Found a place in El Cerrito that has good, reasonable, chicken parm. Matthew and I were driving around looking for some food this afternoon and thought we’d try Strings (11720 San Pablo Avenue, El Cerrito), a place we passed many times while driving but never trusted. I think it has to do with its strip-mall-type locale and nondescript name. It turned out to be a comfortable, diner-like place with respectable food. We both had chicken parm, which came with a side of pasta alfredo, cafe salad and bread. The cafe salad is a mixed green salad with raisins, sunflower seeds and a couple other oddities tossed in a creamy Italian dressing. It’s a cut above the throwaway salad most places serve and fairly addictive at that. The chicken parm was generous and had the right flavor — the result of the chicken, sauce and cheese hanging out together and melding. $9.25 each. Nice people run Strings; there was lots of repeat business eating lunch.
