Why did we dine here? – Located almost under the Central Freeway, Chez Spencer was on Check Please, long-ago, and looked fairly promising. Being French food fans, we have no choice but to give it a whirl.

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Madera Restaurant is located in the Rosewood Sand Hill Hotel, just across the way from venture capital central. This is a high-end hotel that opened up just a couple years ago. Chef Peter Rudolph used to work at Campton place in San Francisco. He uses a wood-burning grill and explores artfully-crafted, market-driven cuisine of bold flavors. Sustainably harvested and produced seafood and meats. Madera means wood in Spanish. Read the rest of this entry »

Hong Kong East Ocean Seafood Restaurant is located in Emeryville, right by the Bay. It has excellent views of San Francisco. The restaurant is popular for dim sum and for large banquets, especially on the weekends. Our last visit was in the middle of 2011. Read the rest of this entry »

Buckeye Roadhouse has been serving up American comfort food In Mill Valley since 1937. Robert Price (Rumpus, The Capital Hotel in London) is currently the chef. This restaurant is located right on the side of 101 and is quite popular. We had dinner here on a Sunday night and found the place packed full.
This restaurant is run by the Real Restaurant group that also owns Betelnut, Bix, and Fog City Diner. Read the rest of this entry »

Commonwealth is a contemporary American restaurant in the Mission district that focuses on local, sustainable and organic ingredients whenever possible. They also donate some dining proceeds to a local charity.

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Sura (Meal fit for a K) Korean Restaurant is located in the Temescal district of Oakland, where a cluster Korean restaurants are situated. Burma Superstar is a couple doors down, while Bakesale Betty and Pizzaiolo are a block or two away. We were looking for some higher-quality Korean food than is present in San Francisco and have methodically eaten at several spots on the street. Our last visit was at the end of 2012. Read the rest of this entry »

Excellent food in Noe Valley. La Ciccia is an intimate restaurant located in San Francisco’s Noe Valley that focuses on food from Sardinia, especially seafood. The husband and wife team operate this popular and homey restaurant.
The restaurant was featured on Check please in 2008.

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Shangri-La Li Cafe Buffet is located in the Shangri-La hotel in beautiful Guilin, China. Guilin is famous for its unique scenery featuring beautiful limestone rock formations and the Li river delta. This area is a mecca for Chinese tourists and needs to be on more Western travel destinations.

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We recently finished up our latest culinary tour of China in the Spring of 2011. Sanya, a beautiful city on China’s Hainan Island, has become essentially China’s Hawaii with beautiful sandy beaches, palm trees, and warm weather. Many Chinese tourist flock here during Chinese New Year and other holidays, packing the beaches until there is no room left!

Here are some quick mini reviews of places we ate at. We feel this will be useful as more people visit this up-and-coming area. We found few reviews on Trip Advisor and Dianping.

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One of our favorite restaurants.. Chapeau! is a French Bistro located in the San Francisco Richmond district in the middle of the Clement Street shopping district. At one time, they had two locations, but later wisely consolidated into this one location. Chapeau! SF opened in 1996 and means hat or wow in French. Chef Philippe Gardelle and his wife run this restaurant and are often times seen warmly greeting guests. Chapeau! specialize in value oriented French Bistro cuisine. You can get 3 course meal for $40.50 or 4 courses for $49.50. Save even more with early bird specials at $31.75 Mon – Thursday 5-6pm. Some items do require an up charge. This review is a culmination of many visits over the years, the last of which was in November 2012. Read the rest of this entry »

Guilin is famous for its unique scenery featuring beautiful limestone rock formations and the Li river delta. This area is a mecca for Chinese tourists and needs to be on more Western travel destinations.

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We recently finished up our latest culinary tour of China in the Spring of 2011. Guilin a beautiful city in China’s South, is one of the top destinations for Chinese tourists. A quick glimpse of the scenery with the karst formations tells you why. Yangshou is a couple hours from Guilin, just as beautiful, and far less touristy.

Here are some quick mini reviews of places we ate at in Guilin and Yangshou. We feel this will be useful as more people visit this up-and-coming area. We found few reviews on Trip Advisor and Dianping.

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