If you haven’t been, La Note is a cute French bistro restaurant right on Shattuck in Berkeley. It’s very cute inside, french, homey and rustic and the food is always good.

We waited for 20 minutes and they sat us at the first 2-top table right inside the door… there was a few open ones farther back, I thought we would get one of those… ugh. They usually play French music… it was turned off or so low you couldn’t hear it.

Homemade jam on the table.

Here’s the menu.

The wall inside as you walk in.

Closeup of the menu. I ordered the Omelette fromage et jambon (ham and cheese omelette).

Wall of awards.

Unfortunately this is where things turn for the worse… just before we got our food, we were approached by the hostess who asked if we wouldn’t mind switching tables before our food came out so that they could use our table to help seat a party of 5 faster. I scanned the restaurant and saw a few open tables near the back, so we said ok and got up and moved. They freakin sat us at the worst table in the dining room – it basically was right in the walkway of where the servers get the food, right across from the entrance to the patio area (which we were told was closed, but then they started seating people out there early). Our table was in a really dark area, in the line of traffic… next to a column, kind of protruding out into the walkway. We felt like we were in the way, and they should seriously reconsider the location of that table, because it’s in a very awkward place.

So, our food came out. It was really good… here’s the ham and cheese omelette, it’s always my go-to item at La Note. They slice the ham up really small and thin which I appreciate a lot, and the cheese is emmenthal, which is creamy and mild. The eggs are buttery and rich and you definitely leave feeling very full. The potatoes are roasted with garlic and includes whole cloves, yum!

The photos below look bright because I brightened them.

Closeup of the ham and cheese omelette and roasted potatoes. Oh, and the butter is soft which is nice and easy to spread.

We were a little disappointed with the grapefruit because it was literally just a grapefruit sliced in half… really hard to eat with a spoon. You know how it goes when you try to spoon a grapefruit, squirting out all over the place… In the past, whoever was back there prepping used to loosen the fruit from the skin so it was easy to scoop out with a spoon, which was nice… oh well.

The table location was really a bummer this trip. You can kind of see how close it is to the door… There is a bench right behind me, about a foot of space behind my chair.

So, if you don’t mind waiting, go whenever… but for the best experience, go as early as possible. I do recommend going to La Note if you haven’t been before, the food is good, just try to manage your expectations when it comes to waiting because it can get crazy. They say the patio doesn’t open until 10am but the day we were there it opened around 9:25am. Sitting out on the patio on a nice day is the best… highly recommend.

La Note
2377 Shattuck Ave
Berkeley, CA 94704
www.lanoterestaurant.com

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Note, Mama’s is CASH ONLY. They do have an ATM machine there in case you forget cash…

Since we arrived early (about 7:30am), the place was pretty empty so we got a booth, woo hoo! Here’s a tight shot of the room with the booths. There are aprons hanging all over the walls.

When’s the last time you saw a restaurant jukebox? Here you go… they don’t work but they’re nice to look at. People have carved their names and messages in the booths.

I ordered the Combo breakfast which includes 2 buttermilk pancakes, bacon, and an egg (I ordered over-medium). It does not come with toast so I had to order that separate.  The pancakes are freaking awesome. I’m not really the type to order pancakes or waffles or any sweet things for breakfast (unless I’m at Perkin’s bc I love their apricot syrup, lol)…. but I was in the mood for pancakes – and the bacon adds a nice salty touch. You know, a bite of pancakes, a bite of bacon…. until it’s gone.

I love these pancakes and bacon!! The pancakes are light and fluffy and absolutely perfect.

This is the view from our booth…

Here’s the main room that you enter when you walk into the restaurant.

On your way out, look up and you’ll see a bunch of strange masks and a giant coffee cup, lol.

Here’s the outside of Mama’s.

All in all, Mama’s is great for breakfast. I highly recommend their pancakes and bacon, soooo good! Very satisfying.  Just don’t forget to bring cash, and get their early if you don’t want to wait 2309485743w587 minutes in line.

Mama’s Royal Cafe
4012 Broadway
Oakland, CA 94611
www.mamasroyaloakland.com

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Two days later I found myself at Rustic Bakery. There are two locations – one is in the Marin Country Mart at Larkspur Landing, a nice little cluster of shops and restaurants in Marin, right on the other side of the Richmond Bridge. I freaking love this place. You really can’t go wrong with anything you order here, the pastries are fantastic and seriously rival the very best ones in Paris (I’m not kidding).

Here’s the outside. Larkspur Landing is great and very family-friendly. You can always find plenty of dogs and strollers… lol. Rustic Bakery is tucked inside the mart, on the 24-hour fitness side, straight through past the Starbucks.

Here’s the sign outside. They serve Stumptown Coffee at Rustic Bakery.  Stumptown is a craft coffee from Portland, OR.

Here is the inside of Rustic Bakery. I was surprised it wasn’t more crowded… Actually, right after I took this photo a bunch of people came in right behind me… agh, the pressure!

Some of the yummy offerings… so hard to choose!  I’ve eaten every single pastry at Rustic Bakery at one time or another. Today, however, we will be focusing on their brightest shining star, the ham and cheese croissant.

I also ordered a latte… here’s they are making it.

Oh happy day! Here’s the glorious ham and cheese croissant. Notice the cheese baked into the dough… the golden flakey crust… I can’t even begin to describe how delicious this is. I’ve eaten a lot of ham and cheese croissants in my life and I have to say that this one is by far, the very BEST.  This is the flakiest and butteriest croissant you’ll ever have – the ham is folded neatly inside, it’s real cheesy and crumbs will be everywhere.

I just visited Paris last September and of course I ate croissants everyday, but in the back of my mind I was always thinking of the croissants from Rustic Bakery.  You may be thinking, “WHAT?! Paris is the the world’s croissant kingdom! How dare you!” Well, I’m serious, and if you doubt me, you need to go and try one yourself.

When you order the ham and cheese croissant, you need to decide if you want to eat it room temperature or warmed up.  If you get there early enough you may even get a fresh hot one… this has only happened to me once and it was amazing… If you have a toaster oven nearby, I highly recommend heating it up for a few minutes before you eat it, you won’t be disappointed. Microwaving it is good too, it warms it nicely, but it also kind of loses the flakiness, which is this croissant’s greatest asset.

So beautiful…

And this is funny because my name is Kira… lol.

So are you ready? …Do it!

Rustic Bakery
Larkspur Landing
2017 Larkspur Landing Cir
Larkspur, CA 94939
www.rusticbakery.com

Feed Shark

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Like clockwork, I usually order the same thing when I go to this restaurant, and I always have the same reaction (I don’t know what’s wrong with me). I order the chilaquiles verde, because I really like the sauce and I love how they serve scrambled eggs on top, but i can’t stand how soggy they are! I swear I’ve ordered them before and the chips were crunchier, or maybe my particular dish on this particular day sat under a heatlamp for too long, but really, they were very soggy and I could not finish them. This is consistent though, it’s nothing new – they are always like this, so just be warned!

I think in the back of my mind I have an inner ray of hope that they will arrive on the crunchier side, since I really like their regular tortilla chips, but perhaps the authentic way to serve them is soft and floppy? Please, someone tell me so I can manage my expectations and order something else next time I go there!

Above is the menu in all its glory! Below is my dish, as it looks after it arrived at my table.

Very beautiful placement and food styling… love the avocado and the layers. The tortilla chips (should I call them chips or just tortilla triangles?) are tossed in green verde sauce which is tangy and has a spicy bite (not too hot).  The eggs are fluffy and make this dish an awesome breakfast meal.

Oh no, my ultimate soggy nightmare. I can’t even… sorry. I love this place, I really do – they have bomb ass margaritas and drinks, the dinner entrees are fantastic – and this dish is delicious minus the sogginess of the tortillas. So please, for the love of gods, be warned if you order this dish because the tortillas are NOT crunchy and crispy – they are soggy and they will flop on your fork.

If you’re in Berkeley, I highly recommend a trip to Doña Tomás’ sister restaurant, Tacubaya, which is more in the style of a tacqueria. I always appreciate their awwesome crunchy salty homemade tortilla chips!

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There are  teacups hanging along the wall…

I decided to order a custom omelette today – spinach and feta. I always thought that spinach and feta was a standard omelette combination, but apparently I was wrong… on the menu they have a spinach and jack but no feta.  I credit this way of thinking to being from the East Coast where most of the diners are owned by Greek people.  I miss east coast diners.

The omelette was good. A little too much feta but it was tasty and very filling.

I have to be honest… like this place, but I don’t LOVE it. It’s not a place I necessarily crave, but I don’t mind eating there, mostly because there’s not really anywhere else to eat in our neighborhood and it’s good just not great (but alot of people really love it, don’t get me wrong).

My main qualm is that they serve breakfast potatoes and they don’t have hashed browns (unfortunately not many places do in the bay area). That’s really it. I’m a hashed brown snob.

Disclaimer: this place gets crowded. If you don’t want to wait forever, go early in the morning before 9am.

Mama’s Royal Cafe
4012 Broadway
Oakland, CA 94611

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farmer’s scramble 9.35
with chard, caramelized onions, bacon, potatoes and cheddar cheese

This is one of those places where you order first and then they give you a number and then you sit down and they bring the food to you.  There was a white barking dog on the patio above the restaurant and some really bad fist pumping techno music blasting out of the windows which was kind of annoying… but the racket seemed to dissipate once the food was delivered and it looked GREAT.

I was pleasantly surprised with this scramble.  It was extremely flavorful and there was the perfect proportion of egg with the other ingredients (bacon, caramelized onion, chard, potatoes).  The sweetness of the onions went really well with the salty bacon and the chard added a nice extra leafy bite.  The scramble was also nice and hot.  It’s so annoying when you go somewhere for eggs and they come out warm but not hot – not this place.  This whole scramble was nice and super warm/hot not scalding, you could tell it was delivered straight from the kitchen, no warming lamps on this plate!  The scramble even stayed warm through the last bite, I really enjoyed this meal and would definitely order it again!!  It was the perfect amount of food, I left feeling comfortably full.

Mixing Bowl
4920 Telegraph Ave.
Oakland, CA 94609
(510) 655-5630
www.mixingbowloakland.com

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I ordered the Short Rib Hash ($15) and side of Breakfast Potatoes ($3) because I was HUNGRY!!!  Oh, and a GIANT Pomegranate/Grapefruit mimosa.

Here’s the description of the hash:

Braised Prather Ranch short rib hash, brussel sprouts, sweet potatoes, golden yams, 2 eggs, horseradish, creme fraiche, au jus

When my dish came, I was very surprised.  I guess in my head I was envisioning a big plate of hash – lots of veggies, potatoes/etc with bits of short rib… you know, like corned beef hash but with short rib.  This dish was definitely a very modern interpretation – everything was purposefully placed, it looked so delicate and neat (see below).  After a half of a nanosecond I got over my “non-hash” surprise and broke the egg yolks and started mixing everything around. No time to eat like a sophisticated human being after waiting over an hour… lol.  This freaking dish was so AWESOME my plate was cleaned and wiped dry within minutes.

I ended up glopping forkfuls of the short rib and eggs onto the bread and eating it that way.  The (Acme) bread didn’t last long… then I ended up dipping my potatoes in it.  Overall the dish was very excellent.  So good that there was not even any liquid left in the bottom of the plate/bowl.  The meat was tender and juicy and a little bit smokey, just perfect!  I admit I was disappointed there weren’t more potatoes/veggies since it was supposed to be a hash… only got 1/2 piece of 1 brussel sprout (cut into 2 pieces), 2 tiny cubes of sweet potato and some onions.  Oh well.  It was good anyway, hehe.

The breakfast potatoes: these potatoes were A-MAZING!!!  I accidentally yelled “OMG!” after I took the first bite!!  They were crispy and hot and salty, buttery with dill sprinkled around.  The crispiness of these potatoes were what made them amazing and addictive! I didn’t care that I was already full from eating the entire bowl of short rib hash, I needed to finish this bowl of potatoes.  I swear to the gods I could eat a bowl of these potatoes at every meal for the rest of my life! And guess who much this bowl of potatoes cost? $3, yay!

Mission Beach Cafe

www.missionbeachcafesf.com

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The place was packed.  Luckily we got the last table and didn’t have to wait… I ordered the Bacon Scramble which was one of the specials for the day.  It came with home fries and a side of toast (sourdough).

The dish kind of threw me off guard but in an ok way… I was expecting more of just eggs scrambled around with bacon… this was more like a veggie omelet with bacon in it too… there were olives, peppers, green onion, tomatoes and avocado on top.  It was good but not what I expected.  Cost about $11.

My friend got the strawberry ricotta stuffed french toast (with 2 slices of bacon).  I took a bite and it was REALLY GOOD.  I’m not a huge french toast person but I would definitely go back to this place to get this dish.

719 Washington St
(between 7th St & 8th St)
Oakland, CA 94607
(510) 465-5400
www.cockadoodlecafe.com

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Anyway, everytime we go there on a Sunday when they have brunch I always order the same thing.  The Basil Pesto Tofu Scramble.  I can pretty much depend on this dish being pretty spot on each time – salty, pesto-y… the homefries are also pretty good although I usually add alot of salt… and the toast is pretty good too, usually pretty crunchy and sliced thick.

So there it is in all its glory… the scrambled tofu is the closest thing to eggs as you’ll get at Herbivore. All in all, this is a pretty good dish… so good in fact that I am afraid to venture off and try other things on the menu.

Just an FYI if you order coffee or a latte with your breakfast, they don’t have real milk or half and half.  It’s soy milk.  And they don’t have Splenda or sweet and low… only natural sugar and agave nectar.  They also don’t have coke or sprite or any of your favorite sodas.  Just San Pellegrino Aranciata and Limon and some other natural sodas… so don’t get your hopes up if you’re thirsting for a freakin Coke, you won’t get it.

Herbivore
2451 Shattuck Ave
Berkeley, CA 94704
(510) 665-1675
www.herbivorerestaurant.com

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HOLY CRAY to the 5th…. this place is AWESOME. It’s kind of fancy inside but don’t be fooled, you can be as dressy or casual as you want. There were people in jeans (including myself) and people semi-dressed up (after churchers). They were playing Barry White and Aretha Franklin… perfect!

I took one look at the menu and knew instantly what I would order: CHICKEN FRIED BENEDICT. I got a side of bacon too (applewood smoked) and Hav and I split an order of the beignets as a morning appetizer. I’m going to post the photo of the chicken fried benedict first, because I want that image to appear on the homepage…. lol.

NOTE: Bacon was extra… the dish doesn’t come with it, I just put it on the plate to make the plate look fuller. Basically, the dish is called “Chicken Fried Benedict”. It’s fried chicken (boneless) atop an English muffin, with a poached egg on top, covered in hollandaise sauce. They also give you a little side of their house special smokey hot sauce, mmm.

I’m not the hugest benedict person mainly because it’s too wet and mushy, but I decided to try this dish because the idea of juicy fried chicken in the morning sounded perfect. Let me tell you, this dish is AMAZING. Everything about it was awesome – I think the fried chicken really balanced out the soft liquidy/creaminess of the benedict. The hot sauce was also super yummy and it had the perfect ratio of heat to hotness to smokiness. My only suggestion would be to add toast or home fries or something else as a side item because I would’ve liked something to dip in the sauce.

Now check out the beignets:

The beinets were just simply to die for. They are soft and light and have a sweet sugary buttery flavor. The powdered sugar really give them an extra kick. They’re very rich for being so light… soooo good we even took the last one home!

Hav ordered grits with her meal. As much as I love corn, I’ve never really been a huge grits person – but the grits at Pican are seriously so good I would add them to my last meal list. These grits are so buttery and corny – you know what I mean! They have an extra kick of the corn flavor – salty, sweet and buttery corn. I was already stuffed from the chicken benedict and I couldn’t stop myself from eating these grits. I will definitely order a side for myself next time…. and had I known I was going to eat the grits I would’ve taken a photo of the dish without spoonmarks… sorry!

Lastly here’s a photo of my orange juice and latte. What a nice simple presentation!

Pican is A-CLASS… LOVE IT and can’t wait to go back and try something else!

Disco fries all the way baby!

2295 Broadway
(between Grand Ave & 23rd St)
Oakland, CA 94612
(510) 834-1000
www.picanrestaurant.com

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