasty since it’s cooked in the same sauce. My small bite of meat (chicken, I believe) was drowning in the BBQ sauce flavor and a bit chewy, but mostly tender.

I remember the chicken katsu being a big sub-par the time I went there. I think Hawaiian places don’t really get how to make the katsu without drying out the meat.  It’s either really dry or really greasy, never in between unless you go to a high end Japanese place.  The chicken katsu here was on the greasy side, unfortunately.  The chicken came with a layer of fat under the breaded/fried layer of goodness.  It came with the standard dipping sauce and sides of macaroni salad, rice, and salad.  Salad was the same: forgettable.  The macaroni salad was more or less noodles smothered in mayo.  Not very tasty, just squishy and bland.  There were bits of (probably) carrots in it, but that didn’t do much.  I wasn’t impressed.

The service is incredibly fast and friendly.  Both times we went we had the same waitress.  She seems to be the person usually in charge.  On our last trip, I overheard her talking on her cell phone, saying she had worked all week and long hours.  She had a migraine that night, but you couldn’t tell it by talking to her.  Very sweet and polite and attentive.   Nice, but if you don’t like leaving tips, you’ll hate this place!  I couldn’t help but leave a little more than usual since she was so nice and basically running the sitting area and register by herself (looked like one other person was there, just working the kitchen).

I’ve never been there earlier than 9pm, so it’s never crowded.  I think it’s a spot used by locals to pick up a quick and late bite.  Some drunk-ish people came in, but didn’t stay long.

Overall:  Ok food, nothing really special.  Tasty and reliably fattening.  Nice service, probably better items on the menu I haven’t tried yet. Open late, fast, and consistent, so I’ll be back.  Definitely nicer than the Red A. Mixed plate is supposed to be really good.

Rating: 7/10

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Get educated!

January 22, 2008 at 10:11 pm · Filed under burmese, chinese

Burma SuperStar
309 Clement St. (x 4th Ave.)
burmasuperstar.com
Photo: yelp.com

For those of you who don’t know, it was my birthday awhile ago. To celebrate, it was someone’s idea to go big and go to Burma Superstar. This restaurant, as far as I can tell, is legendary. People who’ve been rave about it, people who haven’t been have heard other people rave about it. It’s kind of a big deal. Every time bbg and I go to Clement, the place is packed and people are outside waiting. Like, a lot of people. I’ve always wanted to try it out, but I’m an impatient person and we never did end up going… until now!

Before we begin, you’re probably asking yourself, where is Burma exactly? To which, I would say, ignorant! Let me teach you a thing or two…. Burma is in Southeast Asia, surrounded by China, Laos, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, and water. As such, its food has influences from all of those countries. The country itself is freaking huge. To learn more about this extraordinary country no one seems to know much about, please visit here. I did.

Onward! I mentioned the group of people always waiting outside the place, right? We figured if we went on a Monday night, we’d be ok. Nope. Our wait was about 45 minutes, outside, in the cold. Here’s a tip: they don’t take reservations, but you can call ahead of time and put your name on their list. They can give you a time estimate and call you when your table is ready. The catch is that if they call your cell phone you have to be there in about two seconds or they give your table away. Trust me, I was sitting out there for 45 minutes and I saw the hostess give away more than one table. Hah!

We finally get in and after staring at the menu outside for a long while, we order pretty much immediately: their famous Rainbow Salad, chicken casserole with cardamom cinnamon rice, sesame beef, and SuperStar Noodles. Plus a Thai iced tea and ginger lemonade. Here we go!

The Rainbow Salad has been featured on the Food Network (according to the menu) and contains a whopping 22 ingredients! The salad is brought out on a square bowl with small portions of the ingredients laid out next to each other. The waiter points out each ingredient and mixes them together in a taramind dressing. The salad features four types of noodles, so it’s more of a noodle salad than a regular cabbage salad. I think the 22 ingredients is impressive, but when you eat it, I don’t know how much of an impact each ingredient makes. The dressing is very, very tangy and has a nice spicy kick to it. The spice is enough to give your lips a little tingle and the tangy-ness is enough to make you pucker a little. It’s an interesting mix, but very tasty. Tasty enough that bbg ate some, and then had seconds! (He never eats salad and is even disgusted by it.) Bbg ate it, twice (!), it’s that good.

After we finish the salad the rest of the food comes out. The sesame beef is the only thing we order that isn’t Burmese, and you can tell right off the bat from it’s name that it’s Chinese. While it’s like any other Chinese dish you can get at any other Chinese restaurant around, it’s far and away a much higher quality than the regular stuff. The meat is incredibly tender and melts in your mouth. Its thinly sliced and looks a little red, but is far from chewy and tough. The beef is smothered in a heavy, dark, sweet and slightly spicy sauce and sprinkled with sesame seeds (to remind you of what you’re eating). I liked it, but definitely needed some white rice with it. I would say the sauce is like most sauces you’d get at a Chinese restaurant, probably less greasy.

The chicken casserole with rice reminded me of Indian and Ethiopian food I’ve had before – maybe the cardamom and cinnamon? The braised chicken comes covered in yellow rice in a clay pot. The chicken comes on the bone (unfortunately), but is very very very tender and easily comes off the bone. The meat is very juicy and flavorful. The casserole comes with a few pieces of shrimp that just tasted like shrimp. The rice is also very tasty and flavorful. I liked it, but the flavoring was so much so that I didn’t want to eat the rice like I normally eat rice: with meat to sort of dilute strong flavors. The rice combined with the meat is nice, but maybe a little overwhelming. The raisins in the mix were nice little sweet surprises!

Our last dish was the SuperStar Noodles. The noodles come with pieces cucumbers, potatoes, tofu, dried shrimp, and cabbage. Sadly, the noodles come to the table at room temperature (intentionally), which is kind of weird and something I’ve never had before. The noodles and various accouterments are covered in a chili sauce, which gives it a nice little bite. Otherwise, it’s sort of a tomato-ish kind of sauce, maybe even a little bland. Good, but I think the temperature really threw me off base. We ended up taking half the noodles home (plus half the casserole – we ordered too much!), and I ate them for dinner the next night. Served hot, they tasted a lot better. The same, but just hot.

The drinks, briefly, were good. The Thai iced tea came unmixed, which is always fun. It had a nice balance of tea to milk, with a slight bit more milk, so it was sweeter, which is what I like. The ginger lemonade is quite literally that. Take a sip of a nice tangy lemonade and then a tiny bite of ginger (sort of like the pickled stuff you get next to your sushi at Japanese restaurants) and you’ve got the drink. The ginger wasn’t overwhelming, just a nice little twist.

The place is TINY. A few tables along each wall and tables in the middle, probably can’t seat more than 70 people in the joint. The walls are painted calming colors and decorated with, I presume, Burmese artifacts. Wood carvings, small statues, cloth tapestry type things, etc. Everything was very simple and elegant. It was authentic but not cheesy, cool but not hipster. I liked it a lot. But seriously, SO SMALL! Our table was a mere foot from the tables next to ours, so I got to know the couples next to us pretty well.

Overall: A nice place with amazing food. There’s a long wait to get it: long enough that you wouldn’t want to do it on a regular basis, but well worth it for special occasions. Did I mention the spectacular food – a cuisine you’ll be hard pressed to find elsewhere, even in the City! Not perfect, but certainly great. I’m definitely going back and trying the rest of the menu.  Fast and friendly service once inside, and extra points for being across the street from Genki! (The perfect desert!!)

Rating: 9/10

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eatin’ good

November 1, 2007 at 9:35 pm · Filed under american, the choicest

House of Prime Rib
1906 Van Ness Ave. (x Washington)

When you name your restaurant “House of Prime Rib” there are a couple things that come with the title. Firstly, you better have the best freakin prime rib in town. Next, if you’re successful with that first part, you can go ahead and offer nothing else at your restaurant.

House of Prime Rib meets both of these requirements.

Interestingly at a fancy-pants place like this one, there’s not a lot of choice. You can choose prime rib or fresh fish… But obviously you didn’t come here for the fish. Next, you can select the quantity of prime rib you will consume: a lot, a whole lot, or a freakin whole lot. Your pick. Then, how would you liked it cooked? Regular meat cooking choices apply.

Your entree comes with an array of side dishes. While you’re waiting with your drinks, there’s warm sourdough bread with butter. Next, a salad mixed right before your eyes. When your meat comes you also get your potatoes (baked potato with all the fixins or mashed potatoes with gravy), Yorkshire pudding, and creamed corn or creamed spinach. Whew, a lot. Let’s break it down.

The Meat: The main event, really. In a word, excellent. The meat is very tender and juicy. My knife slid through my city cut super easily. There was also a couple large veins of fat running through my cut, hence a premium piece of prime rib. The meat was flavorful and sort of melted in my mouth (if that’s even possible). It wasn’t tough or chewy, and my medium-well was still very moist. They offer mild and strong horseradish. Not sure I’d be able to handle strong, I asked for mild and the server quickly plopped a very large dollop on my bread plate. I swear, I could probably eat three large pieces of prime rib to use up all that horseradish. Sadly, it was too mild for my liking and I ended up slathering the stuff on to get a bit of that bite. Still good, though.

The meat is sliced at your table. It comes in a large, silver, torpedo shaped warmer/server thingy with your very own chef! He reads your order and fixes your plate with the appropriate cut and cook of meat, plus the sides you requested. It’s all about the show here, especially with the first course…

The Salad: Moving backwards, the first course is made right in front of you so you know it’s as fresh as it can be. The server brings out a little cart with everything she’ll need for the next five minutes. She shows you what’s in the large bowl she’s about to serve: iceberg lettuce, mixed greens, beets, red cabbage, and probably some other stuff I couldn’t taste. She shows it as if she’s asking for your approval, which is sort of silly, but you get into it.

She hands you chilled forks. That’s right, folks, chilled. They’re laid out on a plate and you pick yours up. She then spins the bowl of salad in a larger bowl of ice and pours the contents of a silver gravy boat on the salad. She adds some special seasoning and a bit of ground pepper (all as the bowl is spinning), gives it a toss, and divvies up the salad for the table on chilled plates. Yes, the plates are chilled, too.

Wow, two graphs and I haven’t talked about the taste yet. The salad is your typical American style salad. The dressing is thousand island and it smothers the lettuce. But, true to what the server tells you, the veggies are absolutely fresh and delicious. Gobbled that stuff up right quick.

The Potatoes: I opted for the mashed potatoes, but I’ll talk about the baked potato, too. The baked potato is served at your table on yet another little cart. The cart is wheeled out when the torpedo comes and it’s packed with all the fixings. The server slices up your potato and slops on two heaving spoonfuls of sour cream. You also can get butter, bacon, and chives on your potato. The result is a vegetable that is no longer a vegetable. It’s a heart attack on a plate.

My mashed potatoes were just fine. They come on the same plate as your meat and taste like butter. The gravy is thick and tasty and the potatoes manage to soak up some of the meat juices. MMmMmMMmmMMMm.

The Creamed Side: One person in my party got the creamed spinach. Looked gross. The creamed corn was so much better. The kernels were mostly whole or slightly mashed. Funny enough they actually came in a cream sort of mixture that was creamy and buttery flavored. That was tasty and I ate it up pretty quickly.

The Yorkshire Pudding: I’m not sure I’ve ever had this before, but I wouldn’t mind having it again. It’s like… a savory pancake/crepe. Somewhere in between the two in terms of thickness, it’s kind of like a soft, fluffy, flat bread. It’s baked in an oven in a shallow frying pan. The server whips it out fresh from the oven and divides one pan’s worth amongst two or three people. It’s a bit salty and fried tasting, and it’s meant to soak up the meat juices so you don’t miss any of the flavors. Personally, I didn’t like that use. It was nice all by itself.

The atmosphere is much like the food: classic and very showy. The interior is like an old English something or other, I’m not really sure. It’s dark inside, with dark red wood panels on the walls and low ceilings. Knick knacks are everywhere: fancy-ish, fake champagne bottles, impressionist paintings of farms and general countryside, and even a fireplace with a faux, but rustic-looking fire. You get the feel that you’re in a very important place.

While the surroundings are visually pleasing and the food superior, the company isn’t always so positive. We sat next to a table full of lawyers… Probably a bunch of litigators. Loud, obnoxious, not even really funny, and the wine was flowing like crazy. The result is you shouting across the table for conversation. The whole setup is nice, but not very great in terms of acoustics – you hear everything and everyone. The restaurant is pretty large, so that just means a ton of noise. Since it’s a popular restaurant, you’re always going to be at capacity. Bummer.

Let’s talk about price.  You’re crazy if you think you’ll be eating meat and paying less than $35+ per person.  So unless you’re just eating salad and a baked potato, you better shell out the cash.  Sum it up: worth it.

Overall: A really superb meal, but a costly one.  Worth it, though.

Rating: 10/10!

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dessert from down south

October 8, 2007 at 12:44 am · Filed under american, asian, dessert, health food

Papamingomingo1.jpg
2510 Channing Way (near Telegraph Ave.), Berkeley

For those who are savvy with pop culture, from LA, or watch The Hills on a regular basis, you’re familiar with Pinkberry. If not, click on the link and be informed and thus cool! Papamingo is just another reflection of the fact that the Bay is being invaded by the south. SoCal, that is.

Papamingo is part of the be fit/be cool trend, offering tasty yet healthy alternatives to fatty frozen yogurt. (To be fair, frozen yogurt isn’t as bad as ice cream, so it’s like saying you’re making a soda that’s more diet that diet soda. Or at least that’s how it works in my mind.) The frosty treat the shop has to offer is quite different from your typical frozen yogurt. It’s also topped with healthier toppings: mainly fresh fruit and cereal instead of candy and cookies. Mix in brightly painted walls, Ikea style furniture, and pop music and you’ve got the coolest hangout this side of campus.

The place is small and sort of basement-ish. No windows except in the front of the store, hence the lime, neon green painted walls. There are a few tables with chairs and the counter is towards the back. Behind the counter are a couple frozen yogurt machines as well as a display of the toppings! While you wait in line, you get to scope out the selection. There are things like granola and chocolate chips – usual stuff, but there’s some different things like fruity pebbles and rice balls! (Little chewy balls that are supposed to be mochi-ish, sadly they have a bit of a bitter after taste.) I opted for their fresh strawberries (there’s mango, pineapple, blueberry, etc.).

mingo3.jpgThe yogurt itself comes in three different flavors: regular, green tea, and pomagranete. Being my first time, I went with the regular, though I hear green tea is pretty good. Now for the taste. Let’s say you’ve never had frozen yogurt and you take things to be literal. If you’ve had regular yoplait before and someone gave you something called frozen yogurt, Papamingo is what you’d be expecting. The stuff is sweet but tart or tangy, like regular yogurt. It’s in the sour cream, cream cheese, yogurt subcategory of the dairy department. At first it’s strange, but if you reflect on other dairy stuff, it makes sense and becomes pleasant. It’s very refreshing and tasty and provides a nice balance with the natural sweet and tartness of the strawberries. I gobbled my cup up pretty quickly, especially when I stopped thinking of it as regular frozen yogurt.

The bad news is that this stuff comes at a hefty price. A small cup is a staggering $2.50 for something you could probably eat in five large bites (if only the spoons weren’t mini…). Plus toppings! You can get 1 topping for 95 cents or 3 toppings for an extra $1.50. So, unfortunately, you’re getting a taste of LA at LA prices. There’s a student discount, which was nice since I still have my old ID to whip out on such occasions. Still, my treat was just over $3 and thus, not something I’d do very often.

Overall: A trendy little spot with some tasty fare. Unfortunately, it’s a little steep in price to be more than a novel thing. Expect a lot of girls with bug-eye sunglasses and pink Razr phones to crowd the place. Yuck – I won’t be back soon.

Rating: 6/10

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the sandwich nazi

September 24, 2007 at 10:54 pm · Filed under american, sandwiches

Grinders Submarine Sandwiches
2069 Antioch Ct., Oakland (Montclair District)

Photo: mine except for Phil, that’s from the SF Chronicle.

Ever see that episode of Seinfeld? The one with the “Soup Nazi”? Well, there’s a Sandwich Nazi in Oakland for you to check out.

I think that “Nazi” is a strong term. The guy is just firm, especially if you dilly-dally around your order. He’s super efficient, which is fair since you can customize your sandwich with about a billion different options. Please don’t mind it when he asks you if you want pickles, yellow or spicy mustard, onions, your sandwich hot or cold and about 20 other sandwich specifications in a rapid-fire manner, he’s got people to feed and doesn’t have time to help you decide.

He also doesn’t allow you to be on your celly while you’re in his store. I actually appreciate this since people tend to talk HELLA loud while they’re on the phone. And I don’t care what people say, you’re also very, very distracted while you talk on the phone (I’m lookin at you girlies on the phone while you drive erratically).

Grinders is a tiny sandwich shop in downtown Montclair. Oh, Montclair, how do I describe thee? It’s not actually a town, it’s more like a section of Oakland near Piedmont. This particular area is filled with little shops and eateries that are upscale-ish. Sure, there’s a Starbucks, a Noah’s, and a Jamba, but there’s also a Peets and trendy mom and pop operations and boutiques that line the cramped sidewalks of what is essentially a 5 block area. There are occasional festivals (music, arts and crafts, and the like), plus a farmers’ market that probably rivals the one at Ferry Plaza. When there isn’t some kind of event, the place is still crowded and parking just as hard to come by.

But I digress.

Grinders sort of doesn’t fit with the place, but at the same time fits well. Montclair feels like a smaller version of Walnut Creek or maybe Laurel Heights, but it’s also very small town-ish, which is what Grinders feels like to me. This is because it’s a small operation, run by the same guy, day in and day out. There’s also another part to it: how you order. Go to Grinders, make your perfect sandwich, and then SAVE IT in what has got to be a massive database. That’s right, your order is saved and phil zackler wants you to stop changing his sandwich!next time you come in, just order the Joe Schmoe and you’re good. Neat, right? A warning: make your name hard to spell or don’t tell your friends your favorite place is Grinders. Apparently, any kid can come in off the street and edit your order. Don’t order the Phil Zackler… I’m told the guy would stop by Grinders for lunch a lot during his high school days and every time he’d order his beloved sandwich, someone had changed it. It ended with him buying a 20-inch sub, or something. Don’t feel bad for Phil, he’s going to be a senator or something.

I digress again.

The interior of Grinders is small. There’s a counter on one side with the sandwich nazi sitting in front of his computer, waiting for you to hurry up and order. To his right, several sandwich makers hard at work. Opposite the counter are boxes with a side cut out, displaying the variety of chips for your choosing. You can get fountain drinks or cans or bottles of whatever. There are cookies of varying age (fresh, day old, two day old, etc). As expected, there’s no place to sit and eat your sandwich. Please, you’d just be wasting space and making noise. Along the same lines, there isn’t really room to wait near the counter for your order, so most wait outside and shove their way in or out to get their sub. It’s not really customer-friendly is what I’m trying to say.

Near the ordering spot there’s luckily a paper menu outlining your choices. You can pick and choose everything off the menu. Say you want a turkey with bacon, avocado, no mayo. Sure, you can do that, but be prepared to answer a slew of questions about other toppings. The guy is a bit intimidating, so I tend to answer the questions before I can really think about what I truly would like. Overall, though, it doesn’t really make too much of a difference if I get black pepper on my sandwich or not. There are specific sandwiches you can order, like the Terminator, which is roast beef, ham, and cheese. You’ll still need to talk about bread type and other toppings, though.

The sandwiches themselves are tasty (they should be, I picked out everything myself!). The ingredients are fresh and quality. The sandwiches are made only after you’ve ordered and they’re pretty quick about it. While the ordering process is daunting, the range of choice is refreshing. You can also call in your order, which requires you to know the menu a bit or have a sandwich order on their database. You don’t get to talk to anyone, you just leave a message.

Overall: A tasty spot with super variety. Don’t expect service with a smile.

Rating: 9/10

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the restaurant at ahn’s burger park

September 18, 2007 at 12:28 am · Filed under american, breakfast, burger

Ahn’s 1/4 lb. Burger
439 Grand Ave., Oakland

photo: M. Sawicki, c. 2002. Courtesy BBG

In high school, BBG and his friends would play wiffle ball at Lake Merritt (who remembers angelfire?). They played on a little grassy patch near Grand Ave. After an afternoon of beaning each other in the head, hitting balls at sunbathers, and generally having some good clean fun, they’d pack up their lawn chairs, score sheets, wiffle bat, and a half a dozen wiffle balls and cross the street to Ahn’s burger.

So as you can see, there’s a bit of personal history here for BBG, and he was particularly excited to take me to the joint. This next bit contains a few inside jokes, sorry.

Ahn’s is 3/4ths of a strip mall front next to Lake Merritt on Grand Ave. The other fourth, if you’re wondering, is a 1-hour photo place that’s never ever open. Ever. I doubt it even exists. I hear it’s a front for cock fighting. Ahn’s exterior probably hasn’t changed since the 70s, along with its menu. You can order off of their small menu from the sidewalk through their small order window, or you can venture inside. There’s a counter and a couple small booths. In general, it’s small and kind of dirty inside, so basically something to avoid. Since you’re literally across the street from the lake, it’s better to walk over there with your grub anyway.

The menu is basic, at best. You can get your usual burger/diner fare: burger, cheeseburger, fries. You can get sandwiches which are probably equally greasy: BLT, chicken, BBQ, or an Ahn-wich (pastrami). Surprise! They have hot dogs, chili dogs, and corn dogs on the menu. There’s also a variety of milkshakes from your basic chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry to your more interesting – boysenberry and pineapple (which some would argue is the third most popular milkshake flavor – I swear!). Apparently you can get breakfast there. Based on what I could see, you can get your standard diner/brunch fare: eggs and breakfast meats, black coffee, and maybe pancakes. That’s admirable.

The burgers are good. Like I’ve said before, when you grind up beef and form it into patties, it’s hard to find fault in it unless it’s really really terrible. Ahn’s is pretty quality and has a nice meaty flavor. Burgers are topped with good ol’ orange American cheese, melted on the patty but not so much that it’s runny or sweaty, which is nice. Condiments include: lettuce, tomato, mayo, pickles, onion, and mustard. Everything comes together nicely, like any quality burger. A bit heavy on the mayo, but not in an overly disgusting way. The veggies are fresh, which is surprising for a hole-in-the-wall kind of place. And I love it when you automatically get mustard on burgers.

The fries are good in terms of texture, but lack a little in flavor. They’re crinkle cut and fried to perfection: very crispy on the outside and mushy on the inside. They come piping hot and with a bit of salt. Sadly, they don’t really taste like much of anything, a sign that they were once frozen fries. I like that they go easy on the salt and then realize they skimp on the salt (they give you extra salt packets) – but maybe going McDonald’s on those babies would make them a bit tastier. Ketchup solved that problem pretty quickly, though.

Although I didn’t try it, I hear the pineapple milkshake wasn’t very pineapple-y. It was like a vanilla milkshake with very few, minute chunks of pineapple at the bottom. At the end of it, the top of the shake was a bit foamy, which tells me it wasn’t a real milkshake. That’s disappointing. Next you’re going to tell me the lemonade is by Minute Maid.

The best thing about Ahn’s is its location. Lake Merritt (despite all the goose poop) is really truly beautiful and a fun place to hang out at. Summer evenings there are the best – as it cools off, people from all walks of life come out and wander around the lake. It’s a great spot to people watch while eating some fries. The geese like the fries, too. Plus walking around the lake a couple times after a meal from Ahn’s would probably do you some good.

The cost ain’t so bad either. Dinner Sunday night for three people was just under $20 (three cheeseburgers, two fries, and a pineapple milkshake). And their turnaround is great. We probably waited 15 minutes for our order, and it looked like there were two orders ahead of us.

The place wasn’t exactly hoppin’, but it was still good times on a nice evening.

Overall: A nice, tasty burger joint if things like your cholesterol and blood pressure don’t matter to you. Sophisticated palates need not apply, just people looking for a good ol’ fashioned fast food meal.

Rating: 6/10

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what? i can’t read italian…

September 4, 2007 at 9:18 pm · Filed under italian

Zza’s Trattoria
552 Grand Ave., Oakland, CA
zzasonline.com

Photo: yelp.com

So I spent Labor Day weekend in the East Bay… Piedmont, Berkeley, Oakland, Emeryville, and the like. Forgive me if the next couple of posts bore you city-folk as they will reflect my time out in the sunny land that is the other side of the bay. (Sadly, I didn’t go to Ahn’s Burger during my stay – sorry Matt. But thanks for reading!)

Zza’s is a nice little spot right across the street from Lake Merritt. One of the best things about the place is it’s location. Never mind the recent spike in crime in the area or the never ending parade of cars down Grand Ave., this place has a view! In all seriousness, the location is central and the view is very pretty around dinner time. Thumbs up!

The interior is sort of dirty. Or at least it feels that way. The restaurant consists of one large, long room. The cement floors and barely decorated walls make it feel very empty and basement-like, which makes me think it’s dirty. Then there are the chairs, which are your basic wooden chairs with leather seats. Except the leather on all the chairs I saw was ripped. Bleh. And the tables are covered in white butcher paper, which can be endearing if you have small children and crayons, but, we didn’t so it wasn’t.

As you can see in the photo, there is a big, bright sign at the back of the room that reminds you of where you’re eating. It’s actually pretty neat since it’s made of actual, classic, little yellow light bulbs. Not Christmas lights, not neon, not CFLs, actual light bulbs. Sure there are other lights, but this is obviously the center of attention.

Anyway – the food! I had the insalata special (special salad). It was mixed greens with beets, Feta cheese, almonds, mango, and balsamic vinegar dressing. I got it without beets. The dressing was good, but they put it on a bit heavy. The greens were really nice, very fresh and tasty. The mango was a great sweet compliment to the tangy dressing, and the almonds, who doesn’t like almonds? They made the salad crunchy and were oh so good.

Main course was the capellini con pesto genovese (angel hair pasta with pesto and shrimp). Pretty amazing. Unlike other seafood dishes I’ve had, this one wasn’t overwhelmingly seafood. The rest of the dish didn’t taste like shrimp, and there was a good shrimp to dish ratio (about 6 shrimps overall). The shrimp tasted fresh – firm, not soggy. Sadly, I apparently wasn’t in a shrimp mood and I didn’t eat more than a couple pieces.

The pesto was also done very well. There wasn’t a lot of garlic, which is nice. Usually pesto is like, BAM, IN YOUR FACE GARLIC! This time around it was subtle, thus pleasant. It allowed the basil to come through. Instead of grinding up the pine nuts in the pesto, they were sprinkled in the pasta, which I didn’t like so much. They were here and there and I didn’t enjoy the inconsistency. There was a lot of olive oil at the bottom of the dish, which I also didn’t like. Though I know olive oil is good tasting and good for you, seeing that much oily stuff isn’t appealing.

One of my dinner-mates ordered the crespelle, which is a crepe stuffed with fontina, and roasted portabella and shiitake mushrooms. She said it was delicious, I’ll just have to take her word for that since mushrooms ain’t my thing. I did, however, try her side of tomatoes with basil. They were amazing! The tomatoes were served cold and they were fresh, not over ripe at all. The basil flavored it perfectly. It was very refreshing.

Service was quick and the place wasn’t crowded. We were able to get a table next to the window, which was awesome. It was a great way to end a very, very hot day: cooling off near the window while watching the sun set near the lake.

There’s also a wine bar adjacent to the restaurant. It looks fancier and my guess is that you need to drink wine in order to sit there. It’s a good idea, probably too hip for me. Go online and you can order from their website for delivery – very awesome. Prices are a little on the higher end, but still reasonable. You’ll pay about $5-$8 for appetizers and salads, and anywhere between $12-$22 for main dishes. There’s a nice selection of pizzas for one and calzones, the pasta gets a little frou frou.

Overall: A nice place to eat with decent prices to match their decent menu (in Italian). The food is very fresh and tasty, but ultimately not my style (seafood). What they do, they do very well. I’d recommend it, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to return.

Rating: 7/10

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