Unusual Menu Notation

Le Cheval in downtown Oakland ("The price is great but service is marginal. However the food is just mouth-watering good!") has an unusual statement at the bottom of its menu:

price may be adjusted depending on attitude of customer

Comments

[David Ricardo]

Two terrible jokes:

1) ...Price may be adjusted depending on attitude of customer? How profound ! Definetely if you don´t tip them, the price is automatically adjusted !

2) French name for a Vietnamese Restaurant !

Caveat lector: Ceteris Paribus !

[jerry]

It's French Vietnamese food. And the French, of course, had a long history in Indochina. Nb the Battle of the Michelin Rubber Plantation: http://www.google.com/search?q=battle+michelin+rubber+plantation

I miss Le Cheval. (But Le Cheval Express up near Bancroft and College, feh.)

[Atanu Dey]

Don't knock Le Cheval Express, Jerry. Many a cheap lunch have I had there. In fact, I think I will invite Brad to lunch the next time I swing by Berkeley. (Brad, be warned the next I come by your office around lunch time.)

[Dubblblind]

"price may be adjusted depending on attitude of customer"

So do you think that includes a a price break for a cheery and gracious customer? Me neither.

[rd]

I was surprised when I visited downtown Oakland earlier this spring at how much good food you could get for really low prices. For instance, King Wah is by no means gourmet, but it serves oriental food a substantial cut above the norm at bargain rates. I ate like a prince with multiple courses for a little under $10.

[Tomas]

Ah, the cusine of berkeley and the bay area is of a high quality and cheap. I was in Berkeley for a year in 1999 and Zacheries (sp?) pizza on Solano and that Burrito place near the university was my great friend after lectures.

For me, Berkeley means good food, good people and happy times, so since im this positive, do you think id get a discount?

[Bruce Webb]

My God, and not just on the South Side. You could stand on the corner of Hearst and Euclid and be half a block away from Top Dog, Giant Hamburger (the best pre-hangover cure ever, eat one of those after a night of partying and you will be up at the crack of noon almost as good as ever), and then LeVals Pizza (a huge slice, a good salad and a pint of Bud for about $5) and what I believe is the burrito place you are talking about, all situated around an open courtyard, small but unbeatable on a summer night. With shish-kabob right across the street, and not one but two real cafes with real espresso next to the kabob place and around the corner on Hearst. I lived around the corner on Ridge and I am not sure if I ever used my stove. If I ever hit the Lotto I am right back there.

(I now live in the land of Starbucks and I refuse to drink coffee at all. I mean I might have had a mocha once in a while at Cafe Med, but the notion that the proper serving of coffee is a sixteen ounce container stuffed with milk and raspberry syrup must have old time SF North Beach cafe owners spinning in their graves.)

[lfs]

For the best burritos in the East Bay, go to Gordo's on Solano Avenue, in Albany.

[Ari Krupnick]

A lunch or late-nite meal at The Smokehouse on Telegraph is another classic, perhaps *the* classic, Oakland/Berkeley dining experience. My friends and I ate there for lunch almost every day during our senior year of high school. If we didn't eat there we ate at Genova's (a deli), also great, also on Telegraph.

As far as more upscale joints go, I recommmend Acote on College and Zax on Telegraph.

[masaccio]

I occasionally charge clients an aggravation rate, and based on the fees some of my lawyer friends charge for similar services, I suspect I am not the only one.

[lfs]

Its fish dishes are superb.

[rjw]

A french restuarant with the name "le cheval" (the horse). You guys sure you know what you're eating? :)

[wcw]

California has banned horse. While I knew some
folks ate it, I had never before been interested.
Since it became illegal, by plebiscite in 1998,
I have availed myself of every single subsequent
opportunity to consume it.

It's not bad, but then I like leaner cuts. The
forms in which I have had it are Austrian and
Bavarian, mostly sausage and similar products.

Le Cheval, for the record, was always o-kay, but
in an area with such an embarrassment of riches
for tasty foodstuffs, certainly never high on my
list. A Cote, on the other hand, is, or at least
was when I lived just up the street.

[apsiegel]

I like the jar of pickled snakes they keep on the bar by the restrooms.

[Auros]

If you're in Downtown Oakland, I cannot over-recommend the wonderfulness of Battambang, the Cambodian place on Broadway at (I think) Ninth.

[Kathleen]

I have never noticed that caveat on Le Cheval's menus - nice catch Prof. DeLong.

and ITA on the Smokehouse - definitely a classic Oakland experience.

a nice Battambang dinner before a movie at the Paramount is one of my favorite Friday evenings.

I will have to strenuously disagree that the best burritos in the East Bay are on Solano. Try pretty much any place along International Blvd (I like Tacqueria San Jose myself).

[Dano]

I moved away from CA almost three years ago, and this discussion thread makes me homesick. Fresh produce, tons of good inexpensive restaurants, warmth, sunshine...

sigh...

D