Hummingbird Cafe

Hummingbird Cafe

Berkeley, CA
September 2011

What a lovely place to enjoy a meal. The community here is colorful and so is the food, making the people watching and cafe experience evermore exciting. The Hummingbird Cafe looked quite inviting as we strolled along the Berkeley side streets on a clear, sunny afternoon in Northern California. We had also received recommendation to try this place.

Upon walking in, you are greeted as a good customer but do be prepared; it's not so much you who does the ordering but it's the owner who has his way in enthusiasm to want to prepare you a feast, and let him -- you ought to do things his way and let him prepare your plate with an assortment of things. I quite enjoyed the show of pride in this place.
Next time I'll try the baklava too.

The cuisine here is Greek / Eastern food, huge servings of it! The owner certainly has a lot of pride in his presentation and recipes, especially the hummus.

Assorted Platter

Green leaves wrapping rice with cheese:
So very good. I cannot describe it too much except that the cheese was soft and melted into the rice, like a goat cheese.

Tabbouleh:
Fresh, delicious and colorful in your mouth. I enjoyed this and its small, fine-grained textures.

Falafel:
It was okay. I have yet to have a falafel that I'm excited about. It was just a bunch of bread crumbs of bulgar wheat. The inside was an interesting color though, greenish and brown, but neon. Fascinating.

Lamb:
Thinner pieces of small bits of lamb; kind of fattening, but eh. The lamb was okay but nothing more. It has sauteed onions too, and those were great!

Carrots stewed and lentil rice: very nice
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Broccoli Salad
Fresh and healthy, very good, and it contains a variety of veggies. It has a sort-of oil-based Italian dressing, but it's light.

Baklava: I need to come back and try this

Hummus

The best! Homemade. The pita served with this is soft and fresh, the best pita -- better than the farmer's market pita and hummus that I've had here in Orange County. It has some paprika and herb, a few chopped onions too perhaps.

This little piggy greets you at the door. I did not see any pork inside so perhaps this is intended that you understand this place as being relatively meat-free. Happy vegans may come on in. The lamb and some chicken dishes are the exception on this, but it is hardly noticeable. Most is vegan friendly.

Cheers:
Very affordable meal. We received to large platters of food and drinks for around $16 total. Not bad! This includes the pita, etc. that you see on the meal platter/serving tray. I would like to come back here and try all the other options.

Seating is scarce inside. In fact I don't remember seating except at a high counter wall-bar. Maybe only 4 seats total. Outside there are two patio tables with two chairs each. On a warm day, do enjoy the sunshine but bring a hat. It gets warm in the sun!