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Category: American (New) [Edit]
Neighborhoods: Gourmet Ghetto, North Berkeley
133 reviews
Alameda, CA
"OH! Speisekammer...I love you so! Not only is the food splendiferous, but if you if show up on the right night, you get some pretty good…" read more »
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It's a perfect restaurant. I don't have anything bad to say except it's a perfect restaurant. Excellent food and excellent service. It is a role model of all the restaurants.
It's been a long six years since I've been back to CP. I have had the pleasure of dining at both CP and CP Cafe upstairs and both are phenomenal with a capital P for perfection. Alice Waters is a sheer genius~ as a chef and an entrepreneur. I adore her passion for organic, slow food, and sustainable farming. Her menus are radiant and the food divine. I still so vividly remember both of my experiences even after all of these years. I will go back as soon as possible!
On Shattuck. If you're looking for a large "1517" or large sign with the name of the restaurant, you might just drive right past it. It's a dark house with a little area with benches in front. Walk up the steps to the podium and you may or may not find someone. We didn't and so we took the second flight of stairs up to the Café. The gentleman greeted us and acted if he knew the name of our reservation - kind of like "Oh! I was expecting you." We were sat in the corner and everyone around us was already eating. Uhm... aren't we having the pre-fixe menu? We were handed the menus and each item had a price next to it. OK, that's not where we were supposed to be. We were supposed to be sat downstairs. So down we went.
Dinner was great. Again, we were sat in the corner, next to the window and you can hear people talking as they walked by and cars driving by. But it wasn't too loud. Our server greeted us, we ordered an awesome bottle of 06 Pinot Noir. Navarro up from Anderson Valley. Delicious. Smelled like jello. Tasted divine. We were given bread and roasted walnuts to start. Yummy. We started with a tomato salad with anchovies. Soooo good. A little crouton with a bit of a pesto dressing. Delicious. Shrimp was the next course. Had to peel off the shells with your fork and knife. Pretty presentation. Main course was an Ahi tuna with green beans and potatoes. It was a bit too raw for me in the middle. Didn't know I was ganna have sushi! I left a portion of it on my plate and the server says that it was really fresh and must've still been swimming earlier that day. To finish, a buckwheat crepe with raspberries, raspberry ice cream and roasted figs and a glass of French muscat. Yum. I held off on the figs tho.
A nice place to have dinner. I would come here again but most likely for a special occasion. Perhaps I'll try for the Café next time. Watch out for the woman's bathroom door. It's quite tight in there so open the door slowly.
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I will agree with most of the comments here on the food quality and service, so I won't add to the descriptions and will just note that the experience was fantastic. We went here with Valerie's parents and they were very impressed as well. Although we ate at the cafe, it felt like we were in a very intimate and elegant restaurant. Some of the subtleties that really helped the ambiance were:
1. The computer monitors were behind doors, so they were only opened when the server was entering orders...that kept the room more relaxing - the reason for that was the color and space engineering.
2. The lights were combinations of colors and intensities that made the room feel very warm, and the mirrors strategically placed on the walls made the restaurant feel less cramped than it actually was.
3. A lot of thought went into the materials used and the organization of the tables and server stations - it all works really well.
4. There were a lot of people in a small space and it was loud, but the experience was of a small, warm, and intimate cafe.
I will definitely go back again since the ambiance was amazing, the food was spectacular, and the prices were comparable to other nice restaurants in the area. One day I will get downstairs, but planning a few weeks ahead for dinner is a tough proposition.
With all the praise and reverence that is bestowed upon Chez Panisse, it's easy to become jaded about it before even stepping foot in the restaurant. I admit that I had my share of skepticism, but I also knew that the restaurant known for being the birthplace of California cuisine and an alumni list that reads like a culinary all-star team wouldn't be around for nearly 40 years if it was merely mediocre.
Normally, Chez Panisse takes reservations a month ahead, but I called two days before our Friday night dinner and secured a late dinner reservation upstairs in the cafe at 9:45pm. Both the upstairs cafe and the downstairs restaurant offer different menus every night, but the cafe offers an a la carte menu with several options, while the restaurant has a set menu. We looked up the menu for the day online, so we pretty much knew what we wanted when we walked in the door.
We ordered a pizzetta of squash and squash blossoms, and it was the perfect starter. The toppings were really good, nice and balanced, although I'm more into eating squash blossoms than actual squash. The crust was perfect--crispy but chewy and salty--exactly how I like my pizza crust. I'd even say that the crust rivals that of some of my favorite pizzas, including Pizzeria Mozza and Pizzeria Picco.
My wife really liked her wood-oven baked lasagna with tomato, eggplant, basil and Parmesan, a simple, beautiful rustic dish. I ordered lamb with frisee, sausage, fennel, crispy potatoes and chanterelle mushrooms. The lamb and potatoes were perfectly cooked and delicious. The sausage was a little bland, but when eaten with it's natural partner i.e. fennel, it was really nice. I even ate the chanterelles, and I don't really like mushrooms.
For dessert, my wife ordered a strawberry and raspberry shortcake, which she loved. It's a simple formula really... take the freshest fruit and combine it with a sweet, biscuit-like shortcake and a little creme chantilly, and you have a perfect dessert.
I ordered the mint chocolate chip ice cream with chocolate sauce, and I was in heaven. Mint chip is one of my favorite flavors and this iteration was one of the best I've had. The mint flavor was great, and I loved the dark chocolate chips embedded in each bite. It was served with what our waiter said were called "Killer Cookies," which were like chocolate, chocolate-chip cookie slivers and lived up to their name.
Overall, we had an excellent meal and were already talking about a return visit as we walked out the door. If I had any regrets, it's that I wish I had visited this culinary mecca years ago.
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When I was still a starving student in Berkeley, my sis took me to the upstairs cafe. My one memory of the meal was how snootily they told me that they don't carry soft drinks there when I asked for a diet coke. Years later, I finally return, this time to the downstairs restaurant. I've been putting off going to this place for years, but I figure we should try this place out sometime, being an institution and all.
Our dinner last night had a Spanish theme:
Apéritif - We got half a glass of sparkling wine with some nuts and olives. The nuts/olives were good...the olives were not too salty and actually quite tolerable, which says a lot since I usually hate olives. Since we didn't get a real amuse though, I wish they gave us a larger pour of the wine. (3*).
First course - Catalan Salad. I gotta say this was easily the best dish of the night...this is California cuisine at its best. It was very rustic, a simple plate with 4 kinds of tomatoes, a slice of prosciutto, some grapes, greens, and a slice of toasted bread with an anchovy on top. There was a bit of a drizzle of olive oil. The flavors went so well together, it totally blew me away. You can give me a whole pile of those tomatoes and I'll eat it all day. Unfortunately the rest of the dishes did not live up to this one. (5*)
Second course - Lobster with tomatoes and saffron. I usually don't like shellfish, and I actually requested a substitute when I saw the online menu had shrimp on it, but I figured I can give the lobster a try since it doesn't have as strong a flavor as shrimp. It was kind of like a cross between a lobster bisque and a tomato soup. The tomato flavor helped cancel out the lobster flavor for me, so I thought it was ok. My hubby, who actually loves lobster thought it was just ok too. So I guess this one was meh. (3*)
Main course - Grilled Wolfe Ranch quail with chorizo, sweet peppers, and vegetable paella. This dish was ok, but did not blow me away. It was a lot easier to eat the quail since it was butterflied and most of the inner bones were removed, but I prefer it roasted whole. It's just not as juicy and does not retain as much flavor when grilled. Except for the chorizo, the paella seemed more like a rice pilaf since it was missing both the flavor and the nice yellow color from the saffron. It was decent though it wasn't a real paella to me (maybe a "deconstructed" paella?). (3*)
Dessert - Black mission fig tart with burnt caramel ice cream. The fig tart was good, and that's saying a lot since I'm not a big fruit person. The ice cream was great, it tasted like creme brulee (w/ extra burnt sugar). This was my second-favourite course. (4*)
Wine - I usually love getting wine pairings and having experienced pros pick out new wines for me that I could never have chosen myself. However, their pairings here were disappointing and did not go well with the dishes aside from being Spanish. The pours in general were extremely stingy, not even half a glass of each wine. On top of that, I also got even smaller pours than my husband which is a pet peeve of mine (maybe he got larger pours since it was his birthday?). In any case, just 'cause I'm a little asian girl doesn't mean you should stiff me on the booze. It takes away from the experience when the wine runs out in the middle of a course after only 2-3 sips. We usually get a hotel whenever we get wine pairings at restaurants but did not need it this time, I was stone cold sober even before the desserts come in. At least the wine pairing was also cheap at $24 for 3 wines...maybe we should have asked for a double order! (2*)
Service - Meh overall. For a similar price range, French restaurants like Gary Danko and La Folie put this place to shame (I guess I'm the snooty one this time). The servers were friendly, though inattentive at times. My husband was also very annoyed at the 17% service charge for our party of 2 (do they not trust their customers to tip fairly?), so we declined to put in any additional tip (when we usually tip at least 20% for fine dining restaurants). (3*)
It was somewhat refreshing to sample something different than my usual french places. The produce-heavy dishes are where they really shine. I only started eating vegetables a few years ago and still hardly eat any fruit (except for savory ones like avocado and tomatoes), but this place would have converted me long ago if I've tried it then. On the plus side, it was a lot cheaper overall than our other dining experiences, probably because we spent much less on wine. Value-wise though, it actually fared worse than some of my favourite French restaurants, since I could get 5 real courses (+amuse) and much larger portions at those places for the same price. It was good to try once, though there are other places I'd rather visit again before I would go back here.
Overall as a fine dining experience, I thought it was just ok (3.5 stars).
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I've eaten @ Chez Panisse Cafe close to 20 times in the decade I've lived in the Bay Area, and despite occasional irritations and a few less than stellar meals, the highlights and moments of transcendent culinary excellence merit me giving them 5 stars.
I love what they do with vegetables and fruit and some of their pork dishes I've had over the years have been inspired.
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Lick the plate fantastic! I won't bore you with the "I had the..." snoozefest but my bf and I drove by and I said, "chez panisse, let's go!" I jump out and 5 minutes later we're sitting down to an awesome dinner with great wine and fantastic service. The experience was amazing, I even took a menu to mail to my Dad with an"wish you were here" on it. If you have anything negative to say about your meal at chez panisse, then you're just cynical and impossible to please. I'm already planning my return!
Chez Panisse is not only a fantastic meal, but it really inspires. After I ate here, I started going to Farmer's Markets and really slowing down to taste the food. It makes a huge difference! I think thats a pretty great feat for a restaurant.
This restaurant ranks among the top in the world, as reviewed by respected professionals. Being a lowly amateur on Yelp, there is not much I can add to this restaurant's legacy, other than to say its reputation is deserved and my experience dining here was wonderful.
From a menu that changes daily, I had grilled James Ranch lamb leg. The lamb was thinly cut, tenderly cooked, and served over shellbean gratin, chard, and pounded savory. My friend ordered Alaskan coho salmon with corn, zucchini, crème fraîche, and green coriander. Both of these were "melt-in-your-mouth" perfect.
Our main course was preceded by escarole with Devil's Gulch Ranch rabbit, pickled onions, mustard vinaigrette, and tarragon for me and chickpea soup with rosemary for my companion. Desert was a shared bittersweet chocolate pavé with caramel cream. And, of course, a bottle of wine was enjoyed throughout each course.
Everything here is first rate, which makes it great for special occasions.
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I confess to being a hardcore romantic.
I am in love with being in love; with laboring to produce glorious moments (between Morla and I) that reflect everything I feel for her.
Chez Panisse has always helped me feel in love, and has helped me realize my love as a perfect phycical expression - a most trusted place to be hushed and to float and to eat and hold hands under the table.
There has been much said about Chez Panisse - so I won't bore you with the usual details or platitudes. I will say this: If food could be likened to getting engaged on the Seine, or the joy of saying "I do", or the trip to celebrate ten years together - Chez Panisse prepares that food. It serves with earnestness and aplomb, and always reflects the best of the human heart.
I fell in love at Chez Panisse, and do every time I return. You can trust it with your heart, for it will be there unwavering - lifting you and your loved one to dizzying, joyful heights.
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I'm leaving this for my Mom who came from Arizona to eat here. Well she came to visit family, but also to dine here.
She said the cold gazpacho soup was divine, then after that...eh. See I take this very seriously as she is a chef, not Alice Waters chef, but she's been feeding my family fresh, straight from the garden for YEARS! She's a hippy, what can you expect?
Anyway, I'm dissapointed that my Mom drove all the way from Santa Cruz area with her 86 year old father, in the heat, to eat just "eh".
Not that I would ever try the place myself, my husband doesn't go for that stuff, but really. "Eh" that's a lot coming from my Mom!
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Chez Panisse Cafe. We had the heirloom tomatoes with basil, olive oil, capers and a white sauce that I can't remember too well. We then had the butter lettuce salad which had some cheese and a great vinaigrette and perfectly flavored shrimp. We followed that up with a beet salad with repini (similar to arugula) and then ended with a tomato soup. We had panna cotta dessert with loganberries and mexican cookies. We also had the yummy Navarro grape juice. There is a 17% service charge included in the bill which I think tends to lead some of the servers to not try as hard. We got out of there with a $72 lunch which wasn't too bad for the quality. I can't wait to try the restaurant sometime.
I almost feel guilty giving fewer than five stars to such a renowned restaurant with over 500 reviews...but I gotta do what I gotta do.
First of all, there were no real huge regrets to eating here. The setting is stellar, the service is kingly, however the food can be almost academic in execution to the point where something small is lost in creativity and flavor. Most of what I tasted was for the most part flawless: whole sardine with grape leaf and a sauce mediterranee (unique and complex), North African couscous with sea bass, mussels, and clams with a saffron-based sauce (tasty but somewhat bland), and a beautiful peach cake of sorts for dessert (no complaints). Spanish Albarino wine with dinner was very decent.
I'm not a negative guy, but maybe it was the high expectations, maybe it was the $100+ per person, maybe it was the group of soccer moms "touring" the kitchen after their dinner - I think I was just expecting more from what would become my 100th review. I guess what it comes down to is that I've had better at restaurants that pride themselves in using local sustainable ingredients and had better food cooked by chefs who studied under the French tradition.
But really, despite all that, I would certainly still come back and urge anyone visiting the Berkeley area to do so. They do a nice job even with all the hype and culinary tourism. Alice Waters was ahead of her time when she started this place up and paved the way for many who came after. And for that my Yelp friends, this place deserves much respect.
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Finally got to ground zero for local, sustainable american cooking. Can it possibly live up to its legendary reputation? Really, no place could. But it is very, very good. Not glitzy. Just really fresh, good food, prepared so as to present it to you simply, directly, and as given to us by nature. Thats good enough for me.
I eat in the upstairs cafe. Lovely, spot on service in a snug, somewhat cloistered venue. We start with a pizzetta with wild nettles and pecorino, and this plate in many ways defines the place. The pizzetta is really a means to deliver wild nettles, bright and sprightly, to you. There are certainly better pizza crusts out there, more assertive and complex flavors, but not the simple purity of the nettles served over pecorino and crust. Great in its own simple way.
Hand made mozzarella with roasted peppers and marjoram features impeccably prepared peppers that are contrasted by the cheese. Cucumber and zucchini salad with coriander and pine nuts at first tastes somewhat bland until a taste of pepper livens the cucumber. And I can taste each individual component of the dish.
Beef short ribs are tender within but charred on top, thus presenting a contrast of taste and textures on the same plate. The corn polenta and shell beans are impeccable. For dessert I pig out on both summer berry sherbet with champagne (wonderful) and a nectarine, peach and berry cobbler with vanilla ice cream (only very nice). I think Frog Hollow Farm Fruits cannot be improved beyond what the farm provides.
Serving sizes are generous, and for the quality of the food, pricing reasonable.
I must visit again and also try downstairs.
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Chez Panisse was my first fine dining experience. I ate here when I was a poor college student wearing my pjs and my dizzy devil sweatshirt to class. But I read so much about Chez Panisse and Alice Waters that I had to try.
From what I remember, I had pork made three ways, some salad, and something that tasted like thin pizza. Their menu changes daily...so it doesn't really matter anyways.
Now that I've been to other fine dining establishments, I don't think Chez Panisse is worth the $$$$. It's too...healthy. I know why Alice Waters is famous and how she set the standard for California cuisine, but in terms of the food, it wasn't that memorable. Gary Danko was memorable. Manresa was memorable. Chez Panisse was...a tad bit better than what Google serves.
The food definitely deserves 4 stars. Don't get me wrong -- it was delicious! But for the price, I'd prefer to go elsewhere.
My friend took me to this restaurant because I was visiting SF and wanted to dine at some of its local culinary institutions. The word that I used to describe our lunch is "competent." I couldn't really find fault with the tastes of our selections, but they didn't wow me either. The produce was very fresh, and we had in our salad something that I hadn't tasted before, which belonged to the succulent family! But the best experience was actually olfactory. We ordered this fish and shellfish cake. As we cut into the cake, we could smell the wonderful seafood wafting into our noses. The cake tasted good, but nothing like what the smell promised.
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I've been lucky enough to dine at Chez Panisse twice in the past few years and it's everything the reviews (professional and amateur) say it is. And just because I was dining at the lower priced cafe upstairs, they still treated me and the food as if I was dining downstairs. There's nothing I can say that hasn't already said! My 5 star review is just a drop in the bucket when it comes to this Berkeley culinary landmark. Just be sure to make a reservation even if it's just for lunch.
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Look, the food here is insanely amazing. But I dunno, we went here tonight and I'm still underwhelmed. I had the short ribs over polenta, and the polenta was so delish I practically licked the plate. The ribs -- a little fatty. The service was pretty good, and overall it was a nice dinner. But it wasn't mind-blowing.
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03/15/2006
Eh. I was underwhelmed, but maybe that's cause I was on a date that felt more like a job interview.… Read more »
Ah, the infamous Chez Panisse...
What do you feel like? Quaint and homey? Go upstairs. Sophisticated and quiet? Go downstairs. Fabulously fresh ingredients and innovative recipes? Both upstairs and downstairs embodies these things. I really don't have anything more to add to all the other yelpers that have so vividly laid out what the dining experience here is.
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This is the only restaurant I have rated with 5 stars so far. It is not often that the food is so good that it stands out amongst the myriad of other good choices in the bay area. I have only been here three times (at the upstairs cafe) so maybe I have been lucky but for now chez panisse gets my only 5 star stamp of approval.
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Before my boyfriend and I started dating, he was trying to sweep me off my feet one day. So he made a reservation @ Chez Panisse. He even drove a stick though he just took off his cast from a torn Achilles.
Back to the food.......CP has a set menu everyday and they are known for their fresh local organic californian food.
The menu on April 15 2007.......
Carpaccio of Maine scallops with leek and fava bean salad:
Thinny slides scallops was really juicy and cooked just right. It wasn't rubbery at all and has the sweet seafood taste.
Razor clam chowder with spring onions and pancetta:
Good chunks of clams and seasoned just right.
Grilled northen halibut with herb hollandaise sauce, spinach, tatsoi, cabbage; and roasted salsify and turnips:
Halibut was AWESOME. Slightly crispy on the outside and very moisted in the inside. It was really well seasoned and perfect cooked fish. My favorite!!!!
Rhubarb tart with strawberry ice cream:
It tasted really homemade. The sweetness of it wasn't too powerful, perfect balance between the sweet & sour flavor. It was plated really nice. Loved it!!
I still remember it really well even it was a year and a half ago! You know how good it was to me =D
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Chez Panisse is the birthplace of a chef's culinary vision and a devotion to her philosophy "environmental harmony and optimal flavor." It is no wonder to dine here is a pilgrimage for many who seek the best in food and what it can aspire to be on our table. This restaurant is a special place- a place where people can celebrate their achievement, where proposals have met their yeses and for birthday wishes to come true. The last one being my raison celebre and a friend who stepped out of the amicable niceties and ask me on a date. Magic can only happen if you want it to- so begins this magical culinary experience.
The house definitely has a homey feeling- one can easily be comfortable here- the simple and accommodating decor in mission style- reminiscent of the Berkeley neighborhood- its structure founded on the life of simplicity, earnestly and craftsmanship. This is evident from the Greene & Greene style interior and stained glass windows Gustav Stickely inspired furnishings and dark honey arts and crafts lamps and scones that lit the room like a glowing sunset . The tables were crisp and clean minimally dressed with ivory Heath ceramic wares and polished sets of flatware.
The divine dinner menu :-)
Monterey Bay squid, grilled and flash sauteed on a bed of salad composed of nutty escarole, sweet peppers, yellow grape tomatoes and crisp baby cucumbers tossed in a light springy vinaigrette with a side of whipped lemon aioli.
The Soupe au pistou was an elegant green doppelganger of its red minestrone counterpart- fresh basil coulis in a thin vegetable broth accompanied with white cannelloni beans, greens, baby string beans and fresh cut rolled pasta. The amount of the coulis was the key in this 'simple' and earthy soup.
The Grilled rack and loin from Cattail Creek Ranch was perfectly grilled, rosy and warm and melts in your mouth goodness. Sides of Olive relish, sweet buttery corn flashed steamed to preserve its natural juices and freshness, and the superb eggplant tagine flavored in oriental spices.
A Cheese tray consisted of Compte cheese, a mixture of goat cheese washed in herbs and a semi soft.Comté Reserve des Granges- lightly sweet and nutty , Fromage de Meaux- decadently creamy and Herbillette a bold goat cheese flavored with dried thyme, fennel and spices.
The french were right to use bread for judging a good restaurant (the other being coffee- but that wasn't necessary here)- Chez Panisse furnished us with fresh sliced rustic bread- crusty on the outside light airy density inside. The cheese bread was just right to support the smear and compliment the flavor of the cut cheese.
The meal ended with a fantastic nectarine pie, fanned out onto a buttery and flakey crust- and as its compliment- nectarine sherbert- smooth, and velvety. It was a great ending to the height of summer season--the right warmth with the cool evening breeze.
The the versatile Chateau Paveil de Luze, Margaux, 2005 provided the unctuous layers of lush groves of plums, cherries followed by hints of tabacco and cinnamon solidly smooth tannin throughout the meal.
PS- I gave the Chez Panisse Cookbook to my date for Christmas for the purpose of making this magic happen in his kitchen- my thanks for returning it with kindest gesture. Merci beaucoup! :-)
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Can't believe I have lived in the Bay Area for most of my life and Friday was my first time here! A friend and I got to play "ladies who lunch" and dined in the cafe. Fairly snug but laid back and comfortable with a Craftsman style.
The food was good, no arguing that, but perhaps not as amazing I had hoped. Maybe the build up was so big that it was destined to be less than. I don't know. A shared appetizer and dessert and two entrees came to approx. $50/ person and for that I guess I was hoping that I would be left salivating for more. As it was, the only thing that truly had me salivating was the bread boy.
17% gratuity is automatically added, but service was good and we left a tad more.
Overall a good place and worth trying. Can't say it is (currently) my favorite place in all of the Bay Area, but I will no doubt return.
It's 5 stars by any measure, but 4 stars shown given what was expected at this level.
It was my first time to Chez Panisse (the Cafe upstairs). We went Sat 9/27 on my wife's birthday. BART ride and a nice walk up to the restaurant. Sustainable! Had opening time reservation, was a little early--which was good as we were 2nd in line going up the stairs, which meant we got to sit in a nice table in the front "tree room". (Someone started sweeping the outside waiting area after we arrived. and I thought that should have been done before anyone arrived (we were only 15 min early).
Really pleasant decor... woody and in the trees with vines growing up and windows open (and one darn foodie fly that kept coming to visit).
Maybe our expectations were too high from the reputation, maybe the cafe isn't the restaurant. maybe Gordon Ramsey's attention to detail has had too much of an impact. It was really really good, but just not the consistent level of [near] perfection across every element of the experience. A similarly priced meal at Cetrella in HMB has had more of the "Wow", Michelin star, "this is art" feel to it, where you can feel the head chef talking to you through the experience..
Service was excellent. The woman doing the seating had a measured pace, which was nice and I imagine also staggered the orders into the kitchen. Waiter knew his stuff and was appropriately attentive without his existence being part of the show (for me, it's about the meal and my wife and our experience, and if I can't remember the waiter afterward, that's perfect).
Bread was not good. Crust was way too thick and hard. Making bread is one of those basics you have to do well. A surprising bad start and maybe influences my slightly down tone. I love bread and the art of making it astounds me. The crust and crumb just didn't have it.
Goat cheese salad for me and Pizzetta for my wife. Salad was fine, I'm not into dressing as it always detracts from the greens, but here you gotta let them do their thing and it was well done. Obviously mixed into the greens by hand and nicely coated without cascading onto the plate. Lovely feel to the oil. Pizzetta had an amazing flavor, a seafood scallop salty tang. Great crust. and definitely a highlight to savor.
Wife had the Magruder pork with tomatillo garnish and I had a beef roast (I forget the farm) with a gratin side. My meat was undistinguished at this level, nicely cooked but just a couple small medallions, a portion size inconsistent with the pork. The pork dish was another flavor treat. There was a real depth to the meat, like there wasn't something on the meat but something inside every molecule. It was a take on carnitas but instead of sauces, the there were several types of tomato varieties stewed and placed around the plate. There were also two cuts of pork included, a loin and the carnitas, so that was interesting comparing how each cut of meat absorbed the flavors.
The cream puffs with chocolate drizzle for the wife and a raspberry cobbler with a light caramel scoop of ice cream. The cream puffs were ok, but the cobbler had heavenly taste and the combo of the ice cream flavor and the flavors of the cobbler and the different textures was worth savoring.
I had a decaf coffee that had grounds floating on top on the cup. I couldn't decide if the coffee was burnt or just strong. I was told it was "blue bottle" brand; I didn't recognize (I'm no expert) and I could have misheard although the receipt said "Nicaragua" and I did find something on Google.
Anyhow, by any measure, an excellent meal, but I just didn't feel that elevation onto a higher, truly world class plane. But we'll try the restaurant sometime this Fall.
Chez Panisse deserves at least 5 stars
I love their commitment to organic locally grown produce, wonderful flavors and great ambiance.
With 500+ yelp reviews and still counting.. you can't go wrong with Chez Panisse. In fact, I wish we had somehting similar to it in Sacramento so I may indulge in the wonderful culinary delights at Chez Panisse.
I never got the chance to eat in the "actual" restaurant since reservations are SO hard to get. So I ate in the "cafe" but it was still AMAZING and delicious. And I definitely can't wait to go back and indulge AGAIN.
I just love this place, really neat venue, the building/interior isn't over the top but the service and the food is superb and flawless. I mean it's all about the food right?
Bottom line: I LOVE this place and you will too!
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Downstairs is a perfect fine-dining experience and you can always go on the website and see what meals are coming up that week (which I like). Upstairs is more casual. All the food is great, service is friendly. I'm so glad this place exists ;).
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Great building, with above average food and poor service.
I'd heard about this place for years, and perhaps the best of those years are behind this place, as no dish was particularly innovative nor extraordinary, though food was good, it was not anything you'd pay even a third of these prices for more than once.
Enjoyed the Albacore Tuna appetizer but was quite sure the fish I was served for my entree was not of the same family as the fish I ordered. Try the roast pork instead.
Service was awkward and bizarre, with two overlapping waiters asking the same questions twice and bringing the wrong items despite double confirmation.
Despite the poor service, we tipped 40%, as our party of three's bill included a 20% service charge we discovered only after we had departed.
All in all, a disappointment, but there 's a great pizza place and bakery right across the street, should you be in the neighborhood!
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This is one of the best restaurants i have ever been to. The food is amazing and delicious. i am never disappointed. The service is exquisite, waiters/servers, etc. are always incredibly nice and friendly, and they certainly make an effort to make you comfortable.
The downstairs restaurant part is really fantastic. The price isn't really that high if u consider how many courses you're getting in the fixed menu. The upstairs cafe is also good, and i would say there is no difference between the quality of the food and service between the upstairs and downstairs (i was hesitant to eat upstairs because of this....) I enjoy the louder atmosphere of the cafe, as well as watching the chefs do their thing, whereas the ambiance of the restaurant is more formal and quiet.
Either way, if you eat here, you will have an amazing experience.
There are 489 other reviews, but I had such a good time here that I feel compelled to write my own review.
My brother was in town for a week and a half for work. His wife managed to get out here for a couple of days. I told them I would take them out to dinner, and had planned to take them out in the city, but my sister-in-law decided she really wanted to eat at Chez Panisse. On short notice, we got a 10pm reservation in the Cafe on Bastille Day. They do a garlic based menu that day, both in the restaurant and the cafe. This is good, if you like garlic, which we all do.
Everything we ordered was excellent. From the garlic pizza appetizer to the chocolate pot du creme dessert. I could list out each thing we ordered, but there is no real reason to. Just note that everything save the desserts had garlic in it, and not just a tiny bit. There was a dessert with garlic shaped marzipan on the menu, but we didn't order it :). The service was fantastic, friendly, prompt, and knowledgeable. They even had live music, and some couples were dancing to it, which was pretty - er - cute.
It was not a cheap dinner, so I didn't pay the entire bill, but it was definitely worth the price. Five stars, no doubt. It's a classic bay area institution, and it really deserves that status.
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So I finally get to do a review on Chez Panisse. We went here last Friday night for dinner after waiting a month for our reservation to come about.
well well well.. what is the big deal about this place? I'm serious. I don't get it. Is the food that great? Not really.. Is the location and decor worth 4 stars in the SF Chronicle? Not even close. We did get a parking spot two buildings down so that helped.
Pluses:
We were seated on time
Wait staff was great. Our waiter was really nice.
The silverware was clean
Negatives
There were two us eating the set menu.
Tomatoes with bread, salmon in broth, and quail with corn for the entree, plus a tart with berries for dessert.
It took about 3 or 4 minutes before someone came over to great us at the table.
The food wasn't that great. It worked out to be about 30 dollars per plate of food with tax and tip and spiltting wine.
-$60 for sliced tomoatoes with olive oil and basil? Give me a break
-Maybe 3 ounces of salmon in water that needed salt and pepper because there was no flavor. Another $60 bucks for those two plates.
-This quail had to have been the smallest bird they could find. Another $60 bucks for these two plates. I will admit the corn was tasty.
-Finished up with two tarts at 30 dollars a piece. I could go to hold foods and get 3 or 4 large tarts to feed a family for 2 weeks for the same cost.
Maybe I get too critical because i watch teh Food network a lot and read the reviews in the Chronicle. But there is no way this food would get top marks.
I just don't get it. What am I missing? On a good night at Aqua, there is food is soooo much better. It isn't even close.
This place really deserves 2.5 stars but I rounded up to 3 because our waiter made the evening more enjoyable.
THE BEST. I've come here about once every other year for the last... 10 years of my life? Something like that. I count myself very very lucky to have had that many opportunities to dine at such a distinguished restaurant - and one that unquestionably deserves it's reputation! Ever single time I've eaten here, I've gotten stoned off the food. And it's not just each dish. Each dish is amazing, but the sequence of flavors over the course of the meal is incredible! It's this cascade of aromas and sensations. Alice Waters is brilliant. Wow. I can't even understand how she does what she does. All I can do is love it!
Hey, rustic doesn't mean any more poorly prepared... right?
Anyway, five stars for the heirloom tomato salad that kicked off last night's dinner... I could write an entire review on just that salad, but I'll just say a couple things.
First things first, how the HELL do you make tomatoes like that? The absolutely vibrant flavor just consumed my mouth and if it weren't for my guests I would have shed a tear.
I was lucky enough (sarcasm) to be in town on a day where Chez Panisse was doing goat. Eyuch. Nothing special, although I'm pretty sure it's hard to do goat like this, I wonder if the Chef in the back was wondering what the hell he was doing with goat as well. It was tender and yay but nothing special. I don't like goat.
The peach tart on the other hand, with peach leaf ice cream, seriously made my heart beat faster. It was a great end (noticing a pattern here... see my Fleur de Lys review) to a mixed meal. The tomato salad by itself gets this place five stars. That was the definition of farm fresh and I really hope this place serves that more often. And the anchovy toast... delicious!
There were some little knick-knacks at the end, like chocolate ganache something and a little pastry with a black cherry or something... eh. Not thrilled. What thrilled me was the check. I won't mention the amount suffice to say I almost shat a brick, and that's hard to do with me. Then I realized service is INCLUDED here so no need to tip! Even the server said "the wait-staff here is paid VERY well"... so I didn't feel guilty. Nice. Good way to take care of some of the awkward moments of dining at places like these (check that, THE awkward moment, a.k.a. check time).
A five star experience. I will be back here, but I won't go back to Fleur de Lys. I think that says something. That Chez Panisse is one of a kind, no doubt about that. I will be back here if I decided to go to The French Laundry.
EL
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my review is for the cafe, not the downstairs restaurant. my girlfriend and i have gone here multiple times, and have never been disappointed. if it's the fried chicken, a pasta or a steak, everything is cooked perfectly, the service is excellent, and the prices are actually reasonable! also, i love the ambience of the place, warm, inviting, with everyone having a good time. yummy!
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