Gohan Japanese Restaurant

Whimsical sushi rolls rank somewhere between Appletinis and sausage logs in my gastronomical repertoire. Which is to say, I avoid them at all costs. Unless they come with tater tots. Then, it’s a totally different story. Mixing a little bit of wacky into its opening menu, Gohan gets the joke. Just a few days old, […]

Red Rose Cafe

Puffing away quietly on the deck, the Red Rose Café’s Southern Pride smoker tells you all you need to know. Where there’s smoke there’s BBQ. And where there’s BBQ, there’d better be a guy like Harold Rogers, throwing a dash of this and a dash of that into his recipe for serious southern sauce–sweet and […]

Red Rose Cafe | Santa Rosa

Puffing away quietly on the deck, the Red Rose Café's Southern Pride smoker tells you all you need to know. Where there's smoke there's BBQ.

Go Fish

Ken Tominaga is one of the few chefs who can charge $28 for a lobster sushi roll and not only get away with it, but inspire a sense of gratitude for the privilege of ordering it. Holding court behind the sushi bar of Cindy Pawlcyn’s Go Fish in St. Helena, Tominaga is the stuff of […]

Bye Bye Black Bean…

In a rather ironic turn of events meat-lover’s haven Black Bean BBQ (formerly Clo’s) is vacating its Summerfield Road space to be replaced by the popular vegetarian hangout, East West Cafe. According to BiteClub’s sources, East West has lost its long-time Montgomery Village lease and will be moving lock-stock-and-tofu up the road to the former […]

Asia Gourmet opens

Along with bags of jasmine rice and soy sauce, you’re apt to find all sorts of exotic things in Asian grocery stores. Like giant frozen beetles. And chile flavored squid. And squishy, shrink-wrapped stuff that dares you to identify it. Which is all quite enlightening but, as someone whose wok has seen more action as […]

Eat out for the holidays

Like just about everyone else, I’m halfway out the door to stuff stockings and finish last minute gifts, but before I head out, here’s a list of restaurants with special Chanukah and Christmas menus. Cheers! *Bistro VFRIDAY NIGHT ONLYDecember 22: Chanukah candle lighting. Plus Sufganiot donuts can be purchased to take home. $2.00 a piece. […]

Windsor: L’Assiette shuttered

In October, one of Windsor’s more forward-thinking eateries, L’Assiette quietly closed its doors. The neighborhood, it seems, wasn’t quite ready for super-luxe take away concept featuring a mix of local, organic, Cal-Mediterranean inspired foods from former SF chef Amey Shaw. “Windsor just wasn’t prepared for the type of food I was doing. I had some […]

New Union Hotel

Generations of local eaters have grown up on the Panizzera family’s Italian cooking. So, it should come as little surprise that the newest Union Hotel outpost, near the intersection of Mission and Rt. 12, has been packed with nostalgic eaters since its opening this month. And its probably also no surprise that, like their two […]