Bubbelah’s khachapuri made with Che Fico’s impeccable pizza dough.
Gone are the shelves of specialty cheeses, imported crackers, fresh seafood, pricey meats, and farm-fresh local produce. In its place are Middle Eastern specialties that are pitch-perfect.
When San Francisco’s Che Fico restaurant opened a sister location, Che Fico Parco Menlo, in the Springline development in Menlo Park last year, it also debuted a nearby gourmet market, Il Mercato di Che Fico.
Trouble was that surrounding residents never became regular shoppers there. So, about a month ago, the market was jettisoned for Bubbelah instead.
The revamped space.
A Yiddish term of endearment, this fast-casual restaurant leans into Chef-Owner David Nayfeld’s Jewish-Italian heritage.
Seared tuna brushed with beet ponzu at the new Horsefeather in Palo Alto.
It’s been so long since I’ve seen a new restaurant sport a menu with entrees mostly in the twenty-something-dollar range that at first I thought I was looking at a mirage at the new Horsefeather in Palo Alto.
But nope, the newest edition to the Town & Country Village has debuted with a price point that’s relatively comfortable in these economically challenged times.
Opened last month, it’s a sister restaurant to the one in San Francisco’s Nopa neighborhood, and it’s already packing in eager diners, as I found when I dined as a guest of the restaurant last week.
The bar and dining room evokes a mid-century ’70s ambience.
Think mid-century modern “That ’70s Show,” as the interior features plenty of warm walnut wood, brass track lighting, and smoked glass dividers.
Just before you’re escorted into the kitchen at Benu in San Francisco, you’ll spot a formidable column decorated with autographs from a who’s who in the culinary world: David Kinch, Michelin three-starred chef of now-shuttered Manresa in Los Gato; Chef Sang Yoon of Father’s Office and Helms Bakery, both in Los Angeles; Fuchsia Dunlop, James Beard Award-winning food writer and Chinese cuisine expert; the late-Charles Phan, founder of the Slanted Door restaurant in Napa and San Ramon; the late-Chuck Williams, founder of Williams Sonoma; and so many more.
Because since its opening in 2010, this fine-dining, tasting-menu restaurant has attracted everyone who’s anyone to its minimalist dining room for its elegant fare that blends East and West with incredible finesse.
It was the first San Francisco restaurant to receive three Michelin stars in 2014. It has maintained them ever since, too.
Opened by Chef Corey Lee, former chef de cuisine of Michelin three-starred The French Laundry in Yountville, Benu is also the first restaurant that Thomas Keller ever invested in that wasn’t his own.
The courtyard entrance.A view into the kitchen.Crocks of house-made soy sauce.
While I’ve dined several times at Lee’s casual Korean restaurant, San Ho Won in San Francisco, which has a Michelin star, it’s been many years since I’d last been to Benu. And since my cousins, who are huge fans of San Ho Won, had never been to Benu, I figured it was high time we all went together.
The dreamy and oh-so cheesy petit croque with black truffles at the new Bijou.
It’s been an eventful 2025 for Petaluma’s Table Culture Provisions. This spring, the fine-dining, tasting menu-only restaurant garnered a recommendation from the Michelin Guide. And last month, the team behind it opened a sister establishment, Bijou.
Just a half mile a way, Bijou is a casual French bistro with Sonoma sensibilities that’s three times the size of Table Culture Provisions.
The dining room.The chic bar.
Opened by Co-Chefs and Co-Owners Stephane Saint Louis and Steven Vargas, along with Saint Louis’ wife Marta, it offers a compact a la carte menu, which I had a chance to try last month.
Dungeness crab amuse-bouche kicks off the new 7-course tasting menu at 7 Adams.
“Tasting menu bargain” sure seems like a total oxymoron.
Especially these days when quite a few tasting menus bust the pocketbook at upwards of $500 per person.
So, when I come across one that hovers in the $125-plus range, especially one that delivers a filling and fulfilling time at a Michelin-starred establishment no less, I take notice.
San Anselmo’s Michelin-starred Madcap with its eight courses for $140 or 11 courses for $165 has long fit that bill for me. Of course my all-time bargain bliss is the four-course $52 menu at San Francisco’s Trestle, but that is more of a prix fixe with choices for each course rather than a bona fide tasting menu.
Just look for the “7.”
Happily, another modest-priced tasting menu, relatively speaking, has popped up on the scene now, this one at Michelin-starred 7 Adams in San Francisco.
Call it “7 at 7,” as it features 7 courses for $127. An optional wine pairing is $77 per person.
