Faz Oakland
1111 Broadway @11th St., Oakland, CA
http://fazrestaurants.com/faz-oakland
Review date: September 2013

Faz Poursohi is a well-known name to those who were foodies back in the 1980's (we were called 'gourmets' then, btw). In those days San Francisco was the only real food scene, with everywhere else a distant suburban second fiddle. The East Bay wasn't even as high as second fiddle then, with people still debating the Gertrude Stein question: "Is there even a "there" over there?"

Time marches on, and Faz has fallen into the 'old-timer' ranks where Scott's Seafood and Kincaid's lie in semi-comatose suspension. There are currently four restaurants sharing the Faz name and menu (he also co-owns the MacArthur Park restaurant in Palo Alto). All of them are rated 3.5 stars on Yelp, with reviews indicating that sometimes erratic execution undermines the wisdom of a more limited menu than before.

We first learned to love Faz's cooking back when he was the Chef de Cuisine at the old Caravansary on Sutter St., near Union Square. It says a lot about how good his cooking was that people came to Caravansary even though it was hidden up on the second floor of a commercial retail/shopping building. 

At the time his Iranian roots expanded San Franciscans' Mediterranean borders beyond what we had ever experienced before. Instead of the exotic aromas in Haig & Haig's specialty deli, where you had no idea what most of the stuff on the shelves was or how to use it, Faz offered us simple, delectable dishes that were definitely not Italian or Greek – what we had thought were the only Mediterranean cuisines – but was still approachable and easy to like, at a reasonable cost but in a white-tablecloth casual restaurant. 

It can be justifiably claimed that without Faz, Joyce Goldstein and Elizabeth David leading the way, the Bay Area's long-standing love affair with Mediterranean food might have had a lot more difficulty gaining traction.

For those familiar with downtown Oakland's few nice restaurants over the years, you might remember this place as the old Verbena location. Although the address is of the office building with a Broadway St. entrance, the restaurant itself is best entered from the back of the building, where there's a small but very pleasant little urban park opposite.

Carlos and I had tried Verbena, where he disliked the food and we both found it overpriced with tiny portions. It was trying for Fresh Californian but came across as a little too frou-frou for what was and is still, a gritty-around-the-edges area. Verbena closed, and Faz Restaurants took over the space in November 2011.

The Oakland restaurant is relatively small, although they have carved out an extra dining room area from within the glassed-in back corner of the office building they're in. With a nice view of the park, it would be a very pleasant place to eat in the daytime. Although they get a good lunch trade, at dinner you can throw the proverbial fastball through the room and not hit anyone except the guys who are hanging around the big screen TV watching sports in the bar area, which is separated only by a 5' partition wall that doesn't block any noise. The tables are a bit crammed in, but if you can snag a booth (there's only three, across the aisle from the open kitchen) it's very comfortable.

Coming at 6 p.m. is the sweet spot here for parking, just as it is in downtown Berkeley. Office workers are leaving, but it's a little too early for those who are either coming home to the condos or planning on dinner downtown. But there's less happening around here than in the Uptown neighborhood. The two areas mingle uneasily only two blocks away, where Chris Pastena's Tribune Tavern restaurant has become a solid anchor for hopes for a downtown renaissance (and yes, Tribune Tavern is on our list to try as well). 

The bread Faz brings is their rather puffy flatbread – as Carlos likes to call it, a bad naan. He's not a fan of flatbreads that aren't flat, but most people will like it. It's got a fine crumb and texture, and is made in-house. It's served with an EVOO dip containing chopped capers, parsley and olives, with whole roasted garlic cloves. It's a good dip, just a little too tart for my taste. I told Carlos I'd prefer it with chopped anchovies instead of capers, and he thought that was a much better idea too (but he loves anything with anchovies, LOL).

To start, Carlos chose the cream of mushroom soup for a starter. There were a few pieces of undissolved roux in it, and it lacked strong mushroom flavor, but it was adequate. 

I ordered the beet salad. The spinach leaves were a little too old to be truly tender. There were red beet quarters, fresh and unpickled but not especially sweet. A good quantity of crumbled fresh chevre helped alleviate some of the tannins from the spinach, but not enough that I wanted to finish the too large portion. There was a small handful of canned mandarin oranges, and the juice had been used in a very mild dressing. One decorative but rather odd addition was a clump of spiral-cut, thin curls of raw beet on top of the salad. Had they been fennel it would have been ideal, but I never find raw beets have much flavor. It provided textural crunch, but nothing else. I'd rate this as barely adequate, nothing I'd want to order again.

We ordered the Chicken Pomegranate for Inez, after quizzing the young waitress and being assured this is not the classic Iranian dish, which is chicken covered with a sauce of crushed walnuts, cream, and pomegranate seeds, which Inez dislikes. What came was a full half of a chicken, heavily glazed on the skin with pomegranate molasses in what was a very tasty, fruity Mediterranean BBQ chicken. 

The accompaniments were excellent. Faz's "Jewel Rice" is superior to the plain Basmati that came with Carlos' entrée, the lamb kebab. The Jewel Rice is a lovely yellow from saffron, mixed with chopped vegetables, dried cranberries, and some finely chopped pistachios. The accompaniment is fresh wilted spinach, nothing exceptional but a good flavor complement. We insisted she eat most of the chicken breast, and brought half the plate home as leftovers.

There's a long list of kebabs available. I almost never order kebabs because I'm not fond of "dry" plates. Carlos, OTOH, is happy with them. As it turned out, I liked his lamb more than he did. It was superbly tender and juicy, but it has the mildness of American lamb bred to be less "gamy" in taste. As he's a mutton lover, he doesn't care for lamb that's almost indistinguishable from beef. The plain Basmati was good, but it was so far outclassed by Inez's Jewel Rice that we both agreed it would be worth asking the kitchen if the Jewel Rice could be subbed on any future kebab plate. The vegetables were very simple, just a semi-roasted plum tomato cut in half, and some broccoli spears. We had asked for all the vegetables to be well-cooked, so we didn't end up with the usual parboiled nonsense that passes for al dente these days.

The dinner menu is very simple; only a few entrées, a section of pastas(!-which aren't found in classic Persian cuisine), some flatbreads with toppings, and the kebabs. Nothing really interested me so I ordered the fried calamari starter as my entrée, trusting Carlos would help me finish it. I'm glad he did, since it was a larger portion than I was expecting, with a very spicy chile mayo dipping sauce! Sadly, they didn't salt the batter on the calamari. It was a shame, because otherwise it was just the way we like it – a medium batter, fried to a dark golden brown. The dip helped a lot, but the level of chile heat is probably above what a number of diners might tolerate. It was unexpected, as Persian food isn't spicy.

Carlos and I split the NY cheesecake, which surprised us by coming in two flat squares, topped with a sliced strawberry on a plate drizzled with chocolate sauce and a touch of custard sauce. We're not usually NY cheesecake fans. But this one wasn't bad, with a thin crust and a lot of fresh grated lemon rind. It was the strawberry that brought it up a level, however. A NY cheesecake is so dense, it really needs that hint of fruit acidity for contrast.

We both got coffee, and Carlos agreed with me that my decaf was far better than his regular, which was strong enough but too acidic.

Although we all enjoyed our dinner, only one other couple came in while we were there. This is a pretty lame showing for a Thursday evening, and Carlos and I agreed we're not sure why the restaurant even bothers to stay open for dinner. We're glad they did, but really can't see how it's profitable for them. 

Faz isn't what it used to be (but then neither are we, LOL). But it surprised us by being reasonably solid – not fancy or amazing, but just good enough that if someone suggests going there, you won't groan and say, "But their food is awful!", because that isn't the case. The portions are good-sized and executed no better or worse than Faz's peers around town, and the prices are decidedly on the low side. 

What might restrict you from coming is that their menus simply aren't as creative and interesting as they were when Faz was first stretching his wings at Caravansary and later, at his first Faz restaurant in San Francisco. Head Chef Saeid Mosaddad has some nice ideas, but downtown Oakland just doesn't have the vibrancy of nearby Uptown or even Temescal. The well-publicized Occupy problems last year didn't help, either. You can't pull people in if they're hesitant not only about walking, but even driving, in the area.

What probably keeps Faz in business are their catering operations, which are well-regarded and based in the tech-heavy South Bay. Carlos rates this Oakland location a solid "B" level restaurant, and I'd agree. The service provided by the young waitress was cheerful and friendly. Faz isn't worth going out of your way for, but if you need to eat in the area, especially for dinner (but not late, they don't stay open much past 8:30 or 9 p.m.), it's a decent choice that won't cost you an arm and a leg. And it's actually quiet enough at night that you can talk to your friends and hear them, without having to scream across the table. 

Three people, dinner: two starters, three entrées, one dessert, two beverages, with tip was $101.