La Note — Restaurant in Berkeley

I've been here a few times in the last couple of months when I've had to work an early shift at the office. Getting there between 8 and 8:30 in the morning on a week day means I haven't had to deal with the lines. The lunch menu starts at 11am (you can still do breakfast) and I recommend being there right at 11 if you don't want a long wait. This place can get really busy and I've visited at times where the wait time is an hour.

First, the coffee, it's good. It's not top shelf, but at the same time it's better than Starbucks down the street (both regular and decaf). This is really important for me in a breakfast place, and too many of them service the cheap stuff but not here.

For breakfasts: I've had their Oatmeal Raspberry Pancakes (my favorite), the Lemon Gingerbread Pancakes with Poached Pairs, the Brioche Pain Perdue, and the Omelette De Pommes De Terre as well as various pastries.

Both the oatmeal and gingerbread pancakes are outstanding. Fluffy but full of flavor (how many places do you go where the pancake is a tasteless lump whose only job it to provide you with butter and syrup? not here!). I always go with a two pancake platter (you can get 1, 2, or 3 pancakes in your order) and it does well for me. I think three would be a bit much, but if I was going to skip or have a really late lunch I'd consider it.

I was also happy with the cinnamon french toast (Brioche Pain Perdue). They have an excellent batter and the slices arrive moist but not soggy and with a bit of spring. The batter is all the way through the bread so you don't end up with the dry layer in the middle.

The omelets have improved over the years, I quite like them now.

For Lunch You may not believe this but I've had every lunch entree this place offers as well as some of the specials. I have a friend who challenged me to work my way through the menu (even for things I wouldn't usually like) and give it all a try.

One example is I've steered clear of grilled tomatoes, I guess I'm use to the british spongy tasteless mess but the ones you are served at La Note are outstanding. Still slightly firm, spiced just enough to enhance the natural flavor. I think that's how it is for a lot of their food, while there have been some dishes that didn't shine I've never had a meal there that was bad or poorly prepared.

Besides the wait times my main complaint about this place is the deserts. None of them are better than average and they are all priced at above average rates. I've given up on their deserts, just not...

You live in Berkeley and you’ve never been to La Note?! (4/5 green stars also) It seems kind of unnecessary to review La Note. The crowd gathered outside the door during brunch hours speaks for itself. It may take a while to get seated (especially if you want to sit on their beautiful patio out back) but they make the wait fairly painless by taking your phone number and contacting you when it’s your time. So you can nip into Pegasus and look at cookbooks to whet your appetite while you wait. I think a good combination for two people trying to decide on sweet versus savory is to share one of each. Lemon gingerbread pancakes topped with poached pears ($11 for a short stack – still very substantial) and the Cote Ouest (three egg omelette with ratatouille, served with homefries and choice of toast, $15.50) would be good choices. Their coffee is also good but unfortunately our waiter was unavailable when I wanted a refill – he was busy posing for photos with some ladies at a nearby table. Other than that, service was good – particularly the hostess, who was very welcoming and unsnobby.

I’m also giving them 4/5 “green stars” for social and environmental impact, based on these reasons: • On their home page they have a tiny logo indicating that they are a Bay Area Green Business (since 2009). • The restaurant's owner Dorothée Mitrani-Bell, a graduate from UC Berkeley's Environment design program, won an award in excellence in 1998 for "outstanding storefront improvements" and rehabilitation of their 1875 building. • Community: La Note was one of 8 restaurants to donate at least 15% of their April 20th sales to a Berkeley school gardens program. • They have a new policy on tips – a 20% service charge that’s distributed to everyone in the restaurant. I didn’t know about CA law forbidding sharing of tips to kitchen staff – the special service charge seems like a reasonable solution. • Pretty good selection of vegetarian options (for a French restaurant!) – vegans will be a bit limited but I recommend the ratatouille on couscous. • They serve free range eggs from Glaum farms. • They also list sources for some items (e.g. Niman ranch grass-fed beef) • Not sure if they source organic veggies though (or flour, etc.). • Coffee, as far as I can remember, is from McLaughlin in Emeryville. • Simple cardboard boxes for food to-go. Interested in writing green star reviews? If...

Great place for breakfast. First part is about hospitality and general experience at the restaurant. Second part is Food review.

Restaurant review:

As soon as we reached, we saw the restaurant was packed. We thought it should be around 30 mins or so wait since no one else was ahead of us. We were surprised that the lady said it’s going to be 2 hours? I had a doubt so I asked her to put our name and we started walking back to our car. As we were about to leave we got a text that table is ready since I asked her that we are okay sitting outside if there are heaters (it was cold windy day). We walked back and They sat us down and we realized there is no heater near our seating area. Bummer! In addition to omelette We ordered coffee and croissants for the moment since it was going to take 30-40 mins for them to bring out the omelette. We ordered almond Croissant and believe me it was below the standard of almond croissant. Not enough filling and it was super cold and soft. And soon it started raining. We wanted to cancel our order as it didn’t make sense. Our waiter was good enough to find us table inside but once we got the order we realized that while we were confused about weather to order pancakes or omelette at the end we decided to go for omelette and waiter put down both the options we were thinking for our order. We didn’t say anything since he had impressed us by arranging table inside. We had double the food we were planning to have.

Food review:

Omelette was flavorful. Although side potatoes were salty, i usually add more salt (prefer salty food) and for me it was really salty so I was bit surprised.

You can skip on gingerbread poached pear pancakes. They were okay, not great. And if you are paying this much for pancakes then I would except at least 3 pancakes 🥞. It was disappointing.

Overall try it once, ambiance is great but I wish they improve service and flavors. Personally, I won’t...