For those of you in Berkeley: I have a candidate for "better than Chez Panisse": Lalime, a French-mediterranean restaurant on Gilman St, near Hopkins.

While I think the food at Chez Panisse is great, the "cheap night" fare isn't as sublime as the hype makes it out to be. Granted, I've only gone once, but the portions were small and the vegetables oversalted. The pork, however, was excellent, as were the dessert, wine, cheeseplate, and especially the service. Oh the extravagance of getting your table crumbed. But that didn't help the food, and for $70 a person (before tip), I expect near perfection in quantity and quality in food.

At Lalime last night, Scott had roasted duck, and I had steamed seabass. Roasted duck was perfectly gamy, and the seabass was the best damned fish I've ever had. No typically fishy scent, and when I tried squeezing a bit of lemon on it, it seemed excessive. The lemon didn't come with the meal, it came with my potently delicious lemonade. I guess it they had intended me to squeeze lemon, they would have given me some. The cannolis I had for dessert, incidentally, were the best damned cannolis I've ever had. All that near-culinary-perfection, and the tables were crumbed, for a little over half the price of Chez Panisse.

I've heard through Scott that Ed Frenkel, a mathematician at Berkeley, lists Chez Panisse, Lalime, and Rivoli's as his top three restaurants in Berkeley, all nearly equivalent in quality. I have to assume that he's gone to Chez Panisse on the non-cheap night. If Rivoli's is anything like Lalime, I'll have to go there for Scott's birthday next year :)