La Note

20150520:
The house coffee here smelled good, but I'm not a big coffee drinker (yet), so I had no idea if it was actually good.

The tuna had no mayo and tasted bland. The tomato and anchovies didn't help, because they were separate. At least the sour bread and butter tasted good. 3:45PM PT

Menu Description:
Pan Bagnat Albacore tuna salad, roasted tomatoes, hard boiled egg, black olives, anchovies and aioli on a warm sweet roll 13.95

[20170306 Edit]

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La Note

Relevant Links:
La Note Website
La Note - Berkeley, CA (Yelp.com)

Gia Hoi Bun Bo Hue Restaurant

-- CLOSED --

20150519:
The dish was light on the lemongrass flavor, but the taste of the meats ranged from okay to good. I liked the blood pudding.

Overall, it was pleasing to eat. Furthermore, I'm personally okay with the milder lemon grass flavor because too much lemongrass gives me a stomach ache.

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Gia Hoi Bun Bo Hue Restaurant

Relevant Links:
Gia Hoi Food To Go - Westminster, CA (Yelp.com)

Snow Monster

Macaron Ice Cream Sandwich - Green Tea Ice Cream & Fruity Pebbles Macaron

20150518:
This is my first time at Snow Monster and I started off by trying the green tea ice cream. It's light, but not strong, and less sweet than the strawberry. As such, I decided to get it together with the fruity pebbles macaron.

While I first used a spoon to break it, I eventually picked it up like an ice cream sandwich. It was delicious. 10:29PM PT

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Snow Monster

Relevant Links:
Snow Monster Website
Snow Monster - Huntington Beach, CA (Yelp.com)

Max's Eatz & Fresh Bakery

20150513:
While at the airport I grabbed a bite to eat and got a Max's Famous Reuben with pastrami.

Unfortunately, the pastrami was chewy with the first half of the sandwich being unwieldy and hard to eat. It was a lot of food though, and I didn't eat all of the bread. Furthermore, the potato salad was bland.

Menu Description:
Max's Famous Reuben Choice of Corned Beef or Pastrami, Sauerkraut, Swiss Cheese and 1000 Island Dressing on Grilled Rye 16.99

[20170306 Edit]

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Max's Eatz & Fresh Bakery

Relevant Links:
Max's Website*
Max's Eatz & Fresh Bakery - Oakland, CA (Yelp.com)

*The website is terribly formatted and doesn't seem up to date. I was, however, able to find the menu item I ordered in one of the menus.

Bistro Liaison

20150512:
Looking to try something new, my friend and I decided to eat at Bistro Liaison.

However, even before the food arrived, I couldn't help but make two observations. First, the restaurant host asked us if we had reservations, but the place was empty. Perhaps it's somehow courteous and necessary, but it still confused me.

Second, the names of the menu items are in French, so my friend read them with their proper French pronunciations (he is French), but the waitress didn't understand. While this detail has no bearing on how the food tastes, it does slightly diminish the restaurant's atmosphere. In addition, one could argue the restaurant is simply trying too hard to portray a classy vibe.

In any case, I started with the French onion soup which both smelled good and tasted good. Unfortunately, when the waitress came with my entree, there was an awkward amount of pressure for me to let her take the bowl before I could eat all of it.*

The duck was tender and had a nicely crisped skin, but unfortunately the meat was flavorless. In addition, the potatoes were a bit salty. At least the bread with olives on the inside tasted great. 2:05PM PT

For dessert, whose menu is stamped onto the table, I decided to order a creme brulee. It had a creamy custard taste and did not have an eggy taste. The sugar, however, was a bit burnt. 2:19PM PT

*She came with the entree, but there wasn't really room for it and so I tried to eat more of the soup. I suppose I didn't want to keep her waiting, because I didn't completely finish the soup prior to giving her the bowl.

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Bistro Liaison

Relevant Links:
Bistro Liaison Website
Bistro Liaison - Gourmet Ghetto - Berkeley, CA (Yelp.com)

Cafe Clem

Cafe Clem

Relevant Links:
Cafe Clem Website
Cafe Clem - Downtown Berkeley - Berkeley, CA (Yelp.com)

20150506:
Today I went to Cafe Clem for the first time. In fact, it was the first time I had even seen it!

In any case, I decided to order the sandwich du jour (sandwich of the day).

Menu Description:
homemade honey, marinated pork loin on rustique roll with avocado, aioli, fresh tomato, emmental cheese

When I received the order, I was surprised that the pork loin was an entire slab of meat. The avocado tasted fresh, the meat tasted good, and the sandwich as a whole was refreshing Wow, real avocado, entire slab of meat. Nice tasting meat. It was a very real meal. 1:02PM PT

Elevation 66

20150213:
Today was my first time at Elevation 66. They have their own set of brews, but I decided to have the Half Moon Bay Calf-eine.

Soup (20150220)

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20150220:
Today I was feeling hungry and decided to order a bowl of soup. To drink I had Moylan's Lonely Tart Club.

20150320:
I tried and had various beers here today: Elevation 66 Esther's Vanilla Stout, HenHouse Biere de Garde, Two Rivers Blood Orange cider, and Elevation 66 Ramble Tamble Red.

Celia gave Jack's drink bunny ears. (20150818)
I gave the picture a bunny. (20150917)

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20150505:
Today I ordered some pork belly tacos. To drink I had the Two Rivers Blackberry Cider and I also had a taste of the Elevation 66 Two Beagle Brown.

When the tacos arrived I gave them a whiff and mostly just smelled something spicy.

Pork Belly Tacos (20150505)

Arguably pricey for just three tacos, they were surprisingly delicious. In particular, the barbecue sauce was not overly sweet and the pork belly cuts were not overly fatty. Finally, the jalapeno slices placed on top of the tacos were thin and added the perfect amount of spice.

BBQ Chicken Sliders (20150818)

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20150818:
After top roping at Ironworks, my friends and I came here for some food and drinks. Well, I initially didn't want food, but the urge to eat crept up on me and I split various items with my comrades.

Chicken Wings with Sriracha (20150818)

To drink I had a glass of Fieldwork Hanging Valley, and while it was good, I probably enjoyed the food more.

There were delicious chicken wings with Sriracha (we each had two or three), I liked the seasoning on the fries, and I absolutely enjoyed the BBQ chicken in the BBQ chicken sliders (we each had one).

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Elevation 66

Fries (20150818)

Relevant Links:
Elevation 66 Website
Elevation 66 Brewing Company - El Cerrito, CA (Yelp.com)

Chipotle Mexican Grill

I've eaten at Chipotle many times in my life, especially when I lived in Baltimore (I've probably been more than 100 times). I have not, however, blogged about my visits to the majority of fast food restaurants until recently (e.g., McDonald's, Taco Bell).

(20150527)

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20150527:
After graduating and moving out of Baltimore, I no longer lived next to a Chipotle and consequently hadn't eaten at one in a while. Today, however, I came across one near an REI and decided to order a chicken burrito bowl (with fajitas, brown rice, corn, mild salsa, and lettuce) (with smoked Tabasco sauce).

Unfortunately, it was just okay. Perhaps the lack of beans or cheese caused an imbalance of flavors. In particular, I found the peppers had a strange taste. With that being said, the chicken tasted as good as I remembered. 12:49PM PT

(20150527)

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20161112:
Today, after having eaten at Taco Bueno, my friend started craving for Chipotle. What started out as a thought became a mad dash to make it in time before the place closed. We got there so close to closing, that I almost got locked out, but I pointed to my friends and the employee let me in.

(20161112)

While it was my friend who was craving for Chipotle, I couldn't help but order a burrito bowl as well.

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Chipotle Mexican Grill

Relevant Links:
Chipotle Mexican Grill (Wikipedia.org)

KoJa Kitchen

20150501:
Today I came to Koja for the first time and got the Braised Pork KoJa.

Menu Description:
KoJa > Miso Braised Pork KoJa $6.95 Miso-coconut braised pork, baby arugula, wonton chips, garlic aioli, masago,* drizzled with fresh lemon juice. Served on a crispy fried garlic rice buns.

Miso Braised Pork KoJa (20150501)

First, I noted that the rice buns were crisp. Of course, and perhaps more importantly, the braised pork was delicious. With that being said, it had sauce - probably mayonnaise-based** - which helped it taste good. 12:49PM PT

*Japanese fish eggs
**According to the menu description, this sauce is probably the garlic aioli. Doing some research, mayonnaise and aioli are similar, but different. In short, both are emulsions, but mayonnaise is made from (neutral-flavored) oil, egg yolk, and either vinegar or lemon juice and aioli is made from olive oil, egg yolk, garlic, and lemon juice.

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20170813:
Ada ordered three chicken tacos and I ordered a braised pork bowl with no rice and kamikaze fries.

Three Chicken Tacos (left), Braised Pork Bowl (top right), and Kamikaze Fries (bottom right) (20170813)

Online Menu Description:
Tacos and Salads > Chicken Taco Korean BBQ chicken, sesame vinaigrette lettuce, wasabi mayo, cilantro, fried onions

Online Menu Description:
Bowls > Braised Pork Bowl Miso-coconut braised pork, garlic aioli, kimchi, green onions, masago, lemon wedge, fried onions

Online Menu Description:
Sides > Kamikaze Fries Crisscut waffle fries, minced Korean BBQ beef, kimchi, red sauce, Japanese mayo, green onions

[20180430 Edit]

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20180328:
I got the KoJa Original with no sesame seeds and Ada got the KoJa Chicken. I couldn't remove the sesame vinaigrette because it was premixed with the salad.

In any case, we both squeezed lemon on our orders.

The Original KoJa was tasty but the wrapper was hard to remove and eating it outside the wrapper was messy.

Online Menu Description:
KoJa > "The Original" KoJa Korean BBQ short rib, sesame vinaigrette lettuce, katsu aioli, sesame seeds

Chicken KoJa and The Original KoJa (20180328)

I ate some with sriracha. The sriracha gave it a sweeter taste than the already sweet teriyaki sauce.

Ada's Chicken KoJa was good. I had a little allergic reaction on my tongue. 5:19 PM PT

Online Menu Description:
KoJa > Chicken Koja Korean BBQ chicken, sesame vinaigrette lettuce, tomato, cilantro, spicy gochujang sauce, sesame seeds, lemon wedge

[20180430 Edit]

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KoJa Kitchen

Relevant Links:
KoJa Kitchen Website
KoJa Kitchen - Berkeley, CA (Yelp.com)
KoJa Kitchen (Facebook Page)