Sbrocco: Hand-pulled noodles in Berkeley.

Chinn: Beef luxuriating like it came in a sauna bath.

Sbrocco: German brats and brews in San Francisco.

Heft-Luthy: Really rich and sharp.

Sbrocco: And an elegant waterfront retreat in Redwood City.

Hall: From scratch.

Super fresh.

Phenomenal.

Sbrocco: Just ahead on "Check, Please!

Bay Area."

Chinn: It's okay to slurp.

It's perfectly fine to slurp.

♪♪ Sbrocco: Hi.

I'm Leslie Sbrocco.

Welcome to "Check, Please!

Bay Area," the show where Bay Area residents review and talk about their favorite restaurants.

Now, we have three guests, and each one recommends one of their favorite spots, and the other two go check them out to see what they think.

Joining me at the "Check, Please" table today are product manager Sam Heft-Luthy; author, filmmaker, and arts executive Debbie Chinn, and stylist and bartender Ed'drena Hall.

Welcome, everyone!

Hall: Thank you Sbrocco: Are you excited for the show?

Chinn: Yes.

Absolutely.

Sbrocco: Sam gets us started with a bustling little eatery that's a huge hit with the college crowd.

Offering hand-pulled noodles, savory steamed dumplings, and spicy soups, all made fresh to order, it's become his new go-to for Chinese comfort food.

Located in Berkeley, it's Impression of Lanzhou.

♪♪ ♪♪ Gong: Impression of Lanzhou is a northern Chinese restaurant.

We make fresh hand-pulled noodles and dumplings all days.

We have five different types of the noodle.

All the noodle is hand-pulled, fresh made.

So chef will see the order, they would directly make it in one or two minutes.

And also we have the xiao long bao, the soup dumpling, and also the wonton soup or the spicy signature wonton.

Wu: My favorite food here is Lanzhou beef noodle.

Gong: The ingredient in the Lanzhou beef -- We have the five colors.

The yellow is the noodles.

The clear one is the soup, the broth.

The white one is the daikon.

The green is the cilantro and the leaf.

The red one is the chili oil.

Wu: I use lots of chili in the food.

Some people like really spicy.

Some people don't like it spicy.

So different food, different spicy levels.

Gong: The location here is near the school, so students, they leave from home to come here for study.

We want to bring our life's food to solve their homesick.

Not just, like, Asian students.

I can say all the students, you know, they can feel like home.

Wu: I really like working here.

I like cooking the food.

I like our customers happy.

I will be happy too.

♪♪ Sbrocco: All right, Sam.

You're not a college kid, right?

Heft-Luthy: No, no.

Not for some time.

Yeah.

Sbrocco: Yeah.

How did you discover it?

Heft-Luthy: I was actually in a play at a theater that's just down the street.

I kept asking, "Are you guys open soon?"

And they go, "Two weeks," and then, two weeks later, "Two more weeks."

And they kept going.

And they opened just as the show started, and I went like five times.

Sbrocco: That's fantastic.

And what is your go-to dish?

Heft-Luthy: One of my favorite Chinese dishes is big-plate chicken, which is, like, a savory chicken stew with chunks of steamed chicken and mala spices.

It's so satisfying, and it's served on a big plate of wide, chewy noodles, and it soaks up the juice of the chicken and the broth and all of that.

It's delicious.

Sbrocco: Debbie, what did you think when you went there?

Chinn: I loved it.

I had the beef bone broth soup, which comes delivered in a huge bowl with pieces of boned beef luxuriating like it came in a sauna bath at your table on top of these noodles that just went on for days, which is what you like.

In the Chinese tradition, the longer the noodles, the better they stand for long life.

So I would never cut them.

But I opted for the thin noodles to absorb more of the broth.

But it comes with all kinds of accoutrements, and you have condiments and vinegar.

But the thing to do is you take that bone, you just pick it up and gnaw off of it.

Just gnaw off of it.

Who cares?

Heft-Luthy: Caveman style.

Chinn: Caveman style.

It doesn't matter.

You slop it up with the broth.

It is delicious.

Sbrocco: What did you have, Ed'drena?

Hall: I had the smashed cucumber salad, which was delightful.

Oh, my goodness.

It was ice cold, like little icebergs, with really good garlic sauce, a little bit of mirin.

And you could tell that they took their time marinating it.

It was so good.

I had beef soup as well, which was really great.

Mine wasn't as spicy as I wanted it to be.

I wanted it to have a little bit more of an oomph, and it didn't hit that for me.

But nonetheless, there were other noodles that I had that were perfect.

The other dish that I had was lamb.

The flat noodles, as we were saying, they're extremely long.

And a boss of mine came with me.

She was having such a hard time, 'cause it was like pulling out long strings.

A lot of that spicy aromatic got soaked up in the noodles.

It was really, really good.

Heft-Luthy: Obviously the soup is a big draw, but the dumplings are really good.

Every time we've gone, we always get at least one dumpling dish, and we always wish that we had gotten more.

This time we got the spicy wontons.

You were saying you wished that the noodle soup was a little spicier.

They had that really good chili oil just kind of slathered in.

And the meat, it just has that really nice juiciness you want from a Chinese dumpling.

Chinn: They have good dim sum there.

I had the xiao long bao, which are little dumplings with hot broth in there.

It came served in a steamer, six to an order.

If you don't know how to eat them, you should eat each individual xiao long bao in a little spoon or little cup, because there's broth in there.

It is hot.

The point is to take your chopstick or your fork, pierce it so the steam comes out, and then eat it that way with a little bit of black vinegar.

The dough was incredible.

I went twice 'cause I loved it so much.

Sbrocco: You wanted to double-check.

Chinn: And the waitress said, "You have to have the combination chicken chow mein."

And I thought, "That's kind of ordinary," but what struck me was the aromatic, charred wok smell.

That's the sign of a really good chow mein.

Shrimp -- generous portions of shrimp -- cabbage, beef, chicken.

The noodles were long.

And by the way, it's okay to slurp.

It's perfectly fine to slurp.

Sbrocco: Right.

Even if the noodles are long, you just slurp, right?

Chinn: Yeah.

Sbrocco: Okay.

Heft-Luthy: My mom and my dad, one of their first dates was to a pho restaurant, and she was, like, mortified by him slurping his noodles.

And he had to explain to her, like, "No, it's okay."

Chinn: You're supposed to.

Hall: It's a compliment.

Sbrocco: And did you have the xiao long bao?

Hall: I had some dumplings, but it wasn't that one.

I think mine was the shrimp and pork, which was really, really good.

And honestly, I loved the broth of the lamb so much that I just ended up dunking it in that and then getting all of that soupy goodness.

It was really good.

Sbrocco: Did you wash it down with anything, Sam?

Heft-Luthy: They don't have a beer-and-wine license, so they just have soft drinks.

Chinn: I just had water 'cause it was so spicy I didn't want to have hot tea with it.

The broth was my liquid, and you kind of get it with that.

Heft-Luthy: When I was in my show, I had gotten over being sick, so I just got a big takeout container of the broth.

And that was my drink for one of the shows backstage.

Sbrocco: What show was it?

You have to tell us.

"Frankenstein."

Was at a company called Theatre Lunatico.

I got to be the creature.

It was 90 minutes, and it's easily the most physical show that I've ever been in.

And so to just have that, like, nice, big cup of broth was awesome.

Sbrocco: Yeah.

Awesome.

And it sounds like the portions are big so you can take them home.

Is it a good value?

Hall: Humongous, honestly.

It was a great value.

We ordered so much stuff, and it ended up being a smaller bill than what I was thinking it would be.

And I still had a big box to go, and so did my boss.

Chinn: It is a comfort food, and I think for college kids and for adults, it's the place to go on a winter night.

It just reminds me of home.

Sbrocco: All right.

Well, if you would like to try Impression of Lanzhou, It's located on Euclid Avenue in Berkeley, and the average multi-course tab per person without drinks is around $25.

Debbie's pick is a serene spot where seafood is the star attraction.

With waterfront views, nautical decor, and a captivating jellyfish tank, it's no wonder it's become her special-occasion destination.

Located in Redwood City's Westpoint Harbor, it's Hurrica.

[ Indistinct conversations, laughter ] ♪♪ Boice: Hurrica is home away from home.

Thanks for coming back.

There's something magical about being on the water that is calming, that is peaceful and an escape.

Baade: Hurrica is a destination restaurant that focuses on global influence, live-fire cooking.

We wanted to kind of do a mix of steak and seafood and everything from Japanese and Korean to Southern and new American on the flavors.

Seafood is one of my favorite things to eat.

We do live sea scallops that are a huge hit.

The Santa Cruz salmon coming in super fresh.

We do a ton of oysters in the bar.

Whole roasted fish, like the dorade.

Boice: I love, actually, to debone the dorade tableside.

So, this is one of our signature dishes.

I don't think a lot of places do that anymore and it's a lost art.

Hurrica is named after this famous sailboat called the Hurrica V. Gorgeous boat, a hundred-year history.

Come on up.

The wood inside of the boat was really the inspiration of the design and the character of the restaurant.

It also ties into my passion for sailing and the water.

One of the inspirations was the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Famous for their jellyfish.

We wanted to bring that to Hurrica.

It is the largest privately owned jellyfish tank in North America.

They are moon jellyfish.

We want it to be something ethereal but also mesmerizing.

Magician: Now, watch very closely.

Two coins over here, right?

Now put your other hand on top.

Perfect.

Boice: I love magic shows.

Magician: Two, four, five, or six?

Boice: We have professional magicians on Magic Mondays.

Baade: They just kind of cruise around the dining room and kind of amaze and wonder.

Boice: Yeah.

Patron: Yeah.

[ Laughs ] Patron: Oh, my God!

No!

Magician: How many coins?

Is it three?

Boice: We have a motto.

We tell our staff we want our guests to leave happier than they came in.

It's not just a place that you go eat.

It's a place that you spend time with each other and you're welcome, and we want you to feel that welcome.

♪♪ Sbrocco: Now, Debbie, this is a pretty magical place, isn't it?

Did you come by yacht or boat?

Chinn: I left my yacht in my garage, but I drove -- and it's free parking, by the way.

It's on the water.

It's peaceful.

It's calm.

But it is the most beautiful place.

Hall: You almost think that it's, like, AI-generated at first, because you're not expecting this huge, 20-foot tank of jellyfish.

Chinn: I like to get there early and wait for my guests to come, 'cause I like to hang out by the bar and I have my Ketel One martini -- and this is an interesting touch -- the martini is served with the olives on top of the glass.

Usually when you put the olives in the glass, it takes up the martini.

You lift up the olives.

You have five more sips in there, basically.

Hall: So what I started with was the milk bread, which was really, really good.

It almost gives, like, a Hawaiian soft roll.

Completely from scratch, super fresh, still very warm.

And then, on the side, there was, like, an eggplant hummus.

And that was phenomenal.

Sbrocco: I'm gonna get to Sam, because you were shaking your head.

Heft-Luthy: That milk bread was so delicious.

You really get into it, you start dipping it, and you kind of share it and have that communal experience.

Hall: Yeah.

Exactly.

Chinn: Each dish coming out is a work of art.

They're beautiful when they come out.

I had the scallop starter served on a shell, served on top of black pebbles, and it had melted butter and just a lovely, sweet finish to it.

Hall: That sounds delicious.

I had something similar.

I had the oyster that was baked, and it was beautiful, plump and warm without being overcooked and the nice crust on the top of the slightest bit of cheese.

So I did that.

One bite.

So good.

I loved it.

I loved it.

Heft-Luthy: The smoked trout roe on the oysters reminded me of growing up, going to Florida to visit my grandma and getting the smoked whitefish that you put on a bagel.

It hit me like this, like, memory that it was triggering from this totally different kind of dish, and it was really good.

Hall: I also had the sashimi.

I was really surprised at how crispy the onion and garlic chips on top were.

Those were so warm.

And same with the rice -- it was so warm -- but the sashimi on top -- ice cold.

And I was like, "This is, like, the perfect environment, essentially, on a dish."

Sbrocco: A little contrast.

Hall: Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sbrocco: What do you get, then, for your mains?

Chinn: My friend ordered the "pastrami" braised boneless short ribs.

A huge chunk of delicious meat sitting on a pile of potato puree.

It's like you just want to slather yourself in it.

But it was fork-tender, and it came with roasted cabbage and some sliced red onions and a little toast with dollops of horseradish cream.

It's like one surprise after another.

And I had the pan-roasted halibut in this gorgeous light broth with snap-pea shoots, and it came with a surprise artichoke arancini.

I thought it was a potato, and it came with a wonderful artichoke.

Sbrocco: They're just little balls of love.

Chinn: Little balls of love.

Yes.

And you want to, like, slather that on yourself as well.

And, of course, we split the spaetzle gratin Gruyère.

Major cheese pull, and it's enough to share and take home.

It is so filling and so rich.

It's an adult mac and cheese.

Hall: So for mains, I got a lamb trio -- three different cuts of lamb.

So there's a sausage.

I'm a big sausage person.

That was really, really good, very juicy.

And then slices of roasted lamb.

There was a nice char on the outside, a little bit of the juices leaking out onto the blanched greens.

And then the lamb chop on the bone.

Sbrocco: It's a lot of lamb.

Hall: It was a lot of lamb, and it was great.

Heft-Luthy: We had the -- I believe it's pronounced dorade with kimchi fried rice below.

And it just was this really robust fish with a very light and slightly sour from the kimchi of the fried rice.

It just had this really wonderful, hearty but still playful element to it that was delicious.

Sbrocco: So definitely surf and turf.

Heft-Luthy: Yes.

Oh, yeah.

Sbrocco: They have quite a cocktail offering as well as a lovely wine list.

So did you imbibe anything when you were there?

Heft-Luthy: Yeah.

I got the Ship Wrecked.

It's similar to a Manhattan.

This had creme de cacao and a little bit of absinthe.

So it had that nice chocolaty and herbal note that I thought was really good.

Sbrocco: And a lot of power.

Heft-Luthy: A lot of power.

It's a booze-forward and a booze-backward drink, I would say.

Sbrocco: No wonder that ship was wrecked.

Heft-Luthy: Yeah.

And then my partner had the Yacht Rock, a really minty, almost like an iced tea.

It was so refreshing, and it almost didn't taste like it had booze in it, which was dangerous.

Hall: I went very, very simple.

I just had a chilled shot of mezcal, and that's what I sipped on for the evening.

The surf and turf, with the smokiness, definitely hit the spot.

Sbrocco: I love that pairing!

All right.

Desserts.

Chinn: My friend had the banana flan, which is a flan that's served underneath a brûlée... Heft-Luthy: That's what I had.

It's really good.

Chinn: ...with a dollop of vanilla ice cream and served with tapioca pearls.

You sort of have to peek inside and -- "Oh, there's the flan," and it's a nice presentation.

Sbrocco: And you said this is a special-occasion place or you can take yourself, right?

Chinn: Take myself.

Yeah.

Sbrocco: And just make a wonderful Tuesday out of it.

Heft-Luthy: Make eye contact with nobody and stare at the jellyfish at the bar.

It's a great time.

Chinn: They're friends.

Heft-Luthy: They're my friends now.

Yeah.

Hall: Watch the boats pass in and out of the docks.

It was great.

Chinn: It's very Zen.

Sbrocco: That's right.

You can do it all.

All right.

If you would like to try Hurrica, it's located in Westpoint Harbor in Redwood City.

The average multi-course tab per person without drinks is around $100.

At Ed'drena's German beer garden, every sausage tells a different story.

From classic brats to savory knockwursts and bold currywurst creations, paired with rotating craft beers in the heart of San Francisco's Mission District, it's all happening at Rosamunde Sausage Grill.

♪♪ Mendez: Rosamunde has been a gathering place here in the Mission for over 15 years.

Dining here, you get German comfort food, great pairing for your beer and for people-watching outside in our patio, 'cause there's never a dull moment on Mission Street.

The name Rosamunde comes from a traditional beer-barrel polka.

Rosamunde is a girl in the song that the singer is trying to date.

♪ Rosamunde ♪ [ Group singing in German ] "Bring out the barrels" or something like that.

[ Laughs ] Our sausages are made with high-quality ingredients, and we have a very diverse list going, from duck, elk to the classic bratwurst, cheddar brats, beer sausages.

You want spicy.

You don't want spicy.

We got it all.

All of our sauces are homemade, and a lot of people have never tried curry ketchup, and their minds are blown.

[ Laughs ] You can have any combination that you want.

One of my go-tos is a bratwurst with cheese and raw onion and chili on top of that.

That's all you need.

We have other traditional German dishes, like a pork schnitzel and spaetzle.

We have some great sides, like the hot grilled pretzel sticks.

They come with a honey mustard sauce and the beer cheese sauce.

Great for dipping and sharing.

[ Laughter ] With our beer selection, we have 22 taps, a mix of domestic and import.

Some of the traditional German beers that we offer offer are helles lagers, German pilsners, hefeweizens, and kolsch style.

Most of our beers, you can get them in a liter.

Right now we have the Hofbrau helles lager.

Very refreshing.

[ Group cheering ] The vibe here is very fun.

We encourage people to come here and watch sports.

We usually have them on.

Group: [ Chanting ] México!

México!

Mendez: I was a bartender here for eight years and then got the opportunity to buy Rosamunde.

What's kept me here is the love, the community.

We have been getting the same regulars for over a decade now.

We've made so many friends.

Keep the good times going.

♪♪ Sbrocco: Now, as a bartender... Hall: Yes.

Sbrocco: [ Laughs ] ...what draws you to a beer garden?

Hall: Well, it's definitely the beer first.

You hope for the best on the food, obviously.

But I've found that they have an excellent selection of dark beers.

I had a porter from Standard Deviant.

It was very rich without being heavy, and I ended up having two of them 'cause they were so good.

Heft-Luthy: Luckily, it's conveniently located near BART.

[ Laughter ] Hall: I really wanted to pair well with the other plethora of sausages that I had that evening.

Sbrocco: Well, tell me about your first sausage.

Hall: So -- [ Laughter ] Sbrocco: I don't think I've ever asked that question before.

Hall: I had a lamb and Moroccan spices.

It is very, very good.

And they come two sausages together in a bun.

And then there's all of these different sides that you can add to it.

So I did a curry ketchup with it, and then I did a little bit of light relish just to have that crunch.

And then a little extra spice on the side -- I had some of their mixed jalapenos.

It was really good.

Sbrocco: Nice.

Heft-Luthy: I love German beer-hall food.

I had a job where I went to Munich often.

I loved that feeling of just drinking a nice, crisp liter of helles or a weissbier.

The Schneider was the beer that we got both of those from, and they were both really good.

Sbrocco: And a sausage?

First sausage?

Second sausage?

Heft-Luthy: Yeah.

We got many sausages.

This is -- Can this air on public television?

Are we okay to talk about this?

[ Laughter ] Sbrocco: We've cut a lot of my comments out before.

Yes.

It's a lot of sausage.

Heft-Luthy: Yeah.

So the first one we got was bratwurst.

Very simple.

Honestly, it's a little hard to make out the nuances of it beneath a mound of grilled onions and sauerkraut.

But very, very delicious.

Really simple sausage on a roll.

And then we got a sausage plate, where we had andouille and the elk cheddar jalapeno.

It was really lean but with that little bit of fat from the cheddar that was just really, really rich and sharp and really delicious.

Sbrocco: That was the elk.

Heft-Luthy: That was the elk.

Yeah.

Sbrocco: Debbie, what about you?

Chinn: I had the sausage plate, 'cause I wanted to try everything on it.

I had my choice of two sausages.

I had the plant-based Italian, which was okay.

For vegans, it's fine.

But I love duck and fig sausage.

It is duck and pork in brandy.

And they give you two links, which is very generous.

And I love the crisp, the char, and just the nice bite to it.

And my friend had the brat, and she had the hot smoky beer sausage, which is ground pork and beef -- grass-fed beef -- in IPA.

It was just sweet, smoky, sensual.

And it comes with a generous platter of sauerkraut, German potato salad, and we couldn't get enough of the sweet and tangy side of beans.

Hall: Their sauces are a bit different, from the curried ketchup to the ground mustard.

They also have a slew of aioli as well that they make in house.

Really good.

I went a little crazy with it.

So I had three different sausages.

When I had the elk, which was phenomenal, I was like, "Okay.

There's already heat in that.

Let me do a little bit of their aioli, and I'll put a little bit of the relish on that with the sauerkraut."

And that's how I had that one plate.

Chinn: We had the side of the pickle plate.

It had a little bit of spice to it, and it came with pickled carrots and radishes and German pickles, which had caraway and marjoram, and it was just a nice way to add texture and flavor.

Sbrocco: And it kind of cuts through that richness.

Well, so does the IPA.

Hall: It has the jalapenos in it, too.

It's really good.

Sbrocco: Did you have a beer?

Chinn: I had two beers just to get going.

I had the Hofbrau Munchen and a light IPA to get started.

And they don't have deserts there, so my friend and I shared the Moonlight Death and Taxes, which is kind of like chocolate.

And it was just the perfect way to add a little sweet to it.

It was a great way to kind of finish off the meal.

It is a wonderful place to be 'cause you sit at communal tables, and you talk and you share beer tips.

People come over.

"What are you eating?"

"Have you tried this?"

"Try this next time."

Hall: Yeah.

It's so communal that, like, I could probably see my best friend, and, funny enough, I did run into two of my really good friends that night and ended up enjoying the meal with them.

And it kind of feels like we're a little bit apart now.

We need more places like that.

Heft-Luthy: I feel like in the Mission, where I've lived the whole time I've been in San Francisco now, every new restaurant is, like, a matcha place or elevated X. Like, it really captures the history of the Mission District, and not that sort of recent last couple decades of the Mission that I think is really beautiful.

Hall: I think that's what makes it completely special for that neighborhood to have that piece.

It's almost like a piece of heritage that now the new owner is continuing on that legacy.

Sbrocco: If you would like to try Rosamunde Sausage Grill, it's located on Mission Street in San Francisco.

And the average multi-course tab per person without drinks is around $25.

Man: Are you ready?

Phillips: No.

Man: No?

[ Crowd cheering ] Sbrocco: Looking for more Bay Area bites you've just got to try?

Phillips: I want more.

Sbrocco: Check out "Cecilia Tries It" online at kqed.org/checkplease.

Phillips: Oh.

Hello.

[ Laughter ] Sbrocco: I have to thank my fantastic guests on this week's show -- Sam Heft-Luthy, who can't get enough of the big chicken plate at Impression of Lanzhou in Berkeley; Debbie Chinn, whose happy place is a harborside seat at Redwood City's Hurrica; and Ed'drena Hall, who kicks back with a brat and a beer at Rosamunde Sausage Grill in San Francisco.

Join us next time, when three more guests will recommend their favorite spots, right here on "Check, Please!

Bay Area."

I'm Leslie Sbrocco, and I'll see you then.

Cheers.

Chinn: Cheers.

Hall: Cheers.

Sbrocco: So you had fun?

Heft-Luthy: Yeah.

Sbrocco: Debbie, I introduced you as an author, and you have multiple books.

Chinn: I do.

I have one that I'm adapting into a streaming series.

It's called "Dancing in Their Light."

It's about my life growing up as a restaurant kid from the age of 3.

And I moved into selling cigarettes to working at the bar at the age of 6 -- Sbrocco: At 3 years old?

Chinn: I sold cigarettes at 3.

How could you say no to a 3-year-old kid that wants to sell you a pack of Marlboros?

And then the restaurant became a Polynesian nightclub, and I got thrust into the show as a hula dancer.

And it became a sensational success back in Long Island, New York.