Category Archives: Restaurants

Dining Outside at Mago

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A hearty wheat berry porridge finished with mustard greens and bottarga at Mago.
A hearty wheat berry porridge finished with mustard greens and bottarga at Mago.

If you’re on the hunt for a relatively reasonably priced tasting menu full of soulful flavors, where you don’t have to get dressed up fancy, and can sit comfortably at a heated outdoor patio, look no further than Oakland’s Mago.

Its name is Spanish for magician, and Chef-Owner Mark Liberman and his staff of just five certainly perform wizardry with such a small crew.

Opened in 2019, it’s Liberman’s first solo project, following his stint in San Francisco at the shuttered AQ restaurant.

Last week, I was invited in as a guest of the restaurant for dinner. There’s only one tasting menu offered each night, though vegetarian and vegan versions are always available on request.

It’s $75 per person for about eight courses, which are moderate in size, but all together will definitely leave you sated at the end. Because Liberman takes a vegetable-focused approach to his rustic, Colombian-meets-California dishes, you’ll leave plenty full yet still feeling buoyant.

Chef Mark Liberman manning the live-fire grill.
Chef Mark Liberman manning the live-fire grill.

With the tasting menu lasting about two hours, I was pleasantly surprised at how many diners were indulging in it on a school night (Wednesday). Ease-dropping, I could tell quite a few were regulars, too, which is always a good sign.

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Dining Outside at Sumika

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Skewers of chicken thigh with green onion, meatballs, and chicken liver at Sumika in Los Altos.
Skewers of chicken thigh with green onion, meatballs, and chicken liver at Sumika in Los Altos.

After all the over-indulging of the holidays, January is typically a slow month for restaurants. Couple that with the prevalence of Omicron right now, and business is definitely on the wane at the moment.

So, when friends and I dined outside on a recent Monday night at the neighborhood gem, Sumika Grill in downtown Los Altos, we had the entire outdoor dining area to ourselves, as about two other small parties opted to dine inside instead.

With squat space heaters and wine barrels acting as dividers between the outdoor dining space and the parking lot, we were plenty comfortable, too.

Sumika Grill is the sister restaurant to Orenchi in Santa Clara and Redwood City. While the latter specializes in excellent ramen, the former is all about yakitori.

Balsamic chicken thighs and chicken skin skewers.
Balsamic chicken thighs and chicken skin skewers.

When you sit outside, with your table a mere couple of steps from the restaurant’s front door, you might miss the theatrics of watching a chef turn and flip skewers over a blazing grill.

But the food arrives at the table plenty hot and still every bit as delicious. Moreover, your clothes don’t end up smelling like smoke when you leave.

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My Top 10 Eats of 2021

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What a year. On the downside, normal is still far more of a concept than a reality. But on a bright note, my favorite eats this year are not comprised solely of takeout foods. I actually was able to dine outside at restaurants, and a couple times even indoors when the situation felt especially safe. So, there is that.

Whether you are comfortable dining indoors, only outdoors or just through delivery or takeout orders, please continue to support your local restaurants, which still need you more than ever.

To stoke your appetite to do so, here are my Top 10 eats of this year, in no particular order:

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Seared Duck Breast with Caramelized Orange Butter

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Seared duck breast with a most buttery sauce.
Seared duck breast with a most buttery sauce.

Southern grit is definitely what Chef Kelsey Barnard Clark exhibited when she triumphed against a tough field on “Top Chef” season 16 and also snagged “Fan Favorite” honors.

It’s also the apt title of her cookbook. “Southern Grit: 100+ Down-Home Recipes for the Modern Cook” (Chronicle Books), of which I received a review copy, that embodies Barnard Clark’s Alabama roots and Southern charm. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, she went on to work at Cafe Boulud and Dovetail, both in New York before returning to Alabama to start a catering company and eatery, KBC.

The more than 100 recipes in this book are definitely not aimed at those counting calories. Be fair-warned that here is an eye-popping abundance of butter and mayonnaise used throughout. The homey dishes include the likes of “Squash Casserole,” “Smoked Gouda Grits with Redeye Gravy,” “Creole Tomato Gravy Shrimp,” and “Golf Cart Cinnamon Rolls.”

Case in point: “Seared Duck Breast with Caramelized Orange Butter.” The easy sauce is made with an entire stick of butter. For two servings. Oh, my!

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Dining Outside at La Toque

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Roasted John Dory with foamed apple broth at La Toque.
Roasted John Dory with foamed apple broth at La Toque.

La Toque boasts a couple of notable distinctions.

First, it’s one of only two restaurants in the town of Napa that holds a Michelin star. (Kenzo being the other one).

Second, it’s one of only two restaurants in that city to require proof of vaccination for all patrons entering the restaurant, no matter where they are seated. (The other is Morimoto Napa.)

Third, its entire staff is vaccinated.

If you’re at all skittish about dining at a restaurant these days, then La Toque may be a reassuring option for you.

That’s what I found when my husband and I dined there earlier this month. We actually sat at a table on the outside terrace. As Chef Ken Frank explained, though, some diners may not consider this “outside” enough, because the heated terrace with a roaring fireplace has a tight awning overhead, plus tall, slatted windows that for the most part are closed during chilly winter evenings. Because the tables are well spaced apart, and the staff approaches the tables masked, plus patrons are asked to don masks if they get up from their seats, it feels as safe as it can in these still rather precarious times.

Chef Ken Frank with white truffle in hand.
Chef Ken Frank with white truffle in hand.

Hot towels are brought to the table after you’re seated. There’s also a bottle of hand sanitizer on each table. Both are thoughtful touches.

Choose from the a la carte menu, a chef’s vegetable tasting menu ($98), or a chef’s tasting menu ($175) with wine pairings ($95). The latter is what we went with.

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