Gourmet burgers & more
It's probably the bakery items that have made FA's so well known, but there's a nice restaurant, too. Burgers, fries, salads, etc make for pleasant casual fare. I discovered Peet's Coffee at FA's! Oh, lines can be long, and they don't make reservations, so you might want to call ahead to see how busy they are.    [02 Dec 2003 14:03:02]

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Recommended Dishes: Burgers, fries, salads, soups, baked goods!

     ­mh   

Fatappple's is a failure
We had breakfast at the El Cerrito Fatapples restaurant a few weeks ago. We have enjoyed breakfast there for years. But this time the coffee was burnt. The omelette was undercooked and cold (the cheese wasn't even melted inside). And the fried potatoes were overcooked and cold.

We won't be going back there until they get their act together.    [12 Mar 2005 12:36:00]

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     ­John    

I travel 2000 miles for Fatapples
I've loved Fatapples since being a student in Berkeley in the mid '80s. I've never had a bad meal there--the burgers are my fave, along with the ollieberry shake and any of their baked goods. I only get there once a year now when I'm in Berkeley for Continuing Ed time--but Fatapples is still excellent after all these years!    [25 May 2006 19:27:21]

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Recommended Dishes: Burger with Longhorn Shredded Cheese

     ­PKD   

Underwhelmed
I know that people love Fatapple's, but my two dining experiences at their El Cerrito location left me decidedly underwhelmed, especially the price-to-food ratio. I ordered their guacamole cheeseburger ($8.10, no fries) and received a semi-warm burger with unmelted grated cheddar cheese and a little bowl of guac. The waitstaffer forgot to ask what kind of cheese I wanted (swiss) and I forgot to tell her, so bad on both of us. She was not terribly friendly or involved, so she got a 16% tip. This placed is heavily overrated, in my not-so-humble opinion.    [05 Feb 2007 15:06:45]

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     ­D. Fletcher   

In the past, when I wanted a good burger, I would go straight to Fat Apple's in El Cerrito and I was never disappointed - lots of meat, juicy, brown outside, red inside. Yesterday, I got a wafer-thin burger, gray throughout and so dry I had to keep pouring on the ketchup. MacDonald's, meet your competition! The waitress told me they had indeed reduced the amount of meat per burger (but not the price!) and there have been many complaints. There were noticeably fewer customers.

I was told they were going to go back to the old standards; I'll believe it when I hear from friends that it's true, because I'm not going there for hamburgers again.    [14 Mar 2007 15:56:58]

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     ­Susie   

Marketing Glitch
I have been in love with Fatapple's for as long as it has been open and travel long distances just to eat there or to take out its unsurpassed Olalliberry pie! However, when attempting to buy a whole pie yesterday when all they had left was 5/6 of one, they charged me 125% of the price of a whole pie. This makes no sense and is a business practice I would not like be see perpetuated!

Otherwise, FA is awesome!    [13 Apr 2007 20:27:59]

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     ­Anonymous   

Unbelievably Bad Experience
I'm a local to Fatapple's El Cerrito, and have finally had it with the service there, enough to say with certainty we won't be going back. The original Fatapple's/Fat Albert's in Berkeley is nothing like the EC location and doesn't disappoint. But the last two visits to EC were ridiculously difficult. For such a popular neighborhood restaurant, it's appalling that they don't clear dirty plates until you leave. The wait staff rarely smiles, and seems not to care whether they make mistakes. They just get angry if you point something out. At a recent visit, one of our party sent a burger back after cutting into it to see if it was cooked to order. (The comment above about gray meat is true, as it's happened again and again.) The waitress took it away, and then returned after a very long wait for a corrected rare burger with the very same burger, evidenced by the cut made earlier, and now disguised by the bun. Inexcusable. Did she apologize? No. In fact, when she took it back she giggled something to another employee.
Made us want to report this to Chef Ramsey!

On another visit, the meat in the pot pie tasted old, and there were several ingredients missing out of one of their most popular salads. Oh, and what's with that horrid coleslaw? No wonder they don't do substitutions. They'd never get rid of it.

It may be popular with the neighbors, but they have lost our trust and our business. Be careful there.    [15 Oct 2007 00:10:29]

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Recommended Dishes: They haven't ruined the cheese puffs yet; they're wonderful

     ­Anonymous