Nanayiro is a nice little Japanese restaurant in Downtown Berkeley. They have huge glass windows, and a very pleasant atmosphere. The service has been good whenever went, filling the water when needed and being prompt. The prices are pretty expensive, although I guess all sushi is usually expensive anyways. They give miso soup along with a small salad type thing before each meal. They offer your standard Japanese fare, such as bento boxes, sushi, teriyaki, udon, sukiyaki, and curry. There is a lot to choose from, so everyone that goes should be satisfied. The food I’ve had here tastes good, but it is nothing too spectacular and I’ve had better sushi before. That said, it is still a nice place to eat at and worth checking out if you want Japanese on Shattuck.

Jupiters is a huge restaurant that serves items such as pizza and beer. You can eat on the second floor, the first floor, or outside. It’s the type of place that would be good to take a bunch of friends and have a good time. That said, their pizzas are worth trying here. They are better than most pizza joints such as Pizza Hut and Dominos, although don’t quite make compare to places such as Cheeseboard and local pizza places. I really loved the crust of their pizzas, which was probably the food highlight. I ordered a salad to share, and it was very disappointing. There is not much to it besides lettuce. Not much dressing, not much of anything. Prices are pretty reasonable and the slices go down fast since they are pretty thin. Overall, a good place for a casual night out. They seem to offer a decent amount and variety of alcohol, for those who are interested.

The first thing anyone will notice about this place is the name. As your are driving down the street, you’ll notice this little restaurant with its silly name. I finally tried it, and as you enter, you realize that the decor is actually quite nice. There are numerous pictures and it a very pleasant atmosphere. That was sort of surprising.

Anyways, the menu offers your standard Mexican fare, such as burritos and quesadillas, along with fajitas, chimichangas, horchata and so on. I decided to just stick with a chicken burrito, and it turned out to be a good choice. It’s a decent size burrito, although I’ve seen bigger, but I was very full at the end, which was unexpected. A friend got a half order of chicken fajitas, and it came with a lot of food. If you order a full order, you can probably share with another person.

I had a good experience here, and wouldn’t mind coming back here to try a chimichanga, or anything else on the menu.

Americana Grill is a nice little restaurant that offers a large variety of American and Vietnamese food. It’s pretty neat, since one person can get pho, while another can eat some country fried steak. It probably also helps that the food tastes pretty darn good.

I ordered a philly cheese steak, and it was decent sized and had a good portion of meat with it. A friend ordered a country fried steak with eggs, and it was a huge dish. The service was solid and they were all friendly, even if their english wasn’t the best, since everyone was Asian. The atmosphere is nothing too spectacular, granted it is a small mom and pop type restaurant.

Americana Grill is a good place to eat, with reasonable prices, good portions, and a nice range of food types. If I lived near the restaurant, I could easily see myself becoming a regular here.

The House of Chicken and Waffles offers a novel hybrid dish of….chicken and waffles. I was sold to the idea the very first time i heard it, and it sounded like a winning combo. The restaurant is a casual diner type place next to Jack London Square.

The menu offers many types of Southern type dishes, but the main focus is the chicken and waffles. I decided to order the Lord BJ (yes, it is quite a suggestive name), which was the biggest dish there. It came with four pieces of southern style chicken and two waffles. You get the option of adding gravy and onions to this dish, which I did. The chicken turned out to be quite good. It wasn’t too dry, even when you didn’t have gravy on it, and the meat was fairly tender. They also didn’t put an excessive amount of gravy. The waffles were alright. Nothing too special, but did complement the chicken pretty well actually. Something about having chicken in one hand, and a syrupy waffle in your other hand that is satisfying. Be careful when eating here though, because all the food is rich and fatty, making you feel like you want to die after.

This place is a nice to place to hit up to try this nice combination, and to hang out with some friends. This probably isn’t the type of place you’d want to visit too often, or you’ll die faster than you should be. :P

You can tell right off the bat that this is the place where Asian people hang out at night. There are many groups of young Asians roving around the parking lot, waiting for a seat. The restaurant itself looks pretty nice, with large windows, and a very nice patio area which provides much more seating for the restaurant.

After finally getting to sit, I got to look at the extensive menu. While it has traditional Chinese food, it has a very nice dessert and boba menu. There are tons of different flavors and all the tea is authentic. None of that powdered milk tea crap like at many other boba joints. I was extremely disappointed though that they ran of almond milk tea, so I decided to try plum milk tea. Let’s just say I wish they had the almond milk tea.

Guppy is probably best known for its shaved ice. If you get the large version, it is pretty much a mountain of shaved ice. My friends and I got the version with fruit, and it was loaded with various fruit goodies. Seeing the mountain of shaved ice was truly a sight to behold. It also helped that it tasted pretty good, with all the fruit being ripe and the ice had milk in it too to make it even better.

Guppy is a great place to go if you want to get some dessert or hang out with friends at night. There might be a wait though, and the service can be spotty at times since it is busy.

I wasn’t really hungry when I went here, so I only got the egg rolls and tried some of the pad thai. The egg rolls were pretty good, since they were full of goodies and it came with a sweet and sour sauce you can dip it in. The pad thai was mediocre compared to other pad thai’s i have eaten. Granted, this is a fast food place, so it can’t be that spectacular. The thing that disappointed me the most was that it took a while for the food. For a place with the word “Xpress” in the name, I expected the food to be a little bit more expedient.

Part of this place’s charm is the different levels of spiciness you can have in your food, but in terms of food quality, this place isn’t the best. The noodles don’t taste the most authentic, but they do have enough flavor for a passable meal. If you craving Thai food in the Irvine area, it is a place to check out since Irvine is deficient in Thai restaurants.

Harborside Restaurant, not surprisingly, has a great view of the ocean and the docks. It is nice to look outside the huge windows and see the blue ocean. But on to food. The buffet offered dishes such as ham benedict, crabcake benedict, filet mignon benedict, sausage, bacon, roast beef, chicken, grilled fish, fried fish, hashbrown, omelettes, clam chowder, smoked salmon and so on. As you can see, they offer a great variety of food, so you can choose whether you want to focus on the hearty breakfast items or dine on some seafood.

I thought the best thing here was the bacon. It was really crispy, and bursting with flavor. I couldn’t get enough of it. The sausage was also high quality, while the hashbrown was just alright. The filet mignon benedict was very good, since they do the poached eggs really well (probably use a machine) and the meat was chewy yet tender. The crabcake benedict was solid though you could tell the crabcake was likely frozen. The clam chowder was also very good. I can keep going, but the point is that the food was good quality and had a great variety. The dessert section was also quite strong, having something for everyone’s sugar cravings.

I recommend coming here for a nice brunch buffet if you are up to it. The nice atmosphere and delectable foods make this place worth checking out. Just make sure your wallet has some heft to it, since the buffet doesn’t come at a cheap price.

Capital is located in Chinatown, and is one of those somewhat dirty looking Chinese restaurants you would pass by. That would be a bad idea though, because the food is damn good and for a good price. They are apparently known for their fried chicken wings. One plate comes with quite a bit of chicken, although it is not recommended to finish this whole plate, unless you want to die. I also ordered some noodles (forgot what it was called), which had a nice substance and texture to it, not to mention tasted great.

All the chicken pieces are wings, although they cut off the annoying part of the wing. It is very crispy, although it is not covered with an excessive amount of crispness like KFC. The meat is very tender and juicy, and bursting with flavor. It is also quite salty and fatty as hell. So while the wings taste awesome, if you eat too many, you might not feel the greatest later. This place is worth checking out for the chicken wings, the good chinese food, and the good prices.

Kang Tong Degi is not the easiest restaurant to find. If you are looking for the place by its english name, you WILL fail. There is no english in the front, only korean, and the building number is hidden. It is in a fairly shady neighborhood. You know this when you see a sign telling you that you should probably park on Telegraph (the main street) instead of the side streets.

Anyways, I thought this place held promise in terms of quality. I was slightly disappointed. The typical free appetizers are alright, with the potatoes being the best by far. The deep fried chicken they have was OK, and gets tiresome after a while. The seafood pancakes was pretty tasty though. I also had some kimchi fried rice, which had a spicy punch to it, so no bite was never really bland.

What brings this restaurant down is the abyssmal service. The waitress for some reason would take orders like three at a time or something. She also didn’t write any of it down while taking the order. She would hear a few and then leave for like 5-10 minutes. It was very annoying. One of my friends who was not eating essentially played waiter, such as getting more tea and such since they were so bad at service. There wasn’t even many people at the restaurant besides us, so the poor service is inexcusable. Also, they got a couple orders wrong, probably since she didn’t write them down. They tried to make it up to us by giving some free spicy seafood soup, but it didn’t work. The service was a failure.

The food was alright, the pricing was OK, the variety was mediocre, and the service was weak as hell. That sounds like a recipe for a two star restaurant to me.