This is completely inexcusable - that I would go to Chez Panisse Cafe for lunch more than a month ago and not blog about it. It is just the cafe we are talking about, but still - it is associated with Alice Waters, the pioneer of Californian cuisine. Better late than never I guess, so I'm going o try my best to remember the fine nuances that make this restaurant and the food as famous as it is.
Chez Panisse Cafe is on the second floor of a beautiful house in Berkeley. The lower level houses the California landmark restaurant - Chez Panisse. Maybe I'll go there for a special dinner someday.. but on that Saturday it was the girls and me, mere mortals out for brunch at the cafe upstairs. According to Grace, Alice Waters herself showed us to our seats. I both want and don't want this to be true. Can you imagine meeting someone famous and not showing a glimmer of recognition or respect towards them? So, anyway, I had really high expectations of this place. the dinner menu looked scrumptuous, and had lots of veggie options, so I was looking for something similar with the lunch menu. I have to say, the lunch menu was not half as exciting as the dinner menu - there was nothing vegetarian, just one dish with poached eggs. So I ended up asking for the chicken pasta minus the chicken, of course the choices for the non-veg entrees were stellar, the meat tender and the vegetables all looked as fresh and organic as ever. We shared a baby romaine salad with avocados as an appetizer and that was delish!!
I guess I'm committing an act of blashpemy by even implying that my food that day was not the best - I wonder if I'm even allowed to think that. But, I'm going to attribute it to the fact that I imposed this bad food on myself by asking for a dish which was clearly designed to be a meat dish to be converted to one with vegetables. Thank God the menu keeps changing so I think the next time I will definitely be more than happy with my food. What was beyond any measure of greatness though was the dessert. Oh My God!!!! I wished that I had only eaten dessert for my entire meal. btw, a little bit of trivia - did you know that there is a restaurant in Barcelona where they serve only dessert, this is not a dessert shop, it's a restaurant where the actual dinner entrees are sweet. How awesome is that! Anyway, back to the dessert at Chez Panisse - we ordered two to share between the four of us - a chocolate brownie, and honey ice-cream with toasted figs. I almost can't complete writing this entry because my mind is stuck craving a bite of that ice-cream and figs.... waaah, I want! Oh well, I guess all good things must come to an end, and we literally licked off every last morsel of what was on the plate and headed out complete satiated (with me deciding that I couldn't wait to blog about this place and the dessert). And we all know how much I couldn't wait :)
Chez Panisse Cafe is on the second floor of a beautiful house in Berkeley. The lower level houses the California landmark restaurant - Chez Panisse. Maybe I'll go there for a special dinner someday.. but on that Saturday it was the girls and me, mere mortals out for brunch at the cafe upstairs. According to Grace, Alice Waters herself showed us to our seats. I both want and don't want this to be true. Can you imagine meeting someone famous and not showing a glimmer of recognition or respect towards them? So, anyway, I had really high expectations of this place. the dinner menu looked scrumptuous, and had lots of veggie options, so I was looking for something similar with the lunch menu. I have to say, the lunch menu was not half as exciting as the dinner menu - there was nothing vegetarian, just one dish with poached eggs. So I ended up asking for the chicken pasta minus the chicken, of course the choices for the non-veg entrees were stellar, the meat tender and the vegetables all looked as fresh and organic as ever. We shared a baby romaine salad with avocados as an appetizer and that was delish!!
I guess I'm committing an act of blashpemy by even implying that my food that day was not the best - I wonder if I'm even allowed to think that. But, I'm going to attribute it to the fact that I imposed this bad food on myself by asking for a dish which was clearly designed to be a meat dish to be converted to one with vegetables. Thank God the menu keeps changing so I think the next time I will definitely be more than happy with my food. What was beyond any measure of greatness though was the dessert. Oh My God!!!! I wished that I had only eaten dessert for my entire meal. btw, a little bit of trivia - did you know that there is a restaurant in Barcelona where they serve only dessert, this is not a dessert shop, it's a restaurant where the actual dinner entrees are sweet. How awesome is that! Anyway, back to the dessert at Chez Panisse - we ordered two to share between the four of us - a chocolate brownie, and honey ice-cream with toasted figs. I almost can't complete writing this entry because my mind is stuck craving a bite of that ice-cream and figs.... waaah, I want! Oh well, I guess all good things must come to an end, and we literally licked off every last morsel of what was on the plate and headed out complete satiated (with me deciding that I couldn't wait to blog about this place and the dessert). And we all know how much I couldn't wait :)
