A little less than two months ago, Danielle Diller and Gilles Fabre opened Brasserie Felix in the old Simple Foods Market space. The Berkeley restaurant offers casual French dining in a long, yellow dining room punctuated with iron fixtures and a handsome wood bar. The prices are right, with appetizers and salads running about $8 and dinner averaging $17, though we favor the starters over the main courses.

Sit at the bar and make dinner out of the warm, marinated artichoke-heart salad ($6.95)–with roasted pistachios, manchego cheese, and olive oil–and a half-pound order of steamed P.E.I. mussels ($8.95) in white wine, shallot, garlic, onion, and parsley broth. Don’t pass up the excellent shoestring frites.

3901 Tennyson St., 303-953-2401

Amanda M. Faison
Amanda M. Faison
Freelance writer Amanda M. Faison spent 20 years at 5280 Magazine, 12 of those as Food Editor.