Kat's 9 Lives

Everyone raves about Zachary's Chicago Style Pizza and I finally headed over to East Bay with Ms. Lin and Ms. BumbleBee to try it out. I am sorry to say but I think it's WAY OVER-RATED. They were super busy as usual. You walk in to put your name down for a table and head on over to the counter to order the pizza because it takes about 30+ minutes to bake. The interior decor was nice. I loved the past paintings that won to represent the greatness of their pizza. It's a very homey classic feel. The funniest painting was the one with a Golem lookalike grabbing for his "Precious", the Zachary's Pizza.

Ms. BumbleBee started off the night with a beer, which I believe most people find great with pizza. I don't drink a lot and I am not a fan of beer so I can't comment on that, but I can understand that they would go well together. We decided to share the Caesar Salad. The funny thing was I think that was the best thing of the night. You know it's sad that I find a salad more delicious than a pizza with meat! That was some great salad though! It was just normal vegetables with a great Caesar sauce. The flavor was extremely strong and packed a punch. There were tons of crispy croutons that blended well with the salad. I think I would have had a better dining experience if I just ate the salad.

For our pizza we chose to add Mushrooms, Sausage, and Pepperoni as our toppings. The pizza came out piping hot. It looked the same as the pizza at Little Star Pizza. Sadly, it didn't taste anything like the pizza I had there. The only thing I liked about Zachary's was the amount of cheese that you would see stretching as you pull away each slice. They had tons of homemade sausage on the pizza, but I really didn't feel like there was any pepperoni. I think the back end crust at Zachary's was just bland and flavorless. The corn meal crust at Little Star Pizza was much better and adds a special texture to the pizza, instead of the lifeless Zachary's crust. It might just be a personal preference, but I can NOT recommend this place. I was barely able to eat the pizza, I only ate it because there wouldn't be anything else I could grab to eat in it's stead. =*( As for the sauce they use, I am not too fond of it because I found it a little too salty and overpowering but not in a good way. One way to tell if I don't like the food would be if I add a lot of side components to the dish. Normally I like to eat things as is to get the full taste of the food. If I have to add an excess of components to eat the food, then there must be something wrong. The pizza at Zachary's truly made me more appreciative of Little Star Pizza.
I had the left over pizza the next day and it was fine for a filler. Just to be clear, the pizza was not horrific and disgusting. It just wasn't what I thought it would be. Maybe it's the high expectations that led to a huge let down. I still think the pizza was better than Domino's, but I guess that doesn't say much. I'd go back to Zachary's for the salad, but not for the pizza. Even though I wasn't too impressed with their pizza, I would give it a second try. Maybe I was just not in the mood that day. Still, the pizza at Zachary's was better than the thin crust pizza at Little Star Pizza. I will give it at least that much credit. Hands down, Little Star Pizza was much better than Zachary's in the traditional Chicago Style Pizza. It's pretty obvious if you read this review. O=P

I am finally posting about the Saturday where Ms. Lin, Ms. Bumblebee, and I went out. To start the day off we went to La Farine in Oakland. We crossed the Bay Bridge and headed over to East Bay for a full day of adventure. As things turned out, we ended up leaving a little bit later than planned. We arrived at La Farine fairly quickly from the city and found parking immediately. Be sure to pay at the station and put the tickets in your car because they took out all the meters, don't want any of my readers to get a ticket. ^_~ It was a very beautiful day out that Saturday. We strolled into the bakery around 1:30PM and the scones that we really wanted to try were completely out. In fact, almost everything was out! =*( *sob sob sob*
We stood in line and took a quick glance of what few remaining baked goods they had. Their decor was typical of a bakery with a wooden furnish with cute baskets holding the baked goods. There were more cakes and desserts left on the other side. We all got Chocolatine, which was your typical Pain au Chocolat. It was Croissant dough with baton boulanger (bakers chocolate batons) in the middle. The croissant was very flaky and the dark chocolate inside was very tasty. As a whole it was tasty because the dark chocolate was the dominate taste with the buttery croissant only adding to the flavor. I actually think Tartine's Pain au Chocolat was better though. **I have the pics all ready & I promise to post about that place soon**
Since there was limited choices, I decided to try one of their sandwiches. They had very few of them left, so I took a gamble that they might be tasty. I chose the Ham, Swiss, Dijon, and Pears. Ms. Lin and I are not big fans of mustard, but I still chose to get this sandwich over the other one. The addition of pears was surprisingly delectable. It really added a sweetness that brought out the other flavors of the sandwich. Ms. Lin also picked up a Dark Double Chocolate Espresso Cookie. It had a strong Espresso flavor that made it even more bitter, but still very flavorful. The cookie was hard on the outside and soft on the inside.
All in all everything was good, but not anything to die for. I guess I would still go again to try and get the scones...if that's even possible. Trying all these different French Bakeries has made me even more nostalgic for Paris! I want to go back so bad! Taking the subway to Angelina's, or walking down to Pierre Hermé, or even heading down to the farmer's market for fresh pain au chocolat sounds so heavenly! Brings back so many memories and I must say NONE of these bakeries can hold a candle to those in Paris. Yes, I know the places that I named are super famous places in Paris. Even the smaller bakeries in Paris have more flavor and texture than the ones here. I guess they are good replacements for now, but I have to say I'd rather go to Cream Pan than any of these places. Of course this takes into account flavor AND pricing. I can't wait until May 23rd when Tofu and I head on over to Cream Pan! YAY!