Shattuck on Sunday (Berkeley restaurant reviews)

[Guest guest]

After reading about the new ice cream place in Berekeley with several

vegan flavors, Jennette and I decided that we needed to take a trip to

Berkeley. We had never been to Cha-Ya either, so we thought we'd start

out there.

 

For those of you who haven't been there before, Cha-Ya is an

all-vegan Japanese restaurant. It's a tiny place with only about eight

tables and room for another eight or so people at the " bar " . We got

there at around 5:45 and the place was packed with a sign-up sheet

outside. Fortunately, service is quick so we only had to wait a few

minutes before being seated.

 

We decided to order a variety of things: tofu custard with vegetables,

a sushi plate, udon noodle soup with a variety of mushrooms and gyoza

(potstickers). We love mushrooms, and we were pleased with the variety

and amount of mushrooms in the dishes - a lot of places skimp or use

more of the cheaper kind. My favorite dish was the sushi plate. The

cucumber rolls were nothing special, but the other pieces were

wonderful. They used varieties of mushroom and pieces of eggplant to

simulate the look and texture of raw fish. Now while that may not

sound very appealing in a different context, it does capture the

essence of sushi as I remember it from my pre-vegetarian days. Cha-Ya

is at 1686 Shattuck Avenue - about a half mile north of the Berkeley

BART station.

 

After dinner, we took a walk back towards BART and spotted the Triple

Rock Brew Pub. My Dad used to work at a microbrewery in Canada, so I

developed a taste for good beer and I like try out local beers when I

can. I have to say that their stout (Stonehenge Stout) was very good.

Jennette noticed that they have a vegetarian chili on their menu, but

we were saving room for dessert... Triple Rock is at 1920 Shattuck.

 

Eventually we ended up back near the BART station and Mondo Gelato. As

mentioned in an earlier message, they have 14 vegan flavors. Seven are

sorbetto (fruit-based) and seven are Soya Gelato (soy-based ice cream)

and they were all in the first display case, closest to the entrance.

They sell different serving sizes - single, double, triple, in either

a cone or cup. The double gets you two scoops and you can get half

scoops of any flavor, so a double means you can have four different

flavors. I chose pineapple and kiwi sorbettos and chocolate and bran

soya gelatos. They were all very good, but I think I liked kiwi and

bran the best. Next time, I want to try cappucino and strawberry.

Mondo Gelato is at 2106 Shattuck.

 

-Rob