Sbrocco: A hip pizza joint in Oakland... sophisticated sips and sushi in Dublin... and hoagies paired with wine for the win in San Francisco.

Phillips: Hi.

Hello.

Just ahead on "Check, Please!

Bay Area."

Dhillon: We're coming back here every weekend.

This is our new dessert.

♪♪ Sbrocco: Hi.

I'm Leslie Sbrocco.

Welcome to "Check, Please!

Bay Area," the show where regular Bay Area residents review and talk about their favorite restaurants.

Now, we have three guests, and each one recommends one of their favorite spots and the other to go check them out to see what they think.

Joining me at the "Check, Please!"

table today are enterprise executive Eric Tran, government affairs manager Dyanna Volek, and veterinary technician Serena Dhillon.

Welcome, everyone.

You're ready for a show?

Volek: Yes.

Super excited.

Sbrocco: We kick things off with Serena's go-to brunch spot.

It's a lively sports bar that takes the concept of pizza for breakfast to a whole new level.

Located in East Oakland, it's Philomena.

♪♪ Woman: Alright, coming in, girl.

Aguilar: Philomena's home.

It's a place you can come to after a long day's work, have a beer.

It's stress free, it's delicious, and it's fun.

Richard: When I walk in the door here, I love that we have this nice open air, it's nice and light.

There's hand-drawn art everywhere, and the service staff is always smiling and happy and warm.

♪♪ Aguilar: Our food is just fresh, locally made every single day.

Our pizza dough is so delicious.

It's a soft, fluffy New York-style pizza dough.

Our marinara is mild but delicious.

We do a nut-free, dairy-free pesto, which is really great.

Our brunch pizzas are so hearty and they're so unusual because you don't go anywhere and find a brunch pizza on the menu.

What's exciting about this place is our beer list changes all the time.

Rico and Morgan, they do such a good job of curating our beer list and making sure it's hyperlocal.

Our demographic is truly Oakland, and that speaks for our staff as well.

We all live here.

We're all within the Oakland area.

We're all, you know, 5, 10 minutes away from the restaurant.

So we're always available to come in when it gets busy.

It's personally my favorite place to come and watch a game.

Richard: It's just such a comfortable place.

It's like the clubhouse for the neighborhood really.

Sbrocco: Okay, Serena, pizza for breakfast.

Let's start there.

Dhillon: It's something I've never tried before, and I -- So I discovered Philomena.

I had just moved to Oakland, and I actually lived about a block away from it.

And one day I was looking for a great brunch spot, and I -- it was literally around the corner, so I popped in and I was like, "Pizza for breakfast?

What?"

So I actually didn't try the pizza for breakfast my first time.

So I actually started with the cinnamon swirl French toast, and I call that dish the three S's -- sweet, salty, and satisfying.

It's served to you with fresh strawberries and blueberries, a big old dollop of whipped cream, syrup on the side, and then dusted with powdered sugar.

And you take a bite, and you just get the sweet from the cinnamon sugar, salty from the French toast batter, and the berries, and it fills you up for literally like the rest of the day.

Tran: You know, my wife and our newborn, six months old.

And, you know, he's trying a lot of food.

And I must say, he was loving the syrup.

And it it was sweet.

It hit the spot.

And for us, we were not big on sweets, but we ate all of it.

That was the first thing to go.

Volek: So we started off with the garlic Thai chicken wings, which was so good.

We ordered six and we should have ordered 12 because I was licking my fingers the whole time And we're the opposite.

So we actually love sweets.

But my husband always wants to eat dessert before the actual meal, so this time I let him eat the cinnamon swirl French toast.

Sbrocco: There's no calories that way.

I don't know if you knew that.

Volek: Exactly.

Sbrocco: If you eat it first, then there's no calories.

Volek: Well, I got the beignets because it was free on Yelp if you check in.

So it's like, "Okay, I know we had French toast, but we're going to make it special and do the beignets."

And they were just pillowy, powdery pockets of deliciousness and they had this ganache chocolate sauce that I wish I had saved the French toast to dip into the chocolate as well.

So we ate that, and then we finished it and then we ordered the blackberry bacon basil brunch pizza.

Say that three times fast.

Sbrocco: Bacon basil blackberry.

Volek: Blackberry.

Sbrocco: Blackberry brunch pizza.

Volek: And blackberry on pizza, it was really great with the ricotta and the mozzarella and a brunch right on an easily accessible edible thing.

Dhillon: Oh, yeah.

So what I love is the Tuscan brunch pizza.

So, it's a garlic-and-herb crust with a cream sauce, Calabrian chilies, and it's finished with braised kale and shaved parmesan and a baked egg right in the middle.

And literally biting into it just tastes like biting into like a cheesy breadstick.

It's just cheesy and salty and herby.

And then you get like a fattiness from the egg yolk that just spills onto the crust, and it's just -- it's perfect.

You never would think it would work, but it works so well.

Tran: We were able to order some of the lunch meal pizzas too, and one of the things that the server was kind enough to let us do was order a half and half, as we wanted to try multiple things.

And so we did the Miss Piggy.

I've never really had pork belly on a pizza before.

And then the combination of that, in addition to the sausage and the cornmeal crust, it was just perfectly crisp and -- and soft and pillowy on the inside.

And then the other one, we did the mushroom pizza.

Awesome mushroom.

It was just probably some of the best mushroom I've had in a while.

And I'm not a big veggie person, too, so... Sbrocco: Did you have anything to drink with your dishes?

Tran: Absolutely.

I did.

Yeah.

We did the pilsner.

But what really was a highlight was their shiso mint mojito.

Dhillon: That's what I like.

Volek: That's the one I wanted.

Dhillon: Yeah.

Tran: That -- You could probably drink a gallon of that and just feel great and just sit by the sun somewhere.

That was awesome.

Sbrocco: Were there any more dishes, Serena, that you got?

Dhillon: Yeah.

So I actually tried the shakshuka this time when I went for brunch.

I had never had shakshuka before, but I was just like, "This looks interesting.

I'm going to try it."

So it's totally unique.

It's a tomato and red bell pepper sauce with mozzarella cheese, eggs, and then they serve it with two slices of toast, which that was honestly my favorite part -- just dipping the toast into the sauce.

You get like this salty crunchiness, this butteriness from the toast, and then this tangy tomato sauce in there.

It's just a really good complement with the pizza and it's just -- it works so well.

Sbrocco: You know, talk a little bit about the atmosphere of the place.

Volek: We called it Beats and Brunch because they were bumping the music.

Like, it was '90s and 2000 hip-hop and R&B.

And we were just -- It was just a perfectly beautiful, sunny Oakland day.

Tran: And I loved the fact that, you know, obviously it's a sports bar, but you could bring your kids there, too.

We saw families there and there were couples.

Dhillon: Yeah, it's a great place to just hang out with your friends, watch a game, grab a beer, get some pizza, get some brunch.

Like, it's good for any time of the day, really.

Sbrocco: If you would like to try Philomena, it's located on 14th Avenue in East Oakland and the average tab per person without drinks is around $20.

Man: I really like this pizza.

Sbrocco: When it comes to ordering sushi at his favorite Japanese restaurant, Eric is all about the rolls -- the bolder, crispier, crunchier, the better.

Throw in an equally creative cocktail or two, some lively atmosphere, and he's got the recipe for the perfect night out.

Whenever he's in Dublin, he makes sure to hit the happy hour at Amakara.

♪♪ Carpio: We are called Amakara.

And the word amakara in Japanese means sweet and spicy.

Sweet and spicy food, sweet and spicy drinks, sweet and spicy personalities, sweet and spicy experiences.

It's basically everything you get from the moment you walk through the door.

For us, quality of the product is essential -- great portions and some sort of different creative, unique spin.

Our food comes from everywhere.

We get salmon from Scotland, we get Japanese Hokkaido uni.

We have fusion rolls like Italian Dragon, which is a super popular one.

And then we have things like a clam bomb and we have a dry-tossed maze ramen.

So all the ingredients that we have here or some of the flavors that we already serve in our food we're bringing back into the drinks.

And the key ingredient for all of our drinks is using fresh citrus, 'cause fresh citrus just kind of livens every beverage, right?

So, we commissioned this great mural from this really lovely artist.

And so what we got was this really cool sumo wrestler.

What's happening in the mural is you've got a whole community of little Japanese people and they're all bringing him food.

There's a little temperature shrimp coming up his leg.

There's a Ferris wheel full of sushi rolls and nigiri pieces.

And honestly, what you see in that mural, I feel like that's what we spend our day doing.

They want to make him happy.

They want to feed him.

They want to make sure he's got food and drink for days, and that's what we do here.

We want to make our customers happy.

You come, you're going to be happy because we're gonna give you all the food and drink you want.

Sbrocco: So, Eric, tell me about your sushi preferences, because you said you like the rolls crunchier and crispier.

You're not into the raw?

Tran: You know, when I'm feeling a little frisky, I will try some raw fish.

Sbrocco: Is there a certain roll that you go...?

Tran: Yeah, yeah.

One of them is the Italian roll.

It's a dragon roll, but on a bed of pesto, balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

It's just confusion within your mouth, but it's a satisfying taste.

I personally love their sesame chicken.

It's different from everything else that I've ever tasted at other restaurants.

It's crispy to the last bite.

Their sauce is very potent and strong, and so you can taste every bite the cinnamon, the ginger taste in it.

It tastes great.

And I don't know what they do with their rice.

It's probably some of the best sushi rice I've ever had in my life.

I don't know why.

Dhillon: Yeah, so I actually don't eat meat.

So going to a sushi place is always an interesting experience.

We started with the seaweed salad, which I loved.

I've never actually had a seaweed salad before, but I was like, "This looks interesting."

So it's chewy and a little salty, but also sweet with the seaweed.

And then it has chili flakes like peppered in there.

So in each bite, you get like a little sweet, a little salty, and then just, like, just enough kick in there to make it, like, bring it up just another notch.

I also got the grilled edamame, which I've had out of edamame a million times -- every sushi restaurant I go to -- never had it grilled.

And so you get it, and it's served to you in the bowl like normal.

And it's a little charred on the outside, so you get, like, this meaty saltiness from the edamame, but the char on it, whatever -- I don't know what it is about it, but it -- Sbrocco: Dyanna's over here going, "Yeah!

Yeah!"

Dhillon: It's so good.

And I was like, "Why has no one ever done this before?"

Volek: Well, I'm sighing because I always get edamame.

It's like my favorite appetizer at a sushi restaurant, and my husband always makes fun of me.

So this time I didn't get it.

Sbrocco: Oh, you didn't?

Tran: Oh, no!

Volek: I was like, "There's so many other things to try.

Why are you going to get the edamame?"

And now I'm like, "Okay, I need to go back and get it."

Sbrocco: You're going back to everyone restaurant.

Volek: [ Indistinct ] Sbrocco: I know.

So, tell me what you guys ate.

Volek: Well, we started off with the tuna ceviche salads, and so it was like diced tuna with mango and jalapeño and a citrus vinaigrette over a bed of salad.

And then on the side was a sesame wanton crisp that you could just scoop it up into your mouth.

And it was actually my favorite dish because it was a perfect starter to get into the rolls, but it was really great on its own and the portions were huge, so we had enough to take home for later.

But it was a really good starter dish.

Sbrocco: Yeah.

Volek: So then we got the scallop paradise.

It's four pieces, not the long roll, and it's a tempura scallop on top with spicy mayo and teriyaki and three kinds of tobiko.

I love scallops, and this was so good.

Tran: Yeah.

Dhillon: So, I got the umeshiso maki roll, which was just like a typical roll with pickled plum paste, shiso and cucumber.

The pickled plum gives it a really tart flavor, but the shiso and the cucumber really work together to kind of cool it down and it gives you just an overall really pleasant experience in your mouth.

But my favorite roll was I got the avocado mango roll.

So, you get the avocado, which is creamy and delicious, and then the mango gives it this perfect, fresh sweet, tart bite in your mouth.

And it was just like...

I know it's in Dublin and it's a drive, but I was like, "I will come back here every weekend."

Sbrocco: Just for that one.

Dhillon: Just for this one roll.

Yeah.

Tran: For me, I've always gone to their cocktails.

I do their old fashioneds.

It's consistently great.

You can expect it to be strong and just enough to get you by and you still get a couple more.

Dhillon: Yeah.

So I had the Amakara cocktail, which it's peach vodka, peach schnapps, lychee sake, and it looks beautiful.

And then my boyfriend, who I went with, got this spicy pineapple margarita, which is served to you with a pineapple wedge, and it actually has, like, peppers floating in the glass, which was amazing.

Volek: So we have the matcha mule, which was so good.

It was very complex because of the vodka, and then there's green tea and ginger beer and the matcha on the rim was a little bitter.

But then when you took that sip of the cocktail, it just went really well together and it was so cool looking.

Sbrocco: And all of their dishes are so pretty.

Volek: Yes.

Sbrocco: Very visual.

Dhillon: Very Instagrammable.

Volek: And we also had the yume-mosa, which was also Instagrammable and it's their a Japanese version of a mimosa.

And it was dangerous because you could drink the whole thing and not feel it and feel like you wanted two more.

So I kind of held myself back.

Sbrocco: What about service?

Volek: Amazing.

When you're in the main dining room, there's this this army of sushi chefs at the front that you can see them working.

And so you can kind of see why the service comes out so quickly, because they're just like machines and you're just like, "okay, this is a really cool places for sushi."

Sbrocco: For sushi, but yet Eric likes the ribeye steak.

Tran: The ribeye stake is fantastic.

It comes out perfectly medium rare every single time in this amazing garlic butter sauce.

Sbrocco: What about dessert?

Did anybody have any dessert?

Dhillon: Oh, my God.

We were so full, but I -- We looked at the dessert menu, and there was a grilled pineapple sundae on there.

And I looked at my boyfriend, and I was like, "We have to make room for those."

It's scoops of vanilla ice cream with grilled pineapple, cinnamon sugar.

And it was just perfect complementary flavors and textures.

And I was literally, like, bursting, but I forced myself to finish it, and I was like, "We need to get this to go.

We're coming back here every weekend.

This is our new dessert."

Tran: Something about grilled veggies and fruits, it just complements everything that you eat.

And that's the beauty of this restaurant.

Like, I can take anyone from all ethnicities, all different backgrounds and all across the Bay.

They can find something that they like.

You can close your eyes, just blindfolded, and just pick a couple of things and I'm sure you like it.

Sbrocco: If you would like to try Amakara, it's located on Dublin Boulevard in Dublin and the average tab per person without drinks is around $35.

Known as the official sandwich of Philadelphia, the hearty hoagie is traditionally a split roll stacked sky high with deli meats.

Now Dyanna says she's found a West Coast version with fillings that bring the classic hoagie experience to a whole new level.

She grabs them to go in San Francisco's Outer Sunset at Palm City Wines.

♪♪ Wong: We really wanted to pay homage to the Outer Sunset.

♪♪ And we just love it out here.

Cantwell: And we looked at like where the origin of the name, the Sunset, came from, and it turns out back in, I think it was like 1894 when the Midwinter Exposition and the christening of Golden Gate Park was happening.

The area hadn't been named.

It was mostly sand dunes.

So one of the major newspapers basically said, "Come on out to Palm City," trying to entice people to come out here.

We're this kind of like random spot in this random outer neighborhood, so we focus on a lot of wines from a little bit more obscure places, whether it's border regions, whether it's varietals you may have never heard of.

And I think the biggest emphasis is we hope that our hoagies punch above their price point and we hope our wines do the same thing as well.

♪♪ Two Italians.

The menu is definitely Philly inspired.

It's a classic.

Wong: But you wouldn't call us traditional.

Cantwell: No.

By no means are we traditional.

Wong: We're in the Outer Sunset.

Cantwell: We're still in San Francisco, so we definitely have to embrace that aspect of it.

♪♪ Wong: The cauliflower is a lot of fun.

It definitely has a lot going on.

Not only is it rubbed with a whole intense custom spice mix before it's roasted, but texturally there's just so much going on.

And there's pickled onions and vegetables.

There's cilantro.

There's crispy shallots.

♪♪ Cantwell: She's our official cheese spread taste tester.

So... Wong: Cheers.

Thank you very much.

I hope what our guests experience is just a sense of comfort and coziness.

Cantwell: Did you have any questions?

You doing okay?

We want to focus on enjoyment and giving people an opportunity to try something different.

I feel like being from the Outer Sunset, we're one of the last like working-class neighborhoods in San Francisco.

Afternoon.

Woman: Hi.

Cantwell: Alright.

So it's just a sense of community that we really, like, hope to create, because I don't think you can open something in the Outer Sunset without embracing the community and being a part of it.

Woman: Good boy.

[ Laughter ] Sbrocco: Okay, Dyanna, I love the combination of a wine destination with hoagies.

Volek: Yeah.

It's so unique, and I think that's the great part about this restaurant.

So I grew up in the Outer Sunset and any new restaurant there, it's sleepy, it's foggy.

So it's a big deal when a new restaurant opens, and they opened during the pandemic.

So they were supposed to be a wine bar, small plates business.

They had to pivot.

The husband's from Philadelphia, so they started selling these hoagies, and these hoagies became the best part of the restaurant.

My favorite, and I know it's kind of sacrilegious, is the roasted cauliflower hoagie and putting a cauliflower on bread, you're like, "Okay, that's a little weird."

It's roasted spiced cauliflower with a lemongrass ginger aioli, You have hot honey, avocado is so creamy, and fried shallots, and it's stuffed into this delicious bread that's a vehicle for this amazingness in your mouth.

Sbrocco: So, cauliflower hoagie?

Dhillon: I actually I'm not a huge cauliflower person.

I know!

The vegetarian at the table doesn't like cauliflower.

Sbrocco: How is that possible?

Dhillon: I don't know!

But I did really enjoy a lot of the appetizers that we got.

So, one of the things that we got was the spicy garlic cheese spread.

Tran: Oh, yeah.

Dhillon: And they serve it to you in a bowl with olive oil on top and with a side of crostini to spread it on.

And it comes out with a knife, so you can be like a civilized person and spread it on your crostini.

I took one bite of it.

I threw that knife out and I was just like, "I want a jar of this to go.

It was amazing."

I will -- I would go back to the city just for that.

Sbrocco: Did you have anything to drink with it?

Dhillon: Yeah.

So the wine is awesome.

So, we tried some rosés, which were delicious.

I tried one that was like a darker rosé, which I thought was -- I've never had that before.

Volek: I have to say, their beer wine is also fabulous because my husband's the assistant brewmaster at Anchor Brewing Company.

Sbrocco: Oh, really?

Volek: So he knows his beer.

Sbrocco: Yeah.

And their beer list is quite good.

Volek: It's really good, and we always go and try to new things that we never tried before.

So we like the giardiniera, which is an appetizer.

It's the pickled vegetables.

So I usually like to get that before the sandwich just to cleanse your palate.

And then a new sandwich is the shrimp sandwich, which is shrimp with salt and vinegar chips on the sandwich as well.

Tran: Yes, that's right.

Volek: And just like lettuce and tomato.

And it's my second favorite now.

Tran: I had three amazing sandwiches there, and for me I personally loved the Italian-American.

It had just a handful of -- just stuffed with mortadella, and the breads were smeared with copious amounts of fontina cheese spread and in addition to their arugula and parmesan salad that they put in it.

It was fantastic.

It was a great bite.

It was very satisfying.

And then the beef sandwich was just perfectly soft.

You know, it was dipped in the meat sauce, au jus, and it softened the bread just perfectly enough where every bite was just really good.

Sbrocco: Oh, isn't that great?

Tran: I grew up in that area, and I must say that's a hidden gem.

We ordered sandwiches, and then we went over to the beach.

That's where I grew up.

I used to go there all the time to surf, and it was a cool moment where I had my son and the hoagie, like, "I love you guys both at the same..." [ Laughter ] We also ordered a seasonal pie.

Gosh, they're great.

Dhillon: That pie.

Tran: That pie was awesome.

Dhillon: That pie was on point.

[ Laughs ] So you smell it before it gets to you.

Like, your waiter is walking in and you just smell, like, cinnamon.

And we were like, "This is it, it's coming."

And it's got this crumbly topping.

Tran: Yes, that's right.

Dhillon: And it's charred a little bit.

And you bite into it, and you get like the sweetness and kind of crunchiness from the crumble.

And then inside it's like sweet from the strawberry, a little tart from the rhubarb.

The only thing missing, I think, would have been like a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Tran: I was just going to say.

Dhillon: That was the only thing that would have made it better.

But we were like -- We needed to take another one of these to go because it was delicious.

My favorite part of the whole meal.

Sbrocco: So sandwiches, wine and pie.

Dhillon: Everything.

What more do you need?

Sbrocco: If you would like to try Palm City Wines, it's located on Irving Street in San Francisco, and the average tab per person is around $40.

Cantwell: Perfect for a lovely day like today.

Sbrocco: And now reporter Cecilia Phillips brings us more Bay Area bites you've just got to try.

♪♪ Bianchi-Moreda: Anybody want to try a little raclette?

♪♪ Man: Alright!

Phillips: Hi.

Hello.

Nice to meet you.

Karen, Valley Ford Cheese and Creamery -- What a beautiful, picturesque place.

Can you give me a brief history of how this place came to be?

Bianchi-Moreda: Well, my family immigrated here in the early 1900s and bought the property in 1918.

And so we've been producing milk for over 100 years.

In 2006, I decided that maybe I'll put my mark on a cheese product, and that's where it all started.

Hi, pretty girl.

Moreda: My brother, he wanted to be a dairy farmer since he was born.

I grew up in the dairy industry, and so I found this interest in the manufacturing part of it.

You can tell the parts of the year when my brother has the cows out on the grass, you can see, like, the golden color in it.

Bianchi-Moreda: Nice.

Phillips: Isn't that gorgeous?

Don't let me get in your whey, if you will.

Huh?

Bianchi-Moreda: [ Laughs ] The different milks make the cheeses react differently.

So it's a great science project.

So, then we put the cheese curds into the cheese molds, and from the cheese molds they go into the cheese press where it is pressed to give the beautiful round shape and to expel the whey.

And then from there it actually goes into a brine tank the next morning where it is salted.

And, see, that is absolutely beautiful.

And then they go right into the aging rooms.

So, this is our Estero Gold.

So that was our original cheese.

And so they're aging in here up until two and a half years.

Kind of reminiscent of what my family still makes over in Switzerland.

♪♪ This is our Highway 1.

You use a wire cutter on soft cheeses.

Phillips: Okay, here's the moment of truth.

How pretty!

Bianchi-Moreda: It's a perfect melting cheese.

So this is what -- we always use it in place of your "traditional" raclette.

Look at that.

Just starting to brown the top.

Phillips: Look at that.

Like lava.

Bianchi-Moreda: Okay, what is better than melted cheese on top of a crostini?

Cheers.

Phillips: Cheers.

Takes on a whole new flavor once it's warm.

Man: Now we're just going to put it on the grill.

Man #2: Here you go.

Bianchi-Moreda: Anne's such a dear, dear friend.

There's something about people enjoying food and the story that went with it.

They were here.

Their kids will come back.

Phillips: And it doesn't get old.

Bianchi-Moreda: No, it doesn't get old.

Just the cheese does.

[ Laughter ] Sbrocco: I have to thank my fantastic guests on this week's show.

Eric Tran, lover of the innovative sushi rolls at Amakara in Dublin... Dyanna Volek, who hits the beach with a bottle of wine and a hoagie from San Francisco's Palm City Wines... and Serena Dhillon, who satisfies her sweet tooth with the cinnamon French toast at Philomena in East Oakland.

Join us next time when three more guests will recommend their favorite spots right here on "Check, Please!

Bay Area."

I'm Leslie Sbrocco, and I'll see you then.

Cheers, everyone!

Tran: Cheers!

Volek: Cheers!

Sbrocco: Whoo-hoo!

Sbrocco: Yay!

♪♪ Phillips: Oh, they're all coming this way.

♪♪ Bianchi-Moreda: Our signature soft serve -- vanilla and chocolate.

Phillips: I just can't believe the texture is, like... Bianchi-Moreda: It's pretty creamy.

♪♪ Phillips: Oh, they're all coming this way.

♪♪ Bianchi-Moreda: Our signature soft serve -- vanilla and chocolate.

Phillips: I just can't believe the texture is, like... Bianchi-Moreda: It's pretty creamy.

Phillips: There's no better way to finish after a meal of cheese than having some soft-serve.

Bianchi-Moreda: Dairy overload.

Got to love it.

Phillips: Yeah!

[ Laughter ]