Author: jean komatsu
Last saved by: ENU

Gold Coast Grill
1901 Park St., Alameda, CA
http://www.goldcoastgrill.com/text/Dinner_Menu.htm 
Review date: August 2011

The city of Alameda seems full of old-style Italian restaurants taken over by Greeks. This is the third one we've encountered. 

On the upside, the service is above average. We've been to fancy stylish restaurants charging $100+/person whose service doesn't match Gold Coast's attentive and professional staff. Carlos believes the decline of the position of maitre d' is to blame for this, and GCG certainly gives weight to that theory. There's nothing wrong with the owner acting as maitre d', as long as it's done well, which it is here.

On the downside, the Italian food seems one step up from Chef Boy-ar-Dee – very old-fashioned, matching the comfortable but dark décor with its large naugahyde upholstered booths and chairs that are actually comfortable to sit on.

We started with the Saghanaki – grilled graviera cheese served with lemon and oregano. The cheese is table-prepped by the waiter – he squeezes the lemon juice over, then lights some heated ouzo and pours it over the toasted slice of cheese. It's hard to go wrong with lemon and well-toasted cheese, especially on the soft old-fashioned Italian bread that they bring out. We both liked this cheese better than the more popular halloumi cheese, which is usually much saltier.

Carlos ordered both a small Caesar and the French onion soup, the latter not the best choice in a pseudo-Italian restaurant. The Caesar was fresh and reasonably well done, but the soup was mediocre, with a salty broth that tasted of commercial base with no depth. He said the best thing about it was the melted cheese on top. He admitted it might have been better to order the daily special soup, which was avgolemono.

He felt like having the beef ravioli, and this led to the 'Chef Boy-ar-Dee' mentioned above. It was innocuous, but old fashioned and uninteresting. Inez wasn't very hungry, so she ordered the starter of lamb riblets. For some reason she thought this was similar to the lamb chops she ordered recently at Kincaid’s/Oakland. Instead these are actually lamb breast, a rather fatty cut that is always cooked well done as it tends to be a tougher cut. It's a generous serving, though mostly bone.

I ordered the moussaka, a towering ramekin of potatoes, ground beef in a cinnamon-scented tomato sauce, eggplant, and a thin flour-thickened custard layer. It came with a modest serving of sliced vegetables: the usual carrots, zucchini, and green beans. It wasn't exceptional, but was executed reasonably well and a very generous portion.

The housemade tiramisu was large and towering, but not especially remarkable. The cappuccino tasted like Tully’s, which we don't like, although it was properly dry with good, fine-textured foam. But the decaf coffee was amazing – rich, dark, and fresh. It tied with the cheese as the best of the meal.

Despite Italy and Greece both being Mediterranean countries, their cooking doesn't really mesh well. The rich agricultural bounty of Italy is missing in Greece, and it really would be better for Gold Coast to decide to be one or the other. Like I-Squared/Oakland, which mixes (awkwardly) Persian and Italian, a sharper focus would be to their benefit.

These old-fashioned, comfortable restaurants are hanging on by their fingernails. We love the service and comfort, but most of them, like Gold Coast, need a good shaking up to freshen up their menu offerings and get them re-focused in a more modern direction.

Three people: Four starters, two entrees, one dessert, four beverages, with tip came to a modest $113.