Yesterday we went to Chapeau, a small French bistro in the Richmond on Clement street. I got the prix fixe with the filet mignon as my entree. It was the best steak I’ve had in recent memory. Not only was the meat perfect, the truffle-based sauce made it that much better. Other parts of the meal were the smoked trout appetizer (in which the pesto potatoes were better than the fish), the tasting fish (scallop with butternut squash risotto and lobster sauce – the scallop was good but not fantastic, the other parts were great), and the vanilla crème brûlée (which was good but way too much..)
Today was the much more down to earth Chicago-style pizza joint called Zachary’s (in Oakland). About a 30 minute BART ride yields some tasty pizza, though we had to wait a while to get in. It was packed even for a Thursday night. Feel-wise, it was somewhat similar to Grimaldi’s in Brooklyn, but replace the traditional NY-Italian look with a little bit more Californian feel, and replace the thin NY style pizza with the deep dish Chicago style with chunky tomato sauce on top.
I was a bit weary of the deep dish, but I have to say it was really not bad. Maybe a little bit less cheese would have been fine, but the tasty and bountiful tomato sauce was able to balance it out. I topped out at four slices. I think Ramesh made it to five. 5 of us were able to get most of the way through a couple mediums. I’d eat there again, but its a ways to go for pizza.. esp with Arinell’s close by.