Restaurant Week rolled around again, and the pandemic is ... over? Let's go with that. So it was time to get out and eat our way through our new neighborhood. While Emeryville itself doesn't participate in the festivities, it's only a few minutes to the borders of Berkeley and Oakland, which happen to host overlapping restaurant weeks in late March and early April.
First stop, A Côté in Oakland's Rockridge neighborhood, which offered a three-course tasting menu that kicked off with a burrata with toast and veggies, came in cozy with a ricotta sformato that was all comfort food, and finished sweet with a strawberry-elderflower parfait. Don't mind if I do.
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| A Côté's Tasting Menu |
Next stop, Agave Uptown back in our old neighborhood, an Oaxacan-Californian restaurant which somehow seemed to have missed the point of Restaurant Week since its menu didn't actually offer discounts compared to the standard fare. Not bad but not a must-taste.
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| Agave Uptown, where we wound up just ordering off the standard menu. The flan was probably the highlight. |
We rounded things off with my first experience of truly upscale Vietnamese food with fabulously creative cocktails paired with each course at Co Nam in Oakland's Temescal neighborhood.
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| Co Nam, where Nicolas even tried the shrimp ceviche (and lived for me to tell the tale!) and whose spicy cocktail recipes I've got to revisit. |
Not to be outdone, Berkeley had already kicked off its own Restaurant Week by the time we settled into our reservation at Co Nam. After missing out on the first weekend of Berkeley's rendition, we squeezed in a Berkeley venue just under the wire on the final Sunday evening of their Restaurant Week. Despite an initial mishap, we landed at Passione Emporio, an Italian hole-in-the-wall about 20 minutes' walk from our new home. Their focaccia has got me dying to return to taste their pizza crust, and their cacio e pepe pasta (part of the pasta tasting board) still makes my mouth water.
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| This won't be the last time that we spend an evening with Passione Emporio's cacio et pepe and an affogatto (Nicolas's first!) |
All-in-all, a successful Restaurant Week(s) 2022, especially for a couple of people who purchased a home less than a half year ago and still aren't especially liquid. It was made all the sweeter for the friends we shared each of these restaurants with. It's been taking a while to build a community here in California, but things are looking a bit more hopeful for 2022. Looking forward return trips to Passione Emporio and Co Nam and the company of the friends with whom we'll share those meals.
