Linda "It's Different for Girls" S.'s Profile

I was an executive for Barilla (the big pasta company), I know excellent Italian food and Cinque Terre falls in that category. There are few Italian restaurants in the USA as good as this.

Apparently Gin-Chong is accustomed to over-cooked pasta. Be assured the pasta here is properly al-dente.

I have eaten here twice now and both times, the service was excellent and so was the food.

The assorted smoked fish is very special.

Four stars for the food, volume and reasonable prices. One star off for service.  Zagat 2008 called it "hit and miss" service.  It's the luck of the draw.  Although Jaafra (from Morocco) was not our waiter, he jumped in a few times when he could see we needed help.  Get him and you will have good service.  If not, be very clear when you order and don't expect much attention.
 
Tuesday night was not crowded (possibly because we were following July 4th weekend), in spite of the fact that it was lobster night!  Lobster special set comes with soup or salad.  For a small upcharge you can get onion soup instead of soup of the night. with the lobster set.  The onion soup is fabulous.  I requested no bread in the onion soup as I was trying to go light on carbs.  This soup does not require bread to be great.  

Other hits at the table were the sand dabs and the eggplant tart.  The hazelnut dessert was amazing.  Not too sweet.

We were in Oakland for 4 days, eating out all of our meals.

On our first night, we were pleased to find Levende's (thanks to Yelp).

They were serving till 11PM on Friday night which really helped us out.

Mac and cheese was a big hit with the table.  The salmon was nicely done.

The music gradually gets louder but this is after all, an active bar.  Nice atmosphere.

Fried okra was great. The menu doesn't mention the word "fried" but just assume everything is fried unless stated otherwise.

Got the combination grill fish plate.  I recommend sharing this.  Nothing special but it wasn't bad. We were on a search for someplace serving dinner after 9PM on Sunday and that considered, we were very happy to be here.

If you can get a table outside, that is a good place to be for the live music.

Wine list was a strange combination of cheap supermarket wine and Provenance Sauvignon Blanc available by the glass which is one of my favorites.

A for effort with a limited menu.  I don't drink coffee myself but a member of  the group we ate with said the cappuccino was great. Loved the attitude of the staff. Any establishment should get extra points for wifi.  Easy to overwhelm them if you go in with orders to go for a group as only one guy was actually making the sandwiches.  

We were just passing through but I can certainly understand the gratitude of people in this neighborhood where there did not appear to be an alternative for lunch in sight.

I do agree with LA.A that a mean review for a place like this is baffling.

Excellent food although menu is limited (ONE raw fish selection!).  It would be nice if they offered an "omakase" (leave it to the chef) course or prix fixe.  Pricey but not unreasonable given the quality of the food.
We were a party of 4. The table favorite was the scallion pancakes.  The balsamic caramel ice cream is also definitely worth ordering.

I have heard nothing but great things about this store from friends living in San Francisco.  Most importantly, at least at this moment, they are the one and only place in the Bay Area where you can get a Singelringen.

I look forward to visiting this store when I am in SF next week.

When you want something to eat after 1PM in this part of town, this is a decent choice.  What I particularly appreciated were healthy choices on the menu. My husband sometimes craves breakfast food out (=diner) and too often there are very few healthy choices on the menu for me.
People watching is amusing so long as they don't knock their milkshake onto my lap (which could happen here).

Dinner Feb 16.  Scored a corner booth that fit 3 for the 3 of us.  We did have to wait outside 15 minutes for our reservation. I would not recommend trying to pop in, at least not on the weekend.  Excellent Caesar salad.  Italian fish baked with veggies, capers and broth in paper was perfect.  Expect to pay about $30 for an entree.

We must have gotten very lucky because we only waited 30 minutes.  We arrived 7:15PM on February 12.  As mentioned elsewhere the service was excellent, kudos to our waiter, Mariano.  We had a guest in town from Europe that wanted sushi. We weren't expecting to find great sushi in Vegas but went to the expense of getting him to Social House on Feb 11th.  When it came to actual ordering we found that the "sushi" required was hard to get wrong basics and the sushi at Bellagio filled the bill just fine.  Everyone was pleased with the variety and I thought the quality of ingredients was very good.  I love seafood so that may part of why I appreciated the selection.  They could have had one more hot green vegetable to put alongside their five kinds of potatoes though.  The price seemed reasonable.