Just moved to Greenbrae!!! need recs

[tstrum]

Just moved from out of state, and we need to know where good, non-chain Italian, Chinese, Pizza, Burgers, Deli and Mexican places are. Nothing fancy, just local favorites.
Thanks.

[Sharon S.]

Most of your dining needs will be in San Rafael. Good luck finding good Chinese or any Asian really = Ping's in SR is okay in a pinch. Pizza =Amici's or Gaspare's or Mulberry Street. Las Camelias for Mexican. Best Burger in Montecito Plaza. Michaels' Sourdough has good sandwiches - Deli? what's that. Don't be lazy search past posts.

[chilihead2006]

Don't unpack!! Move to Berkeley! ;)

Insalata's and Lotus Thai in San Anselmo

Le Croissant in San Rafael for breakfast/lunch

Il Davide for Italian in San Rafael

[pininex]

You will be spending the majority of your time in San Rafael and Mill Valley. Here are some picks that you can research on this board:

Italian: La Ginestra and Piazza D'Angelo are both in Mill Valley and are my two favorites. La Ginestra makes a great Caesar, really good calamari, and their housemade Ravioli Ginestra are incredible. I also like their gnocchi al pesto. D'Angelos always has great specials.

Pizza: Pizza Antica and Small Shed Flatbreads in Mill Valley are both very vood. Pizzeria Picco in Larkspur is also excellent. LoCocco's in San Anselmo is also good and very old school.

Burgers: Bubba's Diner in San Anselmo makes great burgers. I also like Phyliss' Giant Burgers in San Rafael and Pearl's Phat Burger in Mill Valley.

Deli-If you are talking East Coast style, there is Max's in Corte Madera. I grew up in SF and to me "deli" is a sandwich loaded with Molinari Salami and all of the fixings. Mollie Stone's grocery store carries a good selection of Molinari meats and Boar's Head Meats.

Mexican-Taqueria San Jose and El Farolito in San Rafael makes great burritos and tacos. If you want gringo-Mex, I like Panchito's in San Rafael and Las Guitarras in Novato. Las Camelia's in San Rafael is also good.

This should be a good start.

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Pizzeria Picco
320 Magnolia Ave, Larkspur, CA 94939

Taqueria San Jose
615 4th St, San Rafael, CA 94901

Pizza Antica
800 Redwood Highway Suite 705, Mill Valley, CA

Small Shed Flatbreads
17 Madrona St, Mill Valley, CA 94941

Max's Cafe
60 Madera Blvd, Corte Madera, CA 94925

Phyllis' Giant Burgers
2202 4th St, San Rafael, CA 94901

Las Guitarras
1017 Reichert Ave, Novato, CA 94945

Pearl's Phat Burgers
8 E Blithedale Ave, Mill Valley, CA 94941

Las Camelias
912 Lincoln Ave, San Rafael, CA 94901

La Ginestra
127 Throckmorton Ave, Mill Valley, CA 94941

Piazza D'Angelo
22 Miller Ave., Mill Valley, CA 94941

Bubbas Diner
566 San Anselmo Ave, San Anselmo, CA 94960

Taqueria El Farolito
1017 4th St, San Rafael, CA 94901

Lo Coco's Pizzeria
638 San Anselmo Ave, San Anselmo, CA 94960

Panchitos Restaurant
667 Del Ganado Rd, San Rafael, CA 94903

[Mick Ruthven]

You'll find a lot by searching on "Marin" and also specific towns in Marin (Sausalito, Mill Valley, Larkspur, San Rafael, San Anselmo, etc.). Most (or all) residents in central or southern Marin consider that their stomping grounds, not just their specific town.

A couple places that I don't see posted in this thread and are on my favorite list are Cibo in Sausalito and Tony Tutto Pizza in Mill Valley.

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Tony Tutto Pizza
246 E Blithedale Ave, Mill Valley, CA 94941

Cibo
1201 Bridgeway (at Pine, Sausalito, CA 94965

[Sarah]

Bon Air Shopping Center has a number of casual restaurants. The only "real" restaurant that comes to mind is in the office complex adjacent to the shopping center on Drakes Landing Rd (?) called Jason's. I haven't eaten at this new location, but the food and service was very good when they were in SR. Try Yet Wah and House of Lee for Chinese, both on 4th in SR. We like Bobby's (also on 4th) for burgers too.

[Missmoo]

Fabrizio has good Italian in downtown Larkspur. Also, Rulli has good pastries and sandwiches (fancy but not too expensive,not deli). They are downtown Larkspur as well.

[rworange]

Welcome to the Bay Area.Greenbrae is not a grim area as some might make it to be.

I first want to point out that San Rafael has one of the best farmers markets in the Bay Area, the Sunday market. Here is a site that will list that and all the other farmers markets in the area
http://www.cafarmersmarkets.com/index.cfm

You can search the Restaurant & Bars data base for info. If searching on San Rafael, this list comes up
http://search.chow.com/search?search_board_id=1&query=%22San+rafael%22&advanced=1&search_boardgroup_id=1&type=Restaurant&page=3

If you click on the restaurant name, the Place record will be displayed which often has the website and any past reports.

Change the search to Greenbrae or any other city in your area and you will get similar lists. Fairfax is also a good town to research. If you search using Marin, all the Marin Countly places will be listed. You can narrow the search by adding cuilsine ... Marin Italian, for example

The Bay Area is not great for Jewish deli, That being said, Marin has a sizable Jewish community and probably the best offerings of an under represented cuisine locally.

Right in Greenbrae is Mollie Stone which is an upscale market with a lot of deli food. I like the Acme herring from there a lot. San Rafael has Hilary's Kitchen and House of Bagels, but I've never warmed to them and prefer NY by the Bay Deli, though I haven't been there for a while and hope they are still there. Here's a previous discussion about Jewish food in Marin.
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/334074

Italian: Besides those mentioned, Greebrae actually has a very good Italian bakery, Victoria Pastry. It is near Mollie Stone. The original is in SF, but IMO the Greebrae bakery is superior to SF. Emporio Rulli in Larkspur has some top class Italian baked goods. Not mentioned so far that I can see is Napoli in San Rafael. Haven't been to Il Davide but it gets positive mentions on the board.

Breakfast: Pier 15 has an outdoor patio on a funky marina (in a funky nabe) and some of the same dishes as the excellent Mama's in SF. Le Croissant for humoungus, homey breakfasts

Ice Cream: Silbermans (old school 40 flavors), Farfax Scoop and Three Twins (both organic, the edge goes to Fairfax Scoop, but Three Twins is nearer to you

Near Greenbrae is Scotty's Market, sort of upscale but independently owned and worth checking out. Three Twins is in the same strip mall.

Fish: Give Western Bait and Tackle a look see. Expensive but nice quality.

There are lots of fans of Sol Foods which is a Puerto Rican restaurant with two locations in SR (one block from each other)

Persian: There's quite a bit in SR. Jasmine Market is very good and the restaurant that just opened across the way, Rubi by Fampus Kebab, is very nice.

Burgers: Phylis's Giant Burger has its fans. It is not amazing but a solid mid scale burger

Cafe Gratitude for vegan attitude ... I am recommending it ... fun for one visit The coconut pie has its fans

Falafel Hut is very good for Middle Eastern

Coffee: I'm a big Graffeo fan. Also, La Copa has very good coffee.

Fairfax, Near Farfax Scoop is a very good bakery called Fat Angel.

Unfortunately search on the Restaurant databse seems to be having its problems today and is not picking up everything, but that will get you started.

Hope you report back as you try new places so we get an idea of your tastes and can make better recs. Also it keeps info on the board fresh

[melisky]

Actually, that strip mall with Scotty's Market and the Three Twins is actually in Terra Linda, which is part of San Rafael, rather than right near Greenbrae. I recommend Scotty's for their meatballs and if you don't feel like cooking, they have a lot of take-away meals, including artichokes with mayo and lemon -- not something you see too often.

I had a really nice lunch at Jason's Restaurant in Greenbrae. It was a seafood salad and it was excellent.

Other Marin recs:
Indian - Lotus and Om - both on 4th Street, San Rafael and a few more - search for the buffet thread

Jewish - Um, not so much, but it's worth stopping by the Marin JCC Friday morning to pick up Irving's Challah -- it rules! And for the rest, the Marin JCC cafe is pretty good, as long as you accept you're in Northern California. That said, I did a whitefish tour of Marin (man, do I take risks!) last year and the best was NY by the Bay, but please do NOT buy the bagels there. Go anywhere else for those.

Burritos - Lucinda's - Cali-Style, fair warning - this was not in the Chow list. It's changed a bit over the years, but I've been going to it since the late 70s when nary a vegetable was to be found and it was just refried beans and cheese, so bear with me.

Happy eating!

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Scotty's Market
620 Manuel T Freitas Pkwy, San Rafael, CA 94903

OM South Indian Cuisine
1518 4th St, San Rafael, CA 94901

Osher Marin JCC
200 N San Pedro Rd, San Rafael, CA

Lotus Cuisine of India
704 4th St, San Rafael, CA 94901

Jason's Restaurant
300 Drakes Landing Rd, Greenbrae, CA

Lucinda's Mexican Food To Go
930 Redwood Hwy, Mill Valley, CA

New York By the Bay
1005 Northgate Dr, San Rafael, CA 94903

[Sarah]

Bagel-wise, the only decent ones are at New York Bagels in the Strawberry Shopping Center (next door from Starbucks) in Mill Valley -- to us, they are the best -- better than Marin Bagels and House of Bagels. But what do we know, we're not NY bagelmaniacs!

[rworange]

I have't been to NY by the Bay in a while, but at the time the bagels were decent. OTOH, I did a back to back tasting of Safeway and New York Bagels and Safeway won. I think it was a plain bagel at both, so maybe NY Bagels has some that are better than others?

[Sarah]

No no no, NY Bagels in Strawberry in Mill Valley has no connection to the deli in Terra Linda/Northgate. Their bagels (15 flavors), as far as I know, are sold only at their MV shop.

[rworange]

Yes, I wasn't implying they were. Dredged up my old Marin bagel crawl from 3 years ago. Maybe I'll give them a re-try

REAL New York Bagels in Strawberry Village
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/633702

Might as well throw in the old Hilary's and NY by the Bay posts that also turned up in the search.

San Rafael - New York by the Bay Deli – real NY owners ... real water bagels.
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/334070

San Rafael--Hilary's Kitchen (House of Bagels) report, sort of
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/335148

The same search search picked up info about Max's. Other than the corn rye, I haven't tried anything there, though I am not a fan of some of the other Max's. Even when they first opened and were a bit better ... before mini chain-izing ...they never really got deli right.

Max's to me is summed up from one server long ago who suggested someone have a raisin bagel with their lox and cream cheese ... just not quite right. There are better things on the menu than others though.

Corte Madera: Max's Cafe corn rye
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/416597

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New York Bagel
800 Redwood Highway 330, Mill Valley, Ca

Max's Cafe
60 Madera Blvd, Corte Madera, CA 94925

New York By the Bay
1005 Northgate Dr, San Rafael, CA 94903

Hilarys Kitchen & House-Bagels
640 4th St, San Rafael, CA

[pininex]

Hilary's/House of Bagels went through an ownership change a little while back. It is now owned by a nice Asian couple. The bagel breakfast sandwich still tastes good.

[chipman]

"Welcome to the Bay Area.Greenbrae is not a grim area as some might make it to be"

Yes, that could be the under statement of the year..

[Giselle]

Pier 15 off of Francisco Blvd in San Rafael ( turn at Harbor st at Mazda Dealership) has great food and I second whoever suggested the authentic Italian at Fabrizio on Magnolia in Larkspur. Pancho Villa Sir Francis Dr Blvd on the San Anselmo/Fairfax border has wonderful Mexican. Phyliss Giant Burgers in San Rafael Miracle Mile and Red Boy Pizza.

[Mick Ruthven]

I second Pier 15 for breakfast/brunch, not so much for lunch. Also your rec for Phyllis which has the best burgers in Marin in its hole-in-the-wall place.

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Phyllis' Giant Burgers
2202 4th St, San Rafael, CA 94901

Pier 15
15 Harbor St, San Rafael, CA 94901

[The Librarian]

I live in Mill Valley, and I really like and use these two Marin-based restaurant bloggers:

Anna's Cool Finds: http://mtkilimonjaro.blogspot.com/

Bunrabs Daily Feed: http://bunrab.com/dailyfeed/2009July/...

A place I loved the one time I've been there is the new Persian restaurant Rumi in San Rafael.
Welcome to the county!

[rworange]

Not a lot about Rumi on the board. I stopped by briefly and just got some soup to go but it was good. Maybe you could post a little about what you tried in one of the Rumi threads.
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/607620
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/612642

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Rumi By Famous Kabob
227 3rd St, San Rafael, CA 94901

[The Librarian]

Three of us (one vegetarian) went and shared several dishes. There was the yummy bread, along with herbs and feta, that they bring to the table. We tried the flour noodle soup, eggplant delight, dolmeh, and the prawn kabob (for the non-veggies). Everything was delicious, with an elusive sour flavor that was wonderful. I've never had Persian food, so I wasn't familiar with it. If I lived closer, I would certainly go more often and try lots of different things.
Here's the menu:

http://www.rumibyfamouskabob.com/menu...