Title: June 20, 2013
Author: jean komatsu
Last saved by: Owner

Lungomare in Oakland, CA – update, dinner
http://www.lungomareoakland.com/dinner-3/
Review date: March 16, 2015
(previous reviews appended below)

Another day, another upscale authentic Italian meal....

Wow, I never thought I'd be saying that about Oakland! 

We had the choice of Desco or Lungomare for dinner. Lungomare's on-line web menu appealed more to us but in the end, it proved disappointing. Lungomare's waiter said they have been having issues posting a daily menu to the web – this sounds much too familiar lately – so they were out of two dishes we wanted to try.

San Daniele prosciutto, Pink Lady apples, charred treviso, endive, and fresh mozzarella. 
Carlos opted again for this starter, which was as good as the previous time he had it. There's only a bit of cheese; it's mostly about the prosciutto and bitter greens. If you enjoy prosciutto, this is one of the best dishes around. We haven't encountered such a generous serving of good quality prosciutto since Riva Cucina/Berkeley dropped their amazing prosciutto starter.

Grilled Salinas asparagus, 6-min farm egg, tessa and oven dried tomato vinaigrette, ricotta salata
Somebody mistook asparagus for bitter friseé greens. Also, there were no tomatoes at all, hardly any ricotta crumbles, but an overdose of really strong vinegar that an overpoached egg couldn't offset. The thin spears were peeled for some odd reason; normally only thicker spears need peeling. Also, they were oddly tasteless. This variant of a Salade Lyonnaise was a flop.

Burrata cheese, house-smoked salmon, fennel crackers, Maldon sea salt. 
Carlos liked this more than I did. The fennel flavor in the crackers was very strong. The house-smoked salmon was just a small slice but he enjoyed it. The burrata was excellent, with just a tiny drizzle of EVOO and a light pinch of sea salt.

Wild boar sausage, hedgehog mushrooms, fava beans, bread crumbs, salsa verde.
We both ordered this dish. There were also creamy white beans in a lovely, buttery sauce. The mushrooms were great, the sausage a bit salty. The fresh green fava beans could have been cooked just a touch longer, maybe another 30 seconds, but they were good nonetheless. The salsa verde was a nice touch, no vinegar to upset the balance of the dish.

Crispy veal sweetbreads, sweet pea purée, braised beet greens, vin cotto (cooked wine with spices, a Puglia/Apulia specialty).
This was possibly the very worst sweetbread dish I've ever been served. I'm not sure what they did or how they stored them, but Carlos agreed with me they had absolutely no flavor. The oil tasted used. The accompaniments were lovely, but didn't make up for what was a waste of money.

Not available were:
Foie gras torchon with kumquat marmalade, peppercress, and toasted focaccia, was only for the weekend and they ran out anyway by Sunday afternoon.

When I tried to order the Mule Foot pork belly (a rare breed of hog) with celeriac purée, sour cherries and quail egg, they were out of that, too. So I ended up with the boar sausage and beans, a dish Carlos had already chosen.

Although there were barely enough diners to fill a third of the tables, there was a company event with live music in the bar area. Whatever was going on, was enough to slow the kitchen down to a crawl. We had substantial waits between courses, for food that takes only a few minutes to prep. By the time we left, almost exactly two hours had gone by, for six small appetizers!

Carlos drank iced tea; I drank water. We sat out on the patio; it was a little cool but quieter and more pleasant than the indoor dining room.

Oddly, we had two different waiters and a busboy. One waiter was fine, the other is about 3/4 as good as he thinks he is. I like Lungomare's conception, but they simply use too much salt overall for my liking. When we left, we both agreed that our preference is for lunch at Lungomare, where they are a little more careful although still salt-lovers; and dinner at Trabocco, which is the only time one can order that amazing bacalhao.

Two people, dinner: six starters, one beverage, with tip was $112.

Lungomare in Oakland, CA – update, lunch
http://www.lungomareoakland.com/menus/
Review date: February 10, 2015
(previous reviews appended below)

This is our third visit to Lungomare, restaurateur Chris Pastena's flagship restaurant in Jack London Square. Lungomare is regional Italian, but Pastena also owns Chop Bar, a casual American bar food menu, and the soon-to-come upscale Mexican restaurant Calavera. His part-ownership in Tribune Tavern has been dissolved.

Our first visit here (June 2013) wasn't very successful. But some family members subsequently visited and recommended the pastas as being excellent. Carlos and I returned a second time for dinner on February 2014, and agreed it was much better. The pastas were very good, and even better was an ox tongue appetizer that was so amazing, we ordered a second plate of it. We left that evening thinking better of the food, although the service had faltered a bit.

This week Carlos asked to do something different for lunch with his mom Inez, so I chose Lungomare after checking the menu. She is more inclined towards Olive Garden than authentic regional Italian, but on the on-line menu we saw a chicken breast and salad dish which we thought would work.

We ordered starters for everyone. We chose the soup of the day for Inez, which unfortunately only came in a bowl and not a cup size. It was a tomato-fennel bisque, and gave her something warm to start off with. She only ate a little bit of it, but said it was tasty.

Carlos chose the starter of San Daniele prosciutto, with fresh mozzarella, apples, charred treviso, arugula, endive, and champagne vinaigrette. A large plate was covered with thin slices of this prosciutto, which we often buy for ourselves from Market Hall/Rockridge. It's a little less salty than the usual Parma or La Quercia. Lungomare's serving was extremely generous. In the middle was a chopped salad of the other ingredients, in good proportion to one another. He said this was one of the better salads he'd had recently –  better, in fact, than anything we had in Napa last week.

I enjoy celery root (celeriac) and love black walnuts, which are uniquely flavored. Lungomare's Celery Root & Heirloom Apple, parsley, black walnuts, shaved parmesan, with black truffle apple cider vinaigrette was a nicely-sized heap of shredded celeriac and apples. A few had gotten slightly brown on the ends – both of these foods go brown quickly as soon as peeled – but their texture was still firm so it was fine. The black walnuts were chopped and their unmistakable flavor was perfect in this version of a slaw. The dressing was beautifully balanced: just a light touch of acid, nothing overwhelming the delicate celery-like flavor and sweet apple. This was a brilliant, exciting creation, and exactly what we like to see from a good chef.

For Inez we picked the Grilled Little Gem lettuce rotisserie chicken breast, gorgonzola, croutons, with cipollini onion vinaigrette. We were taken aback when a very large salad plate was put down in front of her. Three wedges of baby Little Gem ruffled lettuce, grilled just until they softened slightly, supported the sliced half of a very large chicken breast, also grilled but still juicy. There was also a small partially deboned chicken drumstick/thigh, for a generous plate that could easily have fed two people. The cheese was in small crumbles, and the vinaigrette was very good. 

Inez is always flummoxed by large amounts of food, and immediately began complaining it was too much. When she was about a quarter of the way through, we told her to concentrate on eating the chicken. We said nothing else, and in the end she ate over half her plate including all the chicken, an indication that she liked this dish very much.

For his entrée Carlos chose the squid ink fettucine with pork sugo. Unfortunately we forgot to instruct the waitress to tell the kitchen to go easy on the salt. The pork was a smoked pork shank – tender and tasty, but salty. They had salted the squid ink fettucine, and salted the gravy as well. Carlos likes salt, but he said this was right up to the edge of his tolerance. He agreed with me afterwards that he should have simply returned it to the kitchen. We ran into this problem last year; the kitchen often oversalts their pasta dishes although oddly, not the raviolis.

I ordered the day's ravioli. It was described as "Ravioli, butternut squash, amaretto cookies, ricotta, brown butter, sage, walnuts, Brussels sprouts leaves". I received four ravioli filled with a soft sweet mix of the squash and cookie crumbs (a traditional thickener). Dabs of ricotta underpinned the ravioli, with a generous melting of brown butter, a bit of shredded fresh sage, and toasted walnuts. The Brussels sprouts leaves were tender baby leaves, cooked but still bright green. There were also small cubes of diced butternut squash, and each ravioli had a long strip of Parmigiano-Reggiano over it. 

It was a modest eight bites, but the butter made it very rich so it was more than sufficient. I really enjoyed this. Although a rich dish, it had lovely flavors. I gave Carlos a bite and he agreed it was better than his pasta.

We opted for the Meyer lemon cheesecake, which was a beautiful little wedge of rich mascarpone cheesecake, topped with a bright heap of candied orange zest. The zest cut the heavy richness of the lemon-flavored mascarpone and sweet graham cracker crust. The three of us shared this and we all liked it. 

Carlos and I drank coffee with dessert. Lungomare has above-average coffee.

Lungomare has its flaws, but seems to have settled into a reasonably good value for its ambitious, this-is-not-your-old-Italian-American-food eatery. It is reasonably consistent and much better than the original JLondon Square restaurants such as Scott's, Kincaids, and Il Pescatore. We prefer it to Forge and Jack's.

The service and front desk staff was young but consistently cheerful and efficient, a nice change from our previous two visits, although it must be noted that lunch is much less busy than dinnertime.

With the closure of Centouno, it's now Desco and Lungomare fighting for Oakland's Italian dining against the top-ranked (not by us) and long-established Oliveto, with Trabocco/Alameda our preferred choice when we feel like driving across the High St. Bridge. 

We still need to schedule a return to competitor Desco. We weren't very pleased with an unsuccessful dinner on our last visit June 2014. Our previous visits to Desco were excellent, so that poor showing was hopefully a one-off. 

We'd like to think that Oakland and Alameda has grown up enough to support three genuinely good Italian restaurants....but only time will tell.

Three people, lunch: three starters, three entrées, four beverages, with tip was $128.

Lungomare in Oakland, CA – update, dinner
http://www.lungomareoakland.com/dinner-2/
Review date: February 2014

Lungomare is part of restaurateur Chris Pastena's mini-empire of Oakland restaurants. He began with Chop Bar, opened Lungomare, then Tribune Tavern, and (eventually to come) an upscale Mexican in the Uptown. All of the restaurants are popular and have helped revitalize their areas.

We've tried all three: Chop Bar on December 2013; Tribune on October 2013; and Lungomare on June 2013 

Although none of the meals were consistently good, each had good elements that were promising. Subsequent to our visit to Lungomare, some of my family went there and had the pastas, which we skipped entirely on our visit (the selection is small, and nothing that day had appealed to us). They reported that they were very pleased, and it upped Lungomare on our list to try again sometime.

Lungomare's menu changes regularly. This is the most ambitious of Pastena's restaurants, with the proclaimed "… while the setting is new, the mission remains the same: quality ingredients, perfectly executed. The menu will offer a blend of Tuscan and Ligurian specialties — a mix of seafood, house-cured meats, rustic pizza and fresh pasta, with dishes locally sourced whenever possible." 

It seemed a good time to try them again, as we get ready to spend a few days in Napa. We discussed ordering the evening's crudo trio, which sounded really interesting, especially when offered with the outstanding agrodulce sauce we had on our first visit. But Carlos was intrigued by the Ox-Tongue starter, and as we both love tongue, we decided to share a plate.

I began with the arugula salad, with artichoke hearts, blood oranges, and goat cheese in a citrus vinaigrette. This was okay, but not great. The vinaigrette was fairly sharp, with nothing much to offset it. The arugula was old enough to be quite peppery, and the frisée was the usual too-big/bitter. A good salad, but neither distinctive nor worth ordering again.

Carlos chose the potato-leek soup to start. He loves this soup, and I seldom make it at home. This was a huge disappointment – one of the worst versions we've encountered. It was really salty, with a too-strong taste of chicken base. There were still little lumps of potatoes, and a strange odd sweetness that clashed with the saltiness. 

Usually a little sugar will round off saltiness, just as a little salt will perk up sweetness. But in this soup it was even-steven – every spoonful tasted as if half your mouth was filled with salt and the other half was filled with sugar. Carlos loves leeks, but this tasted more like the sweetness of white Spanish onions, almost dessert-sweet. However they accomplished this trick, it was a failure in our eyes.

Redemption arrived immediately with the ox-tongue. Two modest 1/4"-thick cooked slices were griddled to give a nice caramelization, served over a mix of braised and fresh Swiss chard, a celeriac purée, and a drizzle of ten-year-old balsamic. 

This was not only Nirvana for beef tongue lovers like us, but it was a brilliant dish. Carlos was only interested in the tongue itself, but if one must have accompaniments – we have been known to knock off an entire beef tongue by ourselves, once properly cooked – these were lovely. I would have left off the balsamic as unnecessary. I'm weary of the idea that 90% of all plates must have some sort of sweet element to them.

Lungomare has a small section of pizzas and an equally small section of pasta. Carlos decided on the orecchiette with a bolognese sauce of veal, pork, and beef. A slightly curved disk-shape, this is a wonderful pasta when it's high quality, but conversely a really terrible one when the flour is mediocre. Although Pastena has a bad habit of cutting corners in small things, like Tribune's disgusting housemade fries and Lungomare's indifferent salads, certain ingredients are as good as one can source – and pastas are one of them. 

This was a beautiful pasta, well handled. Carlos loathes al dente pasta, and this was properly cooked. It was neither mushy nor hard, and the amount of sauce was perfect. It generously covered the pasta without being overly saucy. The portion was surprisingly large.

I chose the duck two ways. It was listed as a seared duck breast, duck confit, parsnip purée, braised chard, and sour cherries. What came was a bit different than expected. I almost called the waiter back to ask where my confit was! Then I realized the small timbale was actually made up of pressed duck meat, nicely seasoned with a few pine nuts added in. 

Although I wasn't in love with the duck breast itself – the thin breast was chewy and there was a substantial layer of fat left on top – the rest of the ingredients were excellent. The chard was the same as the one that accompanied the ox-tongue, and as I enjoy chard I had no problem with this. The cherries carried a wallop of brandy with no sugar, but reminded me why I prefer cognac to brandy. The taste was harsh, and without some sort of sauce or au jus, didn't do much to set off the other ingredients.

But although excellent, this was a very modest-sized plate. I flagged the waiter down and ordered a second plate of the ox-tongue starter, which Carlos and I again shared. I was surprised how quickly it came out, barely three minutes after I finished the duck.

Carlos and I ended with coffees – his a regular black, mine a decaf cappuccino which had a great fine-textured foam. At Lungomare, the coffee is acceptable when fresh, but the espressos are better.

Lungomare has its good side/bad side. It's frustratingly inconsistent, falling down (like other Pastena restaurants) in small areas one doesn't expect. When the quality, concept and execution match, it results in dishes that could stand against any of the top Bay Area Italian restaurants. Yet Lungomare is surprisingly inexpensive, making it a serendipitous bargain – assuming you hit the right combination of dishes. 

Even with that small menu, there's landmines lurking. You have to be willing to take Lungomare as an experiment: you might luck out on a really spectacular meal, or you could end up with the barking dogs. Either way, whatever you order won't be around for long, so enjoy it while it's there.

We don't love Lungomare – we prize consistency, and Pastena just doesn't seem to value that concept – but we like it. We prefer it to Oliveto, which costs twice as much, making its failures a lot more painful to endure. When Oliveto hits a home run, as they did with the magnificent Whole Hog dinner we attended in 2013 with our friends Mel and Christie, we think there is no better restaurant in the Bay Area. But if Oliveto flops, as they did with half the Hen dinner and 90% of the Oceanic dinner, it's $100/pp wasted. And remember, we don't drink.

When you can come to Jack London Square and get a couple of dishes here that are almost as good at Oliveto for half the price, it's not hard to decide which is the better risk. For us, at least until Vetro/NY decides to move itself bag and baggage into Northern CA, Lungomare is our choice for upscale Italian in the East Bay. 

Three days after eating here, we ate at Ca'Momi, where the bill was about $20 more for lunch than Lungomare was for dinner. It is a tragic irony that what people will pay for in Napa, they will object to a similar pricing in their own backyards. That, and the fact that Ca'Momi can get away with putting sweetbreads and even fried liver on the menu, must make good Italian chefs like Exec Chef Craig DiFonzo/Lungomare and Chef/owner Massimiliano Boldrini/Riva Cucina, gnash their teeth in frustration.

As it is, Lungomare is better than Berkeley's Riva Cucina, which had to bend too far down to suit locals' reluctance to pay high prices, giving up the introduction of risky dishes no one would pay for. I hate saying this, because we thought highly of Riva Cucina when it first opened, but it is no longer that restaurant. 

Lungomare isn't as good as Ca'Momi Enoteca in Napa, but it's a lot quicker for us to get here, and much more comfortable. If Pastena would tighten up both the front and back ends of the house, it could easily get within at least hailing distance of Perbacco/SF, a restaurant we hold in high regard (and it should be noted; even Perbacco has a hard time selling sweetbreads to its diners).

It's still a rarity when we can say in this case, you're better off eating in Oakland than in Berkeley. Neither is at the level of SF or Napa, where Cotogna, Perbacco, and Ca'Momi hold forth…but ten years ago there wasn't anything even remotely close, so we're doing a whole lot better in Alameda County than before.

Two people, dinner: four starters, two entrées, three beverages with tip was $107.

Lungomare
One Broadway @Embarcadero (Jack London Square), Oakland, CA
http://www.lungomareoakland.com/ 
Review date: June 2013

Lungomare is the second of Chris Pastena's local restaurants. Similar to the (almost defunct) K2 Group in Berkeley, Pastena and his partners concentrate on a small geographic area, with restaurants that specialize in a defined concept – Chop Bar, Lungomare, Tribune Tavern, and the soon-to-come "high end Mexican", tentatively titled Labna. Each one has a different ambiance and personality. The chef for Lungomare is Craig DiFonzo, formerly of Cantinetto Piero in Yountville.

Although Lungomare's menu of Northern Italian pasta/seafood/pizza was much anticipated, it ended up being quickly overshadowed by a slew of more exciting restaurant news, such as James Syhabout's Box and Bells and A16 taking over the old Hudson space. Its immediate competitor was Forge pizzeria, which had opened one month earlier, only one block away. Forge stole Lungomare's thunder by winning the head-to-head pizza taste tests on both Chowhound and Yelp reviews.

Nor did it help when Tribune Tavern, the latest of Pastena's restaurants, opened two months ago. Tribune has become the hottest restaurant in town, single-handedly revitalizing the long-neglected but iconic Tribune building in downtown Oakland. The Tavern has lines out the door for lunch and dinner, whereas most of the Jack London Square restaurants (Lungomare included) languish at lunch and can barely fill seats at dinnertime.

So it was when we came for one of our weekly dinners. Although a lovely Thursday evening, this massive restaurant couldn't have had more than a quarter of its tables filled. Most Yelpers say they hang out on the patio and drink; never a good sign for the food.

We started with two appetizers (sitting inside): the fritto misto (herring, shrimp, fennel, squash, green beans) and grilled octopus with beans. One of the great ironies of my focus on the frequent oversalting we encounter, is when we run up against the opposite problem – as we did with the fritto misto.

These days a fritto misto is loaded with vegetables and cheaper seafood, such as the small herrings (which were more sardine-sized). In itself that's not bad, but when the batter coating lacks salt, one finds that all these little lumpy objects not only look alike...they pretty much taste alike, as well.

The fritto misto wasn't drained well, so there were too many small lumps of what were merely fried batter droplets with nothing inside them. The romesco dip was not only too bland but also too stiff. Anything dipped into it simply fell apart – either the batter fell off or, in the case of the fish, broke into little pieces. As a bread spread it would have been fine, but as a dip it didn't pass muster.

The octopus was much better, although I'm never in love with the whole fish-and-beans concept. Small baby tentacles had just a bit of chew and a lovely perfumed smokiness that didn't overwhelm. Two types of beans – large Northern whites and heirloom pintos – were cooked (all the way through), then tossed with diced pancetta. They were tasty, although they added little interest to the octopus.

Although it wasn't as dramatic a dish as Bravas/Healdsburg's octopus last month, it was still a very good dish that probably would be more approachable by the cephalopod-challenged. We would be happy to order this again.

For Inez we ordered the salmon, a wild King center-cut filet of good size. The accompaniment of fresh ceci (green garbanzos) and snap peas was perfect for the season. They were also cooked well enough for her to eat them; e.g., not the hideous state of al dente underdoneness that too many chefs seem to consider suitable for every legume, regardless of type. 

Carlos chose the grilled whole branzino, fileted in the kitchen with the agrodulce sauce on the side per our request. If you prefer, you can have the whole fish and filet it yourself. Carlos found it a trifle overcooked, unlike the salmon. 

He is honestly puzzled why restaurants bother flying in this fish from Italy, when America has perfectly edible farmed rainbow trout that looks and tastes almost identical. We've had branzino four or five times and although it's good, most of what is offered here is not exceptional by any measure. So why not offer a sustainable native choice instead?

The agrodulce sauce was the best example of this Italian sweet-sour we have ever encountered. It was more a vinaigrette of EVOO and a light touch of aged balsamic, plump golden raisins and a mix of roasted chopped vegetables. Carlos called this one of the most perfectly balanced sauces he's had, using every bit of it with his fish. If Lungomare had taken this fish off the grill two minutes sooner, it would have been an amazing dish.

I suggested the asparagus tessa salad for his side. This was peeled, steamed asparagus spears dressed in a similar style to the classic Frisée aux Lardons: plenty of chopped pancetta, a touch of sherry vinegar, a soft poached egg, and the tasty addition of finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano on top. It was visually attractive and delicious. 

For my entrée I ordered the porchetta with farro pilaf. The pork was seasoned beautifully, but although brined it was dried out on top, and not very tender. Oliveto's superb version from their Whole Hog dinner in March 2013 is our definitive example of what porchetta should be: not just flavorful, but also juicy and soft in texture. Still, this was tasty although the herbs and spices had been erratically sprinkled over prior to the rolling and rotisserie cooking. 

The farro pilaf was excellent: nicely flavored, neither oversalted or undersalted. The pilaf had quartered baby turnips and chopped broccolini that gave a touch of bitterness which were an ideal contrast to the nutty, chewy grain. Farro gets a lot of play these days, and Lungomare's rendition is one of the better ones.

For dessert, I chose the buttermilk panna cotta with citrus granité. Although attractive as layered in its narrow Mason jar (the hottest fad dessert server), the panna cotta was so stiff it would have benefited from being able to be mixed with the granité. The granité was simplistic, seeming to be nothing more than plain Valencia orange juice. The panna cotta wasn't oversweetened and I liked the taste of it, but I prefer a softer, more custard-style. 

Inez wanted vanilla ice cream, but Lungomare only offers its ice creams in trios. The scoops are small, however, so she finished all three flavors and liked them.

Being advised the cheesecake was a ricotta cheesecake, a type he doesn't care for, Carlos settled for a cappuccino while I had a decaf espresso. The cappuccino had nice nutty overtones but a fair amount of acid. The foam was coarse and the milk added was cold, leading to a lukewarm temperature. He doesn't mind this, fortunately; I find it a minus. My espresso was very strong, but there was a tinge of sourness to the blend I didn't care for.

Lungomare is a flawed restaurant, and Pastena needs to work on the concept.  Between the high rents the Port always charges, and the need to craft a menu that pleases both tourists and the style-driven diners who Pastena has attracted at his other restaurants, Lungomare is between a rock and a hard place. 

On the good side, there is some talent in the kitchen, if erratically displayed. The service, which has had some rough edges, was good on our visit. The restaurant is handsome inside and owns a pleasant outdoor patio. 

Considering the terrible meals we've received in the last two years from their competitors – Kincaid's, Scott's, Il Pescatore, Bocanova – one doesn't need excellence to be head and shoulders above this group. Just being very good would be enough...but Lungomare isn't there yet. 

It could be, easily enough. Copying the menu of Lalime/Berkeley or switching to a small plates concept like Willi's Seafood/Healdsburg might be what's needed to bring this restaurant into balance. It needs a more distinctive personality, a little more verve and style. 

It's fine to say that America's favorite cuisine is Italian. But as it stands, Lungomare can't seem to decide whether it's following the upscale Perbacco/SF model to which its menu has ambitions, or outdoing old-style neighbor Il Pescatore with a menu that has Northern Italian touches but is still weighed down by the tired pizza/gnocchi/Caesar salad warhorses.

Three people, dinner: two starters, three entrées, two desserts, three beverages, with tip was $172.