KATHMANDU RESTAURANT, BERKELEY

Ah, it's my day off, so I'm sitting in front on my TV, watching Anthony Bourdain on the Travel Channel while blogging. Eventually I'll get up and runs some errands, but for now, I'll just keep up with my blog. So Mondays are my day off, but Tom has to work, but we still like going out to get lunch. This gives us a chance to try new places at typically lower prices than you'd be paying at dinner, and a few weeks, I figured we'd try out a restaurant called Kathmandu Restaurant.

Located in the Gourmet Ghetto, we'd actually walked by this restaurant quite a few times, but we'd never stopped there. After doing some research on Yelp, though, it turned out the reviews were quite positive, so we decided to check it out.

When we entered the restaurant, it was totally empty (it was admittedly an early lunch), but we were greeted warmly by the staff and seated quickly. After looking at the menu, I discovered that this place didn't really have a lunch menu. The just had the same menu for lunch and dinner, so it was actually kinda pricey for lunch. Luckily, on a menu board placed on the street, they did list like 3 lunch specials, and I ended up ordering one of them.

So we both started lunch off with a cup of lentil soup. It was actually pretty good. Not anything I couldn't have made a home by myself, but quite nice.

Next, we ordered one of their famous appetizers that everyone raved about online - the momo (basically a meat dumpling). They have different versions, but we ordered the chicken ones, and here they are below.

I gotta say, these were really good. They actually remind me of soup dumplings (which I haven't eaten since I gave up pork over nearly 13 years ago) and they're served with a very yummy red pepper sauce (that orange colored stuff in the middle of the plate). I would go back just to order these again.

For lunch, Tom ordered this enormous plate of mixed grilled meat.
He thought his dish was pretty good. By putting all different types of meat on the same plate, not all the meat cooked evenly, so things like the shrimp were a bit overcooked. Meanwhile, I ordered the lunch special of grilled chicken, which was served along with rice and veggies.
I liked my dish. It was a generous portion, and actually cost a lot less than Tom's meal (probably half as much). I wasn't feeling so great during the meal, so I didn't end up eating most of this, but I did take it home and managed to make two meals out of the leftovers.

Our meal at Kathmandu Kitchen was pretty good, but it ended being a bit pricey for lunch. I thought the food was pretty good, and would gladly go back for some more momos, but I don't think it'll ever become a regular dining destination for us.

BAR CESAR, BERKELEY

A few weeks ago Sue Min arrive in the Bay Area. She'll be starting dental school in a few months, and stayed with us a night before we got ready to head down to LA together. So for dinner, we decided to take her to tapas (having just arrived from Singapore, she was in no mood for Asian cuisine). My friend had told me of Bar Cesar, a popular restaurant in the Gourmet Ghetto, and since we had not yet had tapas in the Bay Area, we figured it was worth a try.

When we arrived at the restaurant, it was packed. It was a beautiful, sunny day and lots of people were out. Luckily, we were able to snag a table pretty quickly and only waited about 10 minutes before we were seated at a table right on the sidewalk. They started off with a small dish of olives and then we ordered quite a number of dishes to share.

First I got a dish of deviled eggs, which were pretty good.

And we got a plate of three Spanish cheeses which Tom and Sue Min enjoyed.

But all of a sudden, they started bringing out all the dishes at once. We started running out of table space and they had to bring an extra small table so we'd have enough room for everything. Below is a plate of orange & avocado salad with orange red-wine & cumin vinaigrette (not enough avocados) and a spicy tuna and egg sandwich. (which was pretty good).

By this point, the food started coming out so quickly, that I didn't really have a chance to take pics. Below, you can see a plate of patatas bravas. It was not my favorite version of this dish. The potatoes were cut into large hunks, covered in a sauce and then in a garlic aioli. It was just too heavy. In the rear is a plate of anchovies, which Tom loves.

We also got a pan of paella, which oddly enough, was served with an enormous dollop of garlic aioli on top. I've eaten paella in Spain several times and have never seen this done, and was actually kinda appalled. We ate around the aioli, and our server was actually pretty surprised that we didn't touch the aioli.

Overall, the service was quite nice and the tapas were decent enough. Oh, one of my favorite tapas dishes that I ordered, a plate of pimientos del padron, weren't well cooked, and ended up being quite a bit greasy. The thing was, this place was really expensive, and so, I don't think the cost was worth the quality of the food. We'll keep looking for a good tapas place in the Bay Area- perhaps with a trip to SF.

DA LIAN, BERKELEY

You've seen me write many times that Tom and I are big fans of a local food TV show called "Check Please, Bay Area." We've tried quite a few places that we've seen on the show, so when my parents came to town, we decided to try out a Chinese restaurant we'd seen on it, called Da Lian.

Da Lian is actually located really close to us, but it's not a place we would've tried normally. We tend to just walk by it, and check out other restaurants nearby. When we arrived at the restaurant, it was pretty empty, which was a good thing, since we had a party of 8. My mom and dad did all the ordering, and tried to gear it to more healthy stuff since my cousin, Cindy, was there and she's doing the vegan thing.

We started off with some vegetarian lettuce cups, which were pretty good. In the background, you can also see a grilled scallion/sesame pancake thing. Their version was quite good, and my little cousin, Max, liked it so much that we ended up ordering an extra one for him to take home.

Here's a pic of the lazy susan loaded down with food. I didn't bother taking individual pics of everything since there was so much of it and it all arrived pretty quickly.

Overall, Da Lian was a pretty good place. It wasn't the best Chinese food I've had here, but they made an effort to cut down on the sodium and make things a little healthier for us. Also, they did have a good variety of dishes, so I was glad that I was able to find a good place fo my parent's and Cindy's family. I don't think Tom and I will be going back on our own any time soon, but it's a good place to take a group, and I don't doubt that we'll be back at some point.

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.