Check, Please! Bay Area | Diamond Head General Store, Shuggies, Teske's Germania | Season 18 | Ep

Sbrocco: Hawaiian Plate lunch in San Bruno.

Wong-Zarahn: From the first bite, I said, this is heaven.

Sbrocco: Party vibes and playful pies in San Francisco.

Osers: Just an amazingly unctuous dish.

Sbrocco: And German brews, braises, and brats in San Jose.

Men: [ Yodeling ] Sbrocco: Just ahead on "Check, Please!

Bay Area".

Sbrocco: It was a lot of food.

Silva: It was a lot of food.

[ Indistinct chatter ] Sbrocco: Hi, I'm Leslie Sbrocco.

Welcome to "Check, Please!

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

Now, we have three guests, and each one recommends one of their favorite spots to the other two.

Go check them out to see what they think.

Joining me at the "Check, Please!"

table today are IT Operations Manager Daniel Osers, Marketing Director Cindy Wong-Zarahn, and Chef and CEO Vanessa Silva.

Welcome, everyone.

[ Whooping ] Wong-Zarahn: Thank you.

Sbrocco: Whenever she's in Hawaii, Cindy and her family love to hit up the markets, digging into everything from colorful shave ice to kalua pork to fresh off the boat poke.

Now, she's found the perfect place to get all those items without ever having to hop on a plane.

Located along El Camino Real in San Bruno, it's Diamond Head General Store.

Man: Oh!

[ Indistinct conversations ] Monica: Diamond Head General Store is a slice of Hawaii in San Bruno.

Chad: The whole general store concept came about from the old Japanese American general stores that were prevalent in Hawaii back in the day.

They serve plate lunches, bentos, musubis, mom and pop operation, good, home cooked food, but in kind of like a casual atmosphere.

That's what I grew up on.

That's what I associate my time in Hawaii, as far as eating.

So that's where I kind of draw on, as far as inspiration.

Woman: Mm-hmm.

Monica: He's the brains, I'm the muscle.

Chad: Yeah.

She's the muscle.

[ Laughs ] Chad: A little bit of Hawaiian sea salt.

As far as the flavor profiles and how they relate to Hawaii, I think they're pretty spot on.

But us being us, we kind of have to do our own little tweak on the dishes itself.

For example, our mochiko chicken.

We kind of melded the two styles of fried chicken together.

So, you get the flavor of the mochiko fried chicken, but you get the crispiness and the crunch of, like, a southern fried chicken.

Monica: For me, my favorite dish is garlic shrimp.

Chad: We think our garlic shrimp is pretty damn good, so I think it stands up to anything that you can get on the island.

Monica: It's different.

Chad: Yeah.

Monica: Let's not get us in hot water.

[ Both laugh ] Chad: We get a lot of Hawaii transplants up here, especially the older generation.

Monica: A lot of people with big stomachs, just 'cause we have giant portions and they know that.

Monica: I hope the food transports them there.

And so, even if you're working and hustling and bustling, for that one moment, you can just rest and just feel happy.

[ Indistinct conversations, laughter ] Sbrocco: Now, Cindy, we all love to go to the islands, of course.

How did you discover this place?

Wong-Zarahn: Actually, my best friend who lives in San Bruno, also a fellow working mother, was the one who turned me on to it.

And it has just been a godsend because the portions are ginormous, right?

So, I mean, that's really great for me as the mom who goes in, places an order, picks it up, and then takes it home and splits it into two, and it's like, here you go.

Dinner for two, right there.

Sbrocco: Increases affordability.

Wong-Zarahn: It definitely does.

For sure.

For sure.

Sbrocco: So what is a dish that you or your kids love that you go for?

Wong-Zarahn: Oh.

We are creatures of habit.

We are always going for the mochiko fried chicken.

So the chicken is typically dark cut, boneless.

Silva: Yes.

Osers: So juicy.

Wong-Zarahn: Right?

Very juicy, which makes it very juicy.

It is, to me, fried to perfection.

They bread it in the mochiko flour before they bread it into another flour to fry it.

So when you take your first bite, you've got the moistness of the chicken against the little bit of chewiness of the mochiko flour, followed by the crunch of the crust, right?

So, marry that against the furikake with this little subtle sweet sauce on top, and it's just an explosion of flavor.

Sbrocco: And you both said yes and shaking your head.

So Vanessa.

Silva: Just the juiciness.

Wong-Zarahn: Right.

Silva: That darker meat.

Osers: Absolutely.

And then I'll give it a huge compliment.

I don't get excited about chicken too much.

Chicken, to me, is light.

It's boring.

I don't usually order it.

And I bit into it and it was amazing.

Salty, spicy, sweet.

Wong-Zarahn: The furikake?

Yeah.

Osers: Exactly.

It stays crispy the whole way through.

So I'm a believer.

Wong-Zarahn: Yes.

And I think with the mac salad, which even though it's very simple, it just marries really nicely with the rest of the dish.

Sbrocco: Offers a Balance to the chicken.

Wong-Zarahn: And we always get the kalua pork.

To me, it's one of their signature dishes.

You get that full flavor of the juiciness of the pork without any of the fat.

And the tanginess of the pickled onions balanced against the juiciness of the pork.

Together, that with the rice and the mac salad... You can imagine yourself in Hawaii.

Mm-hmm.

For sure.

Sbrocco: Absolutely.

Silva: I also had the garlic shrimp.

Wong-Zarahn: Oh, yes.

Silva: What is that garlic?

Wong-Zarahn: Right?

Silva: It's like spicy garlic, but it's also a little bit tangy.

Wong-Zarahn: Mm-hmm.

Silva: And the shrimp, it was just, like, giant prawns.

And then, it comes with the same accompaniments.

Wong-Zarahn: Accompaniments, right.

Silva: Yes.

It was amazing.

And then, we also got the japataters.

Have you had that?

Wong-Zarahn: Yes.

Yes.

Silva: Well, I kind of wish I was hungover.

Wong-Zarahn: Yes, that is actually a really good hangover -- Sbrocco: Drink up your wine and we can make that -- Silva: Maybe tomorrow because it's, like, it's messy, it's wet, and, like, it's French fries with mayo and all this bonito flakes on top.

Oh, my God, it's just amazing.

Osers: We had the poke, which I thought was excellent.

It was very fresh, right?

Very often you get frozen tuna now.

It was not.

It was really, really good.

I probably ordered the wrong one because I had the Hawaiian style.

I like sauces, so next time I'll come back for the chili garlic or the other ones.

But it was excellent.

And we had spam musubi.

Which I will say was the only disappointment, only because it was a lot of rice and it wasn't not good, but it didn't stand out.

Wong-Zarahn: I think there's a lot of different ways to make it.

And I definitely agree they have a lot of rice with theirs.

But what I would say, what's a little bit unique about their place is that they have different combinations.

My son loves the one with the mochiko fried chicken in it.

He literally told me one time, he goes, "Mommy, you just need to buy this and nothing else for me."

And that's saying a lot because they serve shave ice, right?

Do you all try the shave ice?

Sbrocco: Yeah.

Silva: It's a small baby's head size.

Wong-Zarahn: It is.

Silva: And it's huge.

It looks so good, and it's so beautiful.

Osers: And I will say I was amazed by the flavors.

I mean, it's a whole wall of flavors.

Wong-Zarahn: But what I really love about it is how fine the ice crystals are shaved down.

So combined with the different syrup flavors.

So sometimes the kids like to make it -- they call it, like, a snow cap.

So they sometimes pour the condensed milk on top so that, as if that -- Silva: Anything condensed milk.

Wong-Zarahn: Right.

As if that couldn't make it any sweeter.

It already is pretty sweet, right?

But then, at the very bottom, there's some ice cream.

You can choose a couple of different flavors.

My kids tend to choose vanilla, and that's just, like, a nice finish after having all that delicious iciness.

Sbrocco: And let's talk about kind of the ambiance and the service, because you're not talking about a fine dining service.

Wong-Zarahn: Yeah, for sure.

It's a very casual place.

You'll find some people eating there if it's, like, their lunch break, but it's very much a grab-and-go kind of place.

They actually have a whole section, like, where you saw the musubi, of things that you can just grab if you didn't want to order and wait to order, like, a plate lunch.

Sbrocco: And it is a store, right?

So you can pick up some eclectic items.

Osers: Absolutely.

In fact, while we were waiting for our food, we went through the aisles and it's chock full of Hawaiian goods and Japanese goods, and we bought soy sauces, furikake, spices that either you can not get in the Bay area or it's very hard to get them altogether.

So it was amazing.

We had two big bags that we carried home.

Silva: That's dangerous.

[ Laughter ] Sbrocco: So you would go back?

Osers: I would go back, yes.

Silva: Now I know what to go back to.

Wong-Zarahn: For sure.

Sbrocco: You guys are going to go back?

You got your orders now?

Osers: For sure.

Sbrocco: Alright.

If you would like to try Diamond Head General Store, it's located on El Camino Real in San Bruno, and the average tab per person without drinks is around $25.

[ Indistinct conversations ] Sbrocco: Vanessa is a culinary artista who teaches people to cook using seasonal and sustainable ingredients.

Now, she's found a restaurant aligned with her values, where not a scrap of food goes to waste, as the founders do their part to save the planet one pizza at a time.

Located in San Francisco's Mission District, it's Shuggie's Trash Pie and Natural Wine.

[ Indistinct chatter ] Abe: So roasted cauliflower, a walnut aji amarillo, and some cotija on that one.

Man: Thank you.

Abe: Enjoy!

Shuggie's Trash Pie and Natural Wine is our restaurant.

Shuggie's is just short for sugar.

[ Laughter ] Murphy: Trash Pie is that fun, playful nod to utilizing food waste.

Lots of folks think, "Oh, maybe they're dumpster diving", but no, it's all just sexy stuff that comes from the farm.

Abe: We waste up to 40% of our food supply in America every year.

But for us, food waste means a bunch of different stuff from the farm that is perfectly great to eat, but is left over because it's cosmetically irregular or it's surplus.

Murphy: We got all these beautiful herb stems that we do all kinds of fun little sauces out of that guy.

Traditionally, folks lop off onion roots and onion tops.

We dehydrate those, make a cool little onion powder out of that.

Abe: Pretty much every protein on our menu is an off cut, and it's really just a product of American pickiness.

A lot of these things culturally are not off cuts in other places, but because we live here, they are often discarded.

So we are kind of elevating those and making sure people are trying these really amazing parts that are often the most flavorful and the best to use.

Murphy: Eat stuff besides chicken breast and ribeye.

[ Both laugh ] I love pizza.

Pizza has been my favorite food forever.

Our dough is really cool because that's where baseline.

Every single one of our pizzas starts with upcycled oat flour from the oat milk making process.

And then, we also utilize whey from the cheese making process.

So the base of every single pizza that you eat here, it's already starting off helping out the planet, which is pretty cool.

Abe: Over the past year that we've been open alone, we've sequestered 20,000 pounds of food from going to waste.

It all comes down to people coming in and eating and being open to trying all these weird things that we're putting on the menu and hopefully change the way they interact with the world as well.

[ Indistinct chatter ] Sbrocco: Now, Vanessa, it's interesting because it sounds like your philosophy of sustainability and seasonality aligns with this restaurant, right?

Silva: 100%.

So the concept is amazing.

Being in the food industry, I think that there is a lot of food waste.

And, you know, besides being a chef, I also studied holistic nutrition.

And I don't know if you guys know, but the most nutritious meats are the organ meats that we end up not eating, so that's what they are doing.

And I was like, okay, this is a place to try.

Osers: Some of the most tasty pieces, too.

Silva: I agree with you.

Not everybody knows that.

David Murphy, the chef, comes from a fine dining background, so he brings that kind of sophistication, and then he transforms into something very accessible.

So the fish stick, actually being Brazilian, Portuguese, it's a take on bacalao brandade.

So it's dried, salted fish with mashed potatoes, and then it's formed and then it's deep fried.

So the inside is rich and soft, with the crunchy top.

And then it sits on this ball of dill pannacotta.

It's just, you know, very creative, very brilliant.

Sbrocco: So Daniel, what did you start with?

Osers: So we started with the roasty bones, which is bone marrow.

And there it was, a beautiful plate again.

Huge portion with a sauce sizzled on it.

There was spicy -- Silva: Spicy sauce on top.

Yeah.

Osers: a little bit buttery and everything.

It had the bread with it, which you need for the bone marrow.

It was sort of sesame.

So it had this, like, off take of sesame.

You put the bone marrow and you have the spice.

Fantastic, greatly balanced and really, really good.

And we had the pepperoni pizza also.

Very, very simple thing.

And it was amazing 'cause it wasn't just a silly marinara sauce, it was fruity tomato.

And the pepperoni was very different.

You could taste an interesting meat with it.

It was juicy.

It had a bite to it.

We took some of that home, and that actually warmed up fantastically well.

It was awesome.

Wong-Zarahn: I'm similar to you.

I thought their pizzas were great.

I thought the crust was really nicely done.

Like, I think they call it grandma's style.

And it literally felt like, yeah, someone's grandma pushing this crust into the pan and creating this delicious pizza.

I loved how they used this grape must, which I had to look up afterwards.

It's actually, like, I think comes from the skin of the grapes, but what's really nice is that it lent some sweetness, which was really nice 'cause it was a nice balance against the spiciness of the sausage.

That balanced with, like, the way -- vodka sauce, I thought was great.

Sbrocco: Did you have anything else?

Wong-Zarahn: I had the Greek Goddess salad, which I just loved how it came out.

Silva: The little pedestal.

Wong-Zarahn: The pedestal, that is a bust of, like, a Greek goddess and it's on two skewers.

They had the Little baby Gem lettuce leaves, some tomatoes that, you know, you think, like, maybe, well, they're a little bruised, right?

But the reality is that they're quite sweet, you know, even though they're a little bruised.

And so you marry that with a little bit of the dressing.

Silva: The green goddess.

Wong-Zarahn: Yeah.

Yeah.

It was just so delicious.

Osers: And I think it must be said, the presentation is beautiful for everything they do.

I also thought the food itself, they always were accented with, like, rich with sour, a little spicy with something else.

Silva: The chef sent is a compliment to the table.

The beefheart meatballs.

It's packed with flavor.

It's dense, meaty.

But then he has, like, a tomato sauce.

But there is a couple of other sauces, so everything balances out.

I love the crispy calamari, or crispy squid.

Osers: That's how they call it.

Silva: At first, they're little squids.

That goes into the sustainability thing, right?

It's crispy and has these different accompaniments, the different sauces.

Wong-Zarahn: Like the pickled jalapeño.

Silva: Oh, that is so -- Wong-Zarahn: Right?

Yeah.

That was great.

With the sauces.

It was perfect.

Osers: And they're not spicy.

They're just pickled and nice.

And they offset the richness of the -- Silva: Richness of the fried -- Yeah.

Osers: Yeah, very nice.

Silva: Agreed.

Sbrocco: Any desserts?

Osers: We had the chocolate semifreddo.

We just about shared it 'cause that was all we could do after ordering five things.

It was really, really good.

Not too sweet.

It was chocolaty.

Sbrocco: Do you ever get dessert when you're there?

Silva: I always have orange wine for dessert.

[ Laughter ] Sbrocco: That's a good choice.

Abe: Alright, y'all.

I hear you're the lucky one.

Wong-Zarahn: Did any of you guys have the orange shower?

Osers: The next table over did.

You should talk about it.

Sbrocco: It sounds like something that we shouldn't be talking about.

Silva: I know, I know.

Wong-Zarahn: That's why the pizza I ordered, I ordered the sausage party, and I was like, I'm in the restaurant in the mission.

Why am I not ordering?

Silva: I want to have an orange shower and a sausage party.

[ Laughter ] Sbrocco: That sounds like the mission.

Now in the mission.

Okay.

Silva: So there is this glass container.

It looks like a decanter with a beak.

And you just lean back and she pours.

Sbrocco: It's like a porrón.

Silva: Yes!

Exactly.

Sbrocco: In Rioja, you have a porrón, which is like a decanter, but with a spout.

And the real trick is how far you can get from your mouth to get a nice stream going.

Silva: Yes.

And that's a porrón.

So that's what I think.

I don't think it's a good date place.

Sbrocco: [ Laughs ] Silva: It's not as fun.

There's like a lot of, you know, or like a group place.

Sbrocco: And what do you guys think of the decor?

Wong-Zarahn: I liked it.

Silva: Oh, my God.

Osers: Funky.

Sbrocco: Kitschy.

Wong-Zarahn: I liked it.

Silva: It's, like, green -- Osers: Lime green, yellow.

Silva: ...yellow.

Yeah.

Osers: I mean, there's actual hands that you sit on, right?

[ Laughter ] Seat, right?

And there's a bar on both sides that is reflective.

It's funky, but in a really funny way.

Wong-Zarahn: And just they are literally a restaurant that is the quintessential San Francisco in every which way, from the food to the staff to the service to the decor.

Silva: You guys liked it?

Sbrocco: Yeah.

So I think they all need to go back with you.

Wong-Zarahn: Yeah, let's do it.

[ Laughter ] Alright, if you would like to try Shuggie's Trash Pie and Natural Wine, it's located on 23rd Street in San Francisco's Mission District, and the average tab per person without drinks is around $40.

It's been more than two decades since Daniel moved to California from Germany, but in all that time, he never lost his love for the hearty Gashouse dishes of his homeland.

Luckily, he's found a local beer garden serving up all the sausage and schnitzel and spaetzle he can eat.

Tucked away in downtown San Jose, it's Teske's Germania Restaurant and Beer Garden.

Man: Let's get this party started!

[ Patrons cheering ] [ Yodeling music plays ] ♪♪ Greg: Teske's Germania Restaurant is, we feel, the most authentic German restaurant in the Bay area.

We're a family restaurant, always have been.

It's what we've been doing for 35 years.

[ Music continues ] Cynthia: I think what my family has tried to accomplish over the years is what the Germans call gemutlichkeit, meaning we welcome you, we invite you.

Please come share what we're sharing.

Woman: Oh, my gosh.

Cynthia: We want you to enjoy what we enjoy.

[ Bell dings ] Scott: I would say our food is Southern German, Schwäbisch, Bavarian.

Our most popular dish would be the jagerschnitzel.

It's a breaded pork cutlet with our homemade spaetzle and our white wine mushroom sauce.

That is, like, the number one item here.

Greg: By far.

Scott: By far.

I would say, like, a McDonald's, you see billions of billions of hamburgers.

At Teske's, were probably a couple of million schnitzels since we've been here, you know?

We make our spaetzle fresh pretty much every day here.

Just the way our grandmother made it, the way my father made it.

Greg: A lot of people will order two, three, four items and we put them on a big platter and we'll put it right in the middle of a table, and everybody just kind of goes to town.

[ Indistinct chatter ] Cynthia: I think that a lot of older Germans that lived here in the Bay area, like my father, are passing on, but I think it's pretty neat that their children still want to be a part of it.

At least when I was younger, I didn't want to go to a German place.

I was like, "Oh, my God, that's what Oma listens to."

But the young people here, they embrace it, they like it.

Man: We need to have everybody raise their beer glasses up high.

Greg: With our German band, The Internationals, which we love to death, we've been partners with them for 35 years now.

[ Singing in German ] ♪♪ Greg: You know, so many people, they travel all over the world, they travel to Germany, and they come back, and they're expecting sort of what they got in Munich when they go to Oktoberfest.

And we can satisfy that craving.

[ Laughs ] No problem.

[ Cheering ] Sbrocco: So now this is tough.

You judging a beer garden, being a German.

Osers: Mm-hmm.

Sbrocco: How does Teske's rate?

Osers: So I love it.

I think it's fantastic.

There are a lot of German restaurants in the Bay area, which I think is awesome.

I have not found one that is as authentic and as homey and as community as Teske's is.

Sbrocco: Okay, first recommendation.

Somebody who's never been there walks in.

What should they order?

Osers: Oh, it's a good question.

I probably would say the Schweinshaxe, which is a very iconic dish.

Sbrocco: Okay.

Osers: It's a pork knuckle, right?

Very traditional in Europe in general.

Even the Alsace and Germany, but in southern Germany, it's done in a way where it's very crisp.

Skin is on, there is a lot of fat, in a good way.

You want the fat.

It's salty, it's crispy.

The pork is incredibly juicy.

You kind of pull it apart.

And it's offset with, you know, the sauerkraut or red cabbage that's been marinated, or a potato salad that's slightly warm and has meat in it.

And it's just an amazingly unctuous dish, and it's a dish you would have in a guest house, right?

And washes fantastically down with beer.

[ Laughter ] Sbrocco: And German beer.

They have so many German beers.

Osers: You're right.

And I love German beer on tap, if it's tapped right.

There are usually 7 or 8 different ones.

It's a full bar, so you can drink anything you want.

But I obviously go for the German beer.

Yeah.

Sbrocco: What did you have?

Wong-Zarahn: I started with actually the potato pancakes because I love potato pancakes.

And I think that the way they did it was so interesting.

It's a little different than maybe, let's say if you have latkes, it wasn't, like, a grated potato, but it was more like a mashed potato.

And then, the person I went with and I, we could have swore that the applesauce was homemade because we both were saying it's not overly sweet and goopy.

So we're like, it must be homemade.

Silva: I wanted to have the pork knuckle.

But I was with my boyfriend and he was just like, "I don't do that."

So we had the smoked pork chop.

Osers: Yes.

Silva: That was amazing, but I'm not so familiar with German food.

What was different for me, I love sauerkraut just for all the nutritional value, but there is warm.

It's warm is in a sauce, the cabbage.

And that was really good the way the sourness and the way the cabbage is done contrast with the pork chop.

And it was a pork chop.

[ Laughter ] Sbrocco: It was big.

What did you have after?

Wong-Zarahn: I had the pork schnitzel.

Osers: Yeah?

Wong-Zarahn: Which was delicious -- loved it.

Sbrocco: Breaded pork.

Wong-Zarahn: Right.

I had never seen a piece of pork that was breaded and fried that perfect golden color.

It came with this delicious white wine mushroom sauce, that from the first bite, I said, this is heaven.

You could taste the white wine without it being overpowering.

And it just was perfect compliment to the crispiness and the juiciness of the pork.

And then I had never had spaetzle?

Osers: Spaetzle.

Wong-Zarahn: Thank you.

I've never had that before.

And I thought that was a perfect accompaniment.

Sbrocco: Okay.

Silva: Yeah, I had the spaetzle with the sausages -- how do you call the sausage?

Osers: Yeah, there's different sausages, from wild boar to pork-based.

Silva: I think it was a pork-based sausage, was really good with a mushroom sauce.

I will say it's very hearty.

Osers: Yes.

Silva: And we had the German Riesling with the food.

Osers: That's right.

Sbrocco: So they've talked about the schnitzel, the sausages.

What else should they have?

Osers: And my personal favorite is the herring.

These pieces of herring fillet, which, you know, in Europe is very, very popular.

And a sauce with apples and with onions.

I just love it.

With bread, without bread, I don't care.

I love it.

And I really like the goulash, which is basically a beef stew with a bit of paprika.

And it seems again, very simple, but it shines when it's really simple because it's rich.

It's a little spicy, not really, but a little.

And it comes from spaetzle, again.

So it's very saucy and just a very comforting, homey dish.

Probably better for cold seasons, but it's just wonderful.

Silva: I was with my daughter, too, and she had the buffalo burger.

It uses a darker pretzel bun that was really good.

And also, I was surprised the French fries were really good.

I'm a French fries snob a little bit.

You know, like you're going to eat French fries, they got to be really good.

Osers: Absolutely.

Silva: And they were really good.

Osers: Awesome.

Sbrocco: Okay, now it is time for desserts, so what did you have for dessert?

Wong-Zarahn: I had the sacher torte.

Sbrocco: Yeah.

Silva: I don't know what that is.

Osers: It's a -- Very good choice, first of all.

And I will also call out the -- All the desserts are homemade.

The sacher torte is literally a chocolatey cake -- Sbrocco: Probably the world's most famous chocolate cake.

Osers: Exactly.

Sbrocco: Viennese from the Sacco Hotel.

Osers: Exactly, Leslie.

It has a little bit of fruitiness to it, 'cause it's usually a tiny little layer of, like, an apricot-y jam and the chocolate around it -- Wong-Zarahn: It's encased with that chocolate.

So what you do is you put your fork in it, you crack the chocolate, then you get that little bit of jam.

Then you get the little bit of soft cake, and then you dip it in your whipped cream and your raspberry sauce that has just the touch of, like, I want to say, brandy taste to it.

It is a symphony in your mouth.

Sbrocco: And, hey, Vanessa, you had dessert?

Silva: I had apple strudel.

Osers: Yep.

Wong-Zarahn: Oh, yes.

Silva: I wasn't so impressed.

Sbrocco: Ah.

Osers: Okay.

Silva: It was okay.

I think it was a little bit bready, but again, it might be the German home style, which I'm not familiar with.

Osers: Fair enough, fair enough.

Silva: Yeah, but next time, I want that cake.

Wong-Zarahn: Yeah.

[ Laughter ] Silva: That sounds amazing.

Man: Bon appétit.

Enjoy, okay?

Wong-Zarahn: I just really appreciated the recommendations because this was my first time going to a German restaurant in the Bay area, and I really appreciated the thoughtfulness that the waiter had coming around and suggesting.

Sbrocco: And it's a family friendly place.

Wong-Zarahn: For sure.

Osers: It's very family friendly.

Wong-Zarahn: I mean, I would go back there with my family again because I'm like, you all try different types of comfort food.

Now, it's time to try some German comfort food.

Let's come here.

Sbrocco: If you would like to try Teske's Germania Restaurant and Beer Garden, it's located on North First Street in San Jose, and the average tab per person without drinks is around $35.

Looking for more Bay area bites you've just got to try?

Cecilia: Salut.

Sbrocco: Check out "Cecilia Tries It" online at kqed.org/checkplease.

I have to thank my great guests on this week's show -- Daniel Osers, who washes down his herring with a big Hefeweizen at Teske's Germania Restaurant and Beer Garden in San Jose -- Cindy Wong-Zarahn, who found a taste of Hawaii in San Bruno at Diamond Head General Store -- and Vanessa Silva, who loves the kitschy vibe and sustainable menu at Shuggie's Trash Pie and Natural Wine in San Francisco.

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.

Osers: Cheers.

[ Whooping ] ♪♪ h. [ Cheering ] [ Singing in German ] [ Singing continues ]

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