Sidebar, Oakland

Margaret was a huge fan of Zax Tavern, so she was really excited to hear that Sidebar opened. Excited from all the rave reviews we ate dinner at Sidebar this evening.

I instantly liked the atmosphere, and the prominently displayed bar is going to be amazing when they get their hard liquor license. Our server was nice, didn't rush us, and was overly willing to make recommendations. Overall, though, I wasn't wowed.

We started with the grilled calamari salad with bacon vinaigrette ($9) and duck liver crostini ($7.50). While the duck liver crostini was fatty, rich, and delicious, the accompanying salad and calamari salad were overdressed. The squid, which was grilled, was undercooked and kind of slimy. I'm not sure we were given enough it also to justify the $9 price tag.

That said, I really appreciated the portion sizes and prices for the mains. While a fair amount smaller than the entrees at my "boyfriend's" (Wood Tavern), all mains at Sidebar are around $5-10 cheaper but still filling.

Margaret had the brined/grilled double cut pork chop ($17). While nicely cooked, the butchering wasn't superb and she got a bunch of funky bony bites. The cannelloni bean ragout was good but unevenly cooked and could have used some form of veg or color. My heavily recommended atlantic cod stew ($19) was very flavorful and my fish was cooked perfectly. The clams, however, weren't cleaned properly and I got a lot of grit. Overall that issue was trumped by the fact that I ate all of our bread just to mop up the delicious sauce.

For dessert, Margaret had the "Almond Joy" ($6.50) which is basically a fudge brownie with ice cream, caramel sauce and whipped cream. I had the angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream ($6.50). Both were very simple yet good, and my latte reminded me of how much I dearly miss having good coffee.

I had a good time here, I just think they need to work out some kinks, especially in the prep kitchen. I'm looking forward to going back in a few months to see what happens. While the menu was nicely sized, it seemed like it suffered from a little imagination. Sidebar has a ton of potential but I'm not sure it's quite there yet. Seeing as they just opened, I hope other people give it a try; I'm wishing this place the best.

Sidebar is located at 542 Grand Avenue in Oakland.
For reservations, call (510) 452-9500.

Los Cantaros Restaurant and Taqueria, Oakland

There are certain places that I patronize for just...one...thing. Los Cantaros is one of those places...Well maybe they're the place I go for just...two...things.

The free chips and salsa are really, really good here. I don't know what it is, but they always have the perfect amount of salt on them and the chips themselves are thick and crunchy without being too oily. The salsa is tangy and spicy, and so good that I could almost drink a bowl of it.

In order to get the chips, I learned that you have to buy something. It being a rainy week, I ordered the Caldo Tlalpeno ($5.50). It's a spicy chicken broth soup with vegetables and tons of chicken served with a lime and tortillas. I know, it doesn't sound like anything fancy but this soup is so addicting that I've gone back to get it three times in one week. Plus, it's incredibly filling (the bowl is HUGE), pretty healthy and very affordable. I leave stuffed every time, even when I go there after the gym.

Since I know my readership consists solely of family members I will mention that most of the meat they give you are giant chunks of tender dark meat. Did I win you over yet? The soup is so flavorful and satisfying--especially with the added depth from the lime juice, and has just the right amount of heat to bring a healthy pore-clearing sweat to your face.

I've had a burrito and the enchiladas from Los Cantaros as well, but I don't think I'll ever be able to go and not order the Caldo Tlalpeno. Oh, and their water is really good too because they put cucumbers and lemon in it. I always wait to fill up my water bottle until I get to the restaurant.

Los Cantaros is located at 336 Grand Avenue in Oakland.
They are open daily from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., and until 10:00 p.m. on Fridays.

Cafe Panini, Berkeley

I'm instantly annoyed and judgmental about places that have the word "panini" in their menu or restaurant name because 99% of the time they're butchering the Italian language. It's an issue I'm not planning to come to terms with anytime soon. If you're going to use a word from another language, use it properly.

For the record, "panini" means sandwiches (yes, plural) in Italian. It doesn't necessarily mean "meat and cheese squished in a grill-mark toaster with bread" and to say "paninis" is just plain wrong. While we're at it, "bruschetta" is pronounced with a hard "c" sound, not "sh" (take that, Jamie Lauren from Top Chef). Rant aside, Cafe Panini manages to not butcher the language on their menu and has great food.

Who knew?! I always walked by this place but never thought to actually try it. Thank you Aimee for the suggestion!!

I got the special roast beef sandwich which was delicious. It came on a seeded baguette with roasted onions, tomato, lettuce, and a horseradish sauce. For a sandwich, it was a little pricey, but I thought worth it for the quality bread and meat. The roast beef was really juicy, hot, and cooked medium rare (which I LOVE).

Service was also very friendly. I was pretty decided on my sandwich but Aimee was having trouble deciding between the chickpea soup and a salmon salad sandwich. The cashier ended up recommending that she get the sandwich but gave us a small cup of soup to split so we could try it.

The soup wasn't our favorite (it needed some seasoning), but it was a really nice gesture, especially given the cold rainy weather. I imagine on a sunny day that this place is also a great study destination. A lot of the other things on the menu looked fabulous, so I'm very excited to go back.

Cafe Panini is tucked behind Jupiter in Berkeley at 2115 Allston Way at Shattuck.
Website: www.cafe-panini.net

Suppenkuche, San Francisco

I learned the hard way to never make a bet with my man Mikey D. Yet I think paying him back by taking him to Suppenkuche ended up being pretty win-win.

On a cold drizzly SF night like we had the other day, Suppenkuche truly hit the spot with an ice cold beer, friendly service, and, in all its glory, the bread ball smothered in a rich, thick mushroom gravy. Since I don't want to gain 50 pounds I won't plan on next time just ordering three of these as my appetizer, main, and dessert, but I'll be tempted. God that thing was so good.

I don't know anything about beer except that I like what's cheap, so Mikey ordered for me. Fortunately what I lack in beer snobbery/knowledge Mike makes up for and then some. Whatever it was, it was crisp, somewhat light, and had a little spice to it. Very tasty.

I was also obsessed with the bread and butter. The butter they serve the bread with is smooth, whipped, salty, and seasoned. Despite only having four slices of bread we slopped up the entire butter crock.

For mains, I had the braised beef with cranberries and Mikey had the venison (sauteed in red wine plum sauce). I wasn't crazy thrilled with either, but they were both very good. The meat was super tender (I could pretty much cut it with a spoon) and seasoned to perfection. It *almost* made me crave some veg, but Mikey was thrilled: http://www.myspacebrand.com/funny_pictures/quote-images/_img/quoteimage28.gif

The dishes did come with gravy, spatzle and pickled red cabbage, though, which were delicious. I'm usually not one to leave meat behind, but when it came down to it I scarfed up as much as the spatzle as I could stomach and let Mikey eat about half of my meat.

From reading reviews, I think I'm going to go with chicken or pork next time--seems like those tend to be a bigger hit than the red meat at Suppenkuche. And I'm definitely getting a bread ball all to myself. Fatty alert!

Our dessert was an apple strudel with ice cream, which was also very tasty. Even Mike could barely finish it, which is an indication that I got my money's worth at this place. Trust me, if this guy was full (http://www.summitpost.org/image/470993/155422/ice-step.html), they did an amazing job.

My main complaint was probably the wait and the noise. For two, we had to wait 45 minutes to be seated. We ended up going down the street to Place Pigalle (really chill bar with a decent beer selection when they're not sold out) for a few beers before having dinner. Then, when we did get seated, we had to practically yell in each others' ears to have a conversation. Don't get intimidated by the crowd, and just don't try to have a romantic date here--the food is worth it!

Suppenkuche is located on the corner of Hayes and Laguna in San Francisco. They have valet, but it's a really quick walk from Civic Center BART for you East Bayers. No reservations for fewer than 6, so show up early, or show up ready to wait.

Bellanico, Oakland

I initially went here because one Scott's cook buddies works in the kitchen. Bellanico is a relatively new Italian restaurant that opened up in the up and coming part of Park Boulevard. I ended up rounding out a group of three cooks with my amateur food critic (or just professional eater) status. If shoveling food at record pace into one's mouth while discussing food and cussing up a storm means fitting in, I think I can hang hardcore with cooks. Hear that, Bourdain?

The menu here seemed to be kind of hit-and-miss. Reviewing just what I ordered, I'd give them four and a half stars out of five, but from tasting everyone else's food I'd give them three.

I started with the farro salad, which was really simple but fresh and delicious. It was served with fresh cherry tomatoes, cucumber, toasted pistachios and plenty of olive oil with lemon. The cheffies had minor issues with it just because it was so simple, but I'm a sucker for farro anytime, anywhere. Scott had the soft shell crab salad with watermelon, purslane and tomatoes that Carol Ness had been raving like mad about. We all didn't understand it. The crab wasn't as crispy as it should have been, and it seriously lacked seasoning. His buddies split the salumi plate (decent but nothing to write home about) and cicchetti (another dish Ness was freaking out about). For those of you who don't know, cicchetti are little fried meat balls; these were served with a basil and walnut pesto. Meh. They were kind of dry and too grainy.

For mains, I had the pork chop served with chard stems marinated in vinegar. The pork chop was massive and beyond perfectly cooked, down to the grill marks and tender juiciness on the inside. Definitely one of the best pork chops I've ever had, and I loved the chard stems. The other dishes were not so memorable. So unmemorable that since it's been a while that we went I only remember what one other person got. The tagliolini pepati with fresh jalapenos, bacon, and tomatoes was only so-so. The flavors didn't seem to meld as much as I'd hoped. The fresh pasta was very tasty, though. It had a great bite to it and was obviously made that day.

My favorite part aside from the pork chop was the dessert. I had an almond pound cake with fresh peaches and whipped cream. I actually still dream about eating this cake--it was really moist on the inside and crunchy on the crust.

All in all, if you order like me this place is solid, especially for the price. Considering where Scotty and I have been eating recently, this place cost easily about half of what we've been paying at Wood Tavern, Corso (forget this place!), and Camino. They deserve a lot of points for service, too. Our waitress was beyond cool and amazingly tolerant of our raucous table.

I'm going to go back at some point later on when I'm not studying to see if the consistency has improved over the past few months. Update to follow!

Bellanico is located at 4238 Park Boulevard in Oakland. Reservations can be made by calling (510) 336-1180. They also have a website: www.bellanico.net.

Round Table Pizza, Oakland

Sorry, foodie fans, but I'm back in school! Yep, that means my standards for food just got tossed out the window. Actually, I kid. I really like Round Table. Sorry if you just lost all respect for me after reading the last few sentences but I really suggest you give it a try sometime. It's a lot better than most locally owned pizza places I've been to recently, especially if you order correctly. They also deliver to my house, have quick service, and I'm more than satisfied every time.

Humor me by reading my (what I think) is a slightly entertaining story about how I came to love Round Table Pizza so much...

I remember the first time I ever tried Round Table Pizza. On December 17, 2004, I was a Junior at Cal and procrastinating by surfing the internet (pre-food blogging days, obviously) instead of reading Moby Dick for the 8th time. Bored, I went to one of my usual interweb playgrounds, http://ESPN.com and came upon the blasphemous news that Billy Beane had traded my husband (what?), Tim Hudson, to Atlanta.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I compensated for my devastating loss by eating everything in sight. My dear 90-pound roommate Mia had ordered an 8-slice Italian Garlic Supreme and left it sitting out earlier that day after only eating only two dainty slices. Peering into the hallway to see if she was around and would notice, I cut a half slice for myself and quietly chewed. I'd never really had chain-restaurant pizza while growing up, so I was amazed to find that the toppings were actually fresh and that the pizza was truly tasty.

The garlic cream sauce was nice and potent, and the crust had that perfect balance between chewy and crunchy. That tiny half-slice turned into a whole slice as I tried to fill the void in my heart.

Next thing I knew I had eaten the entire pizza. So embarrassing, right? Well it gets worse. I got a call from Mia saying that she and her boyfriend were coming back to our apartment soon. I panicked. Not only is eating an entire pizza embarrassing in general, but to have it not be my pizza to begin with and to have eaten it over a baseball player being traded moves past the point of mortification.

I ended up ordering a new pizza, hiding two slices, and pretending like nothing had happened. No joke.

I'm not one to usually advocate for chains, but the Italian Garlic Supreme really is delicious. The delivery guy at the location on Grand Avenue is also adorably awkward. I expect we'll be seeing a lot of each other this semester as comfort food is definitely in order whilst MCAT studying (Hey Paw Paw, did you read that?! COMFORT FOOD.).

Round Tables are everywhere, just look 'em up online: http://www.roundtablepizza.com.