This is a continuation of yesterday's posts on San Francisco. My daughter picked Chez Panisse in Berkley to celebrate her acceptance to grad school, even though she is actually going to Stanford, not Berkley. Future visits will have to cover Palo Alto. Chez Panisse recently made the list of the San Pelligrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants at number 40. I have not been to the top 39 but this is a great place but I have been to Chez Panisse before. Alice Waters, the founder, also got the life time achievement award. It did not disappoint this time. We had a wonderful fresh zuccini salad with mint.
We also did some other field trips to Tiburon and the Healdsburg in the wine country.
Guaymas Restaurant, a waterfront Mexican place in Tiburon with a view over to the San Francisco skyline and Angel Island. Wonderful cerviche. t is located at 5 Main Street, Tiburon, 415-435-6300.
Cyrus is an upscale place in Healdsburg. The food has received rave reviews as much more affordable version of the French Laundry but it is still quite pricy. To their credit we did find the food very innovative and high end. I especially like the crab ravioli. Often when you get ravioli with crab, lobster, or some other subtle filling you cannot taste the filing. They got around this by placing a generous amount of crab and other stuff on a wide ribbon of pasta so you could make your own proportion of filing to pasta. Each dish was high quality. The duck was as good as any I have had.
The only down side to Cyrus was our head waiter who was very snobby. Once it became clear we were not ordering the most expensive options (even still it was the most expensive place we visited) he lost interest in us. I felt like I was being served by a salesman, not someone who was interested in my enjoyment of the meal. Then we got to listen to the exact same sales pitch (complete with the same intonation) five more times to nearby tables. The other service people were fine. I did not let his actions spoil the dinner and he may be the only bad one. The food is good. It is located at 29 North Street, Healdsburg, CA.
Dry Creek Kitchen is run by Charlie Palmer, who started with the Aureole in NYC and now has places in several cities. The wait staff was very helpful and friendly. They allowed for some substitutes. I had the best hanger steak there that I have very eaten. It was marinated and very rich. There is a fine all Sonoma County wine list. Dry Creek Kitchen is located at 317 Healdsburg Ave. 707-431-0330.
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