A Foodie Ode to Oakland

I don’t know if I’ve ever written an Oakland restaurant review and for that I am sorry. I’m working on getting over my bias of Oakland that most Bay Area-ites tend to have (although believe me, there are parts of the city that fit the stereotype). Most of my Oakland eating has taken place within an immediate radius of the Fox, but I have trekked as far as Beer Revolution for drink before. Make Westing has strong drinks and awesome sandwiches. Hutch Bar & Kitchen was bourgeois for the area, overpriced Southern food, super slow service, mediocre drinks and an overall disappointment.  A favorite standby of mine is Rudy’s Can’t Fail Café. Yes, it is typical diner food but it’s delicious and exactly what you need before a show sometimes. Plus they have a jalapeno cucumber margarita that’s to die for and outside seating right on Telegraph next to the Fox so you can laugh at all the under-agers who thought waiting in line for 2 hours prior to doors opening was worth it. If you’re sticking to a couple blocks of the Fox, Xolo Taqueria is my top recommendation. There’s a breakfast burrito that almost makes me wish there were morning concerts, but the surf-n-turf burrito’s a good dinner alternative. The tacos are comparable to those you would find at a more upscale Mexican joint in the Mission. If it’s not too sweet for you, get the horchata. Yes, there’s no alcohol in it but you’re going to drink enough at the show anyway and this beverage is worth the wait.

 

Anyway, I’m dedicating this post to my new favorite restaurant in Oakland, Mua Lounge. It’s semi-tucked away on Broadway, but the small patio area is buzzing on nice days. The inside of the restaurant is unexpectedly large, at two floors that span pretty far back. We were seated upstairs and quickly assessed the cocktail menu. I started with the strawberry ginger lemonade, which was so delicious it was hard to tell it was alcoholic at all. It’s a little sweet though, so later in the meal I switched to the Joe Smash, which is Belvedere vodka (it’s always nice when a place uses top shelf), Cointreau, mint, red grape and lemon. This was the favorite cocktail of the table, so I highly recommend it. For the food, we took a look at the starter salads and they all sounded so tasty that we ordered 3 different ones. And they were all worth it. The pressed watermelon with feat, pine nuts, mint and olive oil was light and refreshing. I want to try and recreate this salad on a hot summer day. The kale salad (you know my obsession with kale) was mixed with pine nut, currant, kohlrabi, onion and manchego shredded cheese. It was pretty good as kale salads go, I always like when pine nut is added and currant was a new flavor. Lastly we tried the beet salad, with mache (sweet, nutty and leafy- the newest rage in the lettuce world), goat cheese and pecan. I’m all for mache becoming the hottest new leafy green (behind kale of course) and I liked the pecans pairing with the beats in place of walnuts. We ordered the brussel sprouts, which were sautéed in a brown butter sauce so they weren’t greasy. The mac n’ cheese is a must order. The catch is, there’s no cheese in the dish! The pseudo-cheese is made with butternut squash and cream, yet tastes like a light and healthy version of mac n’ cheese. If I was a better cook, I would try to recreate this as well. The grilled artichoke was fine but not the best I’ve add. The tarragon aioli is was topped with needed citrus zest or something a little more punchy. There also wasn’t enough aioli on the dish and they were hard to cut up and share. The burrata cheese plate, with Portobello, red pepper, squash and balsamic was good, but you really can’t mess up burrata. The fried calamari was a nice warm addition to the meal. The chili and shallot mixed in helped bring it a step above your standard restaurant calamari dish. Lastly, the lamb cheeks are a must order. They were daube braised (a French style way usually reserved for making stew with wine, vegetables, garlic, and herbes de Provence) and served with parsnip. The meat was so tender and flavorful. They came in a plate filled with the sauce, which I then wanted to dunk my brussel sprouts in, it was so good. These may be easy to miss when scanning the menu but I definitely recommend them!