PORTLAND: DAY 3

Our third day in Portland was a casual day for us to just wander the city and check things out in the downtown area. We started off with breakfast at the edge of the Pearl district at a place called the Byways Cafe.

It's a pretty normal looking diner, but apparently, it's very popular with the locals on the weekends. Luckily, it was a Monday morning, so the restaurant was pretty empty when we arrived.

We grabbed a booth, looked over the menus and checked out the funny collectibles in the glass cases that lined the walls. Pretty soon our food arrived. Tom got the sunrise special: One egg, two strips of thick-cut bacon and three fluffy buttermilk pancakes served with pure maple syrup. (actually, he got blue corn pancakes instead of buttermilk, cause that's what they're known for). Here's a photo:

I must say the blue corn pancakes were pretty tasty. And the portion was huge. Pretty good for $8.75. Meanwhile, I got a much smaller breakfast, just a basic breakfast with two large farm fresh eggs served your way with home-fried red potatoes and toast and I got it with a chicken sausage.

The eggs were well cooked, the potatoes were tasty and for $8, it was a pretty good deal for breakfast.

After stuffing ourselves, we wandered about the city, made a second trip to Voodoo Donuts and finally headed home. It's really a cute town - I could imagine myself living there if I had to, and I would have plenty of places to eat. Now if only it didn't rain so much....

PORTLAND: DAY 2

Our second day in Portland was another rainy day. Luckily, it didn't rain as steadily as our previous day, and it did eventually let up. We started our day with a breakfast at Brail's a local favorite diner, run by a Korean family (funny that our favorite diner at home is also run by Koreans.)

This place has your pretty average breakfast foods, but some with a twist. For example, below my breakfast looks like a regular omlette, but it's actually filled with chicken teriyaki. And it was yummy (so were those hash browns, look how nice and golden they are). My friends ordered spicy pork omlettes (I don't remember what Tom got).

Breakfast also came with a biscuit on the side. Now normally, I love biscuits, but this one was just a bit too undercooked for my taste. Overall, I really liked this place. If I lived in Eugene, I'd totally be a regular.

After breakfast, we wandered around a park, and then my friend Jess insisted on taking me to Sweet Life - a dessert place in Eugene.

This place had cases full of pastries, and because it's Eugene, there were a lot of vegan, dairy free, egg free, flour free, etc etc type options.

I just got a slice of chocolate cake, which I shared with Tom.

It was fine. But more importantly, how can Eugene have a dessert bar, and there's still not one in the East Bay??

Afterwards, we headed back in to Portland and spent the afternoon walking around the Portland Zoo. After a few ours, we were finally hungry enough to head out to dinner and this time, we checked out the eastern part of Portland. At first I had wanted to visit a well regarded Thai restaurant, but when we went and figured out it was closed on Sunday, we headed to my backup restaurant called the Screen Door. Basically, they serve Southern cuisine using local, organic ingredients. Even though we showed up pretty early, the place was already packed when we arrived.

I really liked the setting, lots of light woods, and big windows. The menu itself is pretty small, but the portions are not. We started off with two appetizers. The first was okra:

Now, I'm not a huge fan of okra, (Tom ordered these) but doesn't frying make everything better? Plus, these had a born meal batter and came with a spicy mayo type sauce. They were pretty good.

More to my liking were the hushpuppies:

These were quite tasty, though kinda dense, and I knew I had a good amount of food coming, so I only had one. So for my dinner, I picked a meal composed of three sides. Here you see mac and cheese, coleslaw and a cauliflower gratin and it came with corn bread (hey, at least it was all vegetarian!)
Now, that mac and cheese was pretty amazing. Actually, I really enjoyed all my dishes. The only thing is that it was all so heavy. I barely made a dent in the mac and cheese before I was stuffed.

Meanwhile, Tom got Jess' fiancee both ordered brisket:

Tom said it was really good, since it just fell apart when he cut into it (just like good brisket is supposed to). At this point in the meal, we were all stuffed, but I just have to order dessert when I go to restaurants like this. So I got the peanut butter pie for us all to share:

As you can see, there's a chocolate cookie crust, peanut mousse stuff and unsweetened whipped cream. It was really rich and delicious. I just couldn't eat more than a few bites.

We really did have better meals on our second day in Oregon. I'm actually a big fan of the Swing Door and hope they open an outpost here in the East Bay.

SMALL BITES

Here's a collection of small bites that I didn't feel needed their own individual posts.

The first was a visit to a new cafe that's opened near our home called Cafe St. Honore. We had walked and driven by it several times, and I noticed that it served breakfast, so one morning we decided to go check it out. Armed with a newspaper, we were hoping to find a cute French style cafe, hopefully serving some nice homemade pastries and baguettes.

We did find a cute cafe, though the very white interior feels a bit sterile. Unfortunately, we didn't find anything homemade. I don't think the place has a kitchen, and it was very clear to me that they had purchased all their pastries (basically croissants and chocolate croissants) premade by someone else. The "breakfast menu" was quite short - it was basically a selection of the aforementioned pastries and a few baguette selections. Tom ended up getting a baguette with butter and coffee. Since I'm currently off the coffee, I got a baguette with poached eggs. Here it is below:

Yeah, I know. It's not pretty. I confirmed that they didn't have a kitchen when I saw our server cooking the poacked eggs in a pot on a hot plate behind the counter. It ended up being pretty overcooked. The baguette was really the worst part - it was leaden, so dense, not airy at all and none of the crunchy outside. I had Tom finish it off for me. And it made me sad knowing that Cafe Fanny was just a few blocks down the street. (We also wondered why they didn't just buy their baguettes from Acme Breads since it's located next door to Cafe Fanny.)

I'm not saying this place was horrible. The service was very friendly. It's open late and they offer free wi-fi. However, it isn't the place for breakfast, nor for baguettes.

Next up was our visit to the Asian Pearl Restaurant located inside the Pacific East Mall. We have visited most of the restaurants at the Pacific East Mall, but this is one of the largest one that we had not yet visted. One of the reasons we hadn't visited was because this place is really more well known for its dim sum, but since they start later in the morning, (I think around 10:30) we've eaten breakfast by then.

So one evening we couldn't decide where we wanted to have dinner at the Pacific East Mall and decided to give Asian Peal a try. It's a much larger, nicer restaurant than the rest of the places at the mall. (it actually had tablecloths). Because it's a large restaurant, it looked pretty empty when we entered, though there were other people eating there.

We ended up ordering three dishes (though only 2 are pictured). Tom got his usual salt and pepper shrimp and we got a cold tofu salad.

I liked the tofu salad, and the salt and pepper shrimp were pretty good. The dish that I ordered that isn't pictured is a clay pot with chicken and tofu. It was actually pretty awful. The sauce was really gloopy and not too flavorful. I ended up eating the tofu in the pot and left the rest there.

However, the food wasn't our issue here. It was really the service. They took forever to allow us to order and after they delivered the food, they basically ignored us. Though we asked for our check, they never brought it, and Tom finally went up to the front to pay (which he also had to wait to do.) Tom ended up leaving a tiny tip, which is really unusual for him, but that just shows how bad we thought this place was.

The funny thing is that Tom ended up going back there the next day for dim sum with his friends. But I don't think we'll be returning there again.

Bite #3, Superbowl Sunday. For Superbowl, we spent the afternoon at my friend, Kim's, house. We all made stuff and kind did a weird combination of foods for Superbowl. Starting in back, you'll see a bowl of hummus with veggies. Next is homemade nacho cheese with tortilla chips, I made my own homemade chicken pate (so much easier and cheaper than you could ever imagine, and totally tasty) with cheese from Cowgirl Creamery, Tom insisted on getting KFC, Kim also made some small snacks, including Totino's pizza rolls, and these chicken patties with cheese that were fried. Not surprisingly, we all stuffed ourselves. And we even watched a bit of the actual game.

And the very last bite - pizza at Cheeseboard. I actually have had Cheeseboard pizza before, but I've never actually had it at Cheeseboard - they have some pretty weird hours, so I've never really made it there while they're open (or I refuse to wait in the long line). Lately though, I've had Tuesdays off from work, and since we were able to snag a parking space right in front, we decided to drop in to get a couple slices and visited next door to get some cheese.

I will admit that the pizza is much better out of a pizza oven than a regular over. I still don't think that Cheeseboard pizza is as amazing as people claim, but I will say, the experience it having it there is much better than having it elsewhere. I'm sure we'll be back again soon.

A FINAL MEAL IN MANHATTAN

We had one final meal left in Manhattan before heading to visit Tom's brother and family in upstate NY. We decided to make it a quick meal since we still had to check out of our hotel and catch a train, and made our last trip over to Bouchon in the hopes of grabbing some breakfast. Unfortunately, we learned that though the Bakery was open, the cafe part of it wasn't, and there weren't many seats open in the bakery area, so we decided to check out Landmarc, just down the hall from Bouchon.

I knew that the Landmarc served 3 meals a day, and after checking out the breakfast menu, I decided that it looked fairly reasonable (by NY standards at any rate). We headed over and after finally getting the attention of the hostesses who were chatting amongst each other, we were seated at a table for 2. The Landmarc is a huge, sprawling restaurant, with a totally industrial look featuring lots of metal and brick. The ceiling is decorated with metal rods, and it has great views of the city. Here's a view of the semi circular bar located behind Tom.

Once we were seated, we were given menus and then were left to wait.

During the time we were waiting to order, I noticed that this huge sprawling restaurant, though pretty empty, was full of beautiful looking staff - basically all aspiring actors and models who chatted amongst themselves and generally ignored any of the diners. When we were finally able to order, we both got a simple breakfast.

Here's my plate of eggs with toast and potatoes.

And it was fine. The eggs were well cooked, the potatoes were crispy and drenched in butter. Tom just got a toasted baguette with butter and jam. Overall, our meal was fine. Though the service kinda sucked (a trend for this entire trip) at least the runner was nice to us. In retrospect, we probably would've enjoyed a simple breakfast at Bouchon more, but luckily, we can just drive up to the original one whenever we feel like it.

PALM SPRINGS/LA DAY 2

Our second meal in Palm Springs took place the next morning for breakfast. After surfing Opentable, I had learned that there was a Norma's located inside the Parker Meridien in Palm Springs. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Norma's is famous for it's breakfast. Though I never visited the location in NY, they became widely known recently due to it's offering of a $1,000 omelet (it's got a lot of Beluga caviar on it). Though the prices are sky high, I figured it'd be fun to try it out, so I made the reservation.

When we arrived at the Parker in Palm Springs, we found a hotel that could be best described as retro chic. It was clearly an old hotel, that they had repainted and filled with all sorts of retro furniture and details. Not exactly the right fit for my parents, but it was different. We tried to find the restaurant, but there was no sign, just a open door that lead to an area with tables. I figured it was Norma's, since it was the only dining area in sight.

It turned out to be the right place, and we were seated quickly (by a gentleman wearing far more make up than needed). Here are our table settings - you can see how the retro chic look continues throughout.

Ok, here's a link to the menu, so you can check out the offerings and prices. Given that the prices begin at $15 and go up from there, you'd kinda expect this to be the most amazing breakfast that you were ever going to have. Tom and I did like the fact that they served as French press coffee, which was pretty good. For my breakfast, I ordered "flat as a pancake" crabcakes. Here they are below.

I'd say they were pretty good. Certainly not the best crab cakes that'd I'd ever had, but I liked the fact that my side dip was served in a hollowed out fried onion. We also decided to get an order of fresh donuts to share.

Unfortunately they weren't that great. The frying temperature had been far too low, allowing the batter to absorb a lot of oil, so they had that oil tasty and weren't as light and crunchy. Additionally, they had coated it with way too much sugar and cinnamon.

The good thing was that parents seemed to enjoy their breakfast. Tom and I agreed that though it was pretty good, it certainly wasn't worth the high price tag, and our favorite thing overall was the coffee.

After breakfast, it was time to visit one of the may spas in the area, and then it was back to LA for dinner with friends. When I found out I'd be going back to LA, I asked Katie to pick a restaurant and make a reservation so we could all go out to dinner. And though she rarely makes reservations so far in advance, she made an exception for me and made reservations at Akasha, near hear home in Culver City.

When we entered the restaurant, we found a sprawling space with high ceilings and a dark, industrial/modern interior. The entrance is a tad strange because the front part acts as take out cafe during the day, and you actually have to walk around to the side of that to reach the sprawling dining room. We were seated right away and given menus. Now, I don't know why I thought this (perhaps due to its name, or because I looked at the menu online too quickly), but initially, I thought the restaurant was more like a modern Indian place. However, I was wrong, and I would agree with Katie's assessment that it's "organic." Ok, I realize that doesn't actually describe a type of food, but the menu is kinda wide ranging, though does feature a lot of organic, vegetarian or vegan options.

I started off with a grilled artichoke.

I'm such a sucker for artichokes, they're truly one of my favorite foods. And though I don't think they're really in season right now, if I can get someone else to prepare them, I'll happily order it. This one was quite good. I liked the fact that it was grilled and not overcooked.

But it did kinda fill me up, so I wasn't super hungry when my entree arrived - a pizza with chicken sausage and red peppers.

I did enjoy the pizza, though I let Tom finish it off. Overall, I found the dining experience at Akasha pretty enjoyable. The prices are reasonable and though I wouldn't count it as a place I'd go for a casual bite, it's certainly somewhere to take friends who are in the area. Mostly, I liked hanging out with my friends from LA, and only wish I could see them more often.

BREAKFAST IN BERKELEY

As many of you know, Tom and I are early risers, so we enjoy going out for breakfast. After living here for over a year now, we certainly have our favorite places, but we're always looking for new ones to try, too. We've recently found two places to add to our regular roster of breakfast favorites. The first is a coffeeshop called Jimmy Bean's. We've often driven by this place and I'd heard good things about it, but we hadn't taken the time to visit it, so one morning we finally headed over to Berkeley to check it out.

Jimmy Bean's is owned by a family that owns several restaurants in Berkeley. Unfortunately, I haven't really loved the other restaurants that we've visited (T-Rex BBQ and Fonda), so I was a little skeptical about Jimmy Beans. On the other hand, it is pretty hard to screw up breakfast. When we arrived, the place was pretty empty, so it was easy to find a table quickly. We first ordered out breakfast at the cashier, helped ourselves to coffee and were given a number to put on our table.

This place is much more casual and has an unfinished look to it that their other restaurants lack. After picking a table and flipping through the paper a bit, our breakfast arrived. I had ordered a breakfast burrito, which chicken sausage, eggs and cheese.

As you can see, it was served with a side of 3 dipping sauces, and the green one, the cilantro pesto, made the whole thing worth eating. The breakfast burrito was good, but with that cilantro pesto, it was truly amazing. Meanwhile, Tom ordered corned beef hash.

He found the hash to be pretty good, and even liked it more than the hash he'd had at 900 Grayson. Breakfast ending up being very enjoyable - the only thing that wasn't was the price. This place definitely cost more than our usual breakfast places, so I think we'll visit it only when we have guests in town.

Another breakfast place that we've frequented lately is Berkeley Bagels. It's been known to have the best NY style bagels in the Bay Area. We finally checked this place out while dog sitting for a friend - they just live a few blocks from the store. Here's the bagel case:

And here's the bagel I ordered:

Though the coffee there isn't great, I do enjoy their bagels. I normally get a toasted Asiago bagel with light butter. We did try their whole wheat bagels, but they use real wheat, and it came out too heavy and chewy. It might not be as healthy, but I'll stick with their normal bagels. As for being as good as NY? Not quite, but since I don't eat bagels that often, I'm happy to have theirs.

900 GRAYSON, BERKELEY

We continue in our search for yummy breakfast places in our area and we recently found a great one called 900 Grayson. This place is located literally blocks from my work, and I know I've driven by it half a dozen times, but I never noticed it since the place faces a small side street, rather than the main street. When we drove up, we found a restaurant housed in what looked like a cute little red house from the exterior, but was painted in a warm yellow on the interior. It looked incredibly cozy and though it was early in the morning, there were already several locals having breakfast there.

This place is famous for it's fried chicken and waffle breakfast, but that was a little too heavy for us. I just had a waffle, while Tom had corned beef hash.

My waffle was actually quite tasty, but I'm a fan of crispy waffles and though this one was served was real maple syrup and a dollop of Plugra butter on top, I still prefer the Fat Apple's waffles. Tom's corned beef hash was a bit of an unusual version of hash- the corned beef and potatoes were served in large chunks, rather than all diced up together. Though the ingredients were incredibly fresh and well prepared, he still prefers the traditional version of hash.

Overall, we still had a nice, relaxing breakfast at 900 Grayson, and we've already been back. It's just a lovely place for a casual breakfast and I think we'll be going back often.

WARNING SIGNS

As you all know, Tom and I go out for breakfast a lot. Since we're both early risers and share only one day off, breakfast on Saturday mornings is one of the few times that we can share a meal together and neither one of us is exhausted after a day of work. So we're always on the look out for new breakfast places. We certainly have our favorites, but one that I had seen and not yet tried was Chester's in the Gourmet Ghetto.

We got there a little before 8:30 (when they open), so decided to walk down to use an ATM on Shattuck. While we were walking over, we could smell the fresh bread baking at Cheeseboard and we saw the line of people waiting to get into Cheeseboard (which also opened at 8:30). We almost considered going to Cheeseboard and getting some cheese sticks, but were set on going to Chester's and headed back over.

By the time returned, I had kinda expected other diners to have shown up. I should've taken this as a warning sign. People in Bay Area are all food fanatics. You've gotta get to good places early, even for breakfast, if you hope to snag a seat. Look at Bette's Oceanview Diner- if you get there after 8:30, plan to wait 45 minutes for a table. That applies to Fat Apple's and many other places, so the early hour was not a good explanation for the empty seats.

When we were let it, it was by a hostess/waitress who seemed rather displeased to see us. I don't expect servers to be super cheerful and excited - after all, I work in the service industry, too, but her dour attitude started off our meal on a down note. Out of all the seats she could've chosen for us in this empty restaurant, she sat us in a corner seat, with me sitting on a very uncomfortable, hard bench. When we looked at the menu, there wasn't anything particularly special, but I did notice the high prices- starting at around $12 for everything on the breakfast menu. Here's a photo of the empty interior.

We finally place our orders, and then the long wait began for our food to arrive. During this time, one older couple entered, were seated, took a look at the menu, were kinda ignored and walked out. They were smart.

Let me remind you that we were the only people sitting in this entire restaurant, and the first customers of the day, and it still took almost 20 minutes for our food to finally make an appearance. Here's a photo of my breakfast scramble- it involved tomatoes, cheese, turkey sausages, eggs and I dont' remember what else. It was ok, but I could've done better at home.

And here's Tom's order of steak and eggs. His steak was a cheap cut with more fat than anything else that made it pretty inedible. Overall I would sum up our experience by saying it sucked.

We're certainly never going back to this place, but the take home lesson is this: if you're in the Gourmet Ghetto and see an empty restaurant, walk away and go to the closest place with a crowd or a line. You may have to wait, but your meal will probably be worth the wait.

THE JUNKET

For those of you who have actually visited us, you'll know that we live right near this really big shopping center. It's got a ton of chain stores, but there are also a few little independent stores hidden in there. One we like to visit a lot if the Junket. It's this German deli, but they carry a bunch of imported English stuff as well, like Candbury's from England, etc. We like going in the mornings (actually we just went today) before we hit the farmer's market.

Whenever we go, there are always a bunch of old people hanging out there. Lots of regulars and we always seem to be the youngest one there. But I don't mind cause I love getting their chicken pies. For breakfast today, I had a continental breakfast. It's a great deal since it come with a pastry, cheese, meat, oj and coffee. All for under $6.

The last time we went, Tom ordered this English pastie. He also likes buying crumpets, though he's currently cutting back so he can hopefully lost some weight. (It's his resolution this year).

And finally, here's a blurry pic of the interior. See how it's got this kinda kitschy, cute German/European vibe going? (Or someone's interpretation of it).

At any rate, don't be surprised if I take you here when you visit. It's definitely become one of our regular breakfast spots.

CAFE FANNY

Everybody seems to know about Alice Waters and Chez Panisse, but lesser known to people nationwide is Cafe Fanny. Cafe Fanny is another place opened by Alice Waters, but it's really a neighborhood place for people living in Berkeley and nearby. But it's a really popular place and there's always a line. Plus they don't really have a seating area- just a handful of tables outside, a bar that you can stand at and a little bench indoors. Still, that doesn't keep people from showing up.

My sister hadn't been there before, so I decided to take her so she could try it out. We got there a bit later than I normally do- a bit after 9 and it took us 20 minutes just to order. Still, they were pretty nice about it. The one things I always get here is a cafe au lait, served French style in a big bowl. It's always tasty.

Oh also, they don't exactly have a kitchen at Cafe Fanny. Just a small work area out in the open. So here are orders lining up on the counter waiting to get finished and picked up.

Christine ordered poached eggs and prosciutto. I think she enjoyed it quite a bit.

And I always get a 3 minute boiled egg with toast. It seems so simple, but it's my favorite thing here and I always order it. The first time I got it, the egg shell was almost blue- totally awesome.

This is a place a visit frequently for its simple food and atmosphere. I actually ended up taking my parents like 3 days later, and I think they like, it too. So if you do come and visit, don't be surprised if this is one of our stops.

ANOTHER LOCAL BREAKFAST PLACE

Yes, we found yet another breakfast place to visit. This one, Raphael's, is really close- literally 2 blocks from the house. So one morning, we figured we'd give it a try. It's pretty small, just one cook and one waitress, and it's got a very basic menu. Here's Tom drinking his coffee.

And here's a shot of the interior. Kind of diner-y.

I ended up ordering an omellette with chicken apple sausage and cheddar cheese. Fere you see it below. It wasn't so great. The eggs were a little too runny, and it was odd having chunk of chicken apple sausage just cut up and thrown in. I could've made a better omelette at home (if only I weren't so lazy)

But Tom had blueberry pancakes, and he actually liked them a lot. I know he still hasn't tried the pancakes at Bette's Oceanview Diner, which I think are great, but he'd rather walk the 2 blocks and get pancakes immediately. Me, I'd be willing to wait the half hour for Bette's pancakes. But if we're in a pinch and it's too late to go to Fat Apple's, I'm sure you'll find us here again.

A QUICK TRIP TO LA LA LAND

Last week Tom and I made a quick trip down to LA so we could pick up all the boxes that we had shipped back to my parents' house. Of course for me, any opportunity to go back to LA is an opportunity to fill my bell and make me happy.

Since we landed in the morning, our first stop of the day was breakfast. We decided to go to the Literati Cafe, which is close to my parents' office. I'm pretty sure I've written about the cafe here before, since I seem to make a trip there every time I'm back at home, but food there remind me just why I love being back in CA.

Here's my breakfast sandwich and it's extra special for two reasons:

As you can see, it's got avocado. AND I got have it with turkey bacon. It was yummy and fresh and very filling. I enjoyed in immensely. Meanwhile, Tom ordered this massive breakfast quesadilla.

He also enjoyed it, and amazingly enough, actually finished off the whole thing (which he would regret doing 15 minutes later). Sigh.

After breakfast, we went to my favorite local farmer's market. We didn't stay too long though, because as you all know, there were some wildfires last week and it wasn't too pleasant staying outdoors. Also, it was over 95F, so we ended up going home and resting.

For dinner that evening, we met my parents and the rest of the family at Nanbankan, a local Japanese restaurant that specializes in roboto grilling. We got pretty lost getting there, since the traffic was quite heavy, and the exterior of the restaurant was under construction, so we couldn't find it. By the time we made our way there, my om had already ordered for everyone, which was totally fine with me.

They start you off with some raw veggies that you dip into a homemade miso dressing, which is quite good.

And here's a list of a few of the dishes we had. All were quite good and I really enjoyed eating there. Here's a chicken meatball:

Here's some chicken thigh meat:
These are grilled rice balls. The ones in back are a house specialty and have seaweed and seasonings mixed in.
Chicken wings (my favorite)
Chicken skin:
I'm not quite sure what this is, but it is a part of a chicken:
Chicken gizzards (another one of my favorites)
Mini zucchinis:
Shishamo (aka smelt)- This was Tom's favorite dish of the night.
Agedashi tofu:

Like I said, everything was super tasty and we were all stuffed when we left the restaurant.

After dinner, we went to Katie and Dustin's house, so Tom could meet their new kitty. My friend Raj, and his wife, Naina, were also there watching Game 1 of the World Series. (of course, by now you all know that my team won. Go Sox!). By the end of the fifth inning, the Sox were up 13-1, so we thought it was a good time to get some gelato.

A new place had opened just a few block from Katie's house in downtown Culver City, so we walked over there. It was pretty packed when we arrived, but they were quite obliging in putting a couple tables together for us so we could sit down. Here's a pic of the gelato case.As you can see, they were running low on just about everything. It'd been a warm day, so they unexpectedly sold out of almost every flavor.

I ended up ordering strawberry and pink lemon.
The strawberry was pretty good, though not my favorite. I preferred the pink lemon, but I enjoyed both and if I had a gelato place like this near me, I would certainly be going more often.

This place was more of a restaurant, though, and they served other desserts. Both Tom and Katie ordered the tiramisu, served in this little chocolate cupThe tiramisu was surprisingly good- not all mascarpone like many tiramisus tend to be. The chocolate cup, however, wasn't very yummy, though Tom still managed to finish his off.

It was getting late and we had a long drive back to the Bay Area the next day. So after we finished off dessert, we said good bye to my friends and headed home.