Best Things to Eat and Drink in Walnut Creek

What are your favorite things to eat and drink at Walnut Creek bars and restaurants or to pick up from take-out restaurants and grocery stores? What are your favorite appetizers, dishes, drinks, or desserts?

We're talking about a rare treat or a regular standby--the one thing you crave after a hard day, or that your whole family, including picky young eaters, will enjoy.

A few months back, on my blog Crazy in Suburbia, I listed some of mine, and I share them again here. Readers also raved about their favorites. More than a few readers put in pleas for someone to open an Ethiopian restaurant in Walnut Creek.

We can always keeping adding to this list. Maybe you've visited one of the new restaurants in town or finally checked out the one you've long been hearing about.  Maybe you discovered a new sandwich at your favorite deli or burrito combination at a your regular tacqueria.  Maybe your favorite Happy Hour spot has created a new coctail.

Feel free to upload photos, to add to the ones I already have here. 

--The vegetarian  burrito at Sunrise Bistro: Filled with the usual black beans and rice and cheese, as well as lots of veggies: broccoli, zucchini, and spinach. It comes with salsa and guacamole. It's big and satisfying, but, like other Sunrise Bistro fare, it feels healthy. A vegan version is also available with tofu replacing cheese.

--Le Cheval's shrimp rolls (steamed prawns, mint leaves, wrapped in rice paper) and vermicelli salad and grilled chicken kebabs served with lettuce, mint, cilantro, nuts, and nuoc nam.

--Strawberry smoothie and imperial rolls from Pho Saigon Noodle House

--Tamale pancake, shredded barbecue chicken, avacado  salad and tortilla strips, Lark Creek Walnut Creek

--Burger with Danish blue cheese, on a honey wheat bun, at The Counter. www.thecounterburger.com

--The Napa Salad--spring greens topped with grilled rosemary chicken, toasted sugar walnuts, fresh field berries, and feta cheese. Tossed as you watch. At Lettuce on Locust Street. Eat in or take out. 925-933-5600.

--Four Cheese Margherita pizza from Rocco's Ristorante Pizzeria. I always love just a basic cheese pizza. This one has a blend of Mozzarella, Provolone, Fontina and Gorgonzola with basil and a sauce made from the restaurant's own marinated diced tomatoes.

--Macaroni and cheese from Whole Foods: Comfort food at the Soccer Mom home. You'll know why if you read these ingredients: pasta slathered, tossed and baked with a buttery white sauce, heavy cream,  Jack cheddar cheese and parmesan. Whole Foods was running out when I snapped this photo.

--L'Orange Pomegranate martini, Sasa. Tastes like a nice icy glass of pomegranate juice, with a splash of lime and ginger. You could just drink it down--like juice--but there is the matter of the L'Orange Grey Goose vodka that would make you lose your designated driver status.

Chocolate crackle cookies and Gingeroos (soft ginger cookies) from the Walnut Creek Baking Company. The crackle cookies are like chewy brownies in a cookie form. A reader also wanted  to add the lemon bars.

--Dark chocolate almonds sprinkled with sea salt and turbino sugar. From Trader Joe's. Actually, Trader Joe's is a chocolate lovers' dream--or downfall.

-- Pyramid Ale House Pale Ale, served at 38 degrees and in a schooner glass. "It goes great with everything."

--"The addictive chicken shawerma at Babalou's Mediterranean in Walnut Creek. Spit-roasted chicken with cucumbers, grilled tomatoes, garlicky tzatziki sauce and spices wrapped in warm lavash bread . . . absolutely delicious, though difficult to eat in public without sauce dripping down your arms!"

--Stadium Pub's Chicken Cheesesteak! 

--Va de Vi's  "sashimi-grade Ahi Tuna Tartar,  Serano Wrapped Prawns and Elderflower Gimlet (with Hendricks handcrafted gin from Scotland, St. Germain elderflower liquor and a fresh squeezed lime juice)

--Various salumi from Prima Ristorante

--Oysters, Montery Bay calamari (topped with Cajun spices) and the Latini cocktail—a mix of Milagro Sposado tequila, chili-citrus syrup and lime juice--at the Walnut Creek Yacht Club. Another reader also wanted to give props to the Yacht Club's Maine Dayboat Scallop and Toasted Israeli Cous Cous Salad—"I get it every time . Yum."—and the Latest Scoop Dark Chocolate Ice Cream with vanilla bean sauce. 

--Green papaya salad, Da Lat Vietnamese Cuisine on Locust Street.

--Shrimp rolls,  Huynh

--Saigon Style Noodle Salad, with lemongrass-marinated grilled filet mignon, Vanessa's Bistro 2

--The "famous" Ball Tip sandwich, slowly cooked with special marinade. Available with a side of tequila lime sweet potato fries, Kinders in Ygnacio Plaza.

--Hawaiian and Tequila lime chicken wings, Whole Foods

--Snickerdoodles, a Sweet Affair Bakery in the Ygnacio Plaza. 

--Bento Box lunch specials, OI-C Bowl.

--Green curry mussels,  Erawan Thai Restaurant.

--Calamari at Lark Creek Walnut Creek. The reader added that this item could use more pepper "but the freshness and perfection of cooking more than make up for lack of spice."

--A banana split for the whole family at the San Francisco Creamery.

Soccer Mom is the nom de plume of, yes, Martha Ross, editor of Patch. In my spare time, I also publish my personal rants about life in suburbia on my blog, Crazy in Suburbia.