Gregoire

Gregoire Restaurant Review:

Grégoire has secured the upscale take-out niche in Berkeley's Gourmet Ghetto --- locals download the seasonal lunch and dinner menus from the restaurant's website and call in their orders for smooth and easy pick-up. That’s a good thing, because the restaurant has only a few stools inside and almost no seating outside, so dining on-site can be somewhat claustrophobic and traffic-heavy. Lunch offerings include soups, salads and a variety of sandwiches such as a fried buttermilk chicken filet with spicy coleslaw on a French roll, house-cured smoked salmon with cucumber and dill salad on white bread, or deep-fried soft-shell crab with pickled jalapeño sauce on a sweet roll. Dinners are heartier and more sophisticated: salmon gets an earthy kick from baking on a cedar plank, spicy soy vinaigrette sets off grilled ginger shrimp and grilled lamb chops are topped with sweet tomato salsa. Typical summertime desserts are Michel Cluizel chocolate mousse and blueberry bread pudding with white chocolate sauce. Note: Grégoire's crispy potato puffs, a side usually offered at lunch, are an East Bay favorite. Also located at 4001 Piedmont Ave., Oakland, 510-547-3444.