If there is one thing that readers can expect by now, it is that I love food of all kinds and will provide a wide array of suggestions of yummy places to eat. A restaurant guide for Berkley or for any city you visit is helpful. Often a mixture of locals’ suggestions and experiments is a fun way to go. If you’re not adventurous, though, have no fear. Today I provide to you, my dear readers, a summary of my recent culinary adventures in Berkley, California.
General notes for this restaurant guide for Berkley
As of this writing in Fall 2022, many restaurants in Berkley still have covered outdoor seating options as a result of the pandemic. Personally, I hope the adorable streetside huts remain as dining al fresco allows people to experience the wonderful weather.
Warning: Many restaurants require you to scan a QR code with your phone to access the menu. You must also order via app rather than a server. I thought it was designed to annoy the crap out of me. In fact, it is due to a combination of staffing shortages and the pandemic. I look forward to processes returning to normal because it is annoying as hell. QR codes give businesses access to stuff in my phone that I don’t want them to have and ordering through an app can take a lot of time due to the number of steps required. I found it cumbersome.
Saul’s Restaurant and Delicatessen
Good news/bad news here (mostly good). Saul’s is located on Shattuck Avenue, which is a major street in this neighborhood. My local contacts tell me it is part of the “gourmet ghetto” in Berkley. Saul’s is a Jewish deli that is just plain delicious for breakfast, lunch or dinner. My meal was $13.75, which was reasonable for the size. Diners will find the usual suspects such as hot & cold sandwiches and egg dishes. Later in the day, they serve beer on tap, wine, appetizers, and hot entrees.
As the experimenter in our group, I tried Malawach. I’d never heard of it but, as vegetarian dishes go, it sounded amazing. The menu describes it as: pan-seared Yemeni flatbread (layered flaky dough-think savory croissant), sauteed greens, hard-boiled egg, feta cheese, and grated tomato. It was served with Zhoug and Harissa (both of which I had to Google before ordering). The internet said they were both spicy sauces. One was. One was not. All of it was fantastically delicious and I am sad that it will be hard for me to find this dish again elsewhere.
My dining companions were jealous (even though they liked their meals too). Several of my fellow diners ordered sandwiches. My husband was pleased with his massive portion of corned beef hash and scrambled eggs. Everyone was happy and full. My one frustration was that we ordered through an app as we sat at our table (see note above about time commitment). Unfortunately, Saul’s did not arrange for anyone to come check on us once our meals arrived. Our water glasses didn’t get replenished. We couldn’t ask for extra napkins without going to the front counter. These are small annoyances, but they are annoyances, nonetheless.
Eureka!
Good news here. Hotel desk staff recommended this one to us, as it was a 5-minute walk down Center Street. We sat in a streetside hut in a booth, so it was just like being inside (only better). We had an actual server. Though he was a bit slow, it was nice to see a human.
Eureka is your typical casual, bar-style eatery. The menu contains the standard burgers, salads and such. It is delicious, though. We ate a late lunch there and landed unintentionally in their happy hour time slot. This was fortuitous because California restaurant prices can leave you with sticker shock.
My Fresno Fig Burger (with fig jam) and fries was $17.50. My husband ordered their more basic burger and fries off of the happy hour menu and paid only $10.00. Both were huge and his burger was an excellent deal by any standards, not just California standards. Our appetizer of Mac & Cheese Balls was only $6.00. Again, that’s a darn good deal for an appetizer these days. The cobb salad at $17.00 (not on happy hour) was pricey to me. Selecting a wine off the happy hour list meant paying $7.00/glass (reasonable). Selecting beer off the happy hour list meant paying $8.50/glass (reasonable again). You get the idea.
Imm Thai Street Food
Good news: Thai food/Bad news: non-Thai food
One evening we experimented with this place on University Avenue. Overall, the news was good. After a long, hot day exploring (during a heatwave) we wanted takeout that we could eat back in our hotel room. Imm Thai is a family-owned place and it is bustling. They were very busy at dinner time with both eat-in and takeout customers. My friends opted to order via an app while standing on the sidewalk outside the restaurant. I went inside and ordered at the counter. Strangely, I got my food 6-8 minutes before them. Perhaps this was a fluke, but it seems worth mentioning.
The wings ($10) were both sweet and spicy. I loved them but my husband did not. He loves super hot food and I don’t think they had enough kick for him. In fact, I was fortunate that my Sweet Chicken ($14) had some of that same sauce on it because I thought it was yummy. He was, however, very pleased with his fried rice ($13). The portion wasn’t as large as our usual hangout at home, but he didn’t walk away from the table hungry either.
Word to the wise, my friend ordered a salad and did not eat most of it. She found a lot of liquid in the bottom of the bowl, which made for soggy greens. Imm Thai is worth trying, but stick with the house specialties (i.e. Thai food).
Jupiter Pizza
Good news: food/bad news: forced app usage. I get the impression that Jupiter is the pizza place in Berkley. It is the name everybody knows and I am happy to report that the reputation isn’t overblown. It is actually worth it. However, I am not a fan of the fact that currently the only way to order is via app. I am not a luddite. I know how to use the technology; I just don’t want to be forced to. Hopefully, as the pandemic wanes, this will be less of an issue.
In keeping with the name/theme of the restaurant, the pizzas have astronomical names. My husband and I shared a 13” Cassiopeia (BBQ chicken pizza). It was wonderful and a good deal at $21. Hooray for leftovers! My (mostly) vegetarian friend ordered a 9” Galileo ($15) with artichokes, mushrooms, garlic, spinach and tomatoes. We all waddled away extremely happy. The bonus is that they have a private courtyard outside in the back where we took take advantage of the waning temperatures as the heatwave cooled down a lot in the evenings. Being from Florida, I am not used to cool evenings and it was a blessing.
In Conclusion
California is famously expensive. Indeed, travelers must be aware of this fact before they go. They should also be aware that good deals exist, you just have to pay attention and be willing to look for them. While I did take a picture in front of the iconic Chez Panisse and its $175 prix fixe menu, I knew that there was other delicious food out there. My unbelievably delicious Malawach was a phenomenal find for less than $14.00. While I had my local friends to thank for some of our dining experiences, some were the result of internet research. In the end, we never had a single bad meal during our entire week in Berkley. Your odds of great dining are high, so go for it!
October 26, 2022 at 3:12 pm
I was very pleasantly surprised at the prices in Berkeley and several other cities in the area. Good food, affordable food is out there. You just have to find it. Stay away from foo foo!
October 26, 2022 at 4:50 pm
Yes, it takes a little digging, but the good deals are out there. Sometimes it is a matter of studying a restaurant’s menu options, not just assuming the entire restaurant is out of your budget. There is SO much yummy stuff out there to try!