Hook Fish (@ Proof Lab Beer Co.) in Mill Valley.
Tuna burger with a side of fries. Kinda eats like a tuna melt, which was exactly how I wanted it to eat. After tax and tip I was out around $30. A Pacifico is five dollars.
Lively little spot. Grab a table, place an order and they’ll bring food over to you. Parking in their lot is blood sport.
Evvia, redux. It’s just so good. About as good as whole branzino gets. Palo Alto is a vacuum on my soul, but a handful of restaurants provide solace, with Evvia at the top.
Palo Alto doesn’t have the “easiest” customer base but there are a number of restaurants which are very good (and in my opinion better than Evvia) - Ethel’s Fancy, ROOH, Ettan, Zola, Bevri, Naschmarkt, Protege, Sekoya, Meyhouse and just within 5-10 minutes drive in Menlo Park you also have Camper, Yeobo Darking and Eylan
Yeah, I’m not saying Evvia is the best restaurant in Palo Alto, and generally speaking I think the restaurants here are good. But Evvia is right here and open for lunch and just comforting, and it’s my personal favorite restaurant. Like, I don’t sit on the plane and look forward to another meal at Protege, but I do look forward to Evvia. Thank you Evvia 
Protege looks so good. But I’m turned off by the 8% health service fee. I find it excessive.
Eylan (Menlo Park). This restaurant is very, very good. The best Indian food I’ve eaten in California (by a wide margin). Good ingredients and execution, inventive and elevated but tastes like real Indian. Lovely decor. Good service. I much prefer this to Ettan and Aurum. Superb!
You should try Ettan (Palo Alto) and Copra (Fillmore) - same restaurant group/chef
Thanks! I have tried Ettan a couple of times. It’s on the strip where I usually stay in Palo Alto. It’s pretty good, but my experiences there haven’t been as positive as at Eylan. Could be small sample set.
Copra is on the short list of places I want to try in SF.
Copra’s great. I have to get back there.
Selby’s (Menlo Park). Not as good as I remembered. Half these dishes were borderline Michelin star level for me, and half were below. Chicken was too dry. The velouté was too tangy. BUT — if you’re looking for a place to dine solo and brood about life and listen to Street Spirit on loop in a preposterously nice setting, this is definitely the best place in town.
Sarah Kirnon (Miss Ollie’s) pop-up on June 20 in Oakland, fried chicken and more.
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised since it was retro in the wrong way.
Looks like Spanish Table is completely gone. Web site is offline.
They closed both shops - the one in Berkeley is gone for more than a year and the one on Clement about 2 months ago. They mentioned that the tariffs had a very significant impact on their business
The Bistro at Il Fiorello, an olive-oil company: out in the country a few miles west of I-80 outside of Fairfield.
Neglected to photograph the short but well-curated wine list.
I’m not sure about calling chuck “burnt ends” but it was smoky, tasty, and had a similar texture.
BLT with burrata, did not taste.
Semifreddo was very good.
Fun place.
Arquet, in the old Slanted Door space. On July 4 we were wandering around the Ferry Building with sore feet, place was insanely mobbed, after pressing through the hundreds of people in line for the toilets stepping into the quiet and mostly empty Arquet felt like we’d entered a first-class lounge at an airport.
Monk’s Garden, very refreshing.
Yellow Submarine
Crudites were a lot of fun though some of the things would have been better cooked.
The dinner menu doesn’t really grab me but I"d go back for drinks and snacks.
Randomly wandered into a farmers market on Noe at Market (3-7 pm Wednesdays) and there was a stand selling dondurma, the stretchy / chewy Turkish ice cream. They said they’ll be at the Kermit Lynch summer market this Saturday. Fun stuff.
https://www.instagram.com/thecreamygoat/
Went to Poesia in the Castro. Years ago a friend who used to work nearby told us it was the best restaurant in the neighborhood, so I’ve been once or twice before but not at all recently.
Owner’s from Calabria so the list has some unusual wines from there. This was a nice blend of Mantonico (90%) and Greco Bianco (10%).
Complimentary house-made bread with olive oil. The oil with Calabrian chiles were really good.
I neglected to photograph the daily special appetizer, grilled zucchini blossoms stuffed with mozzarella and ricotta with a little anchovy. Tasty though grilling brought out the bitterness of the blossoms, I prefer fried.
Daily special, squid-ink ravioli filled with salt cod and potatoes, topped with butter and bottarga. Nice. Not as fishy as I’d expected from the description.
Pappardelle verdi al ragu della nonna: Grandma has a great recipe. Looks like too much cheese but after mixing it all together this was perfect. Poesia’s worth a detour just for this dish.
Parmigiana di melanzane: to make it gluten-free there was no breading, which was fine with me after the pasta. Very good. I got a glass of A Vita Gaglioppo to go with it, really nice. Good winery.
Zuppetta di pesce: classic.
Spuma di cioccolato: chocolate mousse with salt and hot pepper. Really good. The serving was small but after that big, rich meal I was happy it wasn’t bigger.
Cheesecake with Agrimontana sour cherries. Good but I was too full to have more than a bite.
Atmosphere and service were charming. There was a table of eight and other of four that had pretty much finished dinner when we walked in, both were still there hanging out and talking almost until we left a couple of hours later. It’s that kind of place.
Went back to Bar Panisse. Smooth operation at this point. It was Bastille Day so the menu was celebrating garlic.
Had the rhubarb aperitif and the spritz, both very good.
Tomato salad. Quality as you’d expect from Chez Panisse.
Gulf shrimp. Somehow cooked the shells crunchy enough that you could eat the whole thing, head to tail, but the inside was still moist and juicy. Impressive.
Aioli with a nice garlic bite. Perfectly poached salmon.
Toulouse sausage with lentil salad, very good.
Eclair with no garlic. Very good.
Momisette, pastis with a lot of housemade orgeat, nice dessert.
Food is basically the same as upstairs next door. Lively atmosphere, friendly service. Nice to have another good place open after 9:00 in this town.
