when i sent out the newsletter on where to eat in the bay area per all your plentiful recommendations, ethan texted me and told me i should make a list of places i personally love frequenting. i was kind of reluctant to do this because i go to the same five places (i feel like) or i’ve already mentioned places i love in the bay area in passing. for someone who loves to eat and enjoys eating out maybe a little too much, i don’t really go out of my way to try the newest restaurants (and if i do, it takes me so long that it’s no longer new and the ‘coolness’ of it becomes a thing of the distant past) so i often feel out of the loop. maybe i carry some sort of unnecessary shame that i don’t often eat at the trendiest places? or even more so that i’m often way, way behind about what’s even cool or new. but who cares, i guess! good food is good food and truthfully, i’m here to enjoy it all and i’m here to take my time.
places i enjoy having a drink:
rose’s taproom: this is a tiny little wine/beer place in temescal that i really enjoy going to. everyone that works there is so warm and friendly (hi sierra!), the vibes are always nice, it feels easy to be there alone, their snack plate absolutely cannot be beat for the price ($10!) and they have wine selection that doesn’t feel intimidating for those who just know they like a red (me) or something sparkling. i’ve come here alone a few times to fake read or fake work on my laptop with their snack plate and a glass of wine or two for company and it’s always really nice. they also have a little outdoor patio and a parklet which is perfect for a summery day or evening.
north light: i don’t really drink cocktails often but i do really, really love the furtive glance cocktail here. it’s a dimly lit bar and bookstore in one but i have never seen anyone actually look at the books or purchase…but love and appreciate the concept. also, their tater tots are good.
donkey and goat: i like their wine (their pet nat, rose and grenache) and they have a really cute outdoor patio.
CoRo coffee room: i love their seasonal menu drinks, it’s a good quiet space to work (a place i have sat and rewrote the same sentence for 2 hours), the staff is kind (hi lily!). i feel like i’ve talked about this a million times but their summer espresso root bear float is insanely good. equally so, their standard menu coffee drinks are just as good.
hal’s coffee/ hal’s after hours: my neighborhood coffee spot which also moonlights as a wine bar later in the week. the baristas are so nice (hi betul!) and so many cute dogs during the day. i really love and appreciate a neighborhood spot where you can walk in the morning, desperate for a latte, looking absolutely busted and it’s just totally fine. also thursday to sunday, starting from 5:30 pm, it’s a casual organic wine bar which is also a place i enjoy getting a glass of wine. jeremy really likes their regular pop up: pound4pound burgers.
highwire at flowerland: the most beautiful place to enjoy coffee on a weekend morning. i recently ordered their mint matcha drink and it was perfect for my hangover (one more coffee and i thought i was gonna throw up). but the real appeal of this coffee stand is that it’s nestled in a corner of flowerland which is so beautiful especially in spring and summer. i’m entering a gardening era and i’ve really enjoyed getting a coffee and then perusing the seedlings and plants. it’s just such a beautiful nursery that i start getting delusional and begin to wonder if spending $2,000 on a 6 foot tall cactus plant can be justified.
places i want to try:
celia from of all places market posted about banter wine bar and ethan mentioned banter awhile back. i just saw that they have shrimp cocktail (!!!!!!!!!) so consider my ass there very soon.
places i enjoy eating:
belotti: i’ve probably cried more at belotti than any other restaurant in the bay area. don’t ask me why i’ve had the most earth-shattering heavy conversations while sitting at the bar here but i have and will probably continue to do so. i have cried into my bowl of agnolotti and tagliolini but it still didn’t make it taste any less amazing. i also appreciate that the bartender will just hand you a napkin, give you a small smile and move on to let you cry in peace. i’ve talked about belotti five thousand times and it’s for good reason- the pasta is really, really good here. ethan first introduced me to belotti years ago, when he first moved to the east bay and i’ve been dedicated to going at least 3x a month since moving to berkeley. i love the agnolotti and the tagliolini with browned butter and anchovy (pictured above), those are my two go-to’s. i am a creature of habit and i do not stray from those two favorites but i recently tried their tagliatelle with wild boar sugo and it’s quite good. it’s very rich and savory and although it can’t compete my favorite two pastas, i’ll probably order it from time to time. also an underrated item on the menu that you absolutely need to order is the broccoli with béchamel and calabrian chili. a weak point of their menu are their salads (and tiramisu, no offense, i hate their tiramisu), so this is a good vegetable replacement. it’s a good date place, a good catch up with your best friend place, a good place to eat alone. it’s a quaint restaurant that’s almost always busy so it’s almost impossible to do a walk in on thursday, friday, and saturday (even for the bar) so i really recommend making a reservation when and if you can.
penny roma: although cotogna and penny roma are two different italian type of restaurants, i’d skip cotogna and go to penny roma instead. maybe that’s crazy for me to say and i’m sure someone will be like: wtf, you can’t compare the two!! but wow, okay, i am. i like the vibe of penny roma so much. the staff is accommodating and kind, the service is good, i love that the menu is smaller and more straightforward, the food is always prepared well, you can take your time with dinner and you never feel like you’re being rushed out which is really important to me. it’s fun. the restaurant is beautifully designed and although my eye always gravitates toward the atrium seating, i prefer sitting inside the restaurant with a view of the open kitchen. last time i was there, i loved the leek arancini, the cacio e pepe (it was so peppery, it was perfect) and the chicken al mattone. other dishes i have loved: their porkchop, the prosciutto san daniele (pictured above) and their side of butter beans. they recently just posted this dish: tortelli di asparagi and i really, really want to try it.
bar sardine: before we even moved to the east bay, i really fell in love with bartavelle and we would often make the 1.5 hour drive just to eat lunch here. i just really fucking love this type of cuisine? this kind of food? these types of dishes? it’s so california to me in a way that will always be familiar and i will always appreciate and crave and miss it when i haven’t had it in awhile. when bar sardine opened, which i kinda think of as bartavelle’s older sister, i was so happy that there’s now a neighborhood place that actually has good food and a good ambience. hard to find, i think. i love bar sardine/ bartavelle because it’s just really simple food that tastes good. it’s not crazy or experimental, it’s just literally everything i love put together in a way that i can’t always replicate at home. for lunch at bartavelle, their early girl tomato tartine is insanely good and so is their salame toscana sandwich. at bar sardine, i have enjoyed most things i’ve tried on their menu. i truly believe you can’t really go wrong with whatever you order. and the staff behind the counter are always really friendly and are always willing to suggest a wine to try if you are having a hard time deciding. they also play nice music which is a plus.
tartine manufactory: one of my favorite memories of tartine manufactory is from years ago when i just quit my job in social services and it was my first day of unemployment. jeremy played hooky from work to celebrate and we drove to the city and had a really long lunch at tartine. it was my first time there and i just felt very in love that day so everything tasted beautiful. even the way the sunlight poured into the dining room felt special. i was such a lightweight at the time so just one aperol spritz had me laughing at everything and nothing that was actually funny. i really like tartine’s food but even besides that, i think i will always love tartine manufactory because of that one sunny afternoon. i like tartine because you can go on a tuesday afternoon for lunch and you wonder if everyone in san francisco is also a freelancer or just doesn’t work. it’s always so busy. the food is also very california cuisine meaning it’s seasonal, it’s simple, it’s colorful, it’s easy to enjoy. it’s extremely little gem lettuce/grapefruit in your salad (you know what i mean) oriented but in a good way. sometimes i just like a restaurant based on the feelings i get while i’m there and i’m always happy at tartine manufactory.
zuni cafe: i still think about lunch at zuni cafe. it’s hard to explain why i enjoyed it so much but i think it’s because it made me forget a lot about my problems for a few hours. there are some restaurants that seem to do that; they usher you in and make you feel like you are a different person, living a different life for just a little bit. maybe it has something to do with the formality of how the host greets you, the starch white tablecloths, the polite bartenders, the exaggerated performances of the fellow guests and servers alike, the constant melodic clinking of wine glasses and champagne flutes as the sun still beams outside, the way it’s 1 pm but it doesn’t matter because the whole afternoon is yours to quite literally eat, drink and be merry. there’s something magical and suffocating and beautiful about that type of that type of lunch, that type of meal. ordering a whole chicken that takes an hour to prepare along with a towering plate of shoestring french fries with a caesar salad with anchovies before that and a shallow bowl of manila clam soup with a few glasses of wine and a slice of gateaux victoria as the cherry on top in the middle of the afternoon made me feel insane and euphoric.
baker and commons: best biscuit in berkeley, in my opinion. sometimes, i will literally doordash a biscuit from them to my apartment which ends up being quadruple the price of what i would pay if i just drove the 4 miles to baker and commons. i’m not crazy about anything else on the menu but i do love their biscuit with butter and whatever seasonal jam they have. it’s so simple but so, so good. they also serve lattes in the traditional way which is in that big cereal size bowl which is kind of embarrassing to drink out of for a lot of reasons. it’s a place i enjoy coming with a book to read (not fake read) and enjoy a nice little breakfast treat.
devils teeth baking company: i really, really don’t like breakfast sandwiches and i definitely do not like breakfast burritos but i do love devils teeth’s biscuit breakfast sandwich. it’s an insane sandwich and insanely good. i get the special breakfast sandwich which is kind of crazy considering i really don’t like breakfast sandwiches at all and this is the most breakfast sandwich you can get. it’s a buttermilk biscuit, scrambled eggs, strips of bacon, pepperjack cheese, avocado and lemon garlic aioli. i eat the whole thing in maybe 5 minutes and i try to talk myself out of ordering a second one. i think this is something that you should absolutely get if you’re staying in the city, especially if you do not like breakfast sandwiches like me because you’ll enjoy it more. one of my favorite things to do is go on an early morning nature walk at land’s end then get a breakfast sandwich at devils teeth.
chez panisse cafe: a classic, an institution, it’s a quintessential berkeley establishment! chez panisse isn’t a regular restaurant in my rotation but i do think it is important to include because it is an iconic berkeley restaurant and i’ve enjoyed every time i’ve dined here. i’ve talked a lot about california cuisine and how much i love it but it’s also something i really associate specifically with berkeley. there are so many restaurants, especially here, that do it well and i’ve mentioned a few of them on this list but chez panisse is probably the og to do it. i love the attention to detail that have become iconic in their own right like the lobby flower arrangements done by max gill to their engraved water glasses and the bountiful seasonal produce that grace the counters of their kitchen. i think chez panisse is really special to experience and is a restaurant you should go to at least once if you can.
rose pizzeria: when it hits 75 degrees in berkeley and it’s sunny out, the first place i think of going to is rose pizzeria for their spritz, spicy caesar salad and a pizza on the back patio. it’s my favorite sit down pizza place in all of berkeley and oakland. my go to pizza’s are: the classic pep, the reed and beach club. you have to order their spicy caesar salad and if you’re really hungry, an order of their beans too. rose is perfect to go alone or on a date or with a friends and if you happen to be lucky enough to sit in chris’s section, you’re blessed because he is the sweetest.
bombera: i literally just went to bombera on saturday and it’s already one of my favorite restaurants in the east bay. i was told by my friend ben that bombera has the best carrot dish and i didn’t really believe him until i finally got to try it myself. it is really, really good (it has beans!) especially when paired with their mango cherry gem salad. i kept saying that i would come back for those two things alone. i loved their carne asada, i loved how kind and attentive the staff were, and i really loved the vibe of the restaurant. now, i understand why people talk about bombera and say it’s special. i think this would be a fun place to go with a bigger group of people so you can try more things on the menu. because the portions are quite generous, it’s hard to really order a lot of food when there’s just two of you.
great china: my favorite chinese restaurant in the bay area since my family’s beloved chinese restaurant went out of business years and years ago. mister jiu’s is fine but even with all it’s accolades, i would choose great china over that any day of the week. because the portions are so big and there’s so many good dishes to order (peking duck, general tso’s, double skin, honey walnut shrimp, combination fried rice, the list goes on…), it’s good to go with at least 4 people.
pho aosen: my favorite place to get che 3 mau and thach che. i’ve tried che from a few places around berkeley and oakland and pho aosen has the best one.
tomi sushi: my family loves tomi sushi and any time we visit my mom in santa clara, it’s most likely we’re going to be eating tomi sushi. i personally do not eat a lot of sashimi or raw fish, but i do really love their spicy tuna rolls and their california rolls (lol). this fact about me brings my family a lot of shame but the truth is, i always order beef or chicken teriyaki or udon at any japanese restaurant (that isn’t an izakaya) and i can attest that tomi has really good beef and chicken teriyaki, udon and spicy tuna rolls.
kunjip: the only place i will eat galbi tang. whenever ethan and i go back to the south bay to visit my mom, they want to eat tomi but i want kunjip so i can eat galbi tang. i used to really dislike this soup as a kid but now, i think it’s one of my favorite korean dishes. they’re also known for their different kinds of naengmyun (i don’t like naengmyun at all), seol leong tang, gomtang and galbijim but i always order the galbitang.
not really the bay area but places i really like up north:
palace market for their buffalo milk soft serve and figs during fig season.
hog island for their grilled oysters.
cafe aquatica in jenner.
places on my to-try-list:
so these are my favorite places in the bay area. i hope you find this a little helpful if you’re ever in need of a place to eat, drink, laugh or cry. and if you do try any of these, i’d love to hear your thoughts.
xx
I have no plans to visit SF anytime soon but it is such a pleasure to just read the way you talk about your favorite places, Ethany.
I'm glad (and kinda surprised) that North Light is still around. It opened when I was working across the street at Pizzaiolo and I wasn't sure if it would take off. Also, is it just me or are the beers at Rose's higher abv than advertised. I feel like I would always get so tipsy just off one. Anyways, great list! Miss the east bay </3