Addis - 6100 Telegraph Ave

Addis had the somewhat interesting presence of a security guard by the front door. Just having been subject to buzzworthiness at Saysetha, we began to seriously wonder about who on earth has previously walked through the doors of the establishments on this stretch of Telegraph.

We apparently passed muster (despite my still-pink mohawk) and were greeted by the security guard, so then walked in without incident.

Being such big fans of Cafe Eritrea d'Afrique, we wondered if we'd like Addis as much. Ethiopian food is almost the same as Eritrean food, but not quite - some of the spicing is slightly different, some of the items are slightly different.

Turns out we really liked Addis. The atmo has a lot on Eritrea d'Afrique - nice partitions that separate diners from one another, low lighting, no linoleum. It actually reminded me of Asmara, which I also really like (and which we really need to review - I've been there, Partner in Chow has not). The service, on the other hand, can be described as casual at best. At one point I actually got up myself to go find a napkin after waiting for about 5 minutes, but then again I felt pretty comfortable doing so. It's a pretty laid-back vibe in there.

What we ordered:

Addis combination explosion, which included your typical vegetarian items (red & yellow mashies, salad, collard-ish greens) as well as a couple meat items (um.. beef?)
Service: don't be in a hurry. Or if you are, let them know and be prepared to snag your own cutlery if necessary.
Atmo: calm, quiet
Crowd: mellow Berkeley folks
Spent: around $30.00
Overall rating: 4 sporks

The atmo helped push Addis into 4-spork land, though Partner in Chow thinks she likes the food at Eritrea d'Afrique better. It's slightly hard to compare because we ordered meat at Addis, and have never done so at Ed'A.

Overall, the injera was great and we ate all our food, so we must have liked it a lot. We'd eat there again.

Burma Superstar - 4721 Telegraph

We've been to Burma Superstar twice now. The big downside is the wait, and they don't take reservations.

The upside is the food. I've never had anything quite like it, and PIC agrees that this is a must-try for anyone interested in Asian food.

What we've ordered: tea leaf salad, cashew chicken, lamb something, black rice pudding, various other things
Service: rushed and vaguely disorganized, but friendly
Atmo: upscale warehouse - high ceilings, open floor plan, big bar
Crowd: The Hills + the neighborood
Spent: around $20.00/ea
Overall rating: 4 sporks

Burma Superstar is legitimately delicious. The tea leaf salad is like nothing we've ever had before, and we order it ever time. The other dishes are just cleaner than Chinese food, and the meat here doesn't have that scary-ass Chinese take-out rubbery texture that makes me antsy.

Service here is a bit wonky and can take longer than it should.

Upsides: really good tea selection and interesting desserts. The black rice pudding was delicious and we demolished it with no difficulty. The lamb dish was tender and superbly flavored - I hate lamb, and even I liked it.

This is a great alternative for Chinese take-out given the quality of the food. It's more expensive than Chinese take-out, but in this case you get what you pay for.

Pizzaiolo

PIC and I have been to Pizzaiolo on multiple occasions, and eating here for the project was really just an excuse to eat here again.

Since the last time we've been they opened a back patio, and we sat out there and listened to jazz while eating. This was a nice bonus for us; also nice is that they sorta snuck us in and we didn't have to wait, probably because the wait staff could tell that we're from the neighborhood. Score.

This is one of my favorite restaurants in Oakland, and if it weren't for the inevitable wait time I'd probably eat there too often. You can of course make reservations, but I'm an impromptu diner.

What we've ordered: plain pizza, wild fern pizza, meatballs, olive oil cake, salad, various appetizers
Service: hipster friendly - the servers probably live nearby
Atmo: inviting, warm, upscale, but not stuffy - I've worn shorts. Then again, I'll wear shorts just about anywhere.
Crowd: the Hills are alive + the neighborhood
Spent: we generally spend about $50/person here
Overall rating: 5 silver sporks

PIC and I have gone back and forth as to whether or not Dopo has better pizza. It's a tough call, but I think I'm going with Pizzaiolo here due to the freshness and variety of toppings. The last pizza we had was a wild fern pizza that was devoured by a third friend who usually fears all things green. PIC actually didn't like that pizza so much due to its lack of cheesiness (it just had some pecorino sprinkled, and no mozzarella), but that was really more our bad - we didn't read the menu properly. I loved this pizza, and the fact that it got a vege-phobe to eat 2 slices was impressive.

Keep in mind that the pizza here is really more of a super-thin flatbread that's not really a meal. If you want pizza for dinner, you might want to go to Lanesplitter.

The meatballs here are one of my favorite menu items on any menu in a 5-mile radius. They are delicious, sinful and remarkably filling. An order of meatballs and a shared pizza is enough for me to eat, and if we weren't always getting wine we'd spend a lot less money here.

The appetizers are always seasonal and delicious, so if something leaps out at you, order it. Same goes for dessert, though the olive oil cake was so surprisingly delicious that I'll mention it here.

Extra bonus points for Blue Bottle Coffee, which without question is my favorite coffee in the Bay Area (sorry Peet's).

There are 2 main downsides to Pizzaiolo:

1) It's always crowded, making impromptu dining difficult, and making it unpleasant to sit at the front tables
2) It's expensive

Other than that, there are no downsides. Except parking, which is getting harder and harder with each new awesome restaurant that opens on that stretch of Telegraph. But I can't really complain, because having a new Gourmet Ghetto emerge in Oakland is well worth the parking woes to enjoy it.

Eat here.

Saysetha Thai - 6230 Telegraph Ave

This place had the odd... convenience?... of a buzz-in door that, presumably, keeps out the riff-raff. Since I routinely dress like the riff-raff and was sporting a mohawk the day we went, Partner in Chow and I wondered whether or not we'd make the grade.

Fortunately, we apparently looked respectable despite my pink mohawk, and in we went.

We've now eaten at Saysetha once and ordered take-out twice. I think that this place overall is better for take-out, because the ambiance is a depressing 80's time warp. You almost expect someone in Miami Vice clothes to be hitting the buffet... not that there's a buffet to be had, but the atmo would suggest that, at some point in the decor history, there was some sort of awful buffet full of fried things that tempted diners who might be just as happy at Denny's. That being said, the food is good and really cheap, and because it's so cheap it gets extra bonus points for still being good.

The other thing that puts this place ahead of most Thai restaurants is the ability to substitute gluten for your protein, which is a welcome alternative to soy. Tofu can just get boring. So...

What we've ordered: appetizer explosion plate, fresh spring rolls, chicken curry (yellow), gluten curry (red), papaya salad, cashew chicken
Service: very friendly - the Mom of the Mom 'n Pop
Atmo: as referenced, the last time this place was remodeled there was no such thing as the Interwebs
Crowd: the neighborood
Spent: around $25.00
Overall rating: 3.5 sporks

This isn't the best Thai we've ever had, but it's pretty darn good. The papaya salad has just a little too much fish sauce for me, but since it's one of my favorite Thai dishes I order it anyway. The appetizer platter was a bit too full of fried items - my bad for not noticing that the spring rolls on it were the fried ones.

The fresh spring rolls are delicious and FRESH, and they get a 5. The nice addition of mango to go with the mint just makes this roll extra special and fresh-tasting. Note: eat them all, because if you keep them for leftovers the rice paper gets really stiff.

The curries are unpredictable in ingredients, but good: the night we ate in there, the yellow chicken curry was good but there were basically no vegetables other than potatoes. This last time, the chicken curry was absolutely loaded with string beans. So you might want to clarify exactly what they have on-hand that day for your curry, if you have strong opinions about what goes in there.

The gluten red tofu was delicious, and the texture of the gluten was great - not too chewy or too soft. Remember, this isn't on the menu.

The cashew chicken was better than any Chinese cashew chicken we've gotten - less greasy, less mystery-meatish. So if you don't want curry and like Chinese food better anyway and only came for Thai because you got outvoted, this is a good option.

Overall, we'll order from Saysetha again due to the pricing and protein flexibility. I freak out about non-organic meat but I also tire of tofu, so it's nice to know that I can get cheap, solid take-out Thai and still get my protein without getting awful images of factory farms and such.

Marc 49 - 4915 Telegraph Ave

Marc 49 is a wine bar on Telegpaph that caught our attention due to the fact that it opened after the Partner in Chow and I had passed it.

For due diligence, we went back to Marc 49, the newest obstacle between us and Pizzaiolo.

We've now been there a few times.

What we've ordered:

Mozzarella/Tomato Salad, Oysters, Fig & Proscuitto Sandwich (we think), Meaty Sandwich/Salad Combo, er... OK, we don't exactly remember what we've ordered, which has far less to do with it being a wine bar than that... er... well, it was awhile ago, OK?
Service: friendly
Atmo: laid back wine bar
Crowd: the neighborhood - young hipsters, yuppies, etc
Spent: around $30.00
Overall rating: 4 sporks

Marc 49 gets bonus points for being reasonably priced for a wine bar. The other alternatives near our house are Franklin Square and A Cote, and both tend to run you $100+ for 2 people if you're hungry.

This place has a good selection of good sandwiches and salads, and a decent wine selection. The back patio is a friendly place to kick back with friends, and overall we've always had a really good time here. Service is prompt and friendly, the front room has cool low tables and a nice bar. Basically, Marc 49 is filling a gap for the neighborhood and democratizing the wine bar experience for twentysomething kids that either can't afford Franklin Square, or don't want to eat fussy, small plates of food.

Nice job, Marc 49. We'll be back.

So.. behind...

We are sooo overdue on updating this blog. We know this.

Unfortunately, our project got a bit stalled when the Partner-in-Chow was laid off, which is what happens when you work for a mortgage company that didn't bother to see the "warning signs" (read: the various fraud reports submitted to upper management).

That being the case, we've been a bit remiss about eating out in general. We've also been busy, and so I owe The Internets some long-overdue reviews. Some are for the Telegraph project, some just for the general blog list. I'll list them here so I remember:

Outstanding in the Field (a.k.a. Out Drinking at the Ranch)
Flora (newish, and on Telegraph!)
Pican (eat here - in Oakland)
Miyozen (sister restaurant to Drunken Fish)
Dopo
Drunken Fish
Absinthe (woo for Top Chef)
Sea Salt, Lalime's & T-Rex (the trifecta)
Firefly
Taquerias: Mi Familia, El Amigo, Perico's, and the taco truck we found near High Street
Oceanaire (San Diego)
JORDN (San Diego in the Tower 23 hotel)

OK, now I'm getting lazy with links. More:

College Ave:

Soi Four
Oliveto
Citron
A Cote
Filipo
Bittersweet

A bit East of the East Bay:

Rugby (Georgetown)
J.Paul's (Georgetown)
Bodega
Home (NY)
Casa (NY)


... there's probably more. Which is to say that we're way behind in reviews and way behind on the project but not, perhaps, just not eating out at all. Just not as often.

However, Pizzaiolo is next on our list for Telegraph, and the rule is that we can't eat on Telegraph until we're up to date. We are actually up to date on the Telegraph blog (with the exception of Flora, which is new after all), so we can eat there.

And a new tapas place opened on Telegraph, so we need to hit that. A wine bar opened too, so we need to hit that as well.

So much to eat, so little time.

Stay tuned...

Doña Tomás - 5004 Telegraph Ave

Our project was horribly stalled for several months due to a variety of circumstances, including a bizarrely busy summer packed with travel and a studied avoidance of the next place on our list - a mediocre pizza joint followed by a fried fish joint.

We'd already had our fill of disgusting fried fish at Louisiana Fish & Chips, and even thinking about this place just made us wince. So sorry, other fish place - LFC ruined us.

After realizing that we'd put the project on hold for waaaay too long because we were both so unmotivated to eat crappy food, we broke our own rule and skipped those two places that were the barrier between us and Doña Tomás. And so it is that we finally got to Doña Tomás, which my Parter in Chow has enjoyed on a previous occasion and I've been to so many times I've lost count.

In a nutshell: we both love Doña Tomás. They have awesome drinks and absolutely the best carnitas you will ever have, hands down. And I own the cookbook, so paying $4 for camote (sweet potatoes) isn't something I absolutely have to do. But oh, they're just so good at the actual restaurant. And you can get them for like a buck cheaper at their sister taqueria Tacubaya, which is also awesome but nowhere near Telegraph Avenue and, therefore, a review for another time.

Reviews on Yelp will complain about the pricing. I don't mind the pricing much - sure, I wish it was cheaper. I also wish that the Patriot Act never happened and that the San Mateo bridge didn't have a backup every freaking day. But their ingredients are mostly organic and locally sourced, and I doubt their rent is cheap in spite of the occasional Lady of the Night that might liven up the "transitional" Temescal neighborhood in the evening hours.

My guess is that so many people have experience with Mexican street food and taquerias that the concept of fancy, expensive Mexican food annoys them. They feel entitled to a burrito the size of a hubcap for $3. This however is Oaxacan food, and it's high-end dining at that. So stop complaining and realize that the crappy pizza from the place we skipped isn't Dopo or Pizzaiolo either. And if you really want to save money, just skip the drinks. (But that'd be a shame, because there's no crappy tequila and the lime juice is fresh.)

What we've ordered: carnitas (amazing), carne asada (great), various fish dishes, margaritas, tequila lemonade (PIC's favorite), chile rellenos with various fillings, pozole (great), halibut cheeks (awesome)
Other things on the plate: camote, vegetable pudding (these are always delicious), beans, rice, grilled corn (mmm)
Service: local hipsters, mostly nice but occasionally hurried
Atmo: Sparse, vaguely Mexican hacienda - wood floors, rough-hewn chairs and tables in the front room. Bar is painted all red but is just as loud and smells like a Jamba Juice due to all the fresh squeezing of citrus. Back patio is awesome in the summer.
Crowd: the hills come down and the 'hood comes in - it's laid back, loud and diverse
Spent: generally spend around $80+ with 2 people, including drinks
Overall rating: 4.5 silver sporks

With all the gushing you'd think the big DT would get 5 sporks. But occasionally, there's something ordered that's just kinda blah. It's usually an appetizer, but still - $12 for blah feels like a bummer. Most recently it was a pumpkin quesadilla with goat cheese - something about the goat cheese and the squash just didn't work. The short ribs were also just OK, and kinda small. However, the other appetizer (recommended by the waitress) was unexpectedly fantastic. I don't even remember what it was, but damn - it was good.

The big standouts on the menu for me: carnitas, camote, whatever vegetable pudding they're making. That last one is filled with butter and cream and is most decidedly not good for you, but it is just delicious.

The pozole is fantastic, and especially so if you're sick. Mmm.

One thing to try: a $15 shot of Paradiso. Yes, it's really $15. No, you don't shoot it. You sip it after a meal the way you'd sip a fine port or brandy. And yes - it's worth it. A friend calls this stuff "liquid heroin," and if you're celebrating it's worth trying once.

The back patio in the summer is great, though I once saw a rat the size of the burritos people expect for $3 climbing up the wall of ivy. Since rats are all over Oakland and live in ivy and trees, this didn't bother me too much. He kept to himself and didn't run over to steal my food, which made me happy.

So, to sum up: eat here. Be prepared to spend more than you've ever spent on Mexican food unless you've eaten at Rick Bayless' restaurants. And enjoy.