Walker's Pie Shop, Albany
Despite the plethora of great restaurants, cheap and expensive, in the North Berkeley/Albany area, Saturday night we found ourselves at a loss. Home-cooked comfort food sounded good, so, hoping for meatloaf or roast turkey, we decided on Walker's Pie Shop. We'd been there several years ago and hadn't really liked it, but we thought there must be a good reason it's still in business. In fact, we're still not sure what that reason is.
First disappointment - no meatloaf and no roast turkey on the menu. They have a Specials menu that they print up every month in calendar format just like the school lunch menu we used to get in elementary school. The special Saturday night was, unfortunately, oxtails. (What ever happens to the rest of the ox - does anyone know?) Roast turkey shows up once a week (Thursdays, maybe?). And our second choice, chicken pot pie, is available for taking home, but not to eat in. Curious.
Some of the dishes can be ordered either a la carte (around 9 bucks), served with vegetables and baked potato, or prix fixe (so to speak) for around $15, including soup, popovers, salad or jello ("gelatin" on the menu - mmm...appetizing), and a slice of pie.
Ali ordered the fish of the day, salmon (no dye, the menu proclaimed) with black bean salsa. Minestrone was the soup of the day - we're pretty sure it came from a can because it tasted a lot like pasta sauce from a jar. But it was hearty and warming and we ate it all. Salad was a standard lettuce salad (green leaf, mostly) with red cabbage and grated carrot - good and fresh.
The popovers that arrived with the first course were out of this world good! I might go back to Walker's just for the popovers. I was tempted to take one home in my purse, but decided they wouldn't be good later. They arrive fresh out of the oven (or out of the warmer - whatever) and they're puffy, golden, airy, yum. They don't even need the butter that's served with them.
Ali's salmon was fried and most likely farm-raised Atlantic, with a pretty fishy taste. The black bean salsa turned out to have other beans in it, too. I think the whole thing grew on him, but obviously not the kind of salmon dish we'd go back for again.
I don't know what I was thinking ordering red snapper. They offered a choice of grilled or poached, and I thought I'd be healthy, so I ordered poached. It arrived in a heap on the plate - all this white fish piled up (a huge portion!) with no sauce whatsoever. Tartar sauce on the side. It wasn't bad fish - it just had nothing going for it. Fried would probably have been best.
Carrots on the side didn't seem canned, but the Chronicle review from 2000 that I've linked below implies that all their veggies are canned. They were good, if plain, fare. Baked potato was a nice, small one, served with butter and a tiny pat of sour cream on the side if you want it.
Can I mention the popovers again?
We shared a piece of chocolate pecan pie for dessert. Ali was tempted by the apple, but I guessed that they used canned apples, which was confirmed by the Chronicle reviewer. I don't understand that - canned apples are obviously completely unacceptable. Why does anyone use them? Anyway, the chocolate pecan was good but not great. I think their cream pies look better. Chocolate cream went by us after we'd ordered ours and it looked thick and velvety and delicious! Our pie tasted of cocoa powder, though the pecans and the filling were good.
Water was refilled with astounding regularity - I guess that's better than never getting refilled.
Total bill came to around $40 with tip.
Alexandra
Oct 20, 2003 03:00PM
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Well, this probably pegs me for good. But I love Walker's. It's like pulling teeth to get my family (husband, 16 year old boy, 12 year old girl) to go: they're typical Berkeley foodies. But we went on (for example) Mother's Day, at my request, and it was fun. The popovers are one of the few objectively great things there, as you've written. The pies are a mixed bag--not a fabulous crust, and I'd for sure stay away from apple--the cream pies are the best. Ordering fish there seems like a misunderstanding of the place's identity and reason for being. When I lived in PA, I asked at a local diner if they had something healthy (maybe a piece of fruit?), and the waitress put her hand on her hip and said, "Honey, this is a greasy spoon." What I've enjoyed at Walkers: chef salad for dinner is large and good in the simple way such a salad can be; lunches like BLT's w/ chips and pickle and diet coke are just right; breakfasts are fine--the hash browns may not be freshly grated, but they're hearty, as is the rest. There are always deals, which make it all quite reasonable--2 for 1 coupons that come in the mail amidst coupons for new chimneys or color photocopies, dollars off coupons that you can clip out of the publications like East Bay Express or whatever the name is of that free monthly East Bay publication that's delivered to your door. And I love the clientele--lots of older folks, who look like they belong in Iowa (or one of the MA diners I grew up frequenting). The servers also have an old-fashioned feel. There are all these comfort food places that feel fake, dreamed up by marketing people. This one has the ring of the real thing, with all the pluses and minues that that entails.
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You're right, susabelle, especially about ordering fish. We thought we were in the Bay Area, though! And like I said, we were looking forward to comforting meatloaf or roast turkey, or even chicken pot pie or roast beef, but it was nowhere to be found on the menu. Ham was the one meat we considered, but that night we were feeling pro-pig, I guess.
We'll go back and try the cream pies and an order of popovers next time we need some comforting, based on your recommendation.
Thanks!
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Alexandra, My husband's always ordering something fish or a complicatedly sauced dish at a place where it's clear that you need to stick w/ steak and a baked potato (or meatloaf or turkey and dressing, as you had hoped would be on the menu at Walkers). I'd thought my antennae for down-scale places that lets me "know" that he's headed for disappointment came from my New England mill town roots. But it's not just that he comes from a background with more cultural savvy--it's also, as you suggest, his fantasy that in the Bay Area, food sophistication is more pervasive, less class-bound than in parts of the world where they've never heard of Alice Waters. p.s. I think your characterization of a popover is just right! Susabelle
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I'm thinking a popover is like a big rustic roll but inside it's just air. It's tastier than it sounds.
I've eaten a lot of bad food at Rhode Island mill towns (where my dad is from). The only thing serviceable at all those restaurants are sandwiches and burgers, and even then just barely. Sometimes local specialties like chowder or clam cakes are OK.
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I've never eaten anything there but the pies, but I love their banana cream pie. Never had a better pie anywhere. Of course, I'm not really a pie connoisseur but still I really do love their banana cream pie.
Seeing as I'm not even sure what a popover is, I have definitely gotta try them next time I'm there. You two make them sound great.
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A popover might be like a Yorkshire pudding (can someone confirm this?) - it's the size of a roll, but not bready. Not sweet, not salty - just light and airy and delicious! That doesn't really make it any clearer, does it? You'll just have to go try them, Manekineko. And I'll try the cream pies (but not banana cream pie - can't stand bananas; woe is me).
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You're right. A popover is like a Yorkshire pudding except that said pudding uses beef fat/drippings from the roast, whereas butter is more commonly used with popovers. They need to be made to order to come out right. You should also try them at Neiman-Marcus at lunch or tea time.
I don't like bananas either, and especially don't like banana cream pie. But I loved Walker's banana cream pie - go figure.
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The ONLY thing to order at Walker's is the fried chicken. Although I never order it I love that they offer Jello. And, yes, the popovers are yummy. I feel like I'm back home in the Midwest when I go to Walker's.
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