Along the burgeoning corridor between Broadway and Telegraph along 40th is a new culture. From Manifesto bikes to new coffeeshops and condos, this formerly decreped area is getting new life, and we were excited for one of those interjections of hope to come from Homeroom, the new macaroni-and-cheese restaurant smack in the middle of it all.

Gourmet mac and cheese? Yup. Great concept, right?

We thought so, too. Heading to Homeroom on Friday was a treat long awaited. And with the wife 39 1/2 weeks pregnant, her food cravings long abated in lieu of just plain good food.

We arrived at 6:30, expecting to beat the crowd, though a bunch of patrons were already waiting and the seemingly kid-friendly atmosphere gave way to a bunch of small children — apparently in need of Ritolin — running up and down the sidewalk screaming with toy planes in their hands, bothering a seeing eye dog and causing a ruckus. Oh well, kids are kids. And it was the “early crowd.”

We waited about 25 minutes for what was told to us would be 10-15. The small restaurant was bustling. People everywhere drinking local beers from mason jars were, honestly, the local hipsters, but it was indeed a fun crowd (luckily the rowdy children stayed on the patio).

The waiter was rushed and there wasn’t enough of them. But how can a waiter justify tips on a plateful of $7.50 mac and cheese? Fewer waiters, more tables. Good for the waiters, I suppose, but bad for service. We were handed two paper menus covered in boogers and snot, dried food and some slimy unidentified slop that nearly made us lose our appetite. Our waters went unfilled for a long time. Our waiter was more concerned with a larger community table taken over by a bunch of friends ordering drinks (see: few waiters, more tables, above) than our two-top with non-drinking patrons.

We settled on the Vermont (her) and Gouda (me) and also ordered a side salad of mixed greens with citrus dressing, though we fully expected to split the latter before getting the main course, not much after.

Another 15 minutes and our food arrived — well, the macaroni dishes, anyway. Covered with bread crumbs as suggested by patrons on Yelp, we were excited. That is, until our waiter said “I’m not sure which is which, these two look the same to me.” My wife — who is more of a cheddar fan than a gouda one — was unimpressed. I took the challenge to identify the dishes with a forkful of each. Turns out, they tasted the same, too!  Even my wife’s descerning palette couldn’t recognize cheddar or gouda and we decided to stick with the bowls in front of us.

The meal was decent, not as filling as expected for soul food, and decent. The late-arriving citrus-covered salad was good, but bland… mixed greens only, with no added accoutrement made it less than gratifying.

Not so thrilled about going back, but glad we gave it a try.

If you’re in the neighborhood, riding a fixie and find yourself nearby, go for it. Otherwise, a quick meal of Annie’s Mac and Cheese at home tossed with breadcrumbs will do just fine.

Homeroom
400 40th St
(between Shafter Ave & Webster St)
Oakland, CA 94609
(510) 597-0400

When people say “Cafe Colucci” to new locals, you’d think they’d say something along the lines of “I love Italian food!” or “I don’t feel like pasta tonight.” After all, Colucci is a popular Italian surname. But what they’d be talking about is the best ethiopian restaurant in the Bay Area with the Italian name (Italy occupied Ethiopia briefly in the late 1800s).

But you won’t find pizzas and pastas on this menu. And you won’t be missing it, either.

Ethiopian food is typically served with injera bread, an Ethiopian staple made from the smallest grain in the world. High in protein, iron, minerals and more, you can leave your forks and spoons at home because this unique bread doubles as your scooper/utensils and is baked here twice daily, so you know it’s super fresh.

The wife and I have been frequenting Cafe Colucci since earlier this year, at least once every three weeks. And although our order rarely changes these days, we have tried a bunch of options before settling on our favorite meal: shrimp tibs and the vegetarian combo. Ethiopian meals are served on a large bed of injera with your various entrees on top and a generous side of rolled-up injera for your scoopers.

Our veggie combo comes with Azifa, Buticha, Messer Wot, Kik-Alicha, Gomen and Atakilt. To be honest, we could care less what it all is (and we really don’t know — we think it’s salad, some Ethiopian cheese, lentils, cabbage and potatoes). No matter, because we love it all. Tibs, a sauteé made with onions, garlic and rosemary can come with different proteins, but for the shrimp version which we order, a super hot skillet comes to your table side with sauteed onions, peppers and shrimp and dumped into a reserved area on our plate.

The experience — especially fun for out of town visitors or a large group, but we enjoy our couples-night only — is a fun time of partaking of the same food on the same plate. There’s something magical about it, primarily because you share a common meal. Mostly because it’s so effing good.

You can get wine (a small selection here), Ethiopian beer (read: Ethiopian Budweiser), or some honey wine, a must-try once for the culture, but a never try again (for us, it’s too sweet). We choose a glass of house red or mint tea.

For two, without drinks, we spend $28 and leave feeling like big fat fatties. We can never finish it all, but sometimes manage to nibble even on our plate’s injera, having long finished our complimentary bowl and also asked for seconds.

For a healthy meal, with a great waitstaff and fantastic food, give this a try. You may see us there in the corner talking about our day, drinking some wine and gorging on our shrimp tibs.

Cafe Colucci
6427 Telegraph Ave.
Oakland, California 94609
(510) 601-7999

We went once this summer to a so-so meal, but it was the patio and the comfortable night experience that we enjoyed. The place felt warm, had local music, and a friendly wait staff with other 30-somethings eating outside. And although we didn’t partake in the passing of the hookah pipe later in the evening it must’ve been the smoke that clouded our experience that night.

Because the next time was awful.

We were both unimpressed with the luke warm meals that seamed runny and undercooked. Our bodies definitely agreed (for the next three days we were both stomach-ill), and for some reason the water tasted off. If it was one of us or the other, we may have given it another chance, but we were unanimous on this one: awful, awful, awful.

If you go, only get the hummus. Then leave. Or better yet, go to Berkeley and dine at La Med.

248 Grand Avenue
Oakland, CA 94610
(510) 891-1496

OK, so it’s not technically an “East Bay Eat,” er… not even close. But when we found ourselves scurrying for food in the City one Friday night, I surprised my wife with reservations at One Market.

The establishment, literally at 1 Market St., is a fine dining experience worth driving across the Bay Bridge for. You’ll start with an amuse bouche, followed by anything you desire: sirloin, scallops, duck, fish, crab, chicken, you name it. We’ve had our fair share there of scallops and red meat, but recently the sole sous vide was impeccable (as was that night’s amuse of pumpkin soup).

The staff is remarkably nice for a place like this, and though once we stopped in unexpectedly (and were therefore dressed rather “down”) we were treated with the same gratitude for visiting as if we were decked to the nines.

Grab a nice bottle of wine (Californian and South American wines abound) and sit for a good 1.5 hours enjoying your meal the way its supposed to be enjoyed: slowly and intentionally with the love of your life. Eating here will instill in you a love of food again, if you’ve lost it.

And try the crème brûlée for desert. An absolute must.

When my wife and I moved up the hill a tad to the Glenview/Park neighborhood, we quickly discovered Bellanico. It was after a quick try at Marzano onPark (it was too crowded) when we headed up Park a block to Bellanico. We haven’t been back to Marzano since.

One of the cornerstones of the Park Ave area, Bellanico is full of surprises. A nice bar, homemade raviolis and risottos (try the beet ravioli!), cheese plates, great wine — the whole lot. Try the pesto gnocchi if its on the menu which has become a family favorite.

But even more fun (well, equally as fun) is brunch. Saturdays or Sundays we love to head up the hill and grab poached eggs and prosciutto on country bread with roasted potatoes with fresh OJ and great coffee.

Bellanico
4238 Park Blvd.
510.336.1180

You pass it on your way to Berkeley on College or on the way to the hills on Claremont. You see it stare at you from its corner location, amber lights glowing from within, beckoning you to come and get full. You hear the whisper of edamame shells fall onto the plate and wonder if this is a place worth checking out. And you’d be right.

Noodle Theory was one of the first places we saw when the wife and I moved to Oakland. We had a similar experience and wondered about it. I liked its simple typographic logo and we both thought it “looked cool.”

Our local friends invited us out there one night and we thought, “Why not? We always wanted to go.” That was in December, and we’ve been back a half-dozen times since then. It’s a great, fun restaurant, with a casual atmosphere. It feels like an Asian Chipotle, but better somehow. I like anything there with the thick noodles. My wife enjoys anything with the beef in it.

And have the grilled asparagus. Yum.

Noodle Theory
6099 Claremont Ave.
(510) 595-6988
Hours W-M 11:30-2:30, 5-9:30

There’s a fantastic little joint in Denver that we frequented quite often called Snooze. In fact, there are many places in Denver that serve fantastic breakfast. But in Oakland, we’ve been hard-pressed to find one with the panache of this great morning hipster hangout.

That is, until we found the Rockridge Café. Though it lacks any remarkable décor, finesse or anything else that dolls up a place, what it does have is great food. If the lines out the door on Saturday and Sunday mornings is any indicator, the locals think so, too.

We queued up for a late breakfast on a Sunday and were seated within twenty minutes. I opted for the goat cheese and spinach omelet, right, and my wife opted for the eggs benedict (below). We split a side of bacon because, well, it’s bacon. And who doesn’t like bacon?

We were served quickly. Too quickly, actually. There was little time to enjoy some coffee and conversation as table turnover is key in a small establishment as this.

The price was right. The portions were large (she couldn’t finish hers) and the taste was excellent for a morning breakfast. For a light Sunday breakfast that we could both enjoy, this was a great place. It’s simple. Not full of fluff (a look at the plates definitely says “simple.)” or pretentiousness.

The coffee was good, the service was quick and the room was chock-full of young, Rockridge hipsters. It’s a perfect place to start your morning and then head down the shops on College and spend a day milling around.

Rockridge Cafe 

5492 College Ave.
Hours: 7 30am – 3pm daily

Some places have the hype. Some have the atmosphere. Some have the food. Some have all three.

This review isn’t about one of them.

Instead, let us visit Pizzaiolo, a little joint on Temescal near Doña Tomás that we went to a few weeks ago to try it on for size. We spotted it when we at the aforementioned Mexican place and wanted to go. We recommend getting reservations. We got ours over two weeks in advance, and thankfully we did — the line was out the door.

The place is swank, no doubt about it. We were underdressed for the place even though we were dressed for us. The waiter didn’t use a pad (always a nice touch) and the mostly-darkened room had a great energy to it.

We had read in a guidebook that the meatball pizza was to die for, but it wasn’t on the menu that night, so we opted for a basic Margherita tomato-basil pizza ($13)with a bowl of Meatballs al Pizzaiolo ($14). We shared. We’re special that way.

Our drinks came as did some appetizers of oysters, which were about $1.50/oyster and were, quite frankly, a bit more gritty than they should be.

But then came the pizza. Ooh baby we were so excited to have some of this — wait a moment! — is this burned? That’s right, the entire top crust was burned where there was bubbles of dough, and the bottom was burned in a few places from their wood-fire oven. The pizza itself, when eating around the burned areas of charcoal, was tasty, but nothing to write home about.

The meatballs? Again, decent, but my wife’ll make you the best meatballs you’ve ever had and it’ll only cost a few bucks in ground beef, some sauce and a day in the  crockpot. Then again, it was a special night. We used a $50 gift card from a friend, enjoyed ourselves and only spent about $20 from our own pocket.

We’d give it another shot if the time is right. Luckily, they post their menu daily. We’re be waiting for the Meatball Pizza’s return.

Pizzaiolo 

5008 Telegraph Ave.
(510) 652-4888
Hours: Mon-Thur 5.30-10PM
Fri-Sat 5-10PM
Sun closed

The first time my wife and I came to the East Bay we heard about it. The second time she came along to find a home, and she had a (thin) slice. Not bad, she said… not great, either. Then we moved here and tried some slices together. More of the same: decent, not great.

Last night we sat at Zachary’s and ordered beers and a full pie, a meatball and fire-roasted peppers special pizza hoping to be delivered something magnificent, something spectacular that we hadn’t had before.

First off, the service here is horrible wasn’t great. It’s understandable with lines out the door and college kids serving you. But wait, isn’t this the place where it’s 75% employee-owned? If I were one of the owners, I’d be embarrassed for the service. I guess you can’t chastise your fellow 21-year old, though. My beer sat empty for a good 10 minutes and after we had our first round there was no waiter to be seen for what seemed like forever before we ordered our pizza, which we were told would be 30-40 minutes, according to the menu.

First, however — thank you to my wife for reminding me — we ordered the mixed greens salad. She had seen someone have it through the front window as we walked by once and had been thinking about it for over a month. In fact, we nearly went there for beers and a salad this particular night, but figured why not order some pizza?

The salad was, well, so-so. It looked lifeless and though we requested some feta cheese, it didn’t feel like the salad held together around either the feta nor the other ingredients. Bland and lacking enough dressing to hold it together, it wasn’t worth the anticipation we gave it.

We get it. It’s like Denzel Washington’s Oscar for Training Day. It’s not like the movie was that great, and he should’ve won for Glory years before, but c’mon, it’s Denzel. That’s Zachary’s. If you’re here and need pizza, where else is there to go?

Here’s the rub, though: We’re both from (originally) the East Coast. We think pizza is thin and greasy and good with only a few toppings: pepperoni for her, mushrooms for me. More than that and you’re in trouble. And we weren’t born in Chicago.

So, maybe Zachary’s isn’t for us. Nearly $20 for a medium pie (though the leftovers served two the next day), slow service on busy nights and the hassle of parking here makes Zachary’s score low. I know I may get egged next time we’re in the neighborhood. But that’s the beauty of food: you may hate what I like and vice-versa.

UPDATE: Since this review we’ve been back a few times. While we still don’t understand the complete devotion to this place as if a temple for the goddess of pizza, we rather enjoy it these days. A basic pepperoni stuffed pie goes a long way in our family now. And the cold leftovers? Excellent. We also now get the salad with gorgonzola and grapes in it… which is, quite honestly, heaven in a bowl.

Zachary’s Pizza 

5801 College Ave.
Oakland CA 94618
Phone:  (510) 655-6385
Hours: Sun-Thur 11AM-10PM
Fri-Sat 11AM-10:30PM

One block north of Rockridge BART station

There’s nothing like a great burger.  A perfectly toasted bun with a quarter-pound of meat—cooked to your liking—topped with fresh vegetables, cheese, and various condiments, all made to order and customized just for you. Add some fries to that plate and you get an American Classic. If we stop liking burgers, then the terrorists have won. We can’t have that, so eat up.

That was the intention when we first visited Barney’s Gourmet Burgers (on Piedmont Ave.) and then again at Barney’s (again on Piedmont Ave) and then lastly at Barney’s (this time on College Ave.). We wanted that honest-to-goodness American Classic. My wife, who knows a good burger from a mile away, is partial is the lush veggies and “sunnier” burgers, never with mustard; while I on the other hand am more of a straight-up mushroom-and-swiss guy, with spicy ketchup (Heinz + Tabasco = Heaven) and a side of fries. For the both of us, there’s one thing we understand: Certain times call for a burger, beer, and fries and this particular Saturday evening in December after a movie at the Landmark Piedmont was one of them.

What makes a good burger a good burger? It reminds us of all things good and pleasant: of backyard barbeques and famiyl picnics, of Independence Day and weekends, of childhood memories and that silly clown that hawks kids chemo-burgers from a meal of “happiness.” It’s all these things. It’s life’s little pleasantries that make burgers so damn good. It’s the tender meat. It’s the seeded bun, but not seeded too much. It’s the level in which said-bun was toasted. How many toppings are riding along, and if the juices mix with the properly melted cheese and run down your cheek as you take a bite just so.

Barney’s gets this bit right. They understand burgers from an open-kitchen and its flaming grill made-to-order is where it’s at, and their 27+ burgers on the menu attest to that. (Not into hamburgers? Grab a gourmet chicken burger, or any number of other options. Then again, you came here for the burgers, so let’s leave it at that). They understand that the sauce-dripping, extra-napkin needing burger means happiness. It means: America. And they do this part well.

My wife wanted the Sunshine Burger (cheddar cheese, sprouts, avocado & tomato on whole wheat bread) while I indulged my inner European and I the Alpine Burger (Swiss cheese topped with sautéed onions & mushrooms, above), sans onions. And since no meal is complete at Barney’s without some Spicy Curly Fries, we added those, too (but also try the Sweet Potato Fries… yum!).

Since we had waited until after our movie to eat, we were ravished, and with many people around us munching on buns of goodness, we were getting hungrier by the second. We had picked out our items from the menu and closed them customarily to signal we were ready to order. This was after waiting 20 minutes for a table (when plenty seats in the restuarant were open), getting seated with menus, and still not receiving any form of service for drinks or greetings. So we waited some more. We were finally approached by a too-busy-to-be-bothered waitress who wanted our drink order only, but we knew what needed to happen and we gave her our entire order at once. Then our beers came late and we drank them fast to continue the waiting.

We waited.

And waited.

“Look! Finally the Fries!” we exclaimed.  And yes, they were for our table, but not with our accompanying food. They were to disguise the backorder of burgers and the sloppy service. We devoured these and again sat there, eyes glazed over, waiting for our meal. It’s a good thing we’re so in love and enjoy each-other’s company.

About 10 minutes later (and nearly 45-50 minutes after arrival to the joint): our burgers arrived. By now we had no sides or beer leftover, but we didn’t care, and proceeded to eat one of the best one-two punches a burger stand ever laid on us. Juicy meat, cooked to perfection, a perfectly-sized bun for the size burger, overflowing toppings, a plethora of various condiments on our table. It literally was one of the best burgers we ever tasted. The two of us. When sauce oozed down my cheek, I nearly forgot about that service. Almost.

Barney’s is like your cool Uncle who may or may not show up for the Holidays. You can’t count on him to show up at all, but if he rolls up eventually — after everyone has eaten and the presents unwrapped — he’ll bring the best gift for you. The problem is, by the time he shows up, you’re long in bed, dreaming of reindeer noises and Santa’s sleigh.

What Barney’s doesn’t understand — and consequently, why no one online can actually review them with any high-rating — is that it’s not just about the food. If it were, they’d be lining out the door and around the block for this place. It’s about the service, the décor, the hospitality, the management, the smiles, the refills: the whole lot!

For the best burger, head to Barney’s. But for the best evening, jump over to Barclay’s across the street on College or down the road to Ben & Nick’s. The food isn’t quite as tasty, though only slightly, but the beer flows and the service while get you fed, paid, and on the road again, is light years ahead.

It’s just a good thing we didn’t go before the film started.

UPDATE: We tried again, this time with our daughter. Waited. Waited. Waited. Questioned our return to this joint.

UPDATE 2: OK, now we tried the Barney’s on College Avenue, just up from Zachary’s (and, mind you, this was on a Sunday afternoon merely waiting for three milkshakes!) and waited nearly 25 minutes at the front, at the counter, while our shakes — long since completed behind the counter — sat and waited.

Barney’s Gourmet Hamburgers 

Piedmont
4162 Piedmont Ave.
510-655-7180

Berkeley
5819 College Ave.
510-601-0444