Comment Archives: Locations: 3 Stars
Re: “Buon Appetito”
Great local restaurant that consistently delivers good value and good service. Now that they have the full bar and all that affords the dining experience, Buon Appetito is one of our go to places.
Re: “Kitchen 388”
This comment was removed because it violates our new policy against anonymous comments. This comment will be reposted if the commenter chooses to use his or her real name.
It is an old italian place that last gone more mass production and lost a bit of the family feeling it had 30 yrs ago. Most likely all their food comes from major food service suppliers and that hurts garlic bread, chicken and fries. prices can be good if you get the right item. maybe one half chicken and fries. the pasta is really poor?? Is this what Grandma would have accepted? I think not. drinks are cheap at the bar!!
Re: “Barney's Gourmet Hamburgers”
Pretty good hamburgers and fries. A bit pricey, though, for what you get. In the past Barney's was widely considered to be the best burger place around. I don't think they can claim that anymore, and I hope they try to regain that status.
Re: “Rosenblum Cellars”
In the past, I would've given Rosenblum 4 stars. However, they were sold about 2 years ago to a large Napa owned company & the wines haven't been the same since! My friends & I have been coming to Rosenblum for over 7 years. We watched the open house Parties go from medium to overcrowded in 4 years (before sale). Once the new owners took over, the Open House events went up by about $10, most of the wines are bitter & very dry (even reds) & there's less food served. We went from buying cases@these events to buying a couple of bottles. That says a lot for the 30-early 40 crowd!
Re: “Baja Taqueria”
Tasty food and I love that they serve sangria! An eco-conscious establishment. I eat here often!
Re: “Alameda Theatre & Cineplex”
A beautiful palace from the distant past with pretty lousy movie bookings. Pedestrian. All the most commercial junk and every kid's movie that's out. Kids and teens must be a large part of their income because, boy do they cater to those demographics. We still have to go over to Berkeley to see the stuff we want to see. Good matinee pricing, parking garage is close and they validate for next visit. Popcorn prices obscenely high.
Re: “Pyramid Alehouse”
If your glass is half empty, most of these beers are middle-of-the-road Craft Beer 101 for new/unadventurous beer drinkers. If your glass is half full, these are solid, balanced session beers. You make the call.
Though I don't normally like shiny happy chain upscale-ish brewpubs all that much, I suspect this place might grow on me over time. Happy hour beers are a reasonable $3.50 each, and if nothing else, I'll stop by semi-regularly to refill my growler: $8 for a growler refill (ie, $2 per pint) is a bargain for craft brew of any sort.
Follow them on Twitter and you can occasionally score other deals on Wednesdays, like the week they had $8 pitchers. Just make sure you tell the bartender what you want and that you saw it online -- when I went, the bartender had no idea this special was running, did not believe me, and had to consult with the manager.
Unlike the superior brewpub chain Rock Bottom, the brewers here don't get to mess around with the corporate formula much. The Berkeley water is Ph-balanced so the beers here taste exactly like the Pyramid beers in Seattle, for instance. BUT, the Walnut Creek brewery has a program that allows the brewers to experiment a little, and the results sometimes go on tap at the Berkeley location. That's where the magic happens. The most creative beer I've had here is Lipstinger, brewed with Belgian yeast and pepper. If you try something here that's even a little bit exotic or adventurous, PLEASE give good feedback, or vote with your growler. I'd like to see the brewers be allowed to loosen up more.
Tours are every day at 4pm. Go on some random weekday and you may get a private tour, which means lots of time for questions if you're a geek. Don't go to get drunk, because the samples at the end are not stingy but are modest. As a beer dork, I found the tour itself quite interesting. It's quite a huge brewery operation back there, and since we were there during the week we got to see the big-ass bottling line in action, which was a treat. The guy giving us our tour said this Pyramid location considers itself a production brewery first and a restaurant second, which might explain the food (As a rule, I try to avoid this sort of mid-priced TGI Blannigan's type of food, but sometimes one needs food to soak up the beer. The wings are the best option).
Pet peeve: being nosy during the tour and reading the ingredients on a barrel of apricot goo revealed that Pyramid's apricot ale has high-fructose corn syrup in it. Sad panda :(
Bonus: I once misremembered their opening time and came to refill my growler 15 minutes before the doors opened. I read the hours on the door, noted my mistake, and started walking away with my empty growler. One of the floor staff ran after me, called me back, and said I could come get a growler fill anyway if that's all I wanted. Nice.
Re: “DJ's Bistro”
I love this restaurant! Hidden away in Concord off of Willow Pass Road DJ's Bistro is a gem. My husband is German and he feels closer to home whenever we dine here. The salads are great, food is plentiful and their spaeztle and wiener schnitzel is to die for.
We go to this cafe a lot, since it's close to our house. The food is always good, although the breakfast menu could use a couple of specials. It's great that you can get fruit instead of potatoes.
It's a great place for after work drinks.
The downside is that, unless the manager is on-hand, the service is absolutely terrible. I've seen many people be seated only to walk away after waiting to long to order or even get water and a cup of coffee.
Rating Detail:
Food: 3
Service: 2
Atmosphere: 2
Value: 3
Overall: 3
Re: “Taqueria Talavera”
I can't say much about the restaurant because I only tried one thing. But then again, even the ingredients in the burrito I
had were mediocre so it doesn't speak well for this establishment. Nothing was tasty about it and the salsa was weak also. Why spend more here when a cheap decent burro at Gordos is only a few blocks down? All they need to do is make
the ingredients more homemade style and it would be good. Also, stop watering down the salsas for the gringos, they lack flavor!!!
Rating Detail:
Food: 3
Service: 3
Atmosphere: 3
Value: 3
Overall: 3
Re: “Café Clem”
My new favorite Berkeley spot. I love going for breakfast especially on the week ends if the line is too long at LaNote. The eggs are organic and are served as a souffle with salmon. They are delicious. The sandwiches are almost addictive. But, I go for the smiles from the staff as much as I do the food. They know me by name after a few visits and always want to know what I liked. Go for a date, by yourself or meet a group of friends. It works in all those combinations. My favorite is to go by myself, get a mocha ( coffee is delicious) and eggs to watch groups of friends meet and hang out laughing and talking ( no texting).
I feel ucky I have discovered this little bit of France in the heart of Berkeley.
It makes me happy.