More Dish - Baylindo •••

Let's dish some more.

[Recent Posts] (with Deals | FAQ | OS)

Archive 2021

Let's dish some more.

[Recent Posts] (with Deals | FAQ | OS)

Archive 2021

Bay Classics

Here’s our comprehensive list of Bay Area’s classic food and drink establishments, starting with places that opened before 1950. We also remember those that are no more (provided they left an impression or were in business for a long time). And we include the ones that have already made a profound impact (Chez Panisse, for example). It pays to be the first of something as we celebrate the first Hakka, the first Burmese, the first Nepali, and so on. Don’t forget landmark buildings and unusual interiors.

San Francisco

Jai Yun (2000-2018?) | Tartine (2002) | Humphry Slocombe (2008) [+ East Bay, Peninsula]

East Bay

Loard’s Ice Cream (1950), Oakland | Merritt Bakery (1952-2023), Oakland | Nation’s Giant Hamburgers (1952), San Pablo [+ Peninsula, Wine Country, Delta-Suisun Bay] | Silver Dragon (1956-2012), Oakland | Brennan’s (1959-2018), Berkeley | Jim’s Coffee Shop (1960), Alameda | Nordic House (1962-2022), Berkeley | The Albatross Pub (1964-2020), Berkeley | Le Bouc (1967?-2002?), Alameda | Flint’s Barbecue (1968-2010), Oakland | KC’s BBQ (1968-2023), Oakland | Your Black Muslim Bakery (1968-2007), Oakland [So. Calif. originally]

Silicon Valley/South Bay

Sunny Donuts (2001-2020), San Jose

Peninsula

The Village Pub (2001), Woodside | Alhambra Irish House (2019), Redwood City [1896 landmark building (Alhambra Theater)]

Wine Country

Kozlowski Farms (1949), Forestville

North Bay

Marin French Cheese (1865), Hicks Valley [Wine Country HQ] | Nick’s Cove (1931/2007), Marshall | Buckeye Roadhouse (1937/38), Mill Valley | Straus Family Creamery (1941), Marshall [Wine Country HQ]

Marin Joe’s (1954), Corte Madera | Red Boy Pizza (1969), San Rafael [+ East Bay (SF originally)] | The Royal Frankfurter (1972-2007), San Rafael | Las Guitarras (1973), Novato [SF originally] | Mama’s Royal Cafe (1974-2018), Mill Valley | Frantoio (1995-2019), Mill Valley

Delta-Suisun Bay

Nut Tree (1921-1996), Vacaville

Black Oak (1960-2021), Vacaville [So. Calif. originally] | Coffee Tree (1965-2003), Vacaville | Starbread Bakery (1986), Vallejo [+ East Bay, Peninsula] | First Street Cafe (1996-2020), Benicia

Detour

Side Trips and Sidebars

For those keeping score....

Kouign-Amann Tour

In chronological order. All individual size only except where noted. Two spiral-shaped so far.

1 Manresa Bread, South Bay - full-sized version available (nine-inch round?)
2 Seven Hills Baking Co., Castro Valley - sea salt topping (zut alors)
3 Starter Bakery (at Philz Coffee) - sea salt topping (crikey)
4 Rolling-Out Cafe, SF - best nontraditional version (mango sticky rice)
5 B. Patisserie, SF - multiple flavors
6 Arsicault Bakery, SF - best traditional version, spiral-shaped
7 Crispian Bakery, Alameda - caramelized bottom sticks to teeth
8 Jane the Bakery, SF - tastes closest to croissant
9 Jina Bakes, SF - one of the sweeter traditional versions; best chocolate version
10 Juniper Cafe, SF - traditional version with sea salt topping; second-best nontraditional version (black sesame, spiral-shaped)
11 Feel Good Bakery, Alameda - the least sweet

More than just another food court....

Food Halls

After visiting Castro Valley Marketplace, a relatively new food hall that seems to have the perfect design and tenant mix, we began to think about other options in the Bay Area. Well, you can start with Alameda since Alameda Marketplace is a sister food hall. Emeryville's The Public Market has been around since the 1980s. Oakland has Rockridge Market Hall and the reborn Swan's Market. There's the larger Ferry Building Marketplace in San Francisco. Check out Los Altos' own State Street Market and two in downtown San Jose: San Pedro Square Market and SoFA Market. While you're in Wine Country, don't forget Napa's Oxbow Public Market. Support the women-led La Cocina Municipal Marketplace in San Francisco's Tenderloin. Then there's the humble International Food Court in San Francisco's Financial District.

Let them know you care....

#MochiDonutsForICU

ICU and other healthcare workers have been to hell and back since 2020. Let them know you care by giving them a dozen mochi donuts from Modo Hawaii and other places. Food safety experts may disagree, but they seem less perishable than, say, pizzas and chicken wings—though whatever you bring them will be garbled up fast. How about a refreshing pitcher of horchata or other aqua fresca when it’s hot outside? A dozen cannoli...kouign-amann...whatever you prefer.

Timing is everything...when to charge the customer makes all the difference. Bay Area restaurants need to get their act together.

Take out the Takeout Problem

[Note: After we discussed the dim sum issue at an Alameda restaurant in 2021, we went for 14 months without incident. Then in a span of two weeks, we experienced issues in San Leandro, Redwood City, and Santa Clara. Three months later, the same thing happened in Brisbane. We should mention we always place our order in person to minimize any potential problem. See Updates below.]

When you order food to-go, the potential is always there that you may get charged for item(s) not delivered. That’s because restaurants tend to charge the customer before the kitchen even gets the order. This is more of an issue for things like dim sum because some items are sold out as time passes during lunch. The best solution is to charge the customer after the food comes out of the kitchen (same as dine-in). Otherwise, an employee needs to reconcile what was charged with what the kitchen actually made. So here’s our pro tip for customers: Before you leave the restaurant, take a quick scan of the kitchen’s copy of the order and look for anything specially marked or left unchecked. If not, you could be in for a surprise later. If you order via a food-delivery service, check your order before the delivery person leaves (not sure if this will do much good).

Updates

After we placed our order at this San Leandro restaurant, we were notified the mushroom pate was not available to-go, so we replaced it with the rolled pork belly ($35 in 2023). We realized the pork belly was missing when we got home. Counting boxes wouldn’t have helped in this case because they put one dish into two boxes. They didn’t give us the kitchen’s copy of our order, so we’ll never know if they got the pork belly substitution. We were all set to partially blame the ordering error on the fact that three different people handled our order—the bartender took our order, someone else informed us of the pate issue, and a third person handed our order to us—until we remembered the previous week when only one person was involved with our order.

Shortly after we placed our order at this Redwood City restaurant, the person who took our order returned and asked if we wanted rice or fries with the chicken curry. She was the same person who later handed the order to us. When we got home, we realized the chicken curry was missing. Unlike the San Leandro place, we were not charged for the missing dish. So perhaps something went wrong with the electronic ordering system—either software bug or user error. Our advice is if you had to make some kind of change/update to your order—however minor—that’s the cue to pay close attention to what comes out of the kitchen.

And then we have no explanation for what could’ve gone wrong at this Santa Clara restaurant a week after our San Leandro experience. There was no substitution or clarification with our order. Yet for some reason, the salmon plate we ordered was missing when we got home. With no kitchen copy of our order, we can’t tell if they got the right order. But we do know someone—either the person who took our order or the kitchen—packed four small salads for the four plates we ordered. Unlike the San Leandro restaurant, we were successful in resolving the billing problem at this Santa Clara place.

It’s a little unfortunate that we experienced the same problem at our first-ever Brisbane restaurant. We had to wait a little longer than usual to get our food because this place was quite busy on a Saturday before 5 pm. It didn’t help that after we placed our order, a large party with a reservation showed up. We were really looking forward to try the pork adobo with rice.

We just want to talk about food and not go over this takeout problem ad nauseam. After lockdown, you’d think every restaurant must have had plenty of experience with to-go orders. Do we have to open and inspect every box like a customs officer? We’re starting to appreciate see-through containers. We’re not being facetious because a few years ago, a San Jose restaurant gave us the wrong dish.

A classic dish is back in the news....

A Timely Dish

As current events unfolded in 2022, we started to think about a dish that was popular here and in Europe through the 1980s. Of course, we’re referring to chicken Kiev. Whether you decide to make this dish yourself (old and new Sunset recipe), be sure to use the preferred romanization and pronunciation. Just as Bombay became Mumbai and Ayers Rock is now Uluru, Kiev really should be Kyiv. Journalists and others are finally coming around. U.K. consumers called on food companies to rename their products. Kudos to The Refuge for its Kyiv chicken liver.

Somewhere Street (Kyiv 2019/2022) [►] Coming Home [►]

Everyone loves a ranked list, but when it’s kind of meaningless....

Dubious Top 100 List

A certain social media site has been publishing a top 100 list of “best places to eat” since 2014. We first heard about it when USA Today covered the 2021 survey. It turns out the 2021 list is nothing more than a popularity contest and perhaps an outlier. You see, visitors to this site were asked to vote for their favorite restaurants. For what it’s worth, two Bay Area places made the top 100—San Bruno’s Mazra (No. 2) and Berkeley’s Creekwood (No. 36)—neither one we’d heard of before.

Sensing this site probably had to change its methodology because of the 2020 pandemic, we looked up its 2020 survey, which was published in January 2020. The 2020 list was based on diner reviews on the site in the previous year. As you can imagine, this tends to favor new or relatively new restaurants. The Bay Area places that made the 2020 list were Fairfield’s Pikul Thai Bistro (No. 10), San Francisco’s Shish Ke Baba (No. 12), Santa Clara’s Achilles (No. 37). Albany’s 310 Eatery (No. 55), Burlingame’s Tuna Kahuna (No. 67), Campbell’s Trattoria 360 (No. 70), and Oakland’s Porque No? Tacos (No. 71).

This site uses a five-star rating system, and we’ve often wondered how you rank one business over another. For instance, should a restaurant that receives a five-star average from 100 reviews be ranked higher than one that receives a four-star average from 1,000 reviews? We’re not surprised this site doesn’t bother to go into such pesky details. Transparency is not its strong suit. After all, this company has been the target of numerous lawsuits regarding its business practice. So instead of calling it the top 100 “best places to eat,” this site should call it the top 100 “mostly new restaurants based on a methodology whose details we prefer to keep to ourselves.” Title too long? Well, it’d be honest for a change.

For the 2022 survey, visitors were once again asked to send in nominations. True to its erratic form, no Bay Area restaurant made the cut this time. We suspect this company will revert to the old methodology starting in 2023.

While this national survey is a good marketing move, we’ll stick with more meaningful lists from Michelin Guide and San Francisco Chronicle. What this site should do is publish regional lists for major restaurant markets like New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and, of course, the Bay Area. We find it amusing when its co-founder/CEO appeared on 60 Minutes in 2018 complaining about Google using its search engine to push its own reviews. Talk about one shady business trolling another shady business. Pot, meet kettle.

Where have all the great food palaces gone?

Bygone Golden Age?

When Hong Kong-inspired restaurants such as Hong Kong Flower Lounge and Koi Palace opened/expanded in the 1990s, Bay Area foodies rejoiced because these high-end Cantonese places didn’t cater to proverbial Peoria. Sure, the Bay Area has seen some Hong Kong-style places since the 1970s, but nothing like these cavernous and opulent—some might say gaudy—restaurants. We had a whole steamed fish once at Mayflower that showcased the simplicity and finesse of Cantonese cuisine. And then lower-priced Daimo and Cooking Papa followed. Daimo expanded and then had to scale back. Cooking Papa changed ownership and quality suffered. Koi Palace and Mayflower are still around, but most diners would agree their best days are behind them.

East meets West in Japan....

Japanese Fusion

Japan has a knack for taking something from the West and giving it an interesting spin. The electronics and auto industries know this all too well. On the culinary front, yoshoku is food inspired by Western cooking. Examples include tonkatsu (schnitzel), tempura (fritter), korokke (croquette), hamburg (Hamburg steak/Salisbury steak), omurice (omelet and fried rice), sando (sandwich), potesara (potato salad), Kewpie mayonnaise, castella (sponge cake), Mont Blanc, pafe (parfait), and hanaboru (Portuguese biscoitos). Itameshi is Italian food with a Japanese twist.

Neighboring China’s influence is reflected in ramen, gyoza (dumplings), chahan (fried rice), hatoshi (shrimp toast), chimaki/akumaki (sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves), and mochi. And from India (via Britain) we get Japanese curry.

Japanology (yoshoku) [►]

Indian restaurants have come a long way....

India.Foodie

Years ago there was just one type of Indian restaurant, whose tried-and-true menu featured samosa, saag paneer, tandoori chicken, butter chicken, chicken tikka masala (a British thing), pork vindaloo, biryani, naan, and mango lassi. How times have changed. You know a cuisine has turned mainstream when its restaurants range from high-end places to humble counter-service spots and everything in between. We now have restaurants that specialize in one thing (be it chaat, dosa, pav bhaji, kati roll, biryani, idli, or breakfast, for instance) or focus on regionalism (Hyderabad, Chettinad, and other parts of India). There are places where chiliheads can really get their kicks (we’re looking at you, Biryaniz). Fusion adds even more variety as you can find plenty of Indian-flavored pizzas and some Indo-Chinese dishes. Oh, if you want something to drink other than mango lassi, sapota juice is even better. There are also some Pakistani and Bangladeshi restaurants as well.

It finally dawned on us why Indian cuisine is so appealing to a certain palate. For people who like sauce or gravy, Indian food is perfect because every other dish comes with plenty of liquid gold.

While you visit Belotti Bottega, Pomella, Fentons Creamery, and other businesses on Piedmont Avenue, take a little side trip.

The Quiet Side of Oakland

At the end of Piedmont Avenue is Mountain View Cemetery designed in 1863 by Frederick Law Olmsted, arguably America’s most celebrated landscape architect. He is best known as the designer (together with Calvert Vaux) of New York’s Central Park and Prospect Park. Cemeteries are the precursor to public parks, so it makes perfect sense that Olmsted designed Mountain View Cemetery while he lived in California. Some of the noted graves include Stephen Bechtel, Warren Bechtel, Charles Crocker, March Fong Eu, James A. Folger, Domingo Ghirardelli, Thomas Hill, Henry J. Kaiser, Fred Korematsu, Bernard Maybeck, Julia Morgan, and T.A. Soong. Guided tours are no longer available, but the grounds are open to recreational visits Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Originally designed in 1909 and redesigned in 1928 by the aforementioned Morgan, Chapel of the Chimes is a designated Oakland landmark located in front of Mountain View Cemetery. Notable residents include Dick Bartell, Al Davis, Bones Ely, and John Lee Hooker. Guided tours are available by appointment.

Mountain View Cemetery [►] Chapel of the Chimes [►]

While you visit Joyful Dimsum Bistro in the Mission San Jose District of Fremont, take a little side trip.

Missionquest

Within walking distance from Ohlone College is one of five Spanish missions in the Bay Area. Mission San Jose was founded in 1797 and rebuilt after 1868. Here’s more info on California’s historical missions.

California Missions Foundation (Mission San Jose) [►]

What restaurants do or don’t do that we find especially annoying....

Pet Peeve

You may be surprised to know it’s not the takeout issue we mentioned above. Or food poisoning (it’s happened more times than we care to remember). Or poor quality of pork (all fat and no meat) and other ingredients (please remove the strings from celery). Or customer service, a problem for all industries that we addressed in an earlier article. No, our No. 1 pet peeve is one that can be remedied easily: the demise of the takeout menu.

We prefer to have something we can hold in our hands and write notes on. We don’t mind printing the menu from a restaurant site. But more often than not, these sites are not printer-friendly. We hate it when it takes up 10 pages for what should be a two-page menu. One solution is to put the menu in PDF. And test it first because we’ve printed PDF-style menus and ended up with text truncated. Another thing we like about a paper menu is for posterity. After a restaurant is gone, all we have left is the menu and maybe a business card. Internet Archive should have a copy of the defunct restaurant’s site.

Sometimes a piece of memorabilia could be a useful research tool. After studying vintage photos and directories, one blogger came to the conclusion that San Francisco’s Hang Far Low likely opened in the 1860s. Well, our Internet search in 2024 yielded two HFL matchbooks on eBay (one red, one blue), and as we zoomed in on the photos uploaded by the sellers, the answer was right there.

HANG FAR LOW
RESTAURANT
Oldest and Largest
Chinese Restaurant
In North America
Since 1867

Monarch Match, the San Jose company that produced this matchbook, was in business from 1946 to 1966, when it merged with another company.

In case you didn’t know, our site includes a built-in print function. Click on the options icon (gear symbol) below the title of each page and select Print and then click on the printer icon when the printer-friendly window comes up.

What we wrote regarding Gulzaar Halaal in 2009 that was not published until now....

From the Vault

About Durban: Located on the east coast of South Africa, Durban is that country’s third-most populous city. The history of Durban is like the history of the rest of South Africa: the Boers (Dutch farmers) and the British fought each other, and they fought the Africans. The British colonized this part of Zulu country in 1824 and formally annexed it about 20 years later.

Indian diaspora: Between 1860 and 1911, over 150,000 indentured laborers from Madras (now Chennai) and Calcutta (now Kolkata) came to work in the sugar cane industry. More than half stayed at the end of their five-year contracts. Other Indians came to South Africa as merchants and business people. Durban claims the largest Asian community in South Africa today. Hindus outnumber Muslims about four to one.

Durban is South Africa’s most culturally diverse city and is a popular tourist destination after the more cosmopolitan Cape Town. Any visit to Cape Town would not be complete without a tour of Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years. Similarly, any Durban visitor must check out the Gandhi (1869-1948) exhibit at KwaZulu-Natal Museum (no longer available?). It was here in 1893 when the young attorney had an epiphany. Repeatedly arrested, Gandhi would spend the next 20 years fighting South Africa’s anti-Indian discrimination before returning to India.

♫

Playlists

St. Patrick's Day playlist...

GIBTI [►] Alone Again (Naturally) [►] Wavelength [►] Pump It Up [►]
Theme From Harry’s Game [►] Dirty Old Town [►] Bring Him Home [►]
A Good Heart [►] There Is a Light That Never Goes Out [►] Hope Road [►] Boadicea [►]
One [►] Dreams [►] Precious Little [►] Saltwater [►]
Troy (The Phoenix From the Flame) [►] Chasing Cars [►] Take Me to Church [►] Too Much to Ask [►]
Make Me Feel Good [►] Dream About U [►] Twister [►]

Cinco de Mayo playlist...

Coming soon.

Cool Web Surfers Don't Cut and Paste

Would you like to share this Web page with friends? Don't cut and paste. Provide a Web link to this page or refer to its Web address. We invite all content providers to join our "Don't Cut and Paste" campaign.

Support Your Local Restaurants Extras

OG

Detour

♫

Bay Area Marketing

Radio Menu

Events Menu

Food Menu

History Tour Menu

Stats Menu

Extras Menu

Locavore Vault Menu