Chez Panisse Cafe
Berkeley, CA 94709
Phone: (510) 548-5049
- Price:
- $$$$
- Cross Street:
- Cedar Street
- Hours:
- Mon-Thu 11:30am-3pm, 5pm-10:30pm, Fri-Sat 11:30am-3:30pm, 5pm-11:30pm
Editorial Review for Chez Panisse Cafe – by Citysearch Editors
The Scene
Located upstairs in the same wood-paneled Craftsman bungalow as Chez Panisse, the Cafe is where Berkeley's literati toast their successes over rustic French- and Italian-influenced cuisine. The welcome is always warm and the burnished open kitchen, lined with glistening platters of asparagus, Meyer lemons or heirloom tomatoes, is guaranteed to make even the longest wait worth it.
The Food
The a la carte menu changes daily, with scrupulous attention paid to the subtle gradations of the Bay Area harvest year. When the first fava beans appear in early spring, you'll find them here, followed by sweet peas, king salmon, tomatoes, corn, persimmons, oysters, blood oranges and other seasonal delights. For starters, typical antipasti plates come with firm, milk-sweet Bellwether ricotta, slow-roasted onions, prosciutto and black olives. Entrees often include thick slices of spit-roasted pork melded with dense yellow polenta, or a juicy chicken leg with morels and asparagus.
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Insider Tips
Save TimeChez Panisse Cafe accepts reservations for lunch and dinner--a good idea if you want to beat the walk-in waits, especially on weekends.
Know Before You GoIf you want a more formal dining experience, make a reservation downstairs at Chez Panisse, the fancier cousin to Chez Panisse Cafe.
User Reviews for Chez Panisse Cafe
07/24/2008 Posted by maudi
Fresh, local and amazing. Menu changes daily, and is prix-fixe. Be prepare to spend a lot here. The presentation of the food is fantastic, it is delicious and never disappoints.
Pros: food, casual
Cons: price
05/09/2008 Posted by wildhoneys
I can see that this austere, locally sourced "plain" food was a breakthrough 30 years ago but so many other chefs do it so much better now, not to mention farmhouse trattorias and bistros in Italy, Greece, France and countless green markets across North America. It is food as political statement; the pleasure of the diner seems to be irrelevant. Perhaps a reaction to fussy, overly complicated and elaborately presented fine dining, the current fare at Cafe Chez Panisse is too artless, bland instead of honestly full flavored and downright stingy. A dish of fried Halibut consisted of a chunk of greasy fried fish, a small heap of celery root in a too-mustardy sauce with an unintegrated, harsh-tasting herb floating atop and a single (yes, just one), watery, flavorless new potato poised beside a puddle of starkly grassy, pureed parsley that tasted like cow spew. Missing was any brightness or liveliness of flavor or any full or earthy flavor either. Bread was good but the butter was strictly supermarket. The much touted triple-filtered drinking water was dusty and stale tasting as if a glass of nighttime tap water had sat beside your bed all week. The toasted almond ice cream had a good texture but the unappetizing, charcoal taste of burnt nuts detracted. The accompanying cookie was so hard, I was relieved my dental work survived. The citron green ice tea was a unappealing although probably good for you. The tea tasted like scrapings from the side of a lawn mower.
Pros: Attractive room, lovely flowers
Cons: indifferent, bored servers, indifferent boring food
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