Having just moved to this area, I was wondering what recommendations people had for various eateries? I've already been advised to give up on finding a NY/Jewish style deli, but have been consoling myself with the chicken/apple sausage hotdogs at HubCaps in Walnut Creek. (Not a substitute, but acceptably low-priced and quite tasty) Also looking for ethnic food supplies? (Asian markets, Middle Eastern or Indian markets) Eagerly awaiting your replies. Kat Tanaka [email removed]
San Francisco Bay Area, CA
Recommendations? (Walnut Creek/PH)
Brent V. wrote: > Having just moved to this area, I was wondering what recommendations > people had for various eateries? > Spiedini - Good Northern Italian Food. Mai Thai (sp?) on Main street - Decent Thai food. Rotisseria on Main - Good rotissery chicken and Cal. type cuisine. Genova Dellicatesen - Decent sandwitches and Italian deli items. > I've already been advised to give up on finding a NY/Jewish style deli, > but have been consoling myself with the chicken/apple sausage hotdogs > at HubCaps in Walnut Creek. (Not a substitute, but acceptably low-priced > and quite tasty) > Max's on California - Good pastrami, corn beef, etc. Not real NY/Jewish. > Also looking for ethnic food supplies? (Asian markets, Middle Eastern or > Indian markets) > I haven't been able to find any, so I do all of that shopping in either Berkely or Oakland's Chinatown.
Brent V. wrote: >Also looking for ethnic food supplies? (Asian markets, Middle Eastern or >Indian markets) There is a new Chinese grocery on Woodsworth in Pleasant Hill just off Contra Costa Blvd. just north of the PH Post Office. Just beyond that (West) is the Thai Palace which I think is the best Thai restaurant in CC Cty (their Chinese broccoli is excellent and they don't use much oil). There is also a sorta traditional Chinese restaurant, Three Brothers from China in with the Post Office. Sangam (Indian) foods on COntra Costa Blvd. at the south end (by 680 on ramp and the bowling alley) has an excellent selection of rices, grains, pulses, and Indian TV dinners. Good place for lentils and Basmati rice. I think there are Vietnamese and/or Thai groceries in Concord, west from Willow Pass by Todos Santos Park. Good expensive Vietnamese restaurant there, Yvone Thi's. There is also Thai Village restaurant on Gregory Lane at Pleasant Hill Road (way up the hill away from 680). It's good but I don't think it's as good as Thai Palace. I would like to find some good middle eastern. I go way over to Pinole to Afghan Cuisine and to Berkeley for Ethiopean food. CC Cty is pretty sparse in that category. Harvest House, way out on Monument toward Concord BART from PH is not really ethnic but they have lots of weird foodstuffs in bulk in huge barrels. Every kind of grain you can imagine. I think I bought some teff there and I regularly buy flax seeds (linseed) at a very reasonable price. Would like to find somewhere to buy more Chinese veggies. They didn't have Chinese Broccoli (forgot its name) at the new CHinese grocery in Pleasant Hill. >Eagerly awaiting your replies. >Kat Tanaka >[email removed]
Someone wrote:
: Having just moved to this area, I was wondering what recommendations : people had for various eateries?
Here's some Walnut Creek suggestions:
Fabulous Pasta -
Pasta Primavera - North Main and Treat
Magic Garlic (across the street)
Home-style Italian
Salerno's - Countrywood Shopping Center
North Broadway across from Post Office
Chinese -
Wan Fu - Broadway 2 blks north of Mt. Diablo
Sports, Dogs and *Great* Beer
Stadium Bar - Lincoln between Main and Broadway Downtown
Japanese (dinner and *breakfast* on Sundays!) -
Main Street Cafe - North Main Street across from
Bank of America main branch.
You can't really go wrong with eating your way up and down Main street (See you Sunday morning at Main Street Cafe).
: Also looking for ethnic food supplies? (Asian markets, Middle Eastern or : Indian markets)
Asian (Chinese, Japanese and Korean) -
Someone else mentioned the asian food place on Main Street. There's another tucked in the back of the Lucky shopping center at Treat and Oak Grove.
Indian supermarket -
Ansam (sp?), Contra Costa Boulevard, just before it becomes an on-ramp to 680 southbound, right across from the Crossings office complex.
: Eagerly awaiting your replies.
: Kat Tanaka
: [email removed]
Hope this helps,Dick W. wrote: >I would like to find some good middle eastern. I go way over to Pinole >to Afghan Cuisine and to Berkeley for Ethiopean food. CC Cty is pretty >sparse in that category. How timely. Recently I spoke with someone who works in Concord and they gave me the name of what they described as a local Afgan place: Mediterranean Caffe. I called and asked a few questions on the phone. They described their cuisine as "eastern Mediterranean and southwest Asian." From that description, I was a little concerned that maybe they were into "marketing" rather than food, but we went. And were we glad! It was excellent. My wife's summary was that it is at the top of her list, as one of her two favorite restaurants of all the ones that we go to. I'm not quite ready to make that statement based on only one visit, but I enjoyed it very much too. The first time you go into a restaurant you kind of throw darts at the menu, and you can be either lucky or unlucky in your choices, which results in those very different reviews from different people. Whether or not all (or most) of the items on the menu are this good, I don't know. But my wife is determined to find out. As my wife and I "negotiated" what each of us would order (since we share everything, the other person gets a little input into the other person's order), she selected a pumpkin dish as an appetizer. Now, I tend more to, ummm, "hearty" type foods. I couldn't talk her out of it, so that was the appetizer. And it turned out to be fantastic. Cresent moon shaped slices of pumpkin with a wonderful sauce. Very unusual, *very* good. We had the Mediterranean bean salad also. Several types of beans (e.g., garbanzo, etc.) with a dressing that was wonderful, on a bed of whole leaf lettuce. We both said that we've got to figure out how to make that dressing. The lentil based soup was excellent. And they served what is apparently a traditional Afgan bread with a garbanzo bean based dip. All wonderful. One of our entrees was a chicken dish in a spinach or cilantro sauce. What's the Indian dish with lamb and spinach, saag gosht? Kind of like that, except chicken. It was a whole chicken breast, pounded flat, served in a yogurt and cilantro sauce. Excellent. The other entree was lamb meatballs in a curry sauce. Not as good as the chicken dish, but good. Sauteed vegetables and saffron rice were served with the entrees. For dessert, we had the ice cream - a french vanilla bean ice cream mixed with rose water and pistachio nuts. A great ending to a great meal. They were not particularly busy, no doubt because of their slightly remote location (quite a ways east of 680). It's a bit of a drive, but well worth it. Both Ignacio Valley and Treat run east from 680. They are on Clayton Road between Ignacio Valley and Treat (on the west side of the street). This is one of those places that you hope has enough business to stay open, because the food is fabulous. It would be a shame if the location killed it. The information on the menu says: Mediterranean Caffe 4710 Clayton Road Concord, CA 510-825-6663 Open for dinner Tuesday through Saturday 5:30 - 9:00
It's encouraging to think there might be another good Afghan restaurant around here (since I don't include Kabul in the "good" category). Here's a reprint of my recommendation for an outstanding one in San Francisco:
The Helmand Broadway near Montgomery St., San Francisco (North Beach)
The best rack of lamb available outside of my house,
plus excellent aush and aushok and fresh bakhlava.
Patricia Untermann gave it four stars; old Afghan hands
described it to me as "the best Afghan restaurant inside
or outside the country." If you think someplace like
Kabul is even passable, do yourself a favor: this is in
a completely different league in every respect except
price. Service can be spotty, but the wine list is good,
especially if they've restocked the Sonoma County Petite
Sirahs and Zinfandels from Trentadue. Validated parking
down the block.
Also, since Larry mentioned that interesting bread + dip, another great place to try, although it's Iraqi, not Afghani, is:
Ya-Ya 9th Ave. near Lincoln Way (GG Park), San Francisco
Currently soft-pedalled as "food of Mesopotamia",
the food and atmosphere at Ya-Ya are both remarkable.
Highly-recommended: Lamb Biriani, pieces of lamb
(shank?) served with rice pilaf, potatoes, exquisite
and delicate seasoning, over a plate of kashk sauce;
also, Perdaplauw (sp?), a nicely seasoned chicken and
rice dish with raisins, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves,
etc., baked in a cylinder of phyllo dough and served
over one of those fresh raspberry sauces with an
intense flavor that jumps off the plate at you. Good
service, ethnic decor, very reasonable prices, good
wine list.