Yum Yum, you Chez?

So when we went up north for the holidays, Ryan was all about us going to the famous Chez Panisse for dinner in Berkeley. What makes this dining experience unique from your typical "fine dining" eatery is that the food there is local produce that is organically grown and harvested in ecologically sound ways (I totally got that from the website by the way).

I was a bit skeptical walking into it...thinking it would be one of those "shi shi foo foo" restaurants that gives you portions the size of a post-it note and is way over hyped. And, I must report that the restaurant delivered! Way beyond my expectations!

Let me start off by saying that even though Ryan had an "in" (one of his friends is a waiter there)....we couldn't get a reservation until 9:45 pm on a Monday night! And....the place was PACKED when we got there. A good sign I guess, right?

Very earthy, rustic, homey ambiance....waiters were extremely attentive. We split the following dishes...
-Oysters on ice (decent...nothing special)
-Handmade pasta with fancy mushrooms, peas and sauce (excellent!!! so delish)
-Oven baked caramelized squid (it sounds gross but was sooo freaking good)
And....three desserts...
-Apple tart (of course I loved it....it's pie!!)
-Lemon sorbet (super refreshing)
-Chocolate ice cream with hazelnut (chocolate heaven)

Granted, the descriptions they had were waaaay fancier than what I described above...that's just my "layman's term way" of describing everything.

So, if you're ever in the Bay area...I encourage you to check out Chez Panisse....and might be a good idea to make a reservation a month in advance! The next "shi shi foo foo" place we want to try is French Laundry in Napa. Or...I could just have a special certain chef just cook me an AWESOME meal so we don't even NEED to go to Napa!!!! (wink wink)