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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