Lucas Wharf, Bodega Bay, CA

Dinner: fish and chips, just OK.

Thai Pot, Sebastopol, CA

Lunch: pad thai, just OK

John Ash & Co., Santa Rosa, CA

Dinner: sea bass, very good, but overpriced compared to some of the other great meals we had on this trip.

John Ash & Co.
Santa Rosa, CA

Willow Wood Market, Graton, CA

Lunch: black forest ham and brie sandwich, very good.

Applewood Inn & Restaurant, Guerneville, CA

Sonoma County. Dinner: "Jimmy?s Fresh Linguine with Pork Bolognese, Parsley and Parmesan" -- surprisingly delicious and flavorful (for how plain and scant it looked). This place was on the level of Fortunato, for about half the price. (Italian menus on Sundays and Mondays only, for whatever reason.)

Applewood Inn & Restaurant
Guerneville, CA

Grandeho's Kamekyo, San Francisco, CA

Near Fisherman's Wharf. Lunch: delicious sushi. Of note was the dynamite roll, deep fried and topped with some spicy red sauce and sweet eel sauce. We ordered one, then another!

Grandeho's Kamekyo
San Francisco, CA

Gary Danko, San Francisco, CA

Near Fisherman's Wharf. Outstanding, again. Lucious food, crazy friendly/attentive/unpretentious service, wow. On this trip I learned that I really enjoy double- or triple-cream "butter-like" cheeses, yum.

Gary Danko
San Francisco, CA

Hunan Home, San Francisco, CA

Chinatown. Sizzling prawn platter in spicy chili sauce (delicious), kung pao chicken (delicious, though not 100% white meat).

Wolfgang Puck Express, San Francisco, CA

Lower level of Union Square Macy's. Lunch: pepperoni pizza (not bad, a little greasy), California rolls (just fine), vegetable rolls (fine). A decent find in that part of town for a quick, decent, not-too-expensive bite.

Caffe Espresso, San Francisco, CA

Near Grand Hyatt. Breakfast: croissant, fine, but I still had to wait so long in line just to get my one croissant.

Caffe Espresso
San Francisco, CA

Il Fornaio, San Francisco, CA

Near Little Italy / North Shore. Dinner: chicken, not bad, but the appetizers were very good.

Il Fornaio
San Francisco, CA

Caffe Espresso, San Francisco, CA

Near Grand Hyatt (Stockton/Sutter). Lunch: some kind of sandwich, not very good, and why was it so crowded at 2:00 PM? Iced tea tasted like dirrrrty dish water.

Caffe Espresso
San Francisco, CA

Boca meatless Chik'n nuggets

Dinner. Wow, not bad really. Kind of dry inside, but what do you expect when it's not actually meat? Better than expected, with Sweet Baby Ray's, of course.

Chipotle

Michigan/South Water. Lunch: chicken fajita bol.

Cosi

Michigan/South Water pedway. Lunch: sesame ginger chicken sandwich, forgot to get extra sauce, regretted it.

Whole Foods Sante Fe turkey burger

Dinner. Good, good flavor, and the Cook's Illustrated method of grilling turkey burgers worked very well.

Sultan's Market

North/Hoyne. Lunch: lamb schwarma sandwich. Good, quite spicy (all concentrated in one area -- sigh), and the guy (not the owner) gave me a crazy amount of lamb -- it was very filling.

Mirai Sushi

Division/Damen. Dinner: gyoza ravioli (not that good), some special shrimp tempura roll (not bad, not great), tuna tuna salmon roll (good, interesting avocado-based sauce, and no seaweed!), Scottish salmon sushi (not fantastic, but good), sweet potato tempura roll (very good, very crunchy), shrimp tempura roll (just OK). Overall, it was good, but quite expensive, and not spectacular. I'd go to Bob San instead, any day of the week.

La Pasadita

Ashland/Division. Dinner: veggie burrito. Not bad, really. Cheap, but not crazy cheap. The two salsa were a little weird (not tomato-based), but not bad. Overall, it was probably just OK. The chicken super burrito had a TON of chicken in it, so it is probably a bargain.

Giordano's

Office delivery. Lunch: deep-dish sausage pizza. Oh, to let Giordano's sit for an hour, congealing into a cheese brick, letting the crust get nice and mushy sitting in its out grease and filth. I couldn't even put down two slices. Yuck.

Pizza Metro

Division/Paulina. Dinner: Three pieces (3!!!) of pepperoni and onion. The pieces were larger than I expected -- do they short-change you on carry-out? But I took them down, because I was starving. Note to self: only order 3 pieces if you are really and truly starving.

Oriental Express

Wacker/Columbus pedway. Lunch, dine-in: kung pao chicken. Not bad, nice spiciness, just wish it had some friggin' peanuts. Oh, and I wish they would stop charging me 10 cents for a tiny cup of water.

Whole Foods take-home orange sesame breaded chicken nuggets

Dinner, with 365 tater tots. Good, but not great. How do I get them crispy? I just baked them in the oven along with the tater tots (at 450), turning once, for about 13 minutes. Still, a bargain -- about $6 for about 15 "nuggets" ... that's about what McDonald's would charge!

Northcenter Ribfest

Damen/Lincoln. Dinner: rib sampler from ... Smoky Woody's? ... good, with a nice sauce, and they gave like twice as much food as expected. Pulled pork sandwich from Grizzly's Lodge, with tater tots, delicious, and the tater tots were a fantastic bargain and about twice as much volume as expected. Rib sampler from Gale Street, absolutely delicious, very tender, perhaps more sauce would have been nice -- must visit their restaurant at 4900 N Milwaukee. Finally, deep-fried Snickers bar from someone ... not as good as expected, seeing as how I love Snickers and funnel cake.

Penny's

Damen/Pierce. Lunch take-out: gyoza (delicious, CRAZY spicy sauce today), Vietnamese spring rolls (why do they run out these so often), pad se ew with chicken (good, not enough broccoli), pad thai with chicken (good).

Mas

Division/Paulina. Dinner: ordered 4 appetizers. Sea scallops on heart of palm/avocado salad. Very good, but only 2 scallops. Daily special soft-shelled crab "BLT", delicious, but hard to eat. Mango-glazed ribs -- deeeeee-licious, and an impressive amount of food (eight-ish ribs!). Shroom and goat cheese empanada, way too cheesy. Crazy chocolate cake "martini" for dessert, it was delicious. Mas was a tad pricy, but the food was fantastic, the appetizers all sounded very very good, and the entrees sounded just good, and four appetizers was about the price of two entrees, and plenty of food. I shall return.

Chipotle

Clybourn/Racine. Chicken fajita bol, with 2 scoops of mild tomato. Delicious. (They really took "a little bit of spicy" to heart this time!) Next time, get extra corn salsa too.

Caffe Gelato

Division/Hoyne. Had some white gelato with an Italian name, was told it was a traditional Sicilian gelato, sampled it and thought it was good. Got it in a small cone. Turned out it had tiny toffee-colored flecks and a strange aftertaste, couldn't finish it. Sampled the mango gelato, it tasted good. The white chocolate chip gelato was also very good.

Penny's

Damen/Pierce. Dinner, dine-in: gyoza (good), chicken satay (better than expected, not too curry-ish, but overpriced compared to the other really cheap appetizers), lad nar with chicken (delicious), hot pepper noodle with chicken (delicious, good spiciness level tonight).

Panda Express

Clark/Fullerton?. Lunch: orange chicken (delicious), chicken with green beans (delicious), steamed rice. 'Yummy'.

Trader Joe's Barbecue Chicken Pizza & Home Run Inn Sausage Pizza

From the grocery store freezer section. Dinner: Trader Joe's barbecue chicken pizza, a fascimile of CPK, not bad, but the cooking instruction made it way, way too crispy. Home Run Inn sausage pizza, not bad, much better than the Home Run Inn refrigerated pizza, but still a little too ... doughy? ... in the crust.

Chipotle

Michigan/Wacker. Lunch: chicken fajita bol w/ tortilla on the side. It was nice to be able to evenly mix the spicy salsa throughout the bol (instead of letting it settle into the bottom end of a burrito), but it wasn't as filling as a burrito -- probably because I didn't eat all of the apparently-high-in-tummy-filling-fat tortilla! :-O Next time I get a bol, I should ask for more rice and more salsa.

Nan's

Lincoln/Fullerton. Dinner (delivery): free crab rangoon (would have been good if they had been hot), vegetable crunch roll (would have been better with hot tempura crumbs and hot sweet potato tempura -- also, it was only four pieces, which seems like a rip-off), sake (salmon) sushi (better than Papajin, much worse than Coast), cashew chicken (pretty good, all white meat chicken, the large size was enormous, lots of veggies in there, not very spicy at all). I think the Chinese food is way better than the Japanese food at this joint.

Tokyo Lunch Box

Wacker/Michigan pedway. Lunch: shrimp tempura rolls (not too good, since the shrimp tempura was old and had been sitting there for a while -- some bites were better than others) and asparagus rolls (decent as usual). I really wish that the cashier wouldn't touch the inside of the sauce tray with his bare just-been-touching-money fingers -- certainly that must be a code violation? :-(

Pacific Cafe

Damen/Wabansia. It would seem that Pacific Cafe has been shut down. Makes you think twice about their sushi, even after they re-open.

Trader Joe's Spicy Italian Sausage

Clybourn/Marcey. Dinner: Good. Not all that spicy at all.

Chipotle

Michigan/South Water. Lunch: chicken fajita burrito (wimped out and didn't get the bol, because it was too noisy and busy).

Penny's

Damen/Pierce. Dinner: gyoza (good), Vietnamese spring rolls (need double sauce), pad thai with chicken (purple cabbage was slimy and wilty).

Chipotle

Clybourn/Racine. Lunch: chicken fajita burrito. Consider a burrito bol with tortilla on the side, for less mess (and potentially more food).

Hilary's Urban Eatery

Division/Milwaukee. Dinner: fried chicken (good, fairly juicy, pretty crispy), mac and cheese (good, but not as good and creamy as Mac's), broccoli (not much to eat, cuz of stalks, better off with green beans).

Mac's

Division/Wood. Pork loin with mashed potatoes and veggies (the pork was pretty good, but a little plain, the mashed potatoes were good, with skins, and the veggies were good, just wish there were more of them). French fries were OK, the grilled cheese was pretty good and large, and the macaroni and cheese was very good and creamy. Mac's is a noisy smoky bar with very very good food, on par with H.U.E. and far surpassing Northside.

Bob San

Division/Wood. Dinner: shrimp tempura (really good tonight), sweet potato tempura (good), green bean tempura (just OK I thought), miso soup (flavor was too strong), namasake (delicious), California roll (good), vegetable crunch roll (sweet potato tempura with panko on the outside -- crunchy goodness!!!), ebi tempura roll (good), house crunch (shrimp tempura with panko and eel sauce on the outside -- deeee-licious!).

Vermillion

Hubbard/Dearborn. Dinner: fried tilapia tapas (delicious, good sauce), blackened ribs with yucca fries and corn salsa (good but not great). How this place got to be Chicago Magazine's best new restaurant of 2004 is beyond me.

Panda Express

700 N Michigan. Lunch: orange chicken (fine), chicken with string beans (fine).