good eats in Berkeley
 

My wife and I will be spending 2 months in Berkeley, near U.C. Need recos about resturants, etc. as well as places to buy fresh fish, meats and deli. If I wanted to purchase an inexpensive used recliner, where would I go?

Has to be Spanger's Fish Market near University and Hwy 80.

Berkeley has everything from cheap Indian and pizza places frequented by UC students to Chez Panisse--that covers a lot of ground so it too difficult to be specific without knowing your lives. I suggest you viist Chowhound. But in terms of grocery shopping I have two words--Berkeley Bowl.

I live in Berkeley and will be happy to answer all your questions. In fact, I made a long list of restaurants and other great shopping for the French folks who stayed in our house in April for a month, which I can send you. You can email me at [email protected]

Spenger's (is it still in business) would pretty much be my last choice.

Berkeley Bowl and the Monterey Market for fresh fruit and vegetables.

Good list of restaurants:

http://www.sfgate.com/eguide/food/

For at least one special meal, go to Chez Panisse, an icon of culinary arts in the Bay Area. Those who live there can give you a better idea of good every day values in the area, but you must try Chez Panisse at least once while you are there. Early reservations are a must for the restaurant, which offers one prix fixe menu a night (you can call a week ahead to find out what the menu is for the night you have reserved). There is a cafe upstairs which has a more varied, but simpler menu.

For good no frills food, check out asian places right next to the university, around Telegraph.

Also, would highly recommend Intermezzo on Telegraph for amazing HUGE sandwiches and salads.

craigslist.org for recliner.

In addition to Berkeley Bowl, there is more than one Andronico's for fresh fish, meats, deli and produce. There is also an organic Whole Foods at Ashby and Telegraph with deli.

Berkeley is known for gourmet eateries from cheap to chic. As SAB said, you need to give us your favorite types of foods and price range.

I like Plearn Thai Cuisine at 2050 University, but my all-around favorite, of course, is Chez Panisse.

Spenger's is now a McCormick and Schmick's. I think it's good, though not great like the original Spenger's was, IMHO.

Also, for Italian food, DH and I really like Flippo's on College/ Elmwood: http://www.filippos.biz/

You have asked an impossible question, drlkb2! Not, of course, because there are not good restaurants in Berkeley, but because there are too many.

In the Bay Area, we have lived in Berkeley, Palo Alto, and now in Sonoma County, and, while they all have great food, Berkeley is the best - and most interesting.

Produce and other groceries: as others have mentioned, Berkeley Bowl is the place to go. I have taken foodie friends from Sonoma, and visitors from other parts of the country, to Berkeley Bowl just to see 87 kinds of peppers, 53 kinds of plums, 25 kinds of eggplant, 48 kinds of cherries, and other fruits and vegetable that I guarantee you have never seen before and didn't even know existed, etc. etc. (numbers, uh, approximate).

It is not an upscale kind of place - it is a huge (just the produce section is 8000 sq. ft., according to their website), crowded place where you can get just about any kind of produce you can imagine (think the food equivalent of the kind of huge flower market that professional florists go to at 3:00 AM).

You will see people from just about every ethnic group in America there too - buying Chinese, and South American, and Indian, and Thai, and European foods. They have excellent meat, fish, other groceries too. (And, no, I'm not related to, nor do I even know, anyone working there.)

Restaurants:

I hardly know where to start - so just a smattering -

First there are several distinct sections of Berkeley which have a number of excellent restaurants in each:

Gourmet Ghetto - the stretch along Shattuck where Chez Panisse is

Elmwood/Rockridge - along College Ave.

Solano Ave. - in North Berkeley

Downtown

Fourth St. area

I would recommend, during your several month stay, that you sample a restaurant or two in each area.

There are many well-known, highly-regarded restaurants. Here are a few that we enjoy that aren't big names:

Great China is an excellent, small, Chinese restaurant near the west end of the UC campus. It is not upscale either, in ambience, more a step or two above "hole in the wall", but the food is terrific.

Adagia is a pretty restaurant, with nice food, on the south side of campus - good for lunch.

Venus and La Note are small French bistro-type places good for breakfast.

Definitely go to any restaurant run by Alice Waters in Berkeley - Chez Panisse. Upstairs is her cafe with more flexible choices.

The single best restaurant guide for Berkeley that I know of is this one:
http://www-rnc.lbl.gov/Restaurants/Restaurants.html written by the wife of a scientist at the Berkeley Labs.

Regarding the recliner, you might also find one at Out of the Closet, a thrift store at the corner of University Ave and California St.

In a different post you ask about hand made pasta. Phoenix Pastaficio now distributes their pasta only at the 3 Berkeley farmer's markets. The pasta may differ from your Italian experience, but it is quite good. Berkeley haute cuisine is heavily influenced by Italian food, but it always retains a certain Californian-ness. Italian food is the one cuisine I find to be sorely lacking here. I find better pasta in Santa Cruz than anywhere in northern Alameda county. My top 3 favorite Berkeley restaurants are Your Place Thai, Cancun, and technically-in-Albany Nizza la Bella.

You are all a great group of helpful foodies, thank you so much!
Where and when are the three mentioned Berkeley Farmer's Markets?

Check out Berkeley Bowl for veggies, fish, meats and an amzing shopping experience.

Other places you might check out for fish are:
Monterey Fish
Tokyo Fish

You simply must buy a Hoffman chicken at Magnani on Hopkins Street


Cheeses: The Cheeseboard right across the street from Chez Panisse. Also try their pizzas(google for an idea of what they serve). The lines are long but the wait is so very worth it.

Berkeley Farmers Market: Tuesday @2pm(Derby and MLK), Thursday@3 pm (Rose and Shattuck) and Saturday@10 am. (Center and MLK)

Also consider coming to Oakland and hit the Temescal Market on Sundays at the DMV @11ish. It could be my favorite.

For the recliner you might consider Craig's List.

Deli(great Italian and full of everyone) is Genova at Telegraph and 51st.