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.

Corso, Berkeley

It's Winter Vacation and thank you family I now have some spending money, so it's time to EAT!

I really really really wanted to like this place more. I'll preface this review with the fact that I went to Corso with Scott S., my chef friend and fellow food snob, but unfortunately nothing really impressed us at Corso.

The hostess was very prompt with seating us (thank you, OpenTable!) and the waitress, who was incredibly friendly and laughed at our jokes in a relatively believable manner, recommended a great bottle of wine to go with our eclectic orders. Maybe we had too high of expectations...

We started out with the crostini trio, one of my favorite dishes of the night. One had mascarpone with tomato, another chicken liver, and the third a lobster puree. All were delicious, but a forewarning--if you order this, eat the liver one last, the flavor will linger in your mouth forever. It's great, but not when you're trying out the delicately flavored but wonderful lobster crostino.

Next we split the tripe with cannellini beans/spicy tomato broth and the papardelle with duck/olives. The papardelle was probably the best dish of the evening. The pasta was beautifully rolled and cut, and tasted very fresh. The duck sauce was also very flavorful, with extremely tender meat. The tripe was a total let-down. There were too many beans, not enough tripe, and the "broth" was more of a sauce and had no spice. Scotty has the most delicate, adorable palate when it comes to spice and even he thought it needed pepper. Post parmesean snow storm it tasted okay, but I wouldn't recommend this dish.

Then we had the pizza with funghi that everyone on Yelp has been freaking out about. This better have been an off night otherwise I am just reviewing the wrong restaurant. It's a pizza with a decent crust, but it's covered in sauteed button mushrooms. It is winter...mushroom season...and you give me BUTTON mushrooms?! For $13?!?! Please. Plus, Scotty pointed out that the center of the pizza had gotten a bit soggy; most likely because the mushrooms weren't cooked enough before being added to the pizza, so the water from them got soaked into what had been a decent crust. Ugh.

Last, we had sauteed baby spinach (still had some sand in it--not washed properly, but other than that it was obviously very fresh, good quality spinach) as well as romano beans with pancetta/hazelnuts/mint. The bean dish was actually a very unique, tasty combination, but the beans were totally over-cooked.

For dessert, Scotty had the olive oil cake and I had the poached pear with fresh whipped cream. The olive oil cake left something to be desired. It was a little muted on texture and could have used some rosemary. The poached pear was very visually appealing. They left the skin on, though. While my friend Margaret highly recommended the dish and thought it made it more rustic (I guess...), I guess I just don't really care about rustic when the skin peels off like slimey I-don't-know-what. The sauce had enough brandy for me to get wasted alone, though, so at least that was tasty. So was the pear after I peeled off the skin.

Service overall was very good--they sometimes seemed a little antsy to take our plates away which is a constant annoyance factor of mine, but other than that they paced our dishes relatively well considering how bizarre our ordering was.

At some point I might give this place another shot, but mostly the disappointment in Corso reminded me that I was cheating on my BF, Wood Tavern.

Dear Wood Tavern: I am very sorry that I went out on a date with one of your SF Chronicle food section rivals. It's just that I feel like I have to do all the work in our relationship. You're always busy, I have to take the initiative to call you, and I always have to pay. And what's with us needing to stay at your place every time? That said, I realized how well you treat me when I do call. Please take me back? Love, Kara.

Corso is located at 1788 Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley.

They now take reservations on OpenTable.com, which can be accessed via their website at www.trattoriacorso.com or by phone at (510) 704-8004.

Mangia Mangia, Albany (Part II)

While my seafood pasta was far from my mind, I couldn't stop thinking about my gorgonzola salad and the souffle. Yes...the souffle. I grabbed Andy and we drove over so I could satisfy my craving.

Mangia Mangia was a lot busier on Friday night. We got one of the last tables available. In addition to my salad and the souffle, I ordered one of the specials, which was a mushroom risotto topped with a filet mignon kebab, shrimp, and garnished with garden vegetables ($16). Andy ordered pasta bolognese (big surprise), for $12.

Let me tell you, my entree made up big time for the disaster I had previously. The vegetables were colorful, crunchy, and tasty on the side. The kebab had a wonderful smoky flavor to it and even though the meat was very thinly cut, it still had a bit of pink inside. Therefore it was juicy, full of flavor, and tender.

The risotto was also very flavorful. It was full of mushrooms and they also put fresh green peas in it. The rice was cooked al dente but still had a very creamy texture (and no, Howie from Top Chef, it didn't need cream to make it good).

So. My new recommendation is to go here and get an entire meal, just don't get the seafood pasta. Go with whatever the waiter/waitress recommends, and hopefully you will be as ecstatic about your meal as I was (Andy will tell you, I couldn't stop raving about my entree).

Now I know you've all read the other review of the souffle but let me tell you, Andy even ate it. "It's like getting a fresh chocolate chip cookie straight out of the oven but having no cookie!" It got to the point where we were fighting over bites because it was so good. Get the souffle. Get it now.

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

Bucci's, Emeryville

One of the great things about working at Nolo is that they constantly feed us. Once a month, there is a randomly selected group called "The Lunch Bunch" that goes out to eat on Nolo's dollar. I was one of the lucky selectees this month. I voted that we go to Cafe Rouge or Eccolo, two restaurants that I have always wanted to try, but unfortunately was out-voted by the group. We went to Bucci's in Emeryville instead.

The place came highly recommended by everyone who was going, so I had some hope that it would be good. The decor was really nice, so that got my hopes even higher. Unfortunately, it was downhill from there.

First of all, they served us a plate of bread and olives, but didn't even give us bread plates. I wanted to eat the bread with what the Yelpers say is the best olive oil in town, but there was no way to really do so. Everyone at our table basically just stared at the bread until our food came. To add to the madness, the CEO of our company came. He's a really great guy and very laid-back, but the fact that he's the CEO made it kind of difficult, as we all had to play the food ordering game (figuring out how he's ordering so we can figure out how much we can all get).

The service was okay. They were good at remembering to refill my water glass, but our waitress was very short and abrupt, as if she just wanted to turn over the table. When David (the CEO) started going over a practice presentation, she kept staring at us as if we were over staying our welcome. As if? We were, I guess.

I took the queue from everyone else and just ordered a main course. The menu itself is really simple, and not in a good way. I was very unimpressed. They had basic Italian style food that you can get at any run of the mill restaurant (i.e. spaghetti with sausage, linguini with clams, etc.), but in tiny portions, for no less than $15 a plate. Supposedly they did fish well, so I ordered the Alaskan halibut with aioli.

The fish itself was okay, but everything else around it was a nightmare. The fish was put on a bed of sliced mushrooms, halved cherry tomatoes, spinach, and sliced red potatoes. The combination of all of them together was okay, but nothing new or exciting. Plus, the potatoes were raw! I ate all of them because I was starving and the servings were so small, but never have I been to an upscale restaurant where they didn't know how to cook a potato. Since they were sliced pretty thinly, I almost feel like they didn't cook them at all, because it doesn't take much to cook a potato slice that is only 1/4 inch thick. The aioli was also terrible--too thick and too much mayo. It also didn't have any flavor aside from the mayo. The great aiolis that I have had have some sort of flavor infused, such as lemon or garlic, but this had nothing to it.

I looked around at everyone else's food, and they ate everything on their plate, but no one was raving about how good it was, which usually happens at these things when no one knows what to say to one another. Two of the women in the group ordered the linguini with clams, and the linguini looked almost mushy it was so overcooked (it fell apart on their forks). Plus, it looked like it was cooked in a simple tomato sauce, so nothing too exciting. If they can't even cook pasta and potatoes properly, I don't even want to know what happens when they try to cook something unique.

Our waitress was also very good at snatching our plates away when we were finished, even interrupting one of our lunch bunch members as she was talking to see if she could take her plate. Needless to say, I would not recommend this place to anyone. I still love the company that I work for, but I would have been annoyed if I had had to pay for this meal. If you feel like defying my anti-recommendation, here is the information for Bucci's:

6121 Hollis Street, Emeryville 94608
(510) 547-4725

http://www.buccis.com

Locanda Olmo, Berkeley

Before I left for Japan, I decided I was going to eat as much Italian, Mexican, and American food as possible. Craving gnocchi for some reason, I yelped Italian food and came up with Locanda Olmo. It was listed on yelp.com as being way better than Trattoria Siciliana, two doors, down, so I was intrigued. After guilt-tripping Andy into going with me (it was my last night in the Bay), we made a quick reservation and headed over.

Locanda Olmo is a tiny restaurant with two floors. The decor is pretty simple but very cute. There was one young woman who greeted us as we came in--it turns out she and her husband are the owners. She was very nice and welcoming. Since I was with Andy, I didn't have the opportunity to try some of the delicious looking appetizers (rolled eggplant with ricotta and arugula...tuna carpaccio...), and settled on the bruschetta. Please note--the waitress/owner is fluent in Italian and the proper way to pronounce bruschetta is with a hard "c" and hard "t" as in "brusketta," thank you, Italian 1! She told me after I ordered it that drives her nuts because so many people (not me, thank goodness) say it incorrectly.

Anyway, after all that, I wouldn't really recommend ordering the bruschetta there anyway. Perhaps I'm just not a fan of authentic Tuscan bread...It was too crusty and dense for me. But, the restaurant does use really fresh ingredients, including fresh mozzarella cheese, which was delicious.

For our entrees, I ordered the Gnocchi Incazzati, which is gnocchi in a thick tomato, eggplant, olive, garlic and herb sauce. You can order it spicy or mild. I chose spicy. Andy ordered the Risotto della Rufina (No seriously, he did! No spaghetti with meatballs here!), which is risotto with Italian sausage and a spicy tomato sauce.

The food took kind of a while--I think about 20 minutes--to come out, but I guess it's attributed to everything being made from scratch. Both of our dishes were really well-cooked and piping hot, both in temperature and spiciness. My gnocchi was also good texture wise, which I really appreciate at an Italian restaurant. The problem was, neither of us LOVED the food. It was good, and the service was great, but the food wasn't anything super special.

The restaurant is family-owned, and they pride themselves on having authentic family recipes from Florence, Italy. I think that I need to go back and just have the waitress order for me because I really want this place to work out. But so far...I'm not in love.

If you want to try Locanda Olmo out and let me know what you think, they are located at: 2985 College Avenue (at Ashby) in Berkeley.

For reservations, call: (510) 848-5544. They are open 7 days a week, serving dinner every day from 5:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

They also have a website: http://www.locanda-olmo.com