Just north of downtown Berkeley, in a string of restaurants and trendy shops, is a fantastic little tapas restaurant, Cesar. Cesar is just about the ideal classic tapas place, with some shared tables, a great bar, and almost perfect food. Cesar is open to the world, with a wide-open set of windows leading to a narrow porch. From there, the narrow, small dining room shares most of the space with the long bar.
The bar offers a HUGE range of drinks and a nice little sampling of wines and beers by the glass. The service was perfect the night we went, despite all the servers being full of tables. The tapas are of all kinds, but each is tasty and perfectly sized for sharing a few bites with your companions.
I'll be going back for sure, despite the other nearby options.