Fine Dining

The very, very best of these, and Alice Waters’ baby, is Chez Panisse (1517 Shattuck Ave., restaurant 510/548-5525, café 510/548-5049, www.chezpanisse.com [1], restaurant prix fixe $55–85, café $19–24). If you plan to dine in the restaurant at Chez Panisse, you need to make your reservations early and possibly plan your entire trip to Berkeley [2] around the date on which you get a table.

You can make a dinner reservation up to one month in advance. (No, we’re not kidding. You should try to get a reservation at French Laundry [3]if you think this is ridiculous.)

The desk takes phone calls 9 a.m.–9:30 p.m. Monday–Saturday. You’ll get the chance to enjoy some of the best cuisine that’s ever graced a plate in Berkeley [2] or anywhere else on earth. Waters and her successors create French-California dishes at the bleeding edge of current trends—Waters sets trends, she doesn’t follow them.

Upstairs, the café offers food that’s a bit more casual but just as good as the rarified dining room downstairs. It’s much easier to get a reservation in the bustling, energetic café than it is the restaurant, and the casual atmosphere is less intimidating for diners who are new to all this California haute cuisine excess.