41 - Olivettos - Oakland

5655 College Ave, Oakland, 94618, (510) 547-5356

Oliveto's Website

Last Visit - February 2009

Oliveto's is a well-known restaurant in Oakland. It has seasonal menus and a deep selection of wine. The people that go there, are usually well dressed. I guess it's a place to cross off your restaurant list - and that's exactly why I wanted to go.

We got reservations for one of the rainiest nights. Yeah, it started with a leap out of the car. We got there around 5:45, exactly in time and got our bread and water around 6:00. I guess that's what it boils down to, bread and water, no matter how fancy you dress up the bread platter or the water cantor, it's still what it is. I looked through their winter menu and was a bit lost in the language. I felt embarrassed when I had to ask what the Steelhead was, which is of course a fish. They also had pigeon, wild boar, free-roaming beef, and rabbit. It was not your usual menu. I ordered the beef in the end, and my girlfriend ordered the rabbit. We were recommended a light red wine, "nothing too dry" said my accomplice. It arrived in a half-bottle and it started the night off right.

The fish was good and so was the rabbit. I'd have to say, when you're eating rabbit, you'd have to arm yourself with no thoughts of cute bunnies. "It's just food; food for you," I told myself. But then again my mind drifted to Golem in the Lord of the Rings movies and how he devoured the poor rabbit. It was weird, but all in all, I took a piece from my girlfriend and I found it quite delicious.

By then a few more parties have settled in on the tables around us. We had a little window that showed the streets below and I was happy to see umbrellas move about. The wine was just right for the night and so was our entree's. The dessert was chocolate cake, it's something my girlfriend prides herself on - trying all the chocolate cakes of the world. True to the rumors, the cake was amazingly rich and softer than any you'd get a super market. It reminded me of confections in Japan and I yearned for a nice cup of green tea. It was a sweet way to end a fabulous meal and dreamy night.

It's probably how I would remember it, everything was "just right". If I had to compare it, it'd be close to Rivoli's, except Rivoli's beats it by just an edge.

40 - Rang Dong Vietnamese Restaurant - Oakland

724 Webster St., Oakland, CA. 94607, (510)835 - 8375

(image from Yelp.com)

Placed on the outer edge of Chinatown is a pretty efficient pho noodle restaurant named Rang Dong. For the longest time it was known as "Vi's noodle shop", but after an interior make-over they renamed themselves. The place is clean and the service is fast. It's one of the few pho shops left in Chinatown. If you can imagine, people go to Chinatown to eat Chinese food, so to make a Vietnamese food place there would be a challenging feat. Yet, this place survives with its reliable service and hearty dishes.

They redid their menu recently, so the Pho Noodle soup with everything on it is no longer #1, but instead #11. How absurd is that right? Every store's #1 should be the big bowl of pho with everything on it: beef, tripe, flanks, beefballs, shredded pork, the whole shabang! But it's now #11. So don't fret, it's still there; and it's still good.

I've gotten the Pho Noodle eating ritual pretty much memorized. I suspect I can do it with my eyes closed if the bottles of condiments were identifiable by touch. First I grab a dish and pour in seafood sauce. Next I dab in the hot sauce, which is always Sri-Racha at these places. I give it a nice whirl then I put in some fresh lemon juice into my little platter. From there, I begin peeling off culantro leaves and gently sprinkling it in my soup. This is almost ritual, I don't even notice the difference in smell or taste. Lastly, I gather a couple chop stick grabs of raw bean sprouts and let it cook in the broth. It's rather simple, but I have heard of people mistaken the plate of garnishes as a salad for the soup, and eating it all. I hope this review will help first time pho noodle eaters avoid that kind of mistake.

Note: On summer days, I often get the Vermicelli noodles with imperial rolls and skewered pork. That's actually a really tasty meal. It goes good with Vietnamese drip coffee, but I have to admit it's amazingly strong there.