Some great places to visit at Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley!

Earlier this week I ventured to downtown Berkeley to revisit Telegraph Avenue and try new food items from some of the places there I have visited before. There are a wide variety of food places specifically on Berkeley’s Telegraph Avenue such as Blondie’s Pizza, Fat Slice, Eatsa, Koja Kitchen, I.B.’s Hoagies, Muracci’s, Tako Sushi, and much more. The walk up a slight inclining hill to get there from Downtown Berkeley station takes about ten minutes, but it is so worth going.

This time I first stopped by Tea1. I had been curious about trying their ice cream boba milk tea for over a month and I finally had some spare funds to do so. I purchased the drink in one of their reusable huge glass mason jars for an extra $1 and some change. Every time I bring back the mason jar I get 10 cents off the next drink. The flavor of the milk tea and the boba pearls was not overly sweetened it actually had a nice balance of sugar and bitterness that wasn’t overpowering. The scoops of ice cream in the drink also had a light vanilla flavor that complemented the milk tea and the service was fast and very friendly.

Ice Cream Milk Tea with boba!

My second stop was Thai Noodle 2 where I ordered their fried calamari appetizer and duck fried rice to go as it was getting late. I was surprised at the big sized portions of roasted duck in the tasty fried rice for $9.75. I would definitely return a third time to try something else I have not had yet from their menu. 

Duck thai fried rice, a huge portion to go for only $9.75

On my way walking towards back towards the train station I noticed how there was not any line in front of CREAM, a custom build your own ice cream sandwich shop that I heard lots of good things about but didn’t want to wait in their usually massive line for. As soon as I went inside I was warmly greeted and the first thing I noticed was their regular cookie sandwich for only $2.99. I was asked which cookie I wanted from their long list of many varieties such as chocolate chip, oatmeal, snickerdoodle, etc. I chose macadamia nut (my favorite) with pistachio ice cream as the filling. The cookie itself was probably one of the best versions of macadamia nut I had ever tried as it was very buttery and the bits of the macadamia nut were well toasted and had a good flavor. I also liked the pistachio ice cream’s light and balanced flavor that was not too sugary at all. It made me understand why CREAM usually has a long line, and I would love to revisit them and try other variations of their custom made ice cream sandwiches!

Macadamia Nut with Pistachio ice cream sandwich. So yummy!

Living far away from my hometown of San Francisco I really like visiting Berkeley whenever I can not only because it has many great food places, but for how it is a lively and vibrant college town with a lot of interesting things always going on. There are lots of shops and since there are lots of college students around the Downtown Berkeley/Telegraph Avenue area it also has many great and affordable food options.