2016 Best and Worst Eats
[Total Dine–outs in 2016: 151 restaurants (includes repeat visits to our favs, so roughly about 90 new restaurants]
Best:
– Uni risotto at Iyasare/Berkeley. Chef Kamio knocked our socks off in October. His cooking is even better than it was when he first opened. Everything was excellent, but the uni risotto has been completely reworked from the opening menu. It’s now even better: absolutely ethereal in a rich, aromatic matsutake broth. You could pay twice as much elsewhere per person without getting a better single dish.
– Tortino, Belotti/Oakland. 5–star creamed spinach. Almost as good: Agnolotti, Tagliatelle, and Gnocchi. Skip the entrées; they’re good but those pastas will spoil you for anyone else’s noodles. That glace de viande Chef Belotti makes and uses is simply divine. We call Belotti the best French restaurant in the EBay: Lombardian cuisine is the least like Sicilian and the most like Austrian/French.
– Sticky Ribs, Bo’s/Albany. Just like Picán’s, but not spicy, and less expensive. Meaty and yummy.
– Spicy Lamb with Soft Tofu, Sichuan Fusion/Richmond. Almost more a soup than a stew. An unusual dish, and so far our favorite of the four completely different but similarly-named lamb dishes at SF. One note: SF has two chefs, and they season food differently. What we got may not be what you get, on any given day.
– Mantoo, Khyber Pass/Dublin. I love this dish. It’s equally good at Pamir/Dublin, but made differently. Khyber wins for value; bigger serving and a little less expensive.
– Empanadas, Tambo Peruvian/Oakland. So much better than elsewhere. A thin crisp dough, generous high quality fillings. Makes other empanadas resemble leaden doorstops. Makes up for Tambo’s too frequent “sorry, we’re out of that dish”.
– Chocolate–raspberry pie, Pietisserie/Oakland. More a thin double–layered chocolate cake of ultimate bittersweet, with a fresh raspberry filling. It’s a Recchiuti chocolate raspberry truffle in cake/pie form. Adults only: this is really, really serious bittersweet. Whip up a quart of Strauss heavy cream and send yourself into bliss. Or a coma.
– Falafel, Ba–Bite/Oakland. Yup, it’s true. Making falafel from scratch, from beans soaked and resoaked numerous times, combined with fresh spices instead dusty dried ones, does make a difference. My DH hates falafel, but he loved these and fought me for the last one.
– Housemade blue corn tortillas, Calavera/Oakland. We were fortunate enough to visit Calavera when the great and underrated Sophina Uong was cooking there. Our group had an amazing meal. She is one of the few chefs we will follow wherever she lands next. But the tortillas are a standard menu item at Calavera, so they’re good no matter who’s in the kitchen.
– Rum cake, Kingston 11/Oakland. I believe a friend of the owners makes the desserts. The rum cake is a bit coarse in texture, but the rum is great quality and they don’t hold back on dousing it! Add in the rum raisin ice cream from a local vendor, and you’ve got a boozy delight that’s possibly the best dessert in Oakland.
– Rosewater and Cardamon Panna Cotta, Angela’s/Alameda. Not everyone loves cardamon but I do, and this is a soft, creamy delight. I hate overstiffened panna cotta. If you’re a cardamon fan also, I can recommend the Arabic coffee at Tannourine/SMateo, which I enjoyed with its old–fashioned preparation in late 2015.
– Polenta and pork, Willow Wood/Graton. This is the one dish we never miss ordering here. It’s perfect: fork-tender juicy pork, soft delicious polenta of first-rate quality. Also the gingerbread, which is a true Dickensian delight in cake form. Fresh spices do indeed make a difference…a BIG difference.
– Limoncello cake, Depot Hotel/Sonoma. Depot Hotel makes its own limoncello and their limoncello cake is the best we’ve tasted anywhere – period. Since I grow my own Meyers, be assured I’m fussy about the liqueur. DH nails it, plus their service is excellent.
– Wild King Salmon: baby artichokes, fresh favas, crispy lemon risotto, sorrel sauce: Farmhouse Inn/Forestville. The entire meal was a delight, but especially the grilled salmon. It was so perfect that my spouse, who doesn’t care for salmon and almost always orders red meat, said he preferred my salmon to his steak, even though his steak was excellent. But the salmon was stunning. Exquisitely fresh, richly flavored, cooked to delicate perfection.
– Lapsang Souchong Tea Deviled Eggs and Lamb Naan, E&O Kitchen/SF. Those eggs are expensive but amazing. In a town full of deviled eggs this is one of the few that’s worth the inflated price. The lamb naan is second only to the lamb “naanwich” from Taj Campton Place (which goes on the 2017 Best list); that hint of fresh mint inside is genius. For dessert, the Apple Panna Cotta was amazing for its fresh green apple flavor, with hardly any sugar at all: just the way I like it.
I’ll do the worst bites of 2016 in a bit. We’re trying to get ready for a trip so I may not get it done for a couple of weeks, sorry.
