Mangia Mangia, Albany

Have you ever had one of those days where you are craving pasta but don't feel like cooking it? I know, it's the easiest thing in the world to make but for some reason I just wanted to relax, sit down, and have a gigantic bowl of pasta made for me.

After a long day at school on Tuesday, I decided to go check out Mangia Mangia on San Pablo at Solano. I used to drive by it everyday on my way home from work and had always been curious. In an angry mood from rude, line-cutting commuters, I walked into the nearly empty restaurant. I was greeted by two very friendly waiters and led to a seat facing the door so that I could people watch.

As I sat down, I was brought ice water, a basket of bread, and two different dipping sauces. The first was a tart marinara-like sauce which was okay. The other was a mix of fresh minced garlic, salt, and dried red Italian pepper. By itself on the bread it was very strong, but I soon caught on that the olive oil on the table was there for a reason. Mixed with the good quality olive oil, the garlic mixture took on an entirely new flavor and texture; this time it was a bit softer, lighter, but still had great flavor and heat.

I first ordered a mixed green salad with gorgonzola, pear, and walnuts ($8). It's a somewhat tired salad on most menus, but I still order it frequently, and this was the best version I've ever had. The baby greens (mostly peppery arugula) truly were baby greens--sweet, crunchy, and so small that I didn't even have to use my knife. The pears were soft with just enough crunch and extremely sweet.

One problem that I often have with these salads is that the walnuts are overly sweet and they overpower all of the other ingredients. These walnuts were still sweet, but they weren't caked in sugar and had a very good, natural, but crispy texture to them. I also liked that the chef crumbled up the gorgonzola into smaller pieces and didn't overwhelm the salad with too much of it. Finally, the dressing is very light, and doesn't smother the greens. Instead, it just allows the ingredients to work together and make a great, tasty salad.

Next, I had linguini with seafood in a white wine cream sauce ($13). Unfortunately, even though I came for the pasta, I wasn't thrilled with it. While the pasta itself was cooked nicely, the sauce wasn't very good. It was supposed to be a white wine cream sauce, but the proportions seemed to be a bit off. Wine or cream sauces need to either have a majority of cream or a majority of wine in the sauce. This was about fifty fifty, which led to a watery cream flavored sauce.

On the good side, the seafood was cooked well. I was given a variety of shrimp, scallops, salmon, and mussles. All of it was perfectly cooked, but the salmon flavor took over everything else. Plus, they put some fresh veggies on top which actually made it worse! The problem wasn't with the fresh red and yellow peppers, but with the fact that they put shredded carrot on top. The carrot and the salmon ruined what already was a not very good sauce.

Saddened, I picked out the noodles and seafood and ate them individually. When I was about halfway finished with my meal, the waiter came up and asked if I would be interested in having their famous chocolate souffle. Since they make it to order (and it's entirely worth it, said my waiter), the souffle should be ordered about 15 minutes prior to the end of a meal. I gave in, and it was worth it.

The souffle ($8) comes to the table in a little ramekin on a plate, drizzled with chocolate sauce and sprinkled with powdered sugar. It is delicious. Please ignore my review of the pasta, and just go to get the souffle (and the salad if you are feeling healthy). It will be worth it for you, too.

The chocolate flavor isn't too sweet or too rich so as to make the souffle impossible to eat. Instead, it is just perfect. It has about five different textures to it as well. On top, it has a little bit of crunch where the cake has had a chance to harden a bit. In the middle, there is molten chocolate which I kept burning my tongue on because I wanted to eat it fast. Just outside of the liquid center is gooey, sticky batter. Lastly, on the outermost section on the bottom is spongy, light, chocolate cake. Seriously, get the souffle.

Mangia Mangia is located at 755 San Pablo Avenue in Albany. They take reservations at (510) 526-9700.

Their website isn't working, but to see a photo of the souffle and read reviews that aren't nearly as well written as mine, see Yelp!: http://www.yelp.com/biz/mmU8dN3D6TWCesGPdxC1gg#hrid:B0opWjwtw-nbOJvhxUK_1g/query:mangia

Noodle Theory, Oakland

Noodle Theory is a relatively new place on College Avenue that my dad (who is THE best dad ever and just brought his ailing daughter--me--soup!) pointed out to me one day. Being the food critic that I am, he asked if I had been there. Of course the answer was "no," but it did peak my interest. So, the other night I was out with two rather adventurous, food-snob buddies of mine (Margaret and Misha), and we had no idea what to eat. As we drove by, I suggested we at least take a look at the menu.

The menu for Noodle Theory is probably what a food critic would call "Asian Fusion." There seems to be an emphasis on using Japanese style noodles with Chinese flavors. In typical Berkeley fashion all of the meat seems to be organically and sustainably raised, which is something we don't see in Chinatown every day. Everything is under $10, which is fair for the noodle dishes, but a bit over-priced for the appetizers, which ranged from about $6 to $8 for only six dumplings.

It's a pretty small restaurant, with only about six tables, and an open kitchen. We were seated right away, which seemed to be lucky because about halfway through our meal there was a crowd hanging out at the door.

The waitstaff was casual but very friendly, and immediately brought us a small appetizer of edamame with oyster sauce-like stuff drizzled on top. Since Margaret was there, we had no choice but to order potstickers. Misha doesn't eat pork, so we went with the steamed shrimp and Chinese chive dumplings with Chinese black vinegar ($8.50).

The dumplings were good, but a bit too heavy on the chives instead of shrimp. It was actually very similar to that one dim sum dish with the onions and garlic inside a translucent noodle. Good, but not my favorite, especially since I know I can get basically the same thing only bigger and for a quarter of the price.

As for our entrees, Misha ordered the grilled salmon over mixed greens with thin soft wheat noodles in a wasabi miso vinaigrette. I was in food critic mode that night so I actually tried it, and quite enjoyed the dish. Everything melded together really nicely and the fish was perfectly cooked. Misha seemed to suffer a bit from entree envy later on, though, so I'd recommend getting it as an appetizer.

I ordered spicy braised pork belly over ramen noodles ($8). Since coming back from Japan I have found the coveted eringii mushrooms (available in the mushroom aisle at Berkeley Bowl), but have yet to find a good bowl of Japanese-style noodles. Unfortunately, this was still not the place, but they made the best effort that I've tried so far. The broth was relatively spicy and had lots of flavor, and the pork was cooked nicely and not dried out.

The reason I want to go back to Noodle Theory is because of Margaret's dish. Though it was on the specials list, I am under the impression that it's served rather frequently. She got duck breast over flat rice noodles (fun noodles) with a yellow coconut curry sauce ($9.50). The duck was cooked just like Chinese duck, so it had a nice crispy skin and a good amount of fat on it.

Duck aside, it was the sauce that stood out--it was amazingly flavorful, enough so that I wanted to trade with Margaret (hence, I suffered from entree envy as well). It was a lot similar to the curry sauce that we get at Pho84 with the fried snapper.

My only complaint was that the noodles weren't cooked quite right. In Chinatown, they seem to have mastered the ability to cook fun noodles without making too many of the noodles stick together. I'd imagine that this feat involves using quite a bit of grease, which these noodles didn't have, so it was probably for the best.

As we were finishing up our meals, our server began to take away our dishes as we finished them. Originally when I came into the restaurant I just thought that there were a lot of couples going out to eat where only one of them was hungry. No, it turns out that while the waitstaff is very friendly and quick, they happen to practice one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to service: taking away plates from diners before they the rest of their party is finished. That aside, I had a very nice experience at Noodle Theory, and I am eventually planning on going again, just to get the duck.

Noodle Theory is located on the corner of College and Claremont, at 6099 Claremont Avenue, in Oakland. They are open every day except Tuesday, for both lunch and dinner.

Lunch hours are 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., except on Sunday when they are 12:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Dinner is 5:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

To order out, call (510) 595-6988.