Broccoli & Chocolate

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Review: Ichi Kakiya

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A few months ago, the purveyors of Ichi Sushi + Ni Bar opened up a new restaurant in their original location: a 21-seat intimate Japanese oyster shop and raw bar called Ichi Kakiya. Restaurant Manager and Beverage Director Shasta Olarte was kind enough to invite me for a meal, which I wholeheartedly (and immediately) accepted.

Photo from the Ichi Kakiya website

Photo from the Ichi Kakiya website

Ichi Kakiya is housed in a very small corner spot way down on Mission Street, south of Cesar Chavez, on the west side of Bernal Heights. The space fits a sushi bar and a handful of small tables between the deep blue painted walls, and the feel is cozy and modern. The menu features a couple dozen small bites, specializing in oysters of which they were offering six different types when I visited…. 

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Review: Mission Rock Resort — Brunch

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Ah, brunch. I hate being on bandwagons, but I’m totally on the brunch wagon. It’s such a wonderful feeling to enjoy your first meal of the day in a leisurely fashion while not having to do any actual work. SF is full of incredible brunch places, but I’ve found one where the food is great, there’s not usually a wait, and you can park your car (gasp).

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Mission Rock Resort is a bit out in the boonies—bayside in Potrero Hill—but totally worth the trip. It’s huge and has a large outdoor patio that is amazing on a nice day. The food is awesome, the service is great, and the prices don’t break the bank. I know, it’s not Plow or Boogaloos or Zazie, but you can park out front, you don’t have to wait over an hour, and you can actually look out on the bay while you eat. And now for the food…. 

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Review: Pier 23

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Let me tell you why I love Pier 23. The food is decent, the cocktails are mediocre, and the service can be sporadic. Ok, those are not reasons I love Pier 23, but I keep going because it’s such a cool place despite all these things.

The front of Pier 23, as shown on their website

The front of Pier 23, as shown on their website

Pier 23 is one of those places in a big city that feels like is has history. It’s got an old-fashioned, super casual vibe to it, but it’s popping with patrons young and old, so it still feels alive and fun. It’s small and oddly-placed along the vast waterfront full of cavernous, mysterious pier buildings — a welcoming oasis along this often inaccessible-seeming stretch…. 

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Review: Hog Island Oyster Co. — Marshall, CA

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This weekend we took a trip up to Point Reyes for some hiking, some eating, and some general out-of-the-city time. It was awesome. The weather was mostly beautiful (save the extreme wind conditions on half our Saturday hike), and some of the food was spectacular. I’ll do another post for our experience at Sir and Star, but wanted to quickly recap the fun stop we made at Hog Island Oyster Co. on our way out.

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Having been to the Hog Island in the Ferry Building in SF a number of times (omg, try the clam chowder; it’s out of this world), I was keen to see what their home base was like. Directly bordering the east side of Tomales bay on Highway 1 is a tiny town called Marshall which houses a number of oyster farms and retailers. Oysters are the “thing” on this stretch of land, as they are harvested right there in the shallow waters of Tomales Bay. And while I’ve never been an oyster person, I wanted to see what it was about.

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Review: Sotto Mare

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Sotto Mare (full name Gigi’s Sotto Mare Oysteria & Seafood Restaurant & Fish Market) is a small, old school seafood place right in the heart of North Beach on Green Street just off Columbus. I’ve lived in North Beach for two years and still hadn’t been — it was time. There’s a line out the door so often (the place is small and cramped) that I’ve just never expended the effort. A few weeks ago, the line was short and I went for it.

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I didn’t really know what to expect, and was hence very surprised by the atmosphere and the menu. I’ve sort of gotten used to the hoity-toity SF restaurant ambiance, which can range from rustic-chic to elegant-chic to hipster-chic, but is indeed very often some type of chic. At least when you’re paying $20 a plate or more. So I was surprised to walk into what I can only describe as a diner. Like, old school, knick-knacks all over the walls, counter seating, single-page laminated menu old school. It was interesting.

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Review: Pacific Catch

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If you find yourself in the Inner Sunset district, I hope you brought a jacket. And a good mood. Because it’s undoubtedly cloudy, possibly misty, and at least 20 degrees colder than the rest of the City. Welcome to the dreary side of the City.

Teeny complimentary appetizer -- so cute!

Teeny complimentary appetizer — so cute!

They do have food over here, however — apparently people here need to eat too. There are a few names that come up time and again if you ask around for what’s good in the Sunset, and Pacific Catch is one of them. I tried it. It was good.

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Review: Fish.

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Atmosphere: 3/5   ♦   Service: 3/5   ♦   Food Quality: 4/5   ♦   Value:2/5
Times Visited: Once  ♦   Will I Return?:  If I’m in the neighborhood
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Fish, period. That’s what they call themselves, punctuation and all. And what’s not to like about Fish.? Unless you’re a true vegetarian. Or you’re allergic to seafood. Or you just don’t like fish.

But I suffer from none of those deterrents, so I liked my fish at Fish. This place is way out of the way for most East Bay folks, nestled into the harbor-y area in the north part of Sausalito, but people around those parts seem to flock to Fish. We happened to be over there with Boyfriend’s mom and were looking for a good place to dine — we were happy to find one.

Fish has mostly… fish. As you might imagine. And they tout the sustainability thing too, which is refreshing. A large signboard in their dining area describes the virtue of sustainability in fishing and their website mentions that they only receive their salmon from “wild, sustainable sources” and never buy farmed fish. And they do use the word “poop” as a reason why farmed fish are bad — kudos to them for that. It takes balls to talk about poo.

Inside Fish. Restaurant

Inside Fish. Restaurant

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A Scrumptious Weekend in Marin

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For Mother’s Day this year, broccoli and chocolate took a voyage with mom to Point Reyes in Marin County.  Though only about an hour and a half away from the East Bay, the Marin coast is as rural and beautiful as just about anywhere in the world.  We had a fabulous time and mom was glowing.  But, back to the point—we had some excellent food that B&C needs to know about.

First Stop: Marin French Cheese

Forget Google when you want good cheese—she will only mislead you when you get directions to Marin French Cheese Company.  Using the directions on the website, find this lone establishment in the rolling greenery of Marin County.  … 

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Review: Hs Lordships

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Atmosphere: 5/5   ♦   Service: 4/5   ♦   Food Quality: 4/5   ♦   Value: 4/5
Times Visited: One   ♦   Will I Return?: I’d be happy to
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Hs Lordships is an enormous restaurant and banquet facility out on the Berkeley marina, situated happily on a tiny sliver of land next to the Berkeley pier and surrounded by water on three sides with views of the City, the bridges, and Berkeley.  Their main deal is a surf and turf sort of situation, but during this visit I didn’t even lay eyes on the menu for one moment.  That’s right, we went for the Lunch Buffet.

This place has a lunch buffet to end all lunch buffets.  According to my family, the place is usually really quiet on weekdays, despite the amazing spread of food available Monday through Friday for an extremely reasonable price ($17 or so a person).  The day we went, however, must have been “work Christmas party” day or something because the place was packed.  There must have been hundreds of people in the restaurant, parked in front of their white tablecloths in packs of 4, 6, 10, and 20.  It was a bit of a madhouse.  And like amateurs, my party of six walks in with no reservations at 12 noon…. 

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