Berkeley's Unicorn works its magic on pan-Asian cuisine Interesting food, smart look hit mark

by Karola Saekel, - Chronicle Staff Writer Friday, March 5, 2004

   Like a woman who can pull together simple clothes and accessories and come up with a seamlessly stylish appearance, there are restaurants that manage to craft a delightful persona without breaking the bank. Unicorn, a 47- seat pan-Asian lunch and dinner venue, succeeds admirably.

   Located on a block of Berkeley's Telegraph Avenue that the charitable might call eclectic (seedy is another word that might come to the tip of the tongue), you forget the surroundings as soon as you open the door and face a shimmering aquatic curtain -- water running down both sides of a thin screen of wire mesh to form a silvery sheath.

   Walls are boldly colored from a very adult paint box: Deep burgundy, assertive yellow, orange and, behind a high counter topped with tall silver tea tins, intense lime green. Add a midnight blue linen ceiling, smart halogen light fixtures, framed black-and-white photographs of Vietnam and white- clothed tables topped with white butcher paper, and it adds up to a very 21st century, subtly Asian, sophisticated interior.

   Almost as soon as nighttime diners unfold their cloth napkins, color-cued to the wall hues, a complimentary starter arrives. Instead of a palate opener, adult diners are treated to a tiny scoop of mango sorbet in a shot glass, topped tableside with a thimble of sparkling wine -- to stimulate the appetite, a server told us. The whole is the work of one family, the Truongs, who operated a restaurant in Vietnam before coming first to Minnesota and eventually the Bay Area. Once here, Em Truong helped launch a number of restaurants before becoming main chef of her son Kiet's venture in Berkeley, which opened in the fall of 2001. The younger Truong, a one-time engineering student, built his restaurant from scratch, making the light fixtures and that intriguing water curtain. As he tells it, he was watching the rain run down the screen of a window in the back of the restaurant one day when the effect struck him as rather pretty. A few months and many trips to Home Depot later, the Unicorn (named for the fabled creature's positive image in Chinese mythology) had its most defining design element.

   Kiet Truong based his menu on his mother's cooking from her native Chaozhou province of China and his father's Singaporean/Malaysian background. He augmented it with some creations of his own, such as rice paper rolls of mango with mint leaves ($5) served with a kicky dipping sauce textured with chopped peanuts. It's one of several appetizer rolls that join chicken or beef kebabs ($7.50 for three), roasted quail ($7.50 for two) and unusual charbroiled New Zealand mussels ($8) with a lemongrass-scented sauce, topped with chopped peanuts.

   My favorite starter is the Horn of Plenty ($8 per person, with a minimum of two diners), an assortment of six rolls -- both cold and crisply fried -- presented with five sauces placed around the platter so diners know which is intended for what roll. The only problem with this choice is that it's so good, two of us ate the whole thing and almost didn't have room for the rest of the meal.

   At another dinner, we opted for lighter starters, a pleasant though not memorable prawn wonton soup ($5.50; 50 cents extra with egg noodles) and a crunchy-delicious lotus-root salad ($6.50-$8.50, depending on choice of chicken or tofu, prawns or salmon) tossed with shredded cabbage, carrots, daikon and mint in a vinaigrette, again topped with the ever-present peanuts.

   All first courses are generously portioned, so sharing is easy, and the generally knowledgeable staff encourages it. (On three of four visits, service was excellent; on one, our server seemed distracted and, though not unfriendly, not very communicative).

   One of the lighter main courses is a vermicelli salad with mint, cucumbers, bean sprouts and caramelized onions. It can be ordered with chicken, beef, prawns or "cubed mignon" (USDA Choice beef) kebabs and ranges from $7 to $14, depending on the choice of kebabs. Prices quoted are in effect at dinner; lunch prices are slightly lower.

   Most dishes are attractively served in interesting white china. One of the prettiest presentations is the Bird's Nest ($7.50), a coil of fried noodles centered with Asian vegetables and chicken, beef and prawns in a mild tomato-garlic sauce. As you dig into the dish, you find noodles softened by the sauce at the bottom for a pleasant contrast with the crunch of the noodles around the rim.

   Singaporean vermicelli ($7-$7.50) is wok-fried with curry and combines a choice of meat or seafood with broccoli, green peppers and onions. Like many of the entrees, it can be made with tofu for non-meat eaters. This is also an option with the jasmine rice clay pots ($7-$10). On the recommendation of our well-versed and attentive server, we ordered the top of the line of these, an earthy individual casserole with rice baked to a crust on the bottom, topped with vegetables and a fisherman's bounty of seafood: prawns, scallops, calamari and red snapper. It's a filling, great nasty-weather warmer.

   Only the call of duty made us try dessert (all $5), which are the only part of the menu that shows more Western than Far Eastern influences, except for grilled pineapple. There is a cheesecake ("for the students" from nearby UC Berkeley, says restaurateur Truong with a laugh) and "extreme chocolate," a slice of heaven for chocoholics, with milk and semisweet chocolate, topped with an unctuous sauce.

   For daintier diners, there are some fine teas. And talking of beverages - - Unicorn makes attractive cocktails, based on soju, a vodka taste-alike from Korea that has from 22 to 24 percent alcohol, taking it out of the hard-liquor category (Unicorn is too close to campus for a liquor license). The cocktails ($6), served in stylish bent-stem glasses, run the gamut from mai tais to margaritas. A wine aficionado, Truong offers a selection of nearly 80 California and international wines by the bottle. Markups are reasonable, but regrettably, only a a few are available by the glass.

E-mail Karola Saekel at kcraib@sfchronicle.com. Unicorn 2533 Telegraph Ave. (near Dwight Way), Berkeley; (510) 841-8098;
www.unicorndining.com 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m., 5-10 p.m. Monday-Friday; 12:30-10 p.m.
Saturday; 5-10 p.m. Sunday. Beer, wine and “Asian-infusian cocktails”; credit cards
and reservations accepted.

OVERALL:     TWO AND HALF STARS
Food:           TWO AND HALF STARS
Service:        TWO AND HALF STARS
Atmosphere: TWO AND HALF STARS.
PRICES: $$
NOISE RATING: TWO BELL.
PLUSES: Stylish decor and serve ware; interesting pan-Asian menu with many vegetarian options; good beverage selection; reduced prices at lunch; validated parking at Telegraph- Channing garage.
MINUSES: Service is somewhat inconsistent, especially when the restaurant is running at capacity. More wine choices by the glass would be a good addition.