Restaurant Review

Since the un-merry month of May, I’ve lamented the closure of Mica Talmor’s Pomella. Talmor’s Piedmont Avenue restaurant filled an elusive culinary niche in the East Bay. Served as takeaway or in the small outdoor cafe facing...

Leticia Chavez’s pozole doesn’t need the tiny container of habanero sauce that comes with it. Made with a tomato and cilantro broth, the spice levels in the verde version ($18) are delicious on their own. Giving into...

The pastries on display at Parachute Bakery sit on individual pedestals. They look like pieces of edible art in an avant-garde gallery. A cube-shaped croissant’s center contains a luscious blast of passionfruit that’s paired with a white...

Kyle Itani has looked all over Japan for handrolls and hasn’t found them. “I would say the handroll is—especially in an open-face style—definitely an American innovation,” he said. The chef did find that during an omakase meal...

For latecomers just discovering the trendiest beverage in town—buh-bye boba!—Forest Tea Bar proprietor Eunice Lam introduces the idea of matcha tea by comparing it to chocolate. “Each chocolate has a different origin and taste profile,” she said during...

It’s much easier to fill in the blank for “My favorite Azerbaijani restaurant is ____,” when the restaurant in question is Mexican, Vietnamese or French. Before sitting down to eat at Anar Usubov’s Bistro 4293, I’d read his...

As the Saturday morning sun started to ascend, April and Rich Sigona bent their parallel bodies forward while assembling sandwiches side by side. Their “kitchen” was a table set up outside Solano Avenue’s upscale bodega, Of All...