Restaurant Week

Last week was Oakland Restaurant Week and we had a chance to eat at two of the restaurants participating.  First up was Camino.  I’ve been interested in this restaurant for a while, it’s always mentioned with some of the best in the Oakland/Berkeley area and it is right in my neighborhood.  The inside of Camino is very cool, most of the patrons sit at two very long communal tables, but there were some individual tables in the middle too.  The cocktails were fantastic and inventive.  We started with a very good, fresh tasting fennel salad.  The main course was half a Dungeness crab cooked in the wood fired oven, served over endives, sunchokes, and beets.  Although this was messy it had very good flavor and was a little spicy, which I loved!  Dessert was an orange custard with fruit compote, not too sweet and a great ending to the meal.  I really enjoyed my meal here and will definitely be coming back.  My boyfriend wasn’t as crazy about it as I was, I think the portions were a little too small for him and he felt awkward trying to eat the messy crab in a nicer setting.

Next up was Bocanova.  I didn’t know much about this restaurant, but always like to find new places down at Jack London Square.  For restaurant week Bocanova served everything family style so the whole table had to participate.  I think we had a total of seven(!) different courses/plates. Again, the cocktails were very inventive and very tasty! Starting with an appetizer of Peruvian olives and seasoned mushrooms, I dislike both these things but tried them anyway and actually enjoyed the mushrooms. The next appetizer was a lobster and shrimp cocktail, this was also delicious. The main courses were steak with chimichurri sauce, sea scallops, and mashed winter squash. All three of the were amazing! The only unfortunate part was dessert, the menu listed a chocolate bread pudding (which sounded amazing), but we were served pineapple and kiwi empanadas. These were good, but the bread pudding sounded better. This restaurant totally impressed me, I didn’t expect it to be that good!  Our whole group really enjoyed the meal, and I highly recommend this place as a change of pace from the seafood restaurants at Jack London Square.

Next time I talk about a restaurant I'll try and have better descriptions of the food, hopefully what the menu actually said instead of me making up what I thought it said.