The Hot Shop

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I don't know any other Afghan/Mexican-fusion burrito shops, but we quite enjoyed our first visit to Albany's popular Hot Shop, just a smidge around the corner from Solano on San Pablo.

Lady Steed got the artichoke-lamb; I got the garlic-lime-chicken. I liked mine better, but hers was great. About what you'd suspect, I imagine. The on-table sauces were sweet and spicy. Much to like her. No, it won't replace Gordo's for us (visited most recently last Saturday), but it may well be a place we revisit.

Rendez-Vous, House of Curry, Khana Peena, iScream and Arabica (not on Solano)

Rendez-Vous Cafe: Ate here Dec 6, 2013 in honor of a good friend's 40th birthday--his treat! So very nice.
Lady Steed had the cassoulet. "It was delicious! So good!" Theric had the stake frites again, still excellent. We shared a bowl of french onion soup which was very very delicious. For dessert: Theric had the chocolate mousse and Lady Steed had the creme brulee. Both were excellent but Theric says that he liked the mousse better. Lady Steed throughly enjoyed both. THe chocolate mousse is very chocolate-y and the brulee was just right. An excellent meal! Looking forward to going back and having that onion soup again and trying something new from the menu.

House of Curry: Bought lots of dishes from here for mom's 2013 birthday. Everything was good, as usual. Lady Steed especially liked the daal dishes, which we had not tried before.

Khana Peena (Jan 3, 2014): Had a Living Social Coupon, went at lunch time, which we have got to stop doing because you can't use a living social coupon for the lunch buffet. THe lunch buffet looks very good and that's what everyone else in that restaurant was getting. Theric had Khana Peena Chicken Soup, which he said was good, but too salty. Lady Steed had Moong Dhal, a lentil soup. It was good, lots of vegetables and a little bit spicy. After our soups we enjoyed a naan stuffed with lamb (yum, but I think we will stick with garlic naan or plain naan from now on), chicken biryani (also good, the raita sauce was excellent) and another dish, which neither of us can recall, though I do remember it was something in a sauce. Overall it was a good meal but nothing too memorable. WE also each had a mango lassi, it was delicious, perhaps my favorite thing about the meal. Next time we eat here we will be going to the lunch buffet. 


iScream: Went here after dinner at Arabica on Jan 4, 2014.
We paid extra for chocolate waffle cones because they are delicious and create no waste. Though they do offer regular cones at no additional cost, should probably get that next time, since ice cream here is not cheap.

Theric had mexican chocolate with salted caramel, the second time he has done this, it's still excellent. The mexican chocolate has a very pleasant spiciness to it.
Lady Steed had salted caramel and ginger. The ginger ice cream was great, very ginger-y. I knew it was all real ginger used to flavor the ice cream because it had that burn that comes with fresh ginger. I really liked it. However it did not really blend with the salted caramel very well. This is important to remember for next time.

The salted caramel is awesome. So so good. I think it is the best salted caramel ice cream I have had  anywhere. iScream is one of the best ice cream places around.


Not on Solano

Arabica

We went here after seeing a movie at The California movie theatre, show your ticket and get 15% off--nice!

This place is small and it was very busy on a Saturday night around 7pm. The service was very friendly but not very attentive because they were so busy and seemed understaffed. We were lucky to get seated immediately (once we were seated there was pretty much a constant stream of people coming in hoping to get a table), but no one ever brought us a menu (Theric grabbed some from the counter behind us) and we did not get water until just before our meal showed up. Our food did arrive very quickly, which was a surprise since it was so busy in there. Despite this we can't wait to go back here because the food was so great.

We started with a meza plate: Hummus, the best I have ever had, so smooth and creamy and bright. Eggplant Mousse: delicious, I wish there had been more. Roasted Sambosik: filo dough filled with melted cheese, yum. Grilled Grape Leaves: I have had these in the past and never really liked them, but these were SO good. Savory with a good texture and the leaves were not tough. There were also four of the cutest little pita breads I have ever seen. They were small and fluffy, 'like little clouds', and soft and tasted so good dipped in the olive oil, then in a mixture of spices and seeds.

Main dishes: Theirc ordered the Arayis Pita Pizza: mozzarella, provolone, parmesan, haloumi cheese, basil pesto--so good. The haloumi cheese was especially tasty, very salty and a great contrast to the other flavors on the pizza. Lady Steed ordered the Lamb Arabica Burger on pita bread with tomato, lettuce, parsley-tahini sauce, red onions, mashed potatoes. The meat was cooked perfectly, it was so flavorful and tender too--delicious! All the other elements complimented the meat very nicely. The mashed potatoes were also very good. They were unique because they had something green mixed through them--maybe it was parsley or kale? I'm not sure what it was but it certainly made the potatoes more interesting. I definitely liked them, but I think Theric liked them more. I liked them better with the  parsley-tahini sauce.

Arabica is excellent! We highly recommend it and we are looking forward to a time when we can go back.

iScream

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They hosted something at the elementary school which everyone but me went to. Apparently it was terrific.

I stopped there myself and got a cone with salted caramel and Mexican chocolate and couldn't've been happier. This is an ice cream that can compete with all the other excellent ice-cream joints in the East Bay.

Troy

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 Solano's newest addition is Troy's third location. Can't speak to the other two spots, but Solano's is pretty great Greek food.

We ordered an appetizer platter (meza) with a mix of olives, eggplant much, falafel, pita, dolmas, hummus---look at the menu---and garlic fries to start. Good garlic fries. Not as good as Saturn's but way better than the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. And, note, it was a huuuge basket of fries. Don't order two.

For dinner, I ordered the Greek Burger Wrap. And I'm glad I did. It wasn't terribly large, but it was the size I wanted. I liked the mix of meat to vegetables. I did add a mix of ketchup and their garlic-jalapeno sauce to the meat as I ate, but it wasn't strictly necessary.

Lady Steed ordered the Gyros Platter. Like mine, her meat was beef and lamb ground together, but hers were panfried in strips---it wasn't obviously "ground" even though the spices were throughout and the texture was even. The tzatziki sauce was good---tasted almost like it was made from sour cream rather than yogurt because of its creaminess. The grilled vegetables were so good she didn't let me try them. The zucchini was particularly good with the eggplant close behind and the tomato taking up the rear.

We went around six on a Friday and it was quite busy. We didn't wait because we sat at the bar, but almost immediately after our arrival, they were giving out wait times.

We'll go back again.

Sweet Basil Thai

. With the kids out of town, Lynsey and I are back on the Solano trail and a trip to Sweet Basil Thai. I ordered drunken beef; Lady Steed ordered kang kua moo; we shared kao pode tod. Our mains came with salad and soup. The salad was simple, looked like iceberg and carrot out of a bag, but the dressing was delicious. The soup was, I believe, a simple miso (or whatever the Thai equivalent is) but also delicious. The corn cakes I imagined would be like cornbread but no: pretty much whole corn somehow glued together. The accompanying cucumber relish was also tasty with a sauce even sweeter than the salad dressing. The cakes were good but not particularly memorable. Of our two main dishes, I preferred mine. First, the meat was more tender, but primarily, what I loved what the unavoidable Thainess of it all. Lime leaves and cilantro and ginger and all those other magical ingredients that combine to make Thai food so distinctive. Since first having Thai food early in our marriage and being blown away by the new palette, we went through several years of trying out every Thai place's pad thai and using them as a gauge of comparison. But you'll notice no pad thai today. I'm a bit surprised myself. But the fact is we couldn't really compare it to previous pad thai anymore. Since moving here (and beginning Eating Solano) we've been rather avoiding Thai food. It felt time to try something else, and avoiding Thai moved from a temporary thing to a near permanent thing. So while we can't compare so well any more to previous Thai experiences, I think you can say we've been reconverted. I'll let Lady Steed record thoughts on her dish in the comments.

Khana Peena

Not sure on the exact date that we went to Khana Peena, I think it was back in April, probably over Spring Break. We used a Living Social coupon.

I honestly cannot remember what we ordered here. But I do recall that we really liked everything we ordered. We liked the space as well and next time would like to sit in one of their romantic looking booths. We noticed that most of the people coming in were partaking of the buffet. When we come again we will be trying out the buffet as well. I think we went in right around the time they opened for lunch and we were the first customers  but once it hit noon the restaurant got very busy with all the people using the buffet, which indicates to me that buffet must be very good--it is certainly a good deal.

We will be coming back here, it was very good Indian food.

Rivoli

On April 3rd we suddenly found ourselves without the kids and Theric was able to get a reservation at Rivoli that same evening. Rivoli has been one of the Bay Area's top 100 hundred restaurants since 2004, so we both had very high expectations.

It's been a while since we were there but we will try to recall what we thought:

I had the "portabella mushroom fritters, aïoli, parmesan, arugula, caper vinaigrette" for my starter. It was so delicious and definitely my favorite thing from the entire meal. Should we ever return to Rivoli, I will be ordering this again, and maybe only this. The presentation was great too--I wish I had taken a picture. Theric had some sort of sea food bisque. He says that it was good, but wasn't very impressed.

Main dishes: I had rack of lamb. Very flavorful, tender and cooked to my liking (rare). My main complaint with this dish is that it is difficult to eat in a restaurant setting. You really need to be able to pick up the bones and chew on them a bit in order to get all the meat, which I did not do--it would have been inappropriate in the setting of this very nice restaurant. So, I felt like the portion on this dish was small because I had to leave a lot of meat on the bones. I was still hungry after finishing my lamb. On the side were perfectly roasted new potatoes--crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, seasoned with garlic and rosemary, delicious.
Theric got a slow braised pot roast with homemade buckwheat spaetzle and veggies. He liked it fine but wasn't overly impressed.  The roast was tender and flavorful, the veggies tasty. I thought the speatzle noodles were really delicious and kept stealing them off of his plate. 

We did not order dessert, but the offerings were very tempting. 

The atmosphere at Rivoli is very nice. The back wall of the dinning room is all glass and looks out onto a pretty garden filled with shade loving plants. The service was very attentive (my water was kept full, questions about dishes were answered in a friendly manner and they even brought us extra bread while we waited) and the presentation of each plate was lovely. Rivoli is fancier and far more expensive than most places we go out to--it would be a good place to go on a special occasion. 

Rivoli was very good, but, except for the portobello fritters, we were not overly impressed. We had high expectations and I would say that they were not met. Everything was very good, so I suppose the main problem was that Rivoli did not live up to their reputation. 

Theric's brief review: Everything we had at Rivoli was good but nothing we had at Rivoli convinced me it was worthy of being one of the Bay Area's top 100 restaurants. It was all quite good, but not impressive or overly interesting. I didn't feel like I got my money's worth.

Places Eaten in brief review 2013

Gordo's : Still the best burrito.
Zachary's: Great pizza. Two X-large Zachary's were far more than our family needed. One had flat crust the other deep dish. We liked both.
Suzette:  Had savory crepes, which were fine but the dessert crepes were fantastic. If we go again we will skip the savory crepes and just get the dessert crepes.
Everest Cafe: Best service of anyone on Solano, they are so nice there! But the food was just ok.

Renee's Place

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We visited Renee's Place a couple weeks ago, a Chinese restaurant whose street vibe is quite different than your average Chinese place. This is what we ate:

Shanghai Juicy Steamed Buns
Delicate, steamed spoon-sized dumplings filled with broth and ground pork, served with Shanghai-style ginger-vinegar sauce.

These were tasty, served before our meal. As per usual, they were hot and I was hungry so while I can testify they were good, I can't say just how good because I tended to hot!hot!hot! them down my throat before my tongue was able to fully explore the offering.

Lion's Head
Pork meatballs lightly fried then steamed with ginger and scallions, reserved juice reduced over high flame, dressed over meatballs and a bed of spinach.

THIS WAS THE HIGHLIGHT OF OUR TRIP. I can't possibly hope to begin to express how delicious and flavorful and perfect these meatballs were. This are worth the trip to Renee's. Unquestionably the highlight of our visit. Buy three or four plates, methinks.

Stir-Fried Mixed Vegetables
Stir fried broccoli, snow peas, carrots, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, zucchini and Napa cabbage.

All the vegetables were good, but the mix and sauce and whatever were a bit unremarkable. Perhaps this means it was healthier? Who knows. Anyway, it was boring.

Iron Plate Beef
A combination of broccoli, mushroom, green onion, baby corn, stir-fried in black pepper and garlic sauce. Served on a heated iron plate with fresh julienned onions.

This is just what it says, and good, if a little dull. Much like the mixed vegetables in that way.

Steamed Organic Brown Rice

It was only half full and we resented how little rice this represented, but we changed our minds when we ran out just at the right time. Granted, this probably means we paved ourselves and thus ate less than rice than usual, but that's probably not a bad thing.

So it appears that pork is the way to go at Renee's. Definitely get some Lion's Head. What else you get is up to you, but I would recommend neither of our other two entrees. Try something else.

China Village

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We hit China Village with just our youngest (2) and oldest (8) and proceeded to order way too much food. Not knowing much about Szechuan food (and not knowing till just now, as we look at their website, that this is their specialty), we don't know if we ordered the Szechuany-enough stuff. Definitely the sweet-and-sour pork is not wildly different from any American Chinese place.

(Note on the website: the order of dishes and prices are not completely up to date on the menu.)

Anyway, with the water and tea (which smelled delicious but which we did not imbibe), pre-order we were given a kimchi-like cabbage-and-garlic dish. Spicy (but not terribly spicy) and quite sweet. Theric liked it. Lady Steed tried one piece. Baby Steed pushed a piece around his place. The Big O didn't try any.

Then, as noted above, we ordered way to much. One item off the menu will feed at least one and a third persons. Keep that in mind when ordering.

Sweet and Sour Pork with Pineapple $9.95

While typical, this was among the finest sweet-and-sour porks we've ever had. The Big O, this being his first time, fell deeply in love. As Lady Steed points out, this (and all the dishes below) lack that unpleasant overgreasiness common to many Chinese restaurants. She also claims the meal lacked added MSG, but Theric is skeptical of her ability to identify MSG.

XO Sauce Beef $10.95 ("XO is a slowly made, 20 ingredient sauce")

We picked this dish in part because we wanted to get at least one dish marked with a * signifying "Hot and Spicy"; it wasn't. This is particularly disappointing because the Michelin notation they've attached to the front of each menu begins by saying, "High tolerance for tongue-numbing, lip-scorching spice? China Village will happily oblige." So that was disappointing. The taste, however, was still excellent. Even Theric who does not eat mushrooms was stunned by the tastiness of the mushrooms. This was the only of the main dishes which we finished at the restaurant.

One note: As with the pork (above, and the noodles below), the cuts were not what 2012 white Americans like ourselves consider the best cuts. Read: lots of fat and gristle as a percentage of the whole. If that's your thing. (The snappy pea pods and zucchini made up for this some.)

Mandarin Deluxe Pan Fried Noodles $9.95

We got it with chicken which, being a bird, made for a nice touch as the stiff fried noodles looked a bit like the sort of twiggery another type of bird might use to make a nest. So a nice nest filled with greens and sauce and chunks of bird made for a lovely presentation. And a tasty one. Sections were delightfully gingery, but poor Lady Steed did not get any of those sections and found the whole a little lackluster.

Classic Fried Rice with . . . vegetables $7.95

This is was the baby went to town on. Lady Steed calls it perhaps the best fried rice she's ever had (perhaps, she notes, because it was brown?). And it was a giant heaping mound; no risk of running out of this stuff. Theric appreciated the eggs which we done just as he likes. Lady Steed liked the actual, visible hunks of vegetables.

Shrimp Dumpling (4 PC) $4.95

Bought because Big O loves shrimp, he ate two lickety split. Baby Steed ate a third; Theric and Lady Steed split the last. Theric was the least impressed. Lady Steed liked them well enough. Big O said not the best shrimp he'd ever had. The baby did not verbalize his opinion, but did eat the whole thing during a meal in which he refused to otherwise eat anything but rice. So that sounds like an endorsement.

In the end, we brought home a lot of rice and pork and noodles and spent almost sixty dollars. If we go again, we're definitely ordering less. Substantially less. But if we're looking for higher-end Chinese, China Village will be on the short list.

Gordo's

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So I had a chicken super burrito. I was ill at the time, so this review may be suspect, but it was good but not as great as the carne asada.

Ajanta

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We went to Ajanta back on December 2, but it's taken us a while to finally get around to writing it up. Forgive us if the details seem a bit sketchy at this remove.

We went on a Friday night and had a reservation right at the opening moment. Based on my observations, I don't think a reservation had been really necessary, but using OpenTable is a breeze (and, as of this writing, all tables are filled for the rest of the evening), so you might as well make sure you're in.

As an appetizer, we had the "TANDOORI CHICKEN CHAAT: Chicken pieces marinated, grilled in tandoor oven, shredded and then tossed with oil, lime juice, red onions, cilantro, ginger, and spices" ($6). This was the most attractively-plated Indian food I think I've ever been served. I mean---generally, plating consists of limiting the inherent unpleasantness of most Indian food's appearance. Not so here. Plus it tasted good. I could have gone for another stick or two of chicken, but so it goes.

We began also with "MANGO LASSI: Made with mango pulp and yogurt" ($3.50). Delicious.

As for our dinners . . . :

Dinners are served with Basmati rice, a side dish of spinach and potatoes (with non-veg dinners) or chickpeas (with vegetarian dinners), half of a naan bread, chutneys, and pickles. Dinners are served in a way that allows you to share dishes. A La Carte dishes are served with rice. Brown Basmati rice is available for $0.50 extra. Dishes can be ordered very mild, mild/low medium, medium, high medium or hot.

"TANDOORI BATERA (QUAILS): Semi-boneless quails, skin removed, marinated in yogurt, ginger, garlic, and spices, cooked in tandoor oven and served on a sizzling platter (Punjab)" ($17)

"ROGAN JOSH: Boneless cubed leg of lamb cooked in a sauce made with tomatoes, yogurt, ginger, Kashmiri Deghi chiles, garlic, onions, and spices, including paprika and turmeric (North India)"
($17)

Theric had the quails and Lady Steed the lamb. The quails were good of course but, darn quails, "semi-boneless" just meant the itty-bitty bones were gone. The little bones were still there. One exposed leg bone had turned completely to ash in the oven which was kind of awesome. The meat was delicious though.

The sides were interesting. Some good, some not, all conversational. The spinach thing Lady Steed loved, but Theric only loved for the first bite or two. He got over it pretty quickly. The naan was big enough but nowhere near too much.

As I look at the description of rogan josh, I'm just not convinced that's what Lady Steed ordered. The gentleman behind the counter was kind enough to make us a copy of our ticket and it's clear that unless there was another "Rogan" on the printed menu (but lacking from the online menu), that's what it was. So . . . she'll tell you about it in the comments . . . .







KHEER: Indian rice pudding (listed as $4.50 on the website, but we were actually charged $5)

Cugini

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Lady Steed ordered Ravioli ($10), "ricotta filled. served with creamy pesto or tomato sauce. I took the Fettuccini Alfredo ($11), "grilled chicken breast, homemade creamy alfredo." I only had two bites of Lady Steed's, so my only real impression is the overwhelming one of Holy cow! they use really fresh tomatoes! (Check the comments for her additions.) As for mine, the sauce was unremarkable but very good. The chicken however was remarkable in every way. The finest chicken I can remember eating in ages. It's amazing what a bit of grilling can do. And when done perfectly? Amazing! Utterly delicious.

We also shared a Pizza Margherita ($9), "tomato sauce, mozzarella, fresh tomatoes, garlic, basil." And it may be the first time in my life that when my tongue touched the bottom of the crust I was thrilled by the flavor. Sure, it was probably just oil, but it was delicious. (As were the noncrust portions of the pizza as well.)

My main beef with (good) Italian food is that I get too excited and eat it too fast. No matter how I try to slow down, I end up swallowing rather than savoring.

I'm pleased to have found a fine and reasonably priced Italian place within walking distance. And that does not require as much reservation-planning as a certain other Solano Italian restaurant we haven't managed to get to yet . . . .

Kim's vietnamese sandwiches (redux!)

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The Big O and I (Theric) swung by today to get a couple sandwiches which we took home, cut in half, and shared for a snack. We picked up a Curry Chicken and a Lemongrass Chicken and, just like last time, the people were delightful and the food was a total mouth party.

You gotta go.

Rendez-Vous Cafe Bistro

. We actually have a history with Rendez-Vous Cafe Bistro. We went there on Valentine's Day 2009. Lady Steed was pregnant and as we sat there, sipping water, wondering if we would ever see a waiter, she looked over the menu and realized she couldn't eat anything thereon. So we left and went to Denny's instead. Which, as it ends up, was exactly what she wanted. But we finally returned! I ordered a steak (perfectly cooked) with fries (crisp-as-class outside with hot-mush insides) and Lady Steed had a croque-monsieur (she loved the béchamel sauce but was otherwise underwhelmed), and we shared a side of ratatouille. Including the tip, we spent $40 even. And we didn't feel like the price matched what we got. Of course, yes, we are cheap, but remember: we spent seven times that at Chez Panisse and felt it was money well spent. So it's not just that we're cheap that's the problem. It might also be that we have unfairly high standards. Anyway. Good steak. Good fries. I would definitely eat that again. Ratatouille is really just my aunt's goulash without the macaroni and hamburger. Lady's Steed's sandwich was pretty good but a little lacking in meat and the tomatoes were unimpressive. But we arrived right as the opened and the staff was great and the atmosphere was pleasant etc. Weigh those data as you will.

Bowl'd

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Bowl'd is the buzzy new Korean restaurant near Santa Fe we've been hearing about and anxious to try.

(Aside: still not clear whether or not Shik Do Rok is out of business now or simply remodeling.)

We went, just (again) Lady Steed, and Little Lord Steed and I. First, the place is expensive. Not for a restaurant, really, but compared to how expensive my soul believes Korean food should be. The idea of paying twelve bucks for kimchi chigae is highly unsettling.

On the other hand, this was genuinely fabulous kimchi chigae. I loved it. It was delicious, served at just the right temperature (still boiling), and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I had it with beef, but you could get it with pork or no meat at all.

Lady Steed had a bibimbop (basically, tons of tasty ingredients in a hot bowl that cooks them up as you stir) and enjoyed it plenty. I had a taste and I'm glad I didn't order it. Bibimpops are great and all --- I often recommend them to Korean-food neophytes --- but there's something about them that makes me sick of them after about three bites. I don't know what it is. But there's so much else Korean food that I love that I just don't think about it anymore.

For LLS, we got some japchae, those clear noodles that are probably the single easiest Korean food for an American to love. He enjoyed it, but didn't really eat much. 'Tsokay. More for me and the lady.

One last note: the barley tea. Just as it should be. Although I should really ask if they keep any at room temperature or chilled because I always wait for it to cool anyway and I hate waiting.

In the end, Bowl'd is, as rumored, excellent Korean food. If it cost about 20% less I would want to go there all the time. As it is, once you add in the tip, this meal cost us over forty bucks which is too much for poor us. A shame. Because I'm anxious to return.

Sandwiches and yogurt: Zarri's Delicatessen Kim's Cafe Solano Yogurt & Ice Cream

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Zarri's

Little Lord Steed and I took a long walk today and not long after we started I realized that I hadn't had breakfast and now it was lunch time. So we stopped at Zarri's which is supposed to have Solano's best sandwiches.

Instead of ordering off the regular menu I ordered today's special, a tri-tip sandwich for $5.50. On the man-behind-the-counter's recommendation I took it on sourdough and it was delicious if not transcendent. But eating it reminded me that I had had their poor boy before when my boss bought me one. That also was good but not transcendent. In both cases, however, the sandwiches left me with the belief that transcendence is possible from this place. I'm all for ordering more sandwiches from Zarri's.

Also, the deli's just cool. And their prices on sliced meats and cheeses are reasonable, so one could certainly order their make-at-home sandwich fixins at Zarri's as well.

Cash, debit, or local check only.


Kim's

For dinner, Lady Steed, Little Lord Steed and I decided to hit up Kim's Cafe, which I think is the newest restaurant on Solano (Patch article). Lynsey was excited about having Vietnamese sandwiches as This American Life just replayed their episode that talks about them on Saturday.

We arrived about ten or fifteen minutes before they closed. The place was empty but charming and the woman who runs it was supernice. She warned us against ordering one of the sandwiches (she's about to replace it with something better) and gave Little Lord Steed a free length of baguette (the same length as the sandwiches ordered by the grownups) with their "homemade butter".

Lady Steed ordered the Lemongrass Chicken and I the Black Pepper Pork. Both were great. Both came with green onions and (pickled?) shredded carrot and cilantro and some pepper (Lady Steed says jalapeno; I don't think it was hot enough to be that) and were terrific and crazy cheap (at least compared to Zarri's). We spent $7 total (another nice thing: the tax is built into the price).

We'll definitely go here again. The price-to-fun-and-flavor ratio is unbeatable. Check it out. We need to keep this family in business. Best customer service I can recall in ages. I mean --- a free sandwich for the baby? That's crazy!

. . . and yogurt

I think we've never been here before simply because the signage is so forgettable. Apparently it's an old neighborhood standby, but I've barely been aware of it.

We walked here after eating our Kim's sandwiches in front of Flowerland (LLS though, instead of eating, threw his tennis ball around and generally laughed himself silly until his ball rolled under their closed gate and disappeared from view) and the service here was just as friendly and likable as Kim's, even if they didn't give us any free food. We came with the specific plan to eat yogurt and she let us try the most interesting sounding flavors (Valencia Orange and White Chocolate & Macademia), both of which were sugarfree. (Note that all the yogurt is softserv and all the ice cream is in barrels.) The WC&M was terrific and so we got a medium cup for the three of us to share and we were plenty satisfied.

Like Kim's, the tastiness is cheaper here than at its Solano competition.

Nature's Express

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We took the boys here today for some vegan fare and I'm happy to say that we enjoyed our food quite a bit. And given the nature of eating out with our kids, everyone got to try everything. I ordered a burger (Southwest / Spicy Black Bean / / Whole Wheat). Delicious. The patty lost its form as I ate and started to squish out the sides, but that was okay. Would've been perfectly okay had I not been sharing with people too young to adapt to shape-shifting food.

Lynsey got the quinoa wrap which tasted like fresh air. (Why is it that ginger has that effect?) The quinoa was just right and the veggies perfect and the whole effect was on spot. The Big O and Large S both said they want this next time we come. (And mine the time after that.)

The Big O ordered the Spicy Rizo burrito which was spicier than expected (which meant Large S didn't eat much of it) but O said his mouth got used to it as he ate and that it was delicious.

Large S ate the Grilled Mac & Cheese which was a good example of restaurant mac and cheese. S was particularly taken with the shredded carrots on top.

We also ordered the Air-Baked Sweet Potato Fries which were the only thing Little Lord Steed even touched. They were good. I suppose the better examples I've had were probably fried. The house ketchup tastes like fresh tomatoes. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

So good vegan cuisine. Check it out. We all enjoyed our food.

(Note: Because the boys were with us we didn't try out any of their exotic sodas, but I hope to sometime. I can't believe I've never had a rhubarb soda before!)

Kathmandu Restaurant

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Something about this restaurant's awning has always caught my eye. Not sure what. It's just black and white. But it's still taken us this long to get to it.

=====================DIGRESSION===============

We're experiencing a bit of Solano fatigue. If you eat out as much as most Americans and you see, by looking over this blog, how rarely we eat out, this might amaze you. But it's true. Part of the issue is we don't like to feed our kids at restaurant prices so we generally go when the older two are visiting grandparents. But that still leaves us with the baby and come dinner time, not too many places we want to take that guy.

Solano does still have some places we're anxious to try, but when will we go? Keep in mind, we've never paid for babysitting in almost eight years of parenting. We're not good at this going-out stuff.

And so we have to do takeout which mostly means, if we're going somewhere new, Asian. And while, sure, Thai and Chinese and Nepalese and Vietnamese and Japanese foods are distinct and certainly not identical, they do have certain similarities and we are, as stated, experiencing fatigue.

Just, you know, in the interests of full disclosure. Back to Kathmandu.

=================END=DIGRESSION===============

Reading the reviews on the wall as I waited for our order, I think we might have been best off just ordering a plethora of appetizers. But I guess we'll never know now.

We bought two entrees:

Luksha Shamdeh:

Tibetan style lamb curry; lamb marinated in yogurt and spices cooked with potatoes & herbs.

Kathmandu Specialty:

Thick curry of nineteen varieties of beans cooked in fresh tomato, cilantro, ginger, garlic, and green onions.

Sounds great! And it was all well made, textures were good. Flavors were a bit bland. And, you'll be surprised to hear this having read the description, the two dishes were pretty similar in taste. Weird, right? But true. The flavors lacked strength, interest, personality. And all we really want when we check out a new nation's cuisine is a surprising new mix of flavors. Kathmandu did not deliver on this point.

The place was nice and I would recommend eating in. The couple that runs the place were clearly kind and good people. Just, before you order, ask them what on the menu will offer a surprise. Then order that.

(menu; believe the prices are out-of-date)

Little Star Pizza

.

It's actually been about a month since we visited Little Star so this review may be a bit imprecise. In brief, we had a Groupon so our goal was to hit a certain dollar amount as closely as possible. We ordered two personal pizzas and garlic bread. Let's talk about the garlic bread first while Lady Steed runs off to see if she remembers where she put the just-recovered receipt.

Garlic bread

Surprisingly boring. The plating was great. Bread sliced through to the bottom crust (maybe a third of a loaf or half of a small loaf) and then near-liquid butter and a head of roasted garlic. So it was fun to take a knife and spread the butter and pop out the garlic cloves and spread them over the toasted bread, but, sadly, the overall taste effect was disappointing. Sounds great though, right? Order it and you'll see it and think delicious (I did; Lady Steed was more appalled by the amount of bread). But we almost didn't finish. If the pizza had come out quicker, we wouldn't have. Lady Steed stopped eating it well before I did.

And we're bigtime garlic aficionados!

$5

Deep-dish personal pizza

Don't quite remember what was on this. Artichoke hearts? Olives? I think it was Greek-themed. Let's see if their website will help out.

Found it!

Mediterranean Chicken – Chicken breast, artichoke hearts, red bells, green olives, onions, feta $18.50 / $23.50

For $18.50? Crazy. A nice pizza. I'm a little mystified at the awards they win. I mean --- it was good but the best of the Bay? And twenty bucks for something so tiny? Were it not for the Groupon, I would feel robbed. Lady Steed feels robbed anyway.

White Pie – Garlic olive oil base, mozzarella, roasted zucchini, fresh tomatoes, feta $17.50 / $22 (actually ten dollars because we went at lunch)

Here's the thing. The ingredients were fresh, the pizzas were good. But we didn't leave feeling like it was money well spent. Unlike, say Chez Panisse, which was much more expensive, but transcendent and worthy of the outlay.

Conclusion

So if you're a pizza snob and need to try them all cost-no-object, then definitely go. It's good. If you hate being bled, perhaps you should stay away.

The space is cool, service was great, pizza was good, garlic bread was weak, all a bit expensive.

I don't think we'll be back.

Too bad.