Down home neighborhood favorites

Picante
I go there to chow down on the hearty Sopa Azteca. I don't know how to get that deep flavor at home, they must put the grill scrubbings in. But when I'm sick, there is nothing else I want to eat more. Spicy chicken soup with avocados and fried tortillas.

Jimmy Bean's
I use to be a porkchop regular. Tender juniper brined pork chop with the comforting scoop of mashed potatos and thickly sauced caesar salad. Them pork chops have gotten me through some pretty tough times. Kitchen is not always regular and sometimes the chops come a litttle red.

Crixa Not Just Best Bakery in Berkeley

Crixa versus Tartine. How can one decide? The two bakeries shine equally at different categories of buttery goods but if I had to pick only one bakery, it would be Crixa. La Farine and Massas are also likeable bakeries, respectable in their own right but I just have sentimental tug and feeling for Crixa's pastries which are strangely rustic and refined at the same time. Elegant Boston cream pie and world's best ginger cake. When I taste her ginger cake, life is good again. Moist spicy dark buttery happiness with a dollop of chantilly cream. If there is any better, I don't want to know.

If you love Tartine, don't send me hate mail. I dread the long lines and hard work for a seat at Tartine although they make fabulous cream tarts. Who can resist the house pickled baby carrot served along side their tasty savories.

(Even though Crixa has a very fine pave which looks like a poofy sofa, I prefer the flourless chocolate cake from Betty's ToGo which they only make on Sundays. The absolute most technically excellent pave I've found at Fanny's which I am suppose to be boycotting.)

Not as good the second time

The first time is the best. You return again only to be disappointed. What happened?

Dona Thomas
Everything prepared with the finest ingredients- heirloom tomatoes and house cured anchovies. Corn pudding was dreamy but the noise can wear you down.

Overrated

You know the restaurants- everybody gushes about them. When you make the effort, you wonder what the fuss is about. Don't send me hate mail. My opinion is my own.

Citron
Expensive and mediocre, not the worst quadrant of restaurants. The amuse-gueule was a creamy salty asparagus soup. I couldn't force myself to finish it. Zagat ratings are never to be trusted.

Zachary's Chicago Pizza
This should go in the overrated and plain bad section. Twice I've confirmed that this is a soppy goopy poor specimen of a pizza with institutional dried Italian herb flavorings. I do have to reveal my bias as a thin cruster. Again, don't send me hate mail- people are entitled to their opinions

Vik's Chaat Corner
Too much effort but not quite traumatic. One waits in a gigantic long line. After ordering one must scrounge around for a place to sit in a noisy dingy cafeteria, try to listen for your name which is yelled out in a thick accent as the greasy goods are cranked out of the kitchen. Idli was too dry. Ras Malai was also a bit dry. Maybe if you worked up a sweat at Steamworks, Vik's is a natural pitstop.

Traumatic- Don't ever eat here.

Juan's Place, Berkeley near Emeryville

The first time I went, friends of mine suffered food poisoning. The second time I went back invited by the same friend(we both had forgotten the unfortunate incident until it was too late- i.e. sat down and waiter already whisked our orders away). This is type of Mexican place where eveything comes in a hot hot plate with an acre of refried beans mashed into the plate. Truly, such restaurants can be friendship breakers.

Rating Philosophy

Utter rudeness in service, suspicious kitchens which barely passed the state health inspection- this is all secondary. I just want some flavor and feeling.