Bocce Cafe - Italian, San Francisco

478 Green St, San Francisco CA 94133
(415) 981-2044
Parking: street parking
Hours: Sun – Thurs 11am to 9:30pm (closed 3:30 to 5pm), Fri-Sat 11am to 10pm (closed 4 to 5 pm)
http://www.boccecafe.com/

Last Visited: June 19, 2008

Food: 3 stars
Atmosphere: 3 to 4 stars
Service: 3 stars
Price: $$ to $$$

We visited Bocce for a group dinner, so we had a limited selection of dishes to choose from, but it was a full three course meal. There is a large bar area and indoor seating as well as a covered outside patio in the rear. Upon our arrival, we were brought glasses of ice water and seated at two long tables covered with a white tablecloth. Olive oil and balsamic vinegar are placed on the table and bread is served in a basket.

- House Salad – Mixed greens are lightly dressed with a balsamic vinaigrette. It’s a sweet dressing and the greens are fresh. Good, but not special. $4.50

- Meat Lasagna – A sweet tomato sauce is placed in and over lasagna noodles layered with meat and cheese in an individual dish. The noodles were soft and the flavors were great. The cheese was browned nicely on top without being too dry. My only concerns about the lasagna were that it could have had more meat and there was a piece of sausage that had not been broken up well, leaving casing over sausage within my lasagna. Without that, I would have increased the food rating by half a star. $10.95

- Tiramisu – The tiramisu was served as a square cut from a pan of a larger tiramisu. Dusted with cocoa, the layers of ladyfingers were delicate. Although the presentation was simple and the texture was light, the flavors were bland and I only ate about half of the dessert. This is extremely rare for me so it shows my disappointment in the dish.

Restroom stalls are crowded and small so you may wish to leave all personal belongings at the table before visiting the restroom.

Considering the warm day, the water needed to be refilled more frequently. Also, since we had a limited menu, there shouldn’t have been as much of a wait, but several of our dining companions had to wait at least an additional 10 minutes after everyone else had received food before getting theirs. This was a bit disappointing. However, the flavors are okay, and I would be willing to return to order a la carte from the menu. The restaurant is a good place for group gatherings on warm days since the patio is comfortable and spacious.

Toast - American, Novato

5800 Nave Drive, Novato CA 94949
(415) 382-1144
Parking: shopping center parking lot
Hours: Breakfast/Lunch 7:30am-2:30pm, Dinner 5pm -10pm
http://toastnovato.com/

Last Visited: March 31, 2010

Food: 2 to 3 stars
Service: 2 to 3 stars
Atmosphere: 3 stars
Price: $$ to $$$

With a location in Mill Valley and their newly opened location in Novato, Toast opened in the Hamilton Marketplace with quite a bit of fanfare. Architect Stanley Saitowitz gets the credit for the modern decor. You walk into the room and see the light colored wood surrounding the place. Each panel has patterned cutouts that makes you feel quite a bit like you're looking at toast. The same color scheme is carried out in the tables with some tables being for smaller groups and several large tables that get shared by multiple parties during busy hours. High ceilings and an open kitchen create a very spacious feel to the place.

I've now been to toast three times - once for lunch and twice for dinner. Dinner on a Friday night can get quite busy and the waiting time for my most recent visit was more than half an hour. Try to arrive early to beat the crowd.

The menu boasts a selection of comfort food - everything from their brick oven pizza to fried chicken and burgers.

Lunch
- Build a Burger - I ordered a plain hamburger with jack cheese. All burgers are served with soup, salad, or fries. My burger was pretty boring - nothing special or noteworthy either way. The soup was hot - and okay as well. $8.95 + extra for cheese (no specifics on the menu regarding the price of toppings except to say they range from $0.75 to $1.25)

Dinner
- Buttermilk Fried Chicken - Two pieces (breast and wing) are served with mashed potatoes, gravy, corn on the cob, jicama-apple cole slaw, and jalapeno cheddar corn bread, this was an extremely hearty portion. While the chicken was fried with a nice crispy batter and worth getting again, the sides didn't do much for me. The jicama-apple cole slaw was a creative combination if you like sweet and crunchy. Of all the sides, this was probably the best. Corn on the cob was fresh, but how can you mess that up? What I didn't enjoy was the cornbread and the mashed potatoes. The potatoes tasted like they came out of a box - lacking flavor and just not the right texture. The cornbread was dry and crumbly - I was surprised that some people ordered it as a side dish! While it's rare that I leave food on my plate, I left both the mashed potatoes and corn bread virtually untouched. Fortunately, the chicken was juicy, although lacking a bit of salt, but good enough that I wouldn't mind having again, but they need to do something about those side dishes to make it worthwhile. $13.95

- Salsiccia pizza - Mild Italian sausage, mushroom, mozzarella, Parmesan, lite tomato sauce and herbs top pizza dough. Since Toast features their brick oven pizza as a specialty, I was looking forward to a treat, but the picture looks better than it tasted. The pizza must have sat out for a while because it wasn't particularly hot. The outer edge was crispy and the center a bit too moist. Flavors of the toppings were fine. While the size was ample, it wasn't a wow pizza. $12.95

Initially, I thought service just needed to work out its kinks. My lunch visit was a month or two after the grand opening, and we had gone with about ten people. They made several errors with the order - sending soup as an appetizer for someone whom had ordered it and requested it as a main dish, having long breaks between the arrival of main dishes for those in our group, sending yet another soup as a main dish despite us telling them that we wanted it packed prior to its arrival. The list seemed endless.

My second visit was okay except for the long initial wait time where there was little seating available in the waiting area. My third visit seemed left me feeling like the server forgot us. The food took a long long time to arrive - more than twenty minutes after ordering. I saw the pizza on the counter waiting for the fried chicken ordered by my dining companion to become ready, but by the time that took place, the pizza had become cool and it arrived at my table cold. This lack of coordination was disappointing and was reflected in the food quality. With all of these things in mind, I'll probably leave Toast to those whom are seeking a fun decor and don't mind the long wait. The place has a lot of promise, but the service and kitchen need to coordinate better to create a better customer experience.

Bay Fung Tong Seafood Restaurant - Chinese, San Francisco

327 Balboa Street, San Francisco, CA 94118
(415) 221-8498
Parking: limited street parking

Last Visited: March 19, 2006

Food: 3 to 4 stars
Atmosphere: 2 to 3 stars
Service: 2 to 3 stars
Price: $ to $$$

Turns out that this Bay Fung Tong restaurant has an affiliation with Best Panda (now closed) a number of blocks down the street. However, Bay Fung Tong is quite a bit more spacious, and offers dim sum at lunch time.

Many of the same items at Best Panda can be found at Bay Fung Tong – large portions and fresh ingredients are trademarks of both restaurants. The atmosphere is extremely casual with lots of fluorescent colored papers listing specials posted on the wall. Nothing fancy, but good food at a great value is available.

This evening’s set menu for four available for $36 consisted of the following:

- Seafood soup with tofu – Hot soup is presented in plentiful portion with shrimp, fish, tofu cubes, and yellow chives. It’s lightly thick and quite filling. For four people, it’s more than enough to have a second helping. Good.

- Vegetables with squid, prawns, and scallops – Snap peas or other seasonal vegetables are sautéed with squid, prawns, and scallops. On cool evenings, this dish cools down super fast, but it’s fine on a warm night. The seafood is fresh and the vegetables are crispy. Good.

- Deep fried quail (3) – Three quail are deep fried and halved. A half of lemon is served with the quail along with dry dipping seasoning. The quail has a lot of flavor from the marinade and the dipping seasoning adds a touch of saltiness. Today’s quail was light brown in color, and due to the size, the meat tends to taste dry around the areas where there is less flesh. Okay.

- Ginger and green onion sautéed crab – If you’re willing to get your hands messy, this is an excellent dish with crab sautéed in a sauce that contains ginger and green onion that flavors the cooking oil and the crab. Again, more fresh seafood and good wok air, but on a cool evening, this dish also cools down quickly. Good.

- Clams with black bean sauce – This is one of my favorite dishes. Black bean sauce is used to sauté a mix of clams, onions, green onions, and peppers to give the clams just a hint of heat. Very good.

- Dessert of the day: Tapioca in coconut soup with ginger – Today’s tapioca was a little on the thick side for the soup, so the consistency tasted a little less light on the palate, but the ginger gave the dessert distinctiveness. Okay.

- Steamed Rice $0.80 per person

The overall experience was similar to that found at Best Panda. Great value and fresh food, but I prefer this location to the other; however, note that parking is quite difficult at Bay Fung Tong and be willing to walk a few blocks to the car. At both Best Panda and Bay Fung Tong, the turnover rate of the food is high due to the quantity of patrons, so the food is consistently fresh, even if the presentation looks like home cooking. I would like to check out dim sum at Bay Fung Tong sometime soon.

Chester's Bayview Cafe - American, Berkeley

1508 Walnut Street, Berkeley CA 94709
(510) 849-9995
Parking: limited street parking
Hours: Breakfast and Lunch 8:30am-2:30pm Weekdays, 8:30am - 3pm Weekends;
Tapas Tues - Sat 5pm - 10pm

Last Visited: January 10, 2009

Food: 3 to 4 stars
Atmosphere: 3 stars
Service: 2 stars
Price: $$ to $$$

Helen and Mark had recommended we try Chester's for brunch, and on this weekend afternoon, we wandered into the restaurant after some difficulty with parking. They have a reasonable dining room downstairs, but the gem of the place is the limited upstairs seating which provides the bayview noted in the name of the cafe. The weather was clear with blue skies, and though we weren't able to get a table to enjoy the view, we did get to see it from atop the stairs for a moment.

Service was a bit lacking as we waited quite a bit for a server to seat us despite there being available tables. The hustle and bustle seemed to keep them from noticing us waiting for a table. When we were finally seated and served, service improved.

- Philly Cheesesteak - Thinly-sliced steak is served with grilled mushrooms, onions, green peppers, and Swiss Cheese. To me, this was standard fare - neither memorable in how good it was nor memorable in the other direction. It came with grilled potatoes even though I had chosen the other option of a side salad. Also, while the other three members of our table had gotten served, this took about five minutes more to arrive weighed negatively on the service rating given for this visit. It came so much later that I didn't even take a photo of it. $9.75

- Crab Hash - As seen from the photo, a hearty helping of potatoes is mixed with crab and topped with two poached eggs. Hollandaise is ladled on top of it. While filling and was good, it lacked the punch of the wow factor in its overall presentation and its flavor. I would eat it again, but it's not something I would make a special trip to enjoy. $11.25

The other photo is for a Belgian Banberry split and it's topped with bananas, choice of raspberry or blueberry compote, and whipped cream. $7.75

Breakfast and lunch dishes are good and plentiful. If you're looking for a slight twist on standard breakfast dishes included french toast, cramblers, potato pancakes, and omelettes, you'll like Chester's. For me, the food was just okay and service has room for improvement.

Hong Kong East Ocean - Chinese, Emeryville

3199 Powell Street, Emeryville CA 94608
(510) 655-3388
Parking: in parking lot
Hours: Dim Sum Lunch Mon-Fri 11 - 2:30pm, Sat 10:30am-2:30pm, Sun 10am - 2:30pm; Dinner Mon-Fri 5:30pm - 9:30pm, Sat-Sun 5pm - 9:30pm; No reservations for weekend lunch
http://www.hkeo.us/

Last Visited: January 31, 2010

Food: 4 stars
Atmosphere: 4 stars
Service: 2 to 3 stars
Price: $$ to $$$$

For the most part, recent visits to Hong Kong East Ocean have been for dim sum lunch, mostly because this is the best way to enjoy their view -when it's actually clear outside. Also, it's harder to order for smaller parties for dinner since you just can't eat a large quantity of food. However, over the last decade, I've been here for two wedding banquet dinners and both occasions were quite lovely.

Enter Hong Kong East Ocean and see an abudance of seafood in the tanks in the lobby. During weekends, the lobby is typically packed with patrons waiting for a table. Just past the entrance is a banquet room that is about a quarter the size of the main dining area. Cozy and quaint, this room is typically spacious, but there isn't a view. The main dining area has a ranch style layout with big columns in the middle of the room and windows all around facing the bay complete with views of the Bay Bridge and marina.

Pricing for dishes: Small $2.50, Medium $3, Large $3.50, Extra Large $4, Specials $5.75.

While the price tends to be higher than most dim sum restaurants in the Bay Area, the food quality is pretty good. Service gets three stars, but is typically a solid four stars or a dismal one star. For example, depending on where you may be sitting, you can have a lot of staff around you to take away dishes, fill your soy sauce dish, and refill your tea. However, while dining with some friends whom rarely have dim sum, we waited thirty minutes for food to arrive. This was appalling and when I checked on why it was taking so long, I learned our server forgot to put our check into the kitchen. This terrible mistake shows a lack of detail and the restaurant didn't even consider compensating any dishes or offering dessert. Once food arrived, service was good, but still, it was a terrible memory for all of us. Had it not been so late in the afternoon when all of us were starving, I would have walked out.

- Shrimp dumpling - As you can see from the photo, five shrimp dumplings are included. This is one more than what other restaurants typically serve. It also allows them to charge a premium for the dish. Great.

- Shrimp stuffed fried tofu - Four pieces of tofu are topped with shrimp paste, deep fried, and then topped with a bean sauce and scallions. Super fresh tasting.

- Pork dumpling - Four dumplings made of pork, topped with shrimp and shrimp roe are steamed in individual wrappers. Flavorful and good.

- Braised chicken feet - Standard fare, the chicken feet were good and well flavored.

- Spareribs with black bean sauce - An ample quantity of spareribs are steamed in a black bean sauce with chili peppers. Slightly spicy. Good.

- Beef balls - This came a little colder than we would have preferred, but the cilantro flavor was a nice complement to the meat. This would have been better hot.

- Sesame Balls - Deep fried and filled with lotus paste, I found the rice flour outer shell of this dessert to be a little too thick. Nice filling inside and crunchy on the outside, but it could be a thinner shell.

To provide a sampling of their banquet menu, I thought I would list the items of a typical wedding banquet. As you will see, there is a lot of seafood, and their food quality for banquet style food is surprisingly good for smaller banquets in the room in the entrance area. For larger banquets (typically they split the larger dining room in two), the quality isn't controlled quite as well, but still okay. The columns between the tables can be a hindrance to seeing the guests of honor though.

- HK East Ocean Assortment Platter (the Chinese version of cold cuts/deli cuts) - bbq pork, roasted suckling pig, jellyfish, meat slices
- Golden Crab Claws - deep fried crab claws stuffed with shrimp
- Stir-Fried Cuttlefish, Fresh Scallop with Jade Greens
- Royal Shark Fin Soup with Fresh Crab Meat - often served with chicken, the crab meat makes this delicacy even more decadent
- Braised Fresh Abalone with Sea Cucumbers
- Braised Lobster with Cream Sauce
- Spiced Tea Poached Chicken
- House Smoked Fillet of Black Cod - this is equally as good as smoked sea bass which was popular several years ago
- Fried Rice with Garlic & Seafood
- Chilled Mango Pudding

While this runs about $500 per table of ten, it's a meal that is sure to impress any of your non-vegetarian guests.

As always, when the dim sum gets cold, it's no longer as good as when it's hot. Hong Kong East Ocean typically serves very high quality dim sum with a great view. It's a place that I visit with friends since the atmosphere is hard to beat and the quality of the food is good almost every time. However, the prices for both lunch and dinner are higher than most places, and service during lunch can be hit and miss. Sometimes they are extremely attentive, and other times, you may feel ignored. Consider going on a clear day to enjoy the view.

Silver Dragon - Chinese, Oakland

835 Webster St, Oakland CA 94607
(510) 893-3748
Parking: street parking and pay parking in nearby lot

Last Visited: November 20, 2004

Food: 2 to 3 stars
Service: 3 stars
Atmosphere: 3 stars
Price: n/a

Silver Dragon has three floors – the lower floor is a smaller dark dining room, and the two upper floors are typically reserved in the evening for large dinner banquets. The lobby area is shared by the stairwell and elevator.

There are dance floor facilities on both of the upper floors. The only inconvenience being that on the third floor, there isn’t a restroom. You’ll need to go back to the second floor for that. Large chandeliers hang from the ceiling, and the room is light colored. One of the walls is lined with red fabric, an ideal background behind the host table of a wedding banquet. A thick green line is painted on the edge of portions of the ceiling to give the room some color.

The tablecloths are pink and the center of the table is topped with a lazy susan, standard amongst most Chinese restaurants.

- Cold appetizer plate – The cold plate contains shrimp (sliced in half along the body), ham, meat, and sliced meat from a roll. Jellyfish is placed in the center. All of these are fanned out in a circular pattern and makes for a colorful display. Although the presentation looked okay, I found the shrimp bland. Worse yet, there was a very tiny bug moving around one piece of shrimp, and well, that just killed most of our appetites.

- Deep fried stuffed crab claw - Crab claws are stuffed with shrimp paste and deep fried. They are placed on top of deep fried rice noodles and served with sweet mayonnaise. I found the mayonnaise a bit too sweet, but the crab claw was hot and good.

- Shark fin soup with chicken and dried scallop – Shark fin is served in a thick broth along with very thinly sliced chicken strips and dried scallop. The dried scallop was separated into individual strips. The flavor was good, but the shark fin was somewhat hard to find.

- Black mushrooms and mustard greens – Large black mushrooms top braised mustard greens. The greens were fresh and had a clean flavor. The dried mushrooms are rehydrated by soaking in water and the outcome was tender. Good.

- Seafood Bird’s Nest – Scallop, shrimp, and squid are accompanied by celery, carrots, and scallions in a deep fried shell made from potato. The shell is shaped like a bowl, and the sautéed seafood fills the bowl. The seafood was tender and not stringy. The shell was crispy though slightly too golden on the bottom, but as a whole, it was good.

- Braised Lobster – This was probably the best dish of the night. Lobster is braised with ginger and scallions. The taste was clean and the lobster texture was just right. The braising created a sauce that accentuated the lobster flavor. Very good.

- Steamed fish – Two fish are steamed whole and served with green onions, ginger slices, and light soy sauce. The fish was cooked okay. When it comes out just slightly undercooked but able to break away from the bone, the flesh is considered cooked just perfect. These fish were cooked slightly more than this. Nice clean flavor. Good.

- Fook Kin Fried Rice – Rice is topped with a sauce containing small shrimp, scallops, and chopped greens. If you’ve never had this before, think risotto and you’ll be pretty close. I personally prefer the rice to be a little softer. When biting into this rice, you can still taste that it’s a little hard in the center. I prefer to have the entire grain of rice soft all the way through, but not so soft that it’s mushy. The flavor of the topping was good. Okay.

- Red Bean Dessert – Red beans are boiled until they begin to fall apart in water with lotus nuts. Sugar is added to taste. Not profound, but Good.

The food would have received a three star rating, but since the shrimp had a tiny bug, the food rating is now two to three stars, and really would be even lower had I been the one to select that particular shrimp.

The dishes as a whole were average or better considering they were served banquet style. I hope the bug was a fluke and not a regular occurrence. Since the shrimp was laid out, it’s hard to determine whether it could have been found before serving. Just watch what you’re eating.
I recently returned for another banquet, but this one was served buffet style. The portions were generous and the food was fresh and for the most part, every dish was at least average or better.
- Black Pepper Beef – Beef is served with red and green bell peppers. The beef itself could have been more tender, but otherwise, the flavor was well balanced between the peppers.

- Shrimp with Broccoli – The shrimp was succulent and the broccoli was crisp and green. Good.

- Chow Mein – Hong Kong style noodles are cooked with vegetables. The noodles were easily separated from one another and the flavor was light. Good.

- Fried Chicken – The fried chicken drumsticks were tender and the skin crisp. Good.

The food remains a three star rating, but could be moved between three and four based on the lunch experience.

Things We Love

After doing a posting on Restaurant Pet Peeves, it only seems appropriate to discuss the things Sesame Tea Eats loves.

- Excellent Service. Who doesn't love excellent service? Yet, it's those, whom from the moment you walk into the door to the moment you walk out, treat you like you're family, a friend, or royalty, depending on the establishment.

- Server Anticipation. They know your every need before you even ask for it - be it more napkins, a fork, extra plates, the check, whatever.

- Filled Water and Drink Glasses. Though we don't want you to hover, it's great not to have to ask for a refill.

- The Correct Temperature. When hot foods are hot and cold foods are cold, that can make all the difference in how good or bad a dish tastes.

- Hot Bread. Cold bread can be good too, but there is nothing like hot bread and room temperature butter that can actually be spread without ripping the bread, that is super inviting.