Category Archives: Coffee/Cafes/Tea

Dottie’s True Blue Cafe and 5A5 Steak Lounge

Leave a reply

We did quite a bit of eating today starting with breakfast this morning at Dottie’s True Blue Cafe which is within walking distance from our apartment. Our friends recommended this place for a great breakfast but might have a long wait.

We got there around 8am and had to wait about 15-20 minutes, they open at 7:30am. We ordered from their specials which are written on the dry erase boards.

This is the butterscotch french toast. I had one delicious slice. I think eating more would have been bad for my blood sugar.

This is one of their egg scrambles, a type of sausage with mushrooms and basil. It’s served with potatoes and a slice of jalapeno corn bread. Also very good. I really liked the corn bread.

For home, we took home some pastries. This is the sweet potato pecan muffin, very dense and sweetened by the sweet potato rather than sugar.

The whiskey blueberry coffee cake. The coffee cake was a bit dry and the topping a bit too sweet. It didn’t really work together well in your mouth.

Lunch we had at home but then went to dinner at 5A5 Steak Lounge for Dine About Town. It was probably too much to hope that they would have the Waygu beef on their menu… so here was their menu where we chose one of each.

Iceberg lettuce salad with thick bacon. The bacon was very delicious.

Caesar salad with fresh anchovies. The salty anchovies went well with the fresh taste of Romaine lettuce.

We ordered a separate starter of short ribs with lotus chips. The lotus chips were pretty cool, just like potato chips but probably healthier. The short ribs had persimmons on them which was an interesting touch.

The New York strip steak. The green stuff on top was a bit spicy and creamy, delicious but I have no idea what it was. The steak was tender too and a perfect medium rare but not bloody.

The salmon served with a cabbage leaf stuffed with fennel.

Sticky toffee bread pudding with vanilla ice cream. I wish I could’ve had more!

Banana Cream Tart. The cream wasn’t too sweet and had a subtle but delicious banana flavor. The brulee’d bananas were a nice touch too.

Overall, a very good dining experience and a lovely day of eating.

Dottie’s True Blue Cafe
522 Jones Street

5A5 Steak Lounge
244 Jackson Street

Venus & Yogurtland in Berkeley, Protein Style at In-N-Out

Leave a reply

We had a very nice day out today in the bay area. Our friends Tiff & Alex are visiting from Southern California so we met up with them in Berkeley for brunch.

At first we attempted to go to La Note but at 11:20am, the wait for 4 people was 45 to 60 minutes. Venus Restaurant, just down the street, had a shorter wait and seemed to go through customers faster, so we only had to wait about 15 to 20 minutes.

Ron ordered their very beautiful looking pomegranate mimosa, served with a juicy blackberry.

I ordered the chicken sausage scramble which is chicken sausage, mozzarella, roasted bell peppers, caramelized onions, fresh basil, mixed with three eggs and served with home fries and toast ($10). The chicken sausage was a little bit sweet and nicely pan fried. The home fries were excellent and I loved how they toasted the bread (this is whole wheat) because it was a bit chewy.

Ron ordered the 2x2x2, this with 2 eggs sunny side up, bacon, and flapjacks ($10.50). Flapjacks fluffy and delicious. Alex also ordered the similar dish with sausage instead and got the extra blueberries mixed with the flapjacks. His looked yummy too (sorry, no picture).

Tiff ordered the Venus Benedict, 2 poached eggs and sliced tomato, open-face on an english muffin, with ham, spinach or avocado topped with lemony hollandaise and served with home fries ($10.50). This looked really delicious too.

After we finished brunch, we headed for a walk through the Berkeley campus and reminisce about our school. Many of the buildings are the same and look like they’ve been cleaned up or are being restored. Ron and I took this picture by the campanile:

It was a very peaceful walk through campus considering that school is out for winter break. Lots of stores were closed either for the long Christmas weekend or for the winter break. We made a big loop from Shattuck, through campus, down Telegraph, then back down Durant to Shattuck.

Before leaving Berkeley, Ron and I went to Yogurtland, the first one I’ve been to in the Bay Area. Currently they are having limited edition Tokidoki cups and spoons, so cute! Plus there is a sweepstakes to win a shopping spree and free yogurt.

We tried three flavors of yogurt: taro (thumbs up), egg nog (thumbs up), and pecan praline (thumbs down) and three toppings: brownies (thumbs down), mochi (thumbs up), and slivered almonds (thumbs up). At 30 cents an ounce, this bowl cost $2.10. Also, Yogurtland has all their nutritional information on their website.

We spent the afternoon shopping then had dinner at In-N-Out. We tried a few things from their “secret menu”. Their corporate website lists a few of their secret items but I found this more comprehensive secret menu list online.

I ordered a double double “protein style”. Basically, any burger “protein style” eliminates the bun and instead everything is wrapped in lettuce. Quite good actually, it felt less greasy because of the refreshing lettuce.

Ron ordered the double double “animal style” with “extra toast”. I think “animal style” is well known but “extra toast” is the bun a bit more toasty. We also ordered fries “well done” which made them extra crispy.

Yum… good way to end the weekend.

Venus Restaurant
2327 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA
(510)540-5950

Yogurtland
2236 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA
(510) 548-8001

In-N-Out
11 Rollins Rd
Millbrae, CA

Sears Fine Foods, Hello Kitty at H&M, Asuka Ramen

Leave a reply

Our Singapore roomie Justine is visiting so we met up for lunch at Sears Fine Foods. None of us have ever tried this restaurant but I’d heard plenty about their famous Swedish pancakes. They don’t take reservations for lunch and they won’t seat your party until everyone is there. The line wasn’t long except that they did ignore us for about 10 minutes when we were the only remaining people in line and there were plenty of open tables. Otherwise service at that the table was great.

I ordered one of their combination meals that comes with 9 pancakes, hash browns, 2 eggs, and corned beef hash. I ordered scrambled eggs. I liked the corned beef hash and the hash browns were nicely crisped. The pancakes were okay, nothing spectacular but they were really cute because of their size and easy to eat.

Ron ordered the Sloppy Joe.

Later in the afternoon, I went walking around the mall and checked out H&M and was pleasantly surprised they sell Hello Kitty clothes for little girls. So cute!

For dinner, Ron and I went to Asuka Ramen which is close to where we live. We tried some new things this time (since the first time I ate there, I got a stomach ache).

I tried the jajamen, noodles with sauce, some cucumbers and fish cake (no broth). It was pretty good, a Chinese style jajamen but I prefer the Korean style.

Ron had the curry over rice with tonkatsu. I didn’t try it but I assume it was pretty good since Ron ate it all without complaint.

We shared the agedashi tofu. Came out piping hot so that was great. The sauce was a bit oily but had good flavor.

I wish I got more Christmas shopping done today but I seem to get more tired easily so have to sit and rest. So I think I’d better start working on a list so I don’t waste so much time with browsing. Time is flying by, it’s almost Thanksgiving!

Sears Fine Foods
439 Powell Street

Asuka Ramen
883 Bush St

Halloween Morning

Leave a reply

I woke up early this morning to have breakfast but not any morning coffee so by noon, I was tired and decided to take a nap. The kitties decided to join me for my afternoon nap. Misu at my waist and Maxwell at my feet. I haven’t seen them sleeping so close to each other in a long time, usually Misu is chasing Maxwell and Maxwell is hissing and swatting at Misu.

After my nap, Ron and I walked downtown since he needed to find a costume for tonight’s Halloween party. After we scavenged at the Halloween store, we went for coffee at the Blue Bottle Cafe in Mint Plaza.

I ordered the New Orleans style iced coffee for Ron. It’s a cold drip brewed coffee with a bit of sugar and they say this one is okay with milk or cream. They also have Kyoto style iced coffee which they recommend drinking black. I originally ordered the Kyoto style, not knowing it’s not recommended with milk, but they exchanged it for the New Orleans in a heartbeat, knowing that Ron does not like black coffee. If you go to the cafe, check out the contraption used for the Kyoto style, it’s a REALLY slow drip.

For myself, I ordered an Affogato. The ice cream was Humphry Slocombe’s Special Breakfast topped with a shot of espresso. The ice cream itself was nice and creamy but kind of unidentifiable, it had some sort of cake/cookie/grain/nougat pieces in it. Once topped with the espresso = YUM! The bitterness of the espresso made the ice cream even better.

After coffee, since I slept through lunch, Ron and I went to have dinner at Bangkok Noodles. I ordered the roast duck noodles with flat noodles. Flat rice noodles are my favorite and I love roast duck. Their broth is kind of addictive but also a bit oily and salty but very satisfying. Those fried garlic pieces were so good.

Ron’s heading to a Halloween party tonight while I am opting to stay home since I’m working in Oakland tomorrow. With the Bay Bridge closure, it’s going to be a bit of a pain to get across the bay. In hindsight, I should have said no when the regular RPh called me on Friday to ask me to work… oh well, too late now.


Blue Bottle Coffee Co. Cafe
66 Mint Street

Bangkok Noodles
110 Powell St

Farmer Brown & Jeremys Department Store

Leave a reply

Had a day out with V today so we went to try brunch at Farmer Brown. Not the best neighborhood but an all-you-can-eat brunch for $15 on Sat & Sun. Drinks extra though (which we didn’t know). Brunch food includes scrambled eggs, bacon, fried chicken, pancakes, roasted potatoes, biscuits & gravy, grits, and fresh fruits.

They also serve bloody marys and an Obama cocktail of some sort.

We were a bit early for the live jazz which I think starts after 11:30am. We had a reservation for 10:15am so left by 11:30am but saw the band setting up.

After brunch, we went to Jeremys Department Store in South Park on the recommendation of V’s office mate. Apparently they have discounted designer clothes and shoes so we thought we’d check it out. From what we could tell, the items in the store look like they could have been floor samples or previous season items. Some of the shoes had scuffing on the bottom and the clothing could be a bit damaged. They also have salvage clothing which are deeply discounted because they are damaged: missing buttons, broken zippers, stains, tears, etc. They had some cute stuff but it takes digging and patience. The good quality items were still on the more expensive side so we didn’t really get anything. Although they do have additional sales so if you sign up for their mailing list, they will email you with the specials. I may go back, they do have cute shoes!

Overall, a good day to spend a Sunday. The Blue Angels were flying overhead as we were leaving the shopping mall but we missed any tricks that they were supposed to do, probably the show was cut short again because of the fog.


Farmer Brown
25 Mason Street (@ Market)

Jeremys Department Store
2 South Park