Hello Friends.

Last week we were ensconced in the fair city of Oakland, California and thought it would be a good idea to check out the restaurant scene there.  Oakland has been a popular place in recent years for enterprising restauranteurs to set up shop in a less costly real estate market than outrageous San Francisco.  Many San Francisco restaurants have set up Oakland outposts (e.g., District, Ozumo, and one our favorites, A16, where we actually prefer the spacious and bright Oakland outpost to its cramped SF Marina flagship).  Not all of these have succeeded – Ozumo closed after a short stint in Oakland’s uptown – but by and large Oakland has a dynamic, varied restaurant scene, and we were excited to try out some old favorites as well as some newer entries.

First up, an oldie – A Coté.  A Coté is on College Avenue in Rockridge. It’s sometimes classified as a Mediterranean restaurant, but it’s not – it’s pure French bistro, adapted for a small plates approach.  As you’ll see on the menu:

We opted for the following dishes:

• Baby Red Oak Salad
• Crispy Calamari and Chickpeas
• Antipasto
• Pancetta Wrapped Coho Salmon

I also had a “Queen of Thorns” cocktail.  Someone there is obviously a Game of Thrones fan.

A Coté is a lovely restaurant with a delightful covered back patio.  We recommend eating out there.

The salad was simple but very refreshing.  I do enjoy the French way of handling salad dressings – merely a slippery coat on the lettuce leaves, rather than an overpowering, omnipresent glop.  The antipasto was a true delight – flavorful teleme cheese served room temperature (thank you) and soft, sweet roasted balsamic figs.  We ate half the plate before remembering to take a picture (oops).

The second courses were not quite as successful.  The calamari was over-breaded and a bit overcooked.  The pancetta wrapped salmon was, quite frankly, an abomination.  The bacon was undercooked, almost raw, and the salmon overcooked.  Moreover, it was plated on top of a very sweet root vegetable hash. I suppose the attempt here was to have the salty pancetta play off the sweet hash, but in no way does salmon belong with something sweet like this.  I suppose there is a reason why we don’t see bacon wrapped salmon on many menus – it must be difficult to cook them together.

Next up, a brand new entry to College Avenue: Duchess.

Duchess attempts to bring Japanese food into a kind of fancy bar-menu approach, and I do quite like the concept.  Japanese flavors and techniques really play well in a variety of concepts. Here is the menu:

We tried a variety of dishes this evening:

• Fried Chicken
• Ocean Trout
• Duck Confit
• Short Rib

The fried chicken and short rib were revelations – the former was crunchy with playful contrasts of sweet and sour, and the latter short rib was succulent, tender and rich.  The duck confit was a misstep – as you’ll see, there was very little on the plate (can you even find the duck???), and the confit had been radically overcooked until it became almost a duck-based millionaire’s bacon.  Now, I love millionaire’s bacon, and I love duck. But this was chewy, dry and awful – and, as the old joke goes, such a small portion!  The ocean trout seemed like it had been replaced with salmon – although, to be fair, the products are quite similar, and the salmon / trout was much better than A Coté’s.

For dessert, we opted for a panna cotta, served with something described as “strawberry tartar” which, aside from the obvious question “isn’t strawberry normally served raw?”, here appeared to resemble two raspberries.  There was also a lovely chocolate mousse under a chocolate shell.

Next up – Camino.  Camino is the Grand Lake district and aims for California cuisine and a California approach.  It’s one of the “no tipping” restaurants, which is an interesting concept I’ll write more about later.  The restaurant is very attractive inside:

And here is the menu:

We opted for several dishes that we shared:

• Cucumber and herb salad
• Fire-roasted pepper, eggplant and kohlrabi salads
• Oven-baked ling cod
• Grilled artichokes and chickpeas
• Grilled pan di zucchero with tomato confit

You’ll see we avoided the “main courses” which were pretty expensive. I also had a calvados cocktail.

The salads were quite simple and small.  The pepper and eggplant salad was served with a flatbread that we thought was actually stale.  The roasted pepper was simply presented, and the cucumber was, well, honestly anyone could prepare this dish.  Cut up some cucumber and parsley, and serve with greek yogurt.

The second dishes were a little more interesting.  The ling cod was salty and soft, with a nice piece of soft, non-stale flatbread with it.  The pan di zucchero (like a bitter chicory leaf) with tomato confit was well presented – although I have to say the tomato confit was not confit-like at all – more like a gently stewed tomato.  Apparently, the folks in Oakland do not know what confit actually means.  Here is a helpful link, y’all.

All in all, Camino seemed like an amateurish effort – almost like everyone was in culinary school and just learning the basics.  I would skip this place – for the price, you can get much more interesting and delicious food at other places nearby.

Finally, for weekend brunch, we went to an old standby – Rockridge Café.  Wow, how I love this place.  It is as unpretentious as can be, with a diverse menu for brunch with reasonable prices (for Oakland, anyway).

We got the  Eggs Hemingway and the Citrus Zest Ricotta Special.  The Eggs Hemingway had the spiciest hollandaise I’ve ever had.  Phenomenal.  And the ricotta pancakes – well, you must order these if you come here.  Somehow by adding ricotta cheese to pancake batter they come out lighter and fluffier than any pancakes you’ve ever had.  And served with a bright citrus sauce is the perfect way to have them – although they are also quite good with the standard maple syrup.

So, to recap – Duchess and Rockridge Café are definite wins for dinner and brunch respectively, while A Coté is a borderline call and Camino is, sadly, a no.  Hopefully I’ve saved you a bad meal if you live in the Oakland area or find yourself exiled, as we did, while painters mucked about our apartment for a week.

Finally, we were in Oakland during the worst of the Napa/Sonoma fires and we are just heartbroken about the damage and loss in an area we just love to visit.  Such wonderful people up there deserve better than this tragedy.  Hopefully we’ll make a visit up there soon to check out how things are rebuilding.  Stay tuned, and happy eating!