Would like to recommend a couple of restaurants at which we ate while on our recent free Starwood "Win the World" trip to San Francisco and Monterey. While in SF, we asked the concierge at the St. Francis for a good recommendation in Chinatown. He recommended, instead, a great place a couple of blocks from the St. Francis, by the name of Kim Thomh (sp?). He described it as a chinese/vietnamese fusion restaurant, and it was terrific. The Hot and Sour soup with Shrimp and the Cha Gio were great ways to start. But the crabs in black bean sauce were absolutely outrageous.

Then, while visiting relatives in Berkeley, we took them over to the relatively new tapas restaurant called Cesar. Recently written up favorably in Travel and Leisure, we found it to be terrific. Compared favorably with the tapas we ate on our trip to Spain last year.

Highly recommend both places.

Djlawman

In Berkeley I've always been a fan of the Blue Nile (Ethiopian) and Cafe de la Paz (South American).

Also, there's a pretty good Jewish deli on Shattuck whose name I can't remember.. (if you're headed on university towards the campus, turn left on Shattuck and it's a few blocks down on the right, I think). If memory serves from years back they have their food flown in from Manhattan.

gleff: You're probably thinking of Sol's, which is a block north of Chez Panisse on Shattuck. In my experience, it's the best of what passes for deli food in the Bay Area.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by dgolds:
gleff: You're probably thinking of Sol's, which is a block north of Chez Panisse on Shattuck. In my experience, it's the best of what passes for deli food in the Bay Area.</font>

That's right, Sol's (or Saul's or something like that).

As a New Yorker growing up, I'm a bit of an imperialist about these things, but if you're looking for deli up there that's the place to go.

But does Sol's have fish plate??? I have not seen one in CA outside of LA. It might be worth a trip from San Jose to Berkeley. The deli we like in LA has it for about $15 and it easily serves 2 to 3.

Some clarification:

Kim Thanh Restaurant
607 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 928-6627

Djlawman

If you're willing to splurge, I don't think anything can beat the food at Aqua.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by gleff:
In Berkeley I've always been a fan of the Blue Nile (Ethiopian) </font>


I admit that I haven't been to the Blue Nile in a decade. Back then I did not like it. But as a fan of Ethiopian food, one of the best places for this around the globe is Cafe Colucci on Telegraph (technically in Oakland).

Nobbi

Being a native New Yorker (who has lived in the east bay for ten years now), I can't bring myself to accept Sauls as a deli. They mean well ut just odn't have the raw materials to do the job (better Pastrami!)

Cesar is fantastic, as are most of the Alice Waters clan restaurants (Mazzini, Downtown, Cafe Fanny, etc...) If you are looking for fine dining in the Bay Area, I think the east bay actually has it on the city in terms of overall value/quality of food. I would put Lalime's or Bay Wolf up against most big city restuarants and they are half the price of a place like Aqua...

There are a million ethnic restaurants, including the best Indian Restaurants in the bay area, an amaizng Chinatown, the best sushi (Kirala, but you will grow old waiting for a table), etc...

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Djlawman:
... we asked the concierge at the St. Francis for a good recommendation in Chinatown. He recommended, instead, a great place a couple of blocks from the St. Francis, by the name of Kim Thomh (sp?). He described it as a chinese/vietnamese fusion restaurant, and it was terrific. The Hot and Sour soup with Shrimp and the Cha Gio were great ways to start. But the crabs in black bean sauce were absolutely outrageous.
Djlawman</font>

Tu Lan is quite tasty and has been around forever, but you can't be too particular about cleanliness. I love the Imperial Rolls, shrimp-fried rice, and several of their pork options (a VN forte).

The Slanted Door on Valencia (16th/17th Streets) is quite tasty as well but much cleaner (and pricier).


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