places

It seems a shame not to cap­ture and share some of our col­lec­tive intel­li­gence about good places to eat and drink.  I’m jot­ting down some ini­tial notes and places not to for­get to review, obvi­ously there’s quite a bit more to add.  And hope­fully there always will be!

seat­tle

Rione XIII.  Ethan Stowell’s new place on 15th.  Superb.  We had a beau­ti­ful snack here of a rather spe­cial pros­ecco, car­ciofi alla judea, and sup­pli al tele­fono.  The micro-counter on the side­walk out­side reminds me of the side­walk parks San Fran­cisco has begun putting in, e.g. right out­side Four Bar­rel.  15th is look­ing up.

Mon­soon, 615 19th Avenue East.  This is a place we’re very lucky to have so close to home, tucked away in the leafy part of Capi­tol Hill.  Posh Viet­namese, strong on French influ­ences and with a win­ning focus on high-quality ingre­di­ents (painted hills beef, mad hatcher eggs, etc.).  The inte­rior is min­i­mal and attrac­tive; open kitchen behind the bar.  Prices are quite rea­son­able, but this is very much not a Chi­na­town dive; date night works here.  Open every day for din­ner, and now for lunch as well.  On week­ends there’s a lovely brunch, at which one can get dim sum (pieces ordered indi­vid­u­ally though, there’s not nearly enough vol­ume here for the cart approach), bro­ken rice bowls, banh xeo crêpes, or west­ern things like eggs bene­dict and waf­fles, are very finely pre­pared.  Faves: cat­fish hot pot, green papaya salad, egg dishes, all the dim sum.  Pretty much every­thing is good here.

Vios.  Owned by the cheer­ful, gas­tro­nom­i­cal and community-minded Thomas Soukakos, this is another local gem.  Greek food, again with an empha­sis on sim­plic­ity and fine ingre­di­ents.  Pleas­ant inte­rior, with a place in the back for kids to play, and nom­i­nally a “mar­ket” counter in the front, though mar­ket prices are well north of Greek islandish.  For lunch, it’s hard to beat the lamb sou­vlaki sand­wich, loaded with oven-roasted toma­toes, yogurt and pars­ley.  At din­ner, a glass of retsina and a pik­ilia plate to share would be a good start.

Anchovies & Olives.  This has become per­haps our favorite place, because: it’s some­how light, in that one can go early or late or on a whim and feel instantly accom­mo­dated.  The menu is short and sweet, and changes often.  The dishes are inter­est­ing and might include things like, for instance, a lit­tle slab of grilled mack­erel with the skin charred, the flesh suc­cu­lent, on a bed of chorizo and wild mush­rooms or some other such umami-intensive thing.  The wines by the glass are very good.  There’s a paint­ing on the wall they should change.  But oth­er­wise the envi­ron­ment is appeal­ing, dark and casual; the wait­staff hip and pierced, but not overly.

Cascina Spinasse.  Warm but­tery light, lovely hand­made pasta, an open kitchen with lots of mason jars.  The fon­duta with truf­fles and egg is not to be missed.

Café Lago.  Need to con­firm ver­sus Seri­ous Pie, but prob­a­bly the most expen­sive pizza in Seat­tle.  Worth it: very fine tra­di­tional crust, cor­rect ingre­di­ents, nicely black­ened buboes, more on the crisp side than Tutta Bella’s.  There’s a purity about the dishes here; noth­ing has more ingre­di­ents than needed.  The Cae­sar salad is dead sim­ple and very good.  The lasagna is per­fect— noth­ing but fine hand­made pasta, ricotta, and béchamel in mul­ti­ple lay­ers, and a per­fectly tex­tured seed­less red sauce on top.  Wine: the rubio san polo goes well.  Also: the Aran­cia Salata, made with Aperol, Vodka and roasted orange, is delicious.

Oste­ria La Spiga

Via Tri­bunali

Tutta Bella

Le Pichet

Cafe Presse

Har­vest Vine

Boat Street Café

India Bistro

Vol­un­teer Park Café

Smith.  Pou­tine!

Pike Street Fish Fry.  The fish and chip and friends are very good here.  Also, the pulled pork sand­wich is revelatory.

Malay Satay Hut

Agua Verde Pad­dle Club.  Decent Gringo Mex with high qual­ity ingre­di­ents.  There’s often a long line, but in the sum­mer you can rent out a kayak before a late dinner.

Ele­men­tal

Carta de Oaxaca

Sta­ple & Fancy

How to Cook a Wolf.  My other co-favorite of Ethan Stowell’s, with Anchovies & Olives.

Shang­hai Garden

Essen­tial Baking

Armandino’s Salumi

Grand Cen­tral Bakery

Colum­bia City Bakery

La Medusa

Besalu

Hon­oré.  I thought we’d never sup­plant Besalu for the cof­fee and pas­try dur­ing the kids’ park­our class.  But this place has done it.  Shorter lines, astound­ing quiche, beau­ti­ful berry-filled dan­ishes and excel­lent canelles.

Ocho

Poco

De Lau­renti

Mutual Fish

 

Vivace

 

Vic­trola

Than Broth­ers

Bal­lard pizza place next to Honore.

 

belle­vue

Vovito

Wild Gin­ger

Mon­soon East

san fran­cisco

Bi-rite

Zuni

Tar­tine.  Excel­lent bread and pastries.

Bar­Bam­bino

Com­mon­wealth

Walzw­erk

Heir­loom

Way­fare Tavern

Bour­bon & Branch (anti saloon league, speakeasy) http://www.yelp.com/biz/bourbon-and-branch-san-francisco

Rye http://www.ryesf.com/

[...]

Frances
Eiji
Star­belly
Mis­sion Chi­nese Food
Pizzetta 211
Chez Maman
Kasa
Dosa
Spork
Range
Plow
Pi
Pizze­ria Del­fina
Monk’s Ket­tle
Cafe Mys­tique
Absinthe
Chi­lango
Wexler’s
Weird Fish
Farmer Brown
Lit­tle Star
Burma Super Star
La Taqueria

Absinthe

Benu

Bistro Aix

Bour­bon Steak

Cotogna

Slanted Door

Far­al­lon.  Not sure on look­ing, pos­si­bly douchy.
Fifth Floor.  Pricey but inter­est­ing Fer­ran Adrià kind of sit­u­a­tion near the SF stu­dio.
Gitane.  Indul­gent tapas of the broiled bacon-wrapped-date sort in a lit­tle alley, same neigh­bor­hood.
Mamacita
Mar­lowe
Prospect
Ris­to­bar
Sai­son
Water­bar
Zero Zero.  Pizza and pasta, quite good.

Bar Agri­cole [pic].  The restau­rant is so beau­ti­ful that it’s hard to focus on the food.  The food’s good.  The drinks are good.  The space is a sort of Swedish designer’s dream.  Clean wood, wood-textured cement, per­fectly shaped glasses and decanters, a sense of mod­ernist lifestyle geom­e­try that makes one feel that one is simul­ta­ne­ously inhab­it­ing the decade of Falling­wa­ter and the 21^st cen­tury utopia wrongly pre­fig­ured by Fallingwater.

Cof­fee bar.  Very pleas­ant envi­ron­ment in which to hang out with the lap­top and hack for an after­noon.  Accept­able espresso (though not on par with the best in SF).  Soups and sand­wiches.  Some power out­lets, and some tables “laptop-free”.

Pic­cino [pic].  Lit­tle cof­feeshop in the Dog­patch; also now sport­ing an adja­cent place to sit down for pizza, wine, sal­ads.  Under­go­ing some kind of major expan­sion now, scal­ing up to a larger restau­rant.  The tiny mostly standing-room bar is still best, I think.  Very fine espresso and cap­puc­cino, served in crudely formed raku cups whose glazed and scored sur­faces feel good on the fin­gers.  Blue Bot­tle beans.  Lim­ited but good selec­tion of small baked things as well.

Rit­ual [pic].  Among the best SF cof­feeshops, I think on par with Four Bar­rel.  Excel­lent crois­sants and attrac­tive space.

Blue Bot­tle.  The clas­sic place for a beau­ti­ful cap­puc­cino in the tra­di­tional size.  The wait may be long, and the baristi are insen­si­tive to line length– per­haps even shear-thickening as it length­ens.  Also: lovely for break­fast.  Only 2–3 things, but good ones.

Four Bar­rel.  An excel­lent third wave cof­feeshop.  Much of the deep, warehouse-like space is devoted to roast­ing and other cof­fee machin­ery; the front, where you sit or stand at the bar, is fur­nished cleanly and minimally—except a hair­ily tan­gled hang­ing rope light, and four boar heads mounted on the wall.  The menu is short and rig­or­ous; for exam­ple, only plain crois­sants, but good ones.  The unex­pected “boar head ele­ment” is an affogato made with stout-flavored gelato, which is pfg.

Sight­glass

Farm: Table

the sum­mit

Bouche.  This was a lovely sur­prise find near the Microsoft offices on Mar­ket Street.  Not par­tic­u­larly notice­able from the out­side, quite hip on the inside with ver­ti­cal space, raw mate­ri­als and a taxi­der­mied Boar’s head, serv­ing din­ner until late (i.e. 12:35am on a Mon­day, which is when I showed up after the late flight in from Seat­tle).  I had a lovely glass of Peche Abuse red blend, a corn soup done very cre­atively with a foamy emul­sion and a tem­per­a­ture gra­di­ent from hot around the rim to a small icy dol­lop of sor­bet in the cen­ter, and a cou­ple of other small dishes, all deli­cious.  I left very happy.  The wait­staff were friendly French expats, and the chef (Guil­laume from Provence) sported the Ein­stein­ian “afro of genius”, deserved it turns out.

berkeley/oakland

A Cote

Ippuku

Plum

Gather.  Good for brunch.

Strada.  Decent cof­fee, excel­lent work envi­ron­ment (plugs and WiFi outside).

Enoteca Moli­nari

aspen

Victoria’s Espresso.  The only fully accept­able cof­fee in Aspen, and good for sal­ady quichey things as well.

ohio

Jeni’s ice cream.

boston

Volt­age Cof­fee & Art.  Good espresso near MIT and enough barista tat­toos to look famil­iar from the Seat­tle perspective.

Belly bar.  Noisy and hip base­ment bar on Kendall Square with a few com­mu­nal high tables.  Nice short wine list, good salumi and cic­cheti, and fon­due if you reserve ahead.  The lamb polpette were delicious.

Dumpling Cafe Inc.  This place in Chi­na­town had cred­i­ble and yummy soup dumplings.  (Listed on the menu as “mini juicy buns”, either pork or pork + crab.  The pork-only are the way to go.)

chicago

Sepia

Black­bird

Avec.  Prob­a­bly favorite place in Chicago for now.

Province

Girl and the goat

Intel­li­gentsia

new york

Frank.

Prune.

Balt­hazar.

Batali place on Waverly

Batali place on Thompson

Mamoun.  Cheap and ever awe­some falafel in the East Vil­lage open til after mid­night; try the excel­lent smoky chicken kebab in pita with a dol­lop of babaganoush.

Tor­risi Ital­ian Spe­cial­ties.  This place looks very spe­cial and has come with high praise from trusted friends.  Unfor­tu­nately, I think get­ting a reser­va­tion is difficult.

Dove­tail.

Telepan.  Anne and Michael rec.

Per Se.  Must try it.

WD~50.  Also must try it.

Le Bernardin

Daniel

Nice Matin.  Brunch standby near the Nat­ural His­tory Museum.

Cafe Lalo.  Cute and good for brunch or frit­tata type stuff any­time of day, also a huge dessert menu and absinthey drinks at night.

berlin

Bunker

Al con­tadino sotto le stelle

Koll­witz­platz

ams­ter­dam

De Kas

barcelona

Cera 23.  Rec­om­men­da­tion from Ilya.

Com­merç 24.  Also from Ilya.

cam­bridge, uk

The Punter, 3 Pound Hill.  Cam­bridge is a very beau­ti­ful lit­tle town.  And it turns out that, notwith­stand­ing being in Eng­land, it does have an excel­lent place to eat: The Punter.  A pub with lovely mod­ern food made from high qual­ity ingre­di­ents, and the usual sup­ply of arti­sanal warm beer or what­ever they call it.

reyk­javik

Fish Com­pany

tokyo

Place with Blaine

French bak­ery

tel aviv

Yo’Ezer Wine Bar

Mar­garet Tayar.  This is the place under the big blue metal fish vis­i­ble from the Jaffa clock­tower.  Open­ing hours seem some­what erratic, and the tem­pera­men­tal epony­mous Margaret’s “high prices” for this kind of food annoy many locals.  (For a non-Israeli, this means lit­tle, as the food is deli­cious Yemenite stuff, you won’t be com­ing here every day, and if this restau­rant were any­place else in the world its prices would be unre­mark­able.  The fine-ness of the prepa­ra­tion is also a step above ordi­nary Yemenite holes-in-the-wall.)

Suzanne Del­lal.  Lovely break­fasts in the cafe with ample patio and out­door seat­ing near the dance school.

Bar­bunia and Bar­bunia, the bar.  The bar, across the street from the main restau­rant at 162 Ben Yehuda, is better.

Con­tainer is a cool place in Jaffa, right on the water oppo­site the piers.  Good drinks, good food, and a beau­ti­ful raw indus­trial space true to its name.

Ido says (May 2012): “If you have the time, go to Berti (ברטי)– King George 86 TLV”.  This seems like advice worth following.

Ishay says: try the truf­fle pizza at the Basta, in/next to the Carmel market.

Rec­om­men­da­tions from Michelle:

Rabin Square area (all are within walk­ing dis­tance from one another):

1. The ‘Brasserie’ — a very pop­u­lar place, good food.  Rec­om­mended dishes: bone mar­row with toast, chicken con­somme, endive salad with cham­pagne vinai­grette (good for a nice lunch).  Bak­ery next door belongs to them and has excel­lent cof­fee and pastries.

2. Book­worm or ‘Tolaat Sfarim’ — right across the square from the Brasserie, an excel­lent book­store cafe.  They have won­der­ful meal-salads and good cof­fee, and every­one who is some­one in the int­elec­tual life of Tel Aviv sits there.  Also a very pro Pales­tin­ian place.

3. ‘Car­di­nal Choco­late’ A Choco­latier — deli­cious choco­lates way beyond any­thing any­one over here makes... Don’t miss the sour cherry pralines.

http://www.telaviv4fun.com/bistro.html

Yehuda Halevi/ Lilen­blum area:

1. ‘Joz Veloz’ — the hip­ster hang­out. Arrive early, there is a line.  Food has been excel­lent or noth­ing much in waves, no idea what is hap­pen­ing now, but I am going there when in Israel, just to feel the beat of the city which I so miss here.  Cor­rect Adress is: Yehuda Halevi 51. There is an iron gate at the side of an ugly res­i­den­tial build­ing, through the gate to your right, in a con­verted insur­ance office.

2. ‘Katit’ Extra fancy local fusion. The chef, Meir Adoni, is a whiz in desserts and sweets, I ate there once and loved it, hope it is still the same ;-)

3. North Abraxas — this place is sup­posed to be incred­i­ble, don’t miss it (and tell us how it was...). The chef, Eyal Shani, is a genius, and it is also sup­posed to have excel­lent music.

4. The trendi­est, hippest place in town is called ‘The Basta’. It is in the cor­ner of one of the streets of the Karmel mar­ket — on Hashomer st. No. 4.  I am totally plan­ning on vis­it­ing it, it is sup­posed to be out of this world deli­cious (the above applies here as well about telling us how it was).

5. And of course, ‘Her­bert samuel’, Very easy to find, deli­cious and very easy to enjoy. if this list is too con­fus­ing, go there only– it’s the clos­est there is to a sure thing.

Odds & Ends we mentioned:

- ‘Old timer’s’ cool cafe in TLV = ‘Cafe mer­sand’ — Ben Yehuda 70

- Jerusalem — ‘Rashel’s Sand­wich’ No. 17 Beit-Lechem Rd. — take the daily spe­cial (Tunisian food, all freshly cooked there, delicious!!)

jerusalem

Abu Shukri

venice

Corte Sconta.  On Calle del Pestrin, in Castello.  It’s worth tak­ing a long walk to dine here.  A bit pricey, like Da Fiore; and I think equally great.  The meal begins with a long and cre­ative tast­ing menu of seafoods; the chal­lenge is to still be able to keep going by the time you get to the part you actu­ally ordered.

Ae Oche.  In San Polo, off a “local” quiet square on the Zat­tere vaporetto stop.  Widely regarded as the best pizza in Venice.

La Zucca.  Near Ae Oche, this place is very nice, and a lit­tle more inven­tive than the usual Venet­ian stan­dards, while still firmly grounded in tradition.

Tonolo.  In the San Polo quar­ter across a bridge behind the Scuola San Rocco.  The fiamma, a choux pas­try filled with marsala cream, is pretty much the best thing I’ve ever tasted.  But every­thing here is good.  Cap­puc­cino comes in lovely lit­tle blue porce­lain cups.  Don’t get there too late in the morn­ing as their pas­tries sell out.

Da Fiore.  As far as I know the only place in Venice with a Miche­lin star.  We had a won­der­ful meal here, both haute and with a wel­come ele­ment of earth­i­ness.  The house-made pros­ecco is deli­cious.  This was the first place I tried crudo, sashimi-style fish in olive oil, and prob­a­bly still the best.

Ai Do Mori.  Near the Rialto bridge, hid­den away on the Calle Do Mori in San Polo.  One goes here for an “ombra”, a glass of white wine in the after­noon and some cicheti (lit­tle bites at the bar, a bit like tapas or pintxos).

lis­bon

100 Maneiras.  This place is (Adri­enne assures) amazing.

Pap’ Acorda

Rubro Avenida “had a beau­ti­ful inte­rior and was deli­cious. recommended.”

cor­sica

Campu Lat­inu is the fancier of two restau­rants in the pic­turesque vil­lage of Lama (pop­u­lation 176 in 2008 accord­ing to Wikipedia— an inland ham­let perched on a steep moun­tain­side about halfway between Ile Rousse and Bas­tia).  The set­ting is beau­ti­ful and atmos­pheric, with out­door seat­ing on a stone ter­race under fig trees and climb­ing vines over­look­ing the val­ley.  As dusk comes in, around 9 o’clock, lay­ers of moun­tain­ous sil­hou­ette rise softly out of the clouds on the far side in pur­ple bands.  One of the tra­di­tional dishes served by Campu Lat­inu, a sort of beef pot pie with juniper berries in the stew, was a standout.

Café de la Place.  Place Pas­cal Paoli, up to the cas­tle, with its won­der­ful panoramic view­points, is rec­om­mended.  At Café de la Place on this square we had a very good hand­made pasta dish with san­glier, which are the wild pigs liv­ing on the island.

U Paglia Orba, in Corte.  We had a very nice meal here.  The place is focused on high-quality regional cook­ing.  The pro­pri­etor was kind and atten­tive to the kids, and the bill was very reasonable.

Emile’s on the water­front in Calvi is a Michelin-starred place with a second-story bal­cony.  It’s white table­cloth (what Miche­lin place isn’t?), but not exces­sively for­mal.  The meal was very good, and the wines excellent.

M*.  We had a very nice upscale lunch on the water at Saint-Florent, but I’m now unable to find the name of the restau­rant, which is quite frus­trat­ing.  It began with an “M”, and one accessed it by walk­ing down a some­what hid­den ramp off the main square.  The lan­gouste in lemon but­ter sauce here made it clear what all the fuss was about.  This place also served deli­cious stuffed sar­dines, in which broc­ciu was deployed to bet­ter effect than in the ubiq­ui­tous cannelloni.

paris

Ren­dezvous au Marche.  A sim­ple place run by a dude who loves his meat, and loves to cook.  Clas­sic and delicious.

Lou Pescadou Chez Julien.

Helene Dar­roze.  Birth­day lunch for Adri­enne here– deli­cious and del­i­cate, impec­ca­ble ser­vice with­out obnoxiousness.

bel­grade

Saran is a very good fish restau­rant in Zemun, a town on the banks of the Danube which has been engulfed by Bel­grade (though it still retains a very local char­ac­ter).  The fresh­wa­ter fish is best, as this is local and fresh.

Stara Koliba, also on the river, looks promis­ing.  Reser­va­tions needed.

Vuk, which means Wolf, is a very old-school place in the old city.  The food was good and kept com­ing.  Meat, meat, meat!  This is best enjoyed on the out­door patio.