What is the brunch like at Cana? I like the sandwiches on the cafe side, but the regular restaurant has just never seemed very appealing to me.

District's brunch buffet is decent. The food is all Southern, unlike their regular menu. Kind of a scene, though — who knew there were so many twenty- and thirty-somethings in Oakland who like to get dressed to the nines for Sunday brunch?

There's also the Terrace Room, at the Lake Merritt Hotel. Great view of the lake. The food is only just passable, though I did enjoy the basket of complimentary mini muffins.

In Berkeley, the Star Meats butcher counter (inside Star Grocery, on Claremont Ave.) makes a good straightforward deli sandwich. They do a couple of different takes on an Italian sub, and their roast beef is very good.

Also, Zarri's Delicatessen, in Albany, is a good old-school kind of place. I haven't been for a while, but I remember getting pretty good (and very inexpensive) sandwiches there. (Someone needs to speak up for these places now that rworange has left the premises!)

And I'm quite fond of the sandwiches at The Local Butcher Shop, but it's not a full-service sandwich shop -- just one option a day, a la The Cheese Board Pizza.

It was a while back, but I enjoyed it the one time I went. The meat skewers were great (and seriously spicy), and the house-made Chapmans (a fruity non-alcoholic Nigerian cocktail) was also good.

ABC application indicates that it's the same people who run Old Brooklyn Bagels in Rockridge. I think they also own the Emery Bay Cafe in Emeryville.

http://www.abc.ca.gov/datport/LQSdata...

Thanks for reporting back -- chrysalis soup is pretty intense, and not really in a good way. =)

Sweet Bar makes some good gluten-free stuff.

http://www.sweetbarbakery.com/

Padi, the Indonesian restaurant in Berkeley, is good for spicy food. Their sambal is great (over fried hard-boiled eggs or smashed fried chicken); I've never dared to ask for it at the spiciest level.

Kang Tong Degi serves chrysalis soup and other adventurous Korean items. It's my favorite of the Korean pubs; great vibe, but definitely not fancy. The army stew is great. Also the chicken gizzards.

For Japanese, I'd consider B-Dama (on Piedmont Ave.) -- it's the only one of the great East Bay izakayas where you'll have a decent chance of staying within your budget.

Thanks for the update. How was the crowd on a Saturday night? I was surprised to walk past on a recent Thursday evening and see the restaurant probably about two-thirds empty.

The place seemed packed all the time when it first opened, so I wonder if the spate of recent (less expensive) openings in the JLS area have affected business.

Very, very sad news. Soleil's was a gem in Alameda, and the warm hospitality of the chef and his wife made it even more special. He was only 45 years old.

http://www.thealamedan.org/news/passa...

Right, I'm just saying those are the more expensive restaurants on that block -- not necessarily that they're overpriced. (I've said in the past that I think Barlata's a better value than Cesar, for example.)

You might argue that the new restaurants are catering to the "hipster" demographic, but what places do you consider upscale/overpriced in that particular section of Temescal?

Seems to me that all those places are solidly in the mid-range, and by and large not a bad value for what you get. Pizzaiolo, Dona Tomas, and Barlata are probably the most expensive of the lot, but the latter two are hardly trendy places these days.

I agree that "Downtown," or even "Uptown," is too big and spread out to consider one cohesive neighborhood. But if you take the intersection of Broadway and Grand, and go a couple of blocks in each direction, that leaves you with: Plum, Pican, Hawker Fare, Trueburger, Sweet Bar, and -- coming soon -- a new Jamaican place, Kingston 11. If you go as far as the 19th St. BART, then you can add Duende and a couple other good places.

Intersection of Telegraph and 51st, a couple blocks in each direction, you've got: Pizzaiolo, Bakesale Betty, Juhu Beach Club, Sura, Pyeongchang Tofu House, Burma Superstar, Lanesplitter, Scream Sorbet (RIP), and -- coming soon -- Cholita Linda. That's also pretty darn good (and mostly quite affordable).

Old Oakland and JLS have both gotten like a hundred times more interesting in the last year or so.

I can't speak for the others, but I believe they changed chefs at Sea Salt at least twice in the past few years. So I don't know if it's a top-down management thing, or if the new chefs just weren't as good. Did the major change to their brunch menu a while back correspond to a chef change?

T-Rex (which, like Sea Salt, was sold recently) fits into this same mold -- I haven't had a good meal there for at least a couple of years. Have not gone since the sale, though.

My understanding is that the equipment is perfectly safe; it's just that the permit he has is inadequate. If he had opened in a space already licensed to serve food (a former ice cream shop or restaurant), his current setup probably would have been fine.

But yes, it does sound like some of the initial business decisions were not ideal...

During my last two visits to HK Flower Lounge, the service was so awful and the food just OK. I've crossed it off my list for the time being and am looking for a new go-to in that part of the Bay. Anyone else tried dim sum at South Sea Seafood Village lately?

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/6885...

How about Zen Peninsula? I haven't been there in years.

Already closed. =(

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/WhatThe...

The other nice thing about Nick's is that they don't charge extra when you order by the slice. So that $24 pie, you can get a slice for $3, and then you can get a couple slices of something else -- mix and match. (Not all the pies on a given day are available by the slice, though).

I think their plain pepperoni pizza is really, really good -- better than the more frou-frou combinations, actually.

Quite a bit cheaper than Rockin' Crawfish, then, which was selling Dungeness for about $35 a crab a little earlier this week (for roughly a two-pound crab).

That said, while I was initially skeptical about splurging for this kind of prep, it (the Rockin' Crawfish crab, that is) ended up being the best Dungeness I've had so far this season. We got it with the garlic butter sauce, "no spice" (which still has a decent amount of spice).

Yeah, that's jiu cai he zi. Some versions have vermicelli, and some are just the leeks and egg. Probably it was stuffed with Chinese garlic chives rather than Western leeks (as with their pork and leek dumplings)?

Guess I just never noticed it on the menu -- good to know.

Are you talking about jiu cai he zi? Was there some vermicelli inside too? Never knew they served this at Shan Dong -- is it a new menu addition?

https://www.google.com/search?q=jiu+c...

The one with green beans? I just had that last week -- definitely the best dish of the night (ginger-scallion Dungeness was kind of disappointing).

Ah, the elusive surf clams. What a tease!

The past couple times I've done dim sum in Millbrae have been at Hong Kong Flower Lounge, and the food was just OK, especially considering the wait time and the brusque service -- next time I'll have to remember to give SSSV another try instead.

For next time, maybe consider Jong Ga House? I had written off their BBQ because the one time I got the all-you-can-eat option, it was pretty bad (low-quality meat). But if you order the a la carte BBQ (esp. the Korean style pork belly), it's very, very good -- and the portion size is still plenty. The tofu stews are solid, and the panchan is about as impressive a spread as Sura, I believe. (Sura is a good pick, too, and maybe slightly better food overall -- but I think the BBQ is better at Jong Ga House.)

Only downside, for your purposes, is that most of the tabletop grilling options have a two-order/person minimum. But two orders of BBQ at ~$19 each, plus a tofu stew for ~$10-$15, and two people will just go home with a lot of leftovers is all.

I know it doesn't work for the OP's purposes, but I think it's worth pointing out in this thread that the feijoada at Rio California (in Preservation Park) is really, really good and a bargain at $9.95. I especially love the savory toasted yucca flour that you mix into the stew. It's available Wednesdays and Thursdays for lunch only.

https://www.facebook.com/riocalifornia
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/esc...

Syhabout doesn't cook at Hawker Fare anyway. Huh, I go (or get takeout) about once a month, and I've never had a bad meal...

Huh. Good to know about Masala Cuisine. Anyone tried it recently? (It sounded from that thread like the business was in flux, or maybe not doing so well...)

I don't think there's anything worthwhile in that plaza -- you just want something nearby, or does it need to be in the center? Crossing over into Park St. in Alameda wouldn't be too bad and would open up plenty of options: Scolari's? Cafe Q? Homeroom Racing Cafe?

There's also an old-school red sauce Italian joint off Hegenberger, but I haven't been.
http://www.francescosrestaurant.com/

Otherwise, In and Out is probably going to be your best bet.

Ah, I was going to say: 8th St. Cafe, based on the one meal I ate there, anyway, seems to me to be one of the worst restaurants in Chinatown. Cafe 88 is great.

Last I heard it wouldn't be until the end of the year. I don't believe they've even been able to start the renovation yet -- still trying to get all their permits squared away.