Andrei "white russian" Z.'s Profile

I was looking forward to visiting Pizzeria Picco for the Tour de Pizza that Melanie N. and Gene X. and I are doing since I read about it on Jeff Varasano's website (http://www.varasanos.c...). I've never been to Larkspur before, and it turned to be a lovely little town.

Picco isn't big and most of their seating is outside, so it gets to be a bustling place, especially on a warm summer day like that. We squeezed into our table and ordered our baseline pizza (Margherita) and a Cannondale, with house-made sausage, roasted onion and peppers, mozzarella and basil.

Both pizzas arrived at the same time. The crust on them was a bit thin which resulted in too much char and allowed the sauce to soak in and make it too floppy. The cornice (the frame around the edge) was not developed, the whole pie was basically the same thickness (or rather, thinness). There was also evidence of overproofing judging by the big bubbles formed by CO2.

The server didn't couldn't cut the pizzas properly, so we had to finish the job ourselves. The good news was that the tomatoes on the Margherita were excellent; so was the mozzarella. The basil leaves were sporadic, though. The Cannondale had a good combination of flavors as well, helped by the seasoned sausage.

Overall, it was a decent pizza restaurant, but they definitely need to fix their fermentation and dough handling process and also teach their staff how to use a pizza cutter.

I needed to move a decent amount of stuff from one apartment to another. After making a few calls, I settled on Corrib based on their availability and reputation. The guy on the phone estimated 3-4 hours for the move with 3 people at $150/hour.

The movers were a bit late getting to my place, but very apologetic once they got there. David, Paddy, and another one whose name I forget (sorry!) were very nice Irish guys. They immediately assessed the extent of the job and got to it. They took care to wrap a couple of fragile items, like my digital piano, and Paddy even disassembled (and then reassembled) my big computer desk. At the destination, they had to carry all my stuff up to the third floor and, trust me, some of the items/boxes were pretty heavy.

The guys did an amazing job and were polite, professional, and hard working. They were probably the best movers I've dealt with, and I gave them a generous tip in appreciation. I would recommend Corrib to anyone who's looking to move with a minimum of hassle.

I was in the Sunnyvale area recently and decided to check out the new incarnation of this downtown brewpub. I remember visiting it a few years ago and thinking it was just okay, so I was hoping to see some improvements.

Alas, there were none to be had, aside from the very obvious eye candy - cute young girls dressed in mini-skirts and high boots. It would make me appreciate them more if they knew anything about the actual beer that their brewpub is serving, but they didn't seem to have much of a clue about that. I understand that it's a sports-themed pub, but I still expect a bare minimum amount of knowledge from the serving staff, considering it's a brewpub.

I ordered a burger and a pint of their oatmeal stout. The stout was drinkable, but lacked the smoothness and fullness I associate with good oatmeal stouts. The only good thing I can say about the burger is that it was grilled to my medium-rare order. Otherwise, it wasn't that good: sloppy, guacamole carelessly smeared on top, soggy bun, etc. I've had way better burgers for less than $5 and this one was $12.

Don't think I'll be visiting again, considering there's a plethora of other food/beer places in Bay Area.

This update to the review is part of the Bay Area pizza tour that I am doing with Melanie N. and Gene X.

Having visited Gialina a couple of times before, I basically knew what to expect. We ordered a Margherita and an Atomica with sausage, as well as a fava bean purée with flatbread to start with. The appetizer was delicious. The pizzas arrived shortly, both at once, which was nice because we could compare them.

The crust on the margherita was too crunchy to my taste, almost like a cracker. Not sure if it's always been that way, but it definitely stood out. Also, and I may be nitpicking here, but the tomatoes seemed a bit too sweet and lacked the touch of acidity to brighten up the flavor. The crust on the Atomica was better and less crunchy. The melange of toppings worked perfectly, and especially with the sausage to provide a nice umami pairing with the mushrooms.

After the first visit 3 years ago, I believe this is still one of the best places in SF to get a pizza.

Someone mentioned Zero Zero to me last year, and I immediately liked the name (00 is a type of Italian flour used for Neapolitan-style pizzas). So I was definitely looking forward to coming here on the Tour de Pizza that Melanie N., Gene X., and I are doing around Bay Area.

We came in a bit before our reservation time and that gave a chance to take in the surroundings. Zero Zero took over old Azul space and spruced it up, so that now it's a very chic, elegant, and inviting dining place. It was busy and boisterous, but not loud. We got seated upstairs and I was pleasantly surprised to find a beautiful fully-stocked bar there. It would be a nice place to sit down at for a bite of food and a drink. But enough about the place; we came here for food.

We started by ordering a trio of bruschettas. These came on a large slice of tasty toasted French-style white bread, and were basically individual portions. The toppings were not traditional bruschetta ones, but they were very good. My favorite was probably the one with chickpeas in tomato sauce. Encouraged by this good start, we ordered a Margherita pizza and a seasonal white pizza without tomato sauce (cheese, herbs, and  meat topping).

We wiled away the time by remembering our previous outings until finally the pizzas were delivered and set on a triple-level service tray. The margherita was on top and I immediately noticed a couple of problems, such as the over-proofed dough, which resulted in big puffs on the crust that were burned to a crisp. The underside had an okay amount of char in the middle, but a big black ring towards the outside, so biting into those pieces resulted noticeable ashy, charred flavor. Surprisingly, the actual crust was fairly soggy; my guess, because they put on the sauce too early before baking the pizza. While the flavor was decent, this sogginess just made for an overall sloppy experience. The margherita also did not seem to have enough mozzarella slices on it, just a few small pieces scattered around. Can't say too much about the white pizza, but it suffered from the same issues.

The wait times for both bruschettas and pizzas was longer than we thought was appropriate.

We didn't get any drinks, but the cocktail list looked good. I may stop by Zero Zero in the future to try some of their Italian specialties, but I will probably stay away from pizza.

Stop #3 on the Tour de Pizza that Gene X., Melanie N., and I are doing was originally going to be Emilia's Pizzeria in Berkeley. However, the day before we were supposed to visit, I checked online for reservations and discovered it that wasn't really a sit-down kind of place, but rather a take-out joint with a couple of tables. Alas, we'd have to visit Emilia's some other time but meanwhile I yelped high and low and found a new place in Oakland called Marzano on Park.

Located in a residential neighborhood, Marzano is unassuming from the outside, but when you walk in, you find a very agreeable atmosphere with rustic tables, soft lighting, nice music, and good energy. They had our table ready for us and we ordered some interesting cocktails while munching on long thin breadsticks. The cocktails were well made and tasty.

The pizzas that we chose arrived pretty shortly: our standard Margherita and one with spiced house sausage and pepperoni (that we added for variety's sake). Both of the pizzas were great: very nice crust, slightly chewy, but thin and crisp in the right places; the right amount of char on the crust; good, fresh tomato sauce. Margherita was among some of the best I've had in the area, including A16. The spiced sausage had a slight fennel aftertaste, which went well with the rest of the ingredients.

The staff was very nice as well, attentive and prompt. I will definitely go back to Marzano and recommend it to anyone who wants to have some delicious pizza in the East Bay.

Coming to Rose's on Christmas Eve morning with Melanie N., I was hoping for a good breakfast, based on the previous reviews seen here. Leaving an hour later, I was full, but not entirely satisfied. We were lucky that we came early enough, because the place started filling up not 10 minutes after we sat down.

Rose's "brunch menu" turned out to be painfully short, only about 6 or 7 items, one of which is granola with milk & fruit. For $8.50. I ordered a latte and the chicken apple sausage with polenta, poached eggs, and spicy tomato sauce, and Melanie had potato hash with mushrooms, leeks, and poached eggs. We also ordered a side of Zoe's smoked bacon.

First, the good parts. My latte came in a big bowl, French-style, and was really delicious. The spicy tomato sauce was nice and flavorful which helped liven up the polenta. The chicken sausage was fairly tasty, though I did find a bit of gristle in it.

Unfortunately, Melanie's potato hash was unlike any potato hashes she's had before. It was more like grilled smashed potatoes, rather than diced or wedge potato pieces, and wasn't very easy to eat. The bacon was dry as a bone and basically devoid of flavor. When I order bacon, I want nice, juicy, caramelized pieces with a bit of crunch, not strips of tree bark from Sahara desert. To add insult to the injury, the bacon cost $5.50. Also, we asked for some hot sauce, and the Tabasco bottle we were given had about half a teaspoon of liquid left.

Both of our dishes were $14 each, which seems excessive for something as simple as grilled potatoes or sausage with polenta. We paid about $25 each after tax and tip, and for the same money we could have had superb breakfasts at Mama's, Dottie's, Zazie, or other great places. I am really puzzled why Rose's is so popular. Maybe it's because there are few breakfast places in Marina. Either way, I'll probably choose other establishments for my breakfasts and brunches in the future.

The second stop on Top 10 Pizza Idol tour that Melanie N., Gene X. and I are doing around Bay Area was Pauline's Pizza. This is one of those unassuming places in the Mission that you can miss in a blink of an eye. But, its exterior belies the eye, because not only does Pauline's have a huge upstairs area, but they also run a wine bar next door down the alley (featuring some of the goods from Pauiine's winery).

Now, let's get the bad out of the way. The hipsteresque service here can be, shall we say, relaxed. The generous 10 minutes provided to us after we sat down gave us a chance to make a crayon "We're Ready!" sign on the paper tablecloth. Intrigued by our creativity, the server approached, and the party started. (They were actually quite helpful when we could catch their attention.)

Since there was no margherita option, we ordered the house classic - Italian Combo - with salami, Italian sausage, green onions, mushrooms, and garlic. Oh boy, was there ever garlic. I think that was the only flavor left in my mouth after I bit into a slice. Not sure if it was a one-off accident, but if this is how it's always made, they should just save some money and omit everything but garlic.

For our second pizza we decided to make our own. Our pièce de resistance included pepperoni, gruyère, and roasted San Marzano tomatoes and turned out to be delicious. The crust on both pizzas was really good too, a bit thicker than the Neapolitan or New York style, but still slim enough for us to finish it all.

This is a place to return to, but watch that garlic, Pauline - we already have Stinking Rose in the city. 3 stars.

Compiling and ranking the list of top 10 pizza places in Bay Area is a nigh impossible task - what style of pizza? what kind of oven is it cooked in? is the crust sourdough or not? did the chef obtain the pizzaiolo title after defeating his father in a battle of salami sticks? Such questions come to one's mind in the process, but Melanie N., Gene X. and I rose to this formidable challenge. Feeling hungry, we spent only a few minutes writing down 10 pizza restaurants that we heard or know were "pretty damn good" and made our way to the first one to be tested by our triumvirate - Pizzeria Delfina.

As I'm writing this, there are 1110 reviews on Yelp alternately praising or meh'ing (yes, that's a word, even if I just made it up) Pizzeria Delfina, so I'll be brief. We ordered a margherita pizza to have a base of comparison amongst all the places, and a salsiccia, topped with house-made fennel sausage, bell peppers, and onions. Margherita was flavorful, but while it hit all the right taste points with the tomato-basil-mozzarella trio, I felt that I've had better (more pure/intense?) versions before. Salsiccia was good as well: the sausage oozed delicious fat and the fennel complemented it nicely. My one disappointment was the crust. Praised as it is, I think the dough boys at Delfina need to step it up. It was a bit too thin, and while there should be a bit of char on it, our pizzas went a bit overboard with it. There were big air pockets in a few places that basically turned to charcoal (this is most likely due to overproofing of the dough).

A solid place, but in this game, you need to be more than that. 3 stars.

When Melanie N., Gene X. and I started our epic tour of 7x7 Best Burgers list, we envisioned being done in a couple of months. Alas, it took us over 6 months to work through all the 10 burgers, mostly due to scheduling issues. Because of this, it was getting difficult to remember what the earlier burgers tasted like and how to compare the later ones to them. So when we finally got to the #1 burger on the list - from Fish & Farm- we were excited for the tour to be coming to an end.

I'd never been to Fish & Farm before, but heard good things about it. It turned out to be a cozy restaurant attached to the Mark Twain hotel, with narrow and long layout and nice inviting atmosphere. We started with cocktails at the bar and migrated to the dining area when our table was ready. Because the corkage fee was only $10, Melanie brought a bottle of nice cabernet to complement our meal.

The mac & cheese we chose as the starter proved to be unremarkable. I ordered a cheeseburger with fried egg, cooked medium rare. It arrived with a knife stuck through the middle in a dramatic nod to how juicy and tender it ended up being. I cut the burger in two and was glad to see that it was indeed cooked to specification -something that quite a few restaurants on the tour list had trouble doing properly. I swapped half of my burger with Melanie, who opted for the bacon instead of fried egg. The burger was tasty, savory, but unfortunately the sauce and the toppings overpowered it. The bun also didn't hold up to the juices. This goes for both the fried egg and the bacon portions.

As good as the burger was, it was definitely not our #1. I'd have to place it somewhere around 4th or 5th place and keep Bix at the top. Still, Fish & Farm is a lovely restaurant and I'd like to come back to try more of their menu.