Photo: Courtesy of Five
• Michael Bauer gives two and a half stars to Scott Howard’s new Five, in Berkeley. Service can be a little unpredictable — “like playing the odds at Las Vegas,” — but classic and well-executed American food wins the day. [SF Chronicle]
• Patricia Unterman got by Z & Y Restaurant (no longer Z & Y Garden), where the new owners have reinvented the menu in Sichuan style, and printed it in English. She was impressed enough to compare the banquet dishes to no less than the French Laundry, but warns, “Unless you know what you’re doing, you can get a pretty mundane meal.” [SF Examiner]
