Title: April 15, 2013
Author: jean komatsu
Last saved by: ENU

District Wine Bar
827 Washington St., Oakland, CA
http://districtoak.com/menu-dinner.php
Review date: April 2013

Our friends know we don't drink. So what are we doing at a wine bar, you ask? Indeed, it wasn't our first choice. We were aiming for a return to Seison, only to be thwarted by an unexpected closure of the restaurant for a few days. 

Baulked of our favorite Old Oakland restaurant, recent years have give us a wide choice of alternatives. Within walking distance we had the choice of: Borgo Italia (been there, done that), Cosecha or Tamarindo (both Mexican; had a lot of that lately, and Inez doesn't care for it), Rosamunde Sausage (same as Borgo), Breads of India (same problem as Cosecha), Miss Ollie's (closed on Mondays), Pacific Coast Brewing (godawful food), Siam Bay (we were just there), Le Cheval (a place I've been boycotting for twenty-two years)....

….so the winner by default, District Wine Bar.

The moment you walk in, the layout and decor screams "Bar!!!" And it's a very handsome one, too. A massive U-shaped bar in the center of the room has barstools all around it. The left half of the big room is comfortable sofa seating in modular L-shapes, all clean-lined Italian modern. The other side of the dining room contains bar height tables, except for one standard height table in the very back. Round and large, it seats ten; six of them on an L-shaped banquette. 

Being a Monday and fairly empty, we were allowed to take the large table although it was only the three of us. The cheerful young waitress does a good job welcoming, seating, and bringing the drinks, with two busboys helping to clear tables and bring out the many different small plates.

Small plates and individual pizzas are all District offers. This is strictly bar food, but not comfort-style pub food. District wants to be upscale and sophisticated, and it almost succeeds.

From 4-6 p.m. they have $1 oysters at Happy Hour, so Carlos immediately ordered a dozen. These were good, not great ($1 oysters are seldom exceptional except as a bargain), but Carlos was happy. He hadn't had oysters in quite a while.

Unfortunately, much of the menu was spicy. I finally settled on two items for Inez as the best hopes: a lettuce and beet salad, and the spinach arancini. Our intentions were good, but District's ingredient list doesn't even hint that their execution is different than you think it's going to be.

The large-leaf ruffled lettuce was fresh, but left whole instead of torn apart. The Riesling vinaigrette was tart and very good. However, the beets turned out to be raw thin-sliced Chiogga beets. It was like eating large radish slices – and none of us especially like radishes. There was a nice big round of fluffy chevre mixed with chopped hazelnuts, a tasty addition. Unfortunately, Inez is at the stage in her dementia where if a plate doesn't look the way she thinks it should, she automatically doesn't like it. This being the case here, she poked at it half-heartedly, but ate very little of it.

The arancini were not as expected. The balls of rice, spinach and cheese were deep-fried without being first rolled in the traditional bread crumbs. Without the protection of a crumb crust, the rice grains puff up slightly and get rather chewy, instead of staying soft and creamy. District fried them to a dark brown, so Inez found the crust too hard to chew easily. The smoked tomato sauce was also a little spicy, so overall neither dish pleased her.

I ordered a salad for myself, the arugula and fennel salad with crispy prosciutto and blood orange vinaigrette. The menu mentioned ricotta salata (fresh dry ricotta) but there wasn't any that I could find. They were generous with the crispy prosciutto, which added a nice crunch to the sweet citrus dressing. At first I enjoyed the salad, but got tired of eating it, just as Inez got tired of eating hers. Both salads were very large, yet although tasty and high quality, they weren't as pleasing as some of the salads we've gotten elsewhere.

My next dish had the intriguing name of Braised Oxtail Sombreros. They are mini-tostadas, crispy little corn tortilla rounds, topped very simply with braised shredded oxtail. The braising sauce was tomato-based and sweet, the topping nothing more than a tiny sprig of fresh cilantro and a few very fine shreds of purple cabbage. It was okay, but didn't quite come off. The tortilla round tended to shatter because it was a little too large to be a one-bite size, and the oxtail meat, although tender, tended to clump together or just fall off. The braise was rather sweet, and even though there were only three "sombreros", the taste got boring very quickly. There was no depth to the braising sauce at all, and the wimpy additions had no flavor to offer. 

Carlos had ordered the clam fettucini, with sausage, nettles and fennel. The modest portion of fettucini was too al dente to please him. Although the clams were tasty, the sausage (which is one of the options for the pizzas) was ridiculously salty. It made the dish so salty, he separated the crumbles out and left them uneaten.

Salt was, in fact, the most noticeable aspect of District's menu offerings. Both Carlos and I ordered the Moroccan spiced lamb meatballs. Out comes an oval, slanted porcelain bowl with an abundance of cinnamon-scented tomato sauce, and three large mild lamb meatballs. It's served with half a dozen lightly toasted baguette slices.

We both found this salty although oddly, I found mine less salty than Carlos found his (usually it's the other way around for us). I had also ordered French fries, which more resembled over-fried potato sticks than McDonald's. If there hadn't been a blizzard of salt shaken over the fries, they would have been great with the slightly spicy gravy of the meatballs.

District offers dessert, but they don't offer either tea or coffee to accompany it. Carlos was so disappointed by this, he declined to order anything else.

Overall, we found District to be a couple of levels above Pacific Coast Brewing...but that's not saying much, since we found PCB to be abysmal. District tries hard, but unless you're drinking, the sodium level here will send your blood pressure soaring.

We don't drink – we stayed with water, and had to beg for refills. Sadly, the food here isn't good enough to lure us back. It's not bad for a bar, but just a bit too sloppy for the price.

Three people, dinner: a dozen oysters, two salads, six small plates, with tip was $122.