Mezze in Oakland, CA  - update, dinner
Review date: September 2012

We returned to Mezze for one of our weekly dinners with Inez. This local restaurant was a winner with us when they first opened in 2007 – we came a number of times for lunch and dinner. We brought quite a few friends, and everyone loved it. Then in 2009 the economy turned downwards, and so did Mezze's kitchen. So much so, that we were quite surprised to later learn that it still had the same owners. The food had gotten sloppier, the desserts much too sweet, and so we stopped going.

In 2010 we returned after a long absence, and had a good dinner. Not quite up to where it had been, but close enough that we were reasonably happy with the food and put it back on our "B" list. 

But tonight's dinner sabotaged that rank with a mediocre meal. Carlos got a cup of cioppino, only to be defeated by not-so-fresh fish that sabotaged some nice mussels and a decent if somewhat salty broth. I ordered a Caesar, and received what were nice romaine hearts, but with a dressing that bore no resemblance to a Caesar. 

This was not a simple case of subbing lemon for anchovies, as Pican/Oakland had done to us a few weeks ago. This was a completely mistaken identity. The dressing was based on capers(!), light on the oil, without even a hint of creaminess. Instead of croutons there was a generous handful of crisp toasted pita bread crumbled into the dressing. 

Not that it was a bad salad. But it bore no similarity to a Caesar except in the lettuce. Is there something wrong with calling a romaine salad what it is? Fortunately I had asked for the option of sun-dried tomatoes, and the slightly chewy, salty-sweet slivers were very pleasant if adding even more to the untraditionalness of this pseudo-Caesar.

Inez got the duck breast and confit leg in cherry sauce, which came with a small heap of fresh wilted spinach that she liked…and a generous heap of al dente French green lentils, which she did not. The duck breast was beautifully done and surprisingly large. The confit quarter was a little salty but also a touch over-fried.

Carlos struck out with his entree, making him a negative two for two. The pork roulade with sausage stuffing was unbrined, overcooked, and dried out from what looked like being held in a warming oven for too long – which is quite odd as we had walked in at 5:30 p.m. when they first opened. If this was being held, it must have been held over from the night before. It certainly tasted like it, and worse, the black-eye peas were just as al dente as Inez's lentils. 

We are not certain who started this idea of undercooked dried beans. But if we ever find out his or her name, we will start a petition to remove this person from any position of influence over the culinary arts, and preferably have them exiled to Mars. 

Without a spacesuit.

On our previous visit Carlos had tried the chorizo pizza, which was good but not up to the merguez pizza that has long been one of our favorite menu items at Mezze, despite the sweet cinnamon-heavy edge creeping into it over the last few years. We adore merguez, the spicy lamb sausage that has been beloved in North Africa, the Middle East, and France for hundreds of years. It was my turn to order the merguez pizza, only to receive a bland, dried-out, tasteless rendition of a supposedly artisanal pizza. 

The crackerbread-type crust works with wetter fillings, but this was dry, dry, dry. There were roasted tomato slices, which added a tasty touch, but not very many of them. There were scattered crumbles of what might have been lamb sausage, but they had been so rigorously drained of all grease they had also lost much of their flavor. The sausage crumbles were dry and so uniformly dark they were almost black (merguez is, like chorizo, a reddish color from the paprika and chiles). 

The cheese was so scant it was barely there in taste. What cheese there was had simply disappeared into the crust, both indications of a pizza warmed over too many times or for too long. Outside of the few tomato slices there was little flavor in any of it. Unlike Carlos I never sprinkle my pizza with red pepper flakes...but this time I did. Without those flakes, this disaster had little flavor or interest.

Disheartened by yet another example of Mezze's inconsistency – so different than the first two years they were open! –  we chose to skip dessert, although Inez got a single scoop of vanilla ice cream. 

Carlos ordered regular coffee which he took with cream and sugar (a heresy he occasionally indulges in), while I got a decaf cappuccino. It was a good thing we did order these, as they were the highlights of the evening. The coffee was fresh and strong, and the cappuccino was nicely "dry" with a decent foam.

I doubt we'll be returning. The kitchen staff seems the same faces we've seen before, and the waitstaff is very good. But alas, the execution is just too erratic, and nobody is ever going to make us like crunchy dried beans and overcooked, dried-out food. 

Mezze is not cheap to eat at, and they are lagging too far behind their competition to be worth our consideration any longer.

Three people, dinner: two starters, three entrees, one dessert, three beverages, with tip was $127.

Update on Mezze, Oakland
Review date:  August 2010
(previous reviews appended below)

Once Mezze was one of our favorite restaurants. But we were not pleased with our last meal there, so allowed quite a bit of time to go by before venturing back. At the time we thought they had a new cook, but now it’s clear they have new owners as well, who have lowered prices and are hard at work helping on the front of the house.

They had an interesting pre fixe of Greek food, so for $25 Carlos got three courses and a special amuse-bouche. The latter was a spread of spinach and chickpeas on a crostini with a sprinkling of micro-greens. He chose the white bean soup, which was a little thin on the broth flavor but adequate as a first course.

For his entrée (there was a choice of four, which was nice) he picked the pork souvlaki, three skewers of absolutely lean, perfectly cooked, juicy pork cubes. It came with a bed of soft white rice cooked in tomato broth, and a bowl of tzatziki, Greek yoghurt with onions and cucumbers. All three were excellent.

The amuse-bouches for Inez and me were a watermelon gazpacho, tangy with vinegar. Neither gazpacho nor watermelon are favorites of mine, but it was fine in a small serving like this.

I chose the heirloom tomato salad to start. There were three slices of large heirlooms, topped with an assortment of greens (heavy on the frisee), small cubes of hard feta, pistachios, a few slivers of grilled fennel, and a nice mild dressing. Although it doesn’t sound like many ingredients, and they were all tasty, the execution needed to be better to make it more than just a good salad. It could have been great if: 1) the greens were fresher and arugula instead of frisee was used; 2) three tiny slivers of fennel are useless – skip it entirely or use it generously; 3) the pistachios had been finely chopped instead of left whole.

Inez chose the duck breast, requested medium. It was served with sliced, grilled fingerling potatoes and fresh spinach. The sauce was an uninteresting cream that tasted only of drippings and salt. The duck was very good, however – Mezze was always one of Inez’s favorite places for duck.

I picked the merguez pizza to see if they had controlled their excess of cinnamon from last time. The merguez they use is still a little heavy on the cinnamon, but not as bad as it was before. It is properly spicy and was paired with slices of fresh tomato, which added a nice sweetness since tomato season is in full swing now. 

How this will work in a few months when nothing’s available but mealy supermarket tomatoes is unknown. But for now, I’m happy to report the pizza is almost as good as it was before, which was pretty darn good. It is, in fact, far superior to Marzano’s on College or Park, with a perfect thin crust that doesn’t sag overmuch in the center, with just the right amount of cheese but not too salty.

Carlos got a piece of pistachio baklava, which was good, with a small side of ice cream, which was not. It was strangely tasteless, to the point where one couldn’t even tell if it was supposed to be vanilla or something else. The molten chocolate cake, once one of the finer versions around, is now Hershey’s-syrup sweet and uninteresting.

Regular coffee is a step up from dishwater. The decaf espresso was very good and served with lemon peel, so extra points for that.

Mezze is not anywhere near what it was when it first opened. OTOH, the prices are lower than before and portions are adequate. I could wish they would charge a bit more and upgrade the quality, but it’s clear the neighborhood won’t support that. They were busy for an early Friday dinner, a good sign. The kitchen seems to have stabilized. If nothing really wowed us (as the lamb tenderloin and chocolate-orange pudding did in 2007), at least they have rebounded from their 2009 lows and produce tasty food that all of us liked. Service is good; perhaps a little slow but nothing to annoy. 

One pre fixe 3-course, one starter, two entrees, one dessert, three beverages, with tip came to a modest $114.

Update on Mezze, Oakland
Review date: November 2009

There are now so many restaurants in the East Bay we have trouble getting back to some of our original favorites. We were at Mezze in late summer with a couple of visitors, and thought it wasn’t quite at the same high level as previous meals had been. It was still very good, but a few things were a bit off. I wasn’t sure if this was just an off-night or a new cook. 

Clearly it was time to include them in our weekly dining-out schedule again, and so we did. The recession seems to be taking its toll everywhere we go now. Earlier in the year we still saw full tables and waiting crowds during our Friday night meals. But now it’s rare that restaurants are more than half or two-thirds full, at most. Admittedly we eat early…but still, we sense a tipping point may have been reached, and the Big Hurt is hitting the bottom line hard now.

Some places, like Montclair Bistro and Italian Colors, have stepped up to these challenging times to become even better. Sadly, others, like Mezze, seem to have slid down from earlier visits. 

Much of this seems to be from a different cook. The balance of their dishes, formerly executed with skill and creativity, has shifted, and not for the better. The merguez pizza, a long-time fav of ours, is now redolent with cumin and cinnamon, neither of which Carlos is fond of, especially when applied with an overly heavy hand. The duck confit with gnocchi was incredibly sweet with a Port sauce that could have doubled in an ice cream sundae. The gnocchi themselves were extra large and just a touch heavy – I always find semolina gnocchi not as feather-light as the traditional potato dough type.

My mushroom bisque was good, flavored with crème fraiche. Surprisingly, Carlos liked it – he doesn’t usually care for crème fraiche. But it also made an appearance in the Bouillabaise, where it really doesn’t belong. The Caesar salad was uninteresting, so mild I couldn’t tell what kind of dressing was used.

Inez’s Orecchiette with sausage was an upscale version of Chef Boyardee, or maybe Olive Garden. It was large and satisfying, but not the kind of exciting food Mezze used to offer.

Both the Orange Crème Brulee and Chocolate Croissant Bread Pudding were over-sweet. The custard was too sweet even without the sugar crust atop. The bread pudding used dark sweet chocolate instead of the bittersweet chocolate of before. To counterbalance that, the regular coffee was weak and the decaf cappuccino was overroasted.

It’s sad to see an exciting restaurant like Mezze fall from its previous heights. The location is good, the décor is lovely, the service is excellent…but they’re now a level below Montclair Bistro, Sea Salt, Venezia and Lalime’s. Even Townhouse is a better value these days.

Three starters, three entrees, two desserts, three beverages, with tip cost $137.

Mezze
http://www.mezze.com/
3407 Lakeshore Avenue, Oakland
Review date: April 2008
 
Yes, you know we like Mezze. In fact we love Mezze. But some good friends are visiting the East Bay for the first time. They are long-time San Francisco residents who last year moved to the Sierra foothills. They’re back for six weeks and don’t know much about the Oakland/Berkeley area. This time is going to be our opportunity to show them why we don’t miss the city as much as we used to.
 
When we first moved here 20 years ago, only Chez Panisse and Bay Wolf were our local stars to compete with the many great restaurants in SF. Contra Costa County was full of chain restaurants like TGIF, Red Robin, and Marie Callendar – okay, it still is, but things have improved tremendously on both sides of the Hills (yes, I do intend to one of these days try Va de Vi in Walnut Creek, despite its Asian-CA cuisine, since it made the Bay Area Top 100 this year).
 
So after living up in the real hills for a year, our friends Bruce and Marge were more than ready for sophisticated bistro food again. What better intro than Mezze? We could point out Trader Joe’s along the way, one of their must-have’s. Where they live it’s 30 miles away; here in their temporary quarters, it’s less than a 5 minute drive.
 
Carlos had the Bibb lettuce salad with a side of marinated beets. I opted for just the beets, and Marge had the soup of the day, a cauliflower puree. The beets were pickled with fresh garlic – and I mean whole cloves of it! Bruce stole half of Carlos’ beets, saying they were the best he’d had in a while. Marge loved her soup.
 
Carlos had the merguez pizza, made with kasseri cheese, roasted tomatoes, garlic and mint. It was outstanding, one of the best pizzas I’ve ever tasted in a bistro. I had the pork loin, served in slices over toasted barley risotto. The pork was good, but the barley was incredible – deeply flavored with a rich au jus and nicely chewy.
 
Bruce had a vegetarian pasta dish – pappardelle (extra wide ribbons of flat pasta) in lemon and olive oil, along with a side of sauteed spinach. Marge had a bavette steak, served in slices over roasted potatoes. Both said their entrees were excellent.
 
Of course we had to have dessert, especially after I had talked this place up so much to them! We ordered four of them – the strawberry Chambord shortcake, the Valrhona molten chocolate cake, the brioche bread pudding, and the Meyer lemon pudding cake.
 
None of them disappointed, but the Valrhona chocolate cake won hands-down. This dessert is becoming a tired stand-by at many places, but Mezze’s version showed why it still deserves a place on the menu, when properly executed. It was intensely chocolate-y, yet absolutely light and crustless – bittersweet chocolate perfection.
 
Bruce and Marge really enjoyed coming here. I can hardly wait to take them to Sea Salt, I think they'll love it (and it will be interesting to see what Bruce, a born-and-raised Bostonian, thinks of their clam chowder!).
 
Dinner for four: one salad, one soup, three sides, four entrees, one drink, one glass of wine, four desserts - $200 with tip.

Mezze in Oakland CA
Review date: January 2007

Last night Inez, Carlos and I went to a movie ("Night at the Museum" - very amusing) and dinner at Mezze.  It is about 4 blocks from the Grand Lake theatre, on Lakeshore @Trestle Glen.  Parking is easy as there is a city garage within 1 block, plus lots of unmetered residential parking along Trestle Glen.  Have never seen a review of it, just picked it from Opentable.  For those who used to haunt the old Endgame store when it was located on Lakeshore, Mezze is in the same area but across the street, just past Adam's Hamburgers (a great burger joint, according to Carlos!).
 
It's quite nice inside - big airy space, the requisite burnt orange faux plaster walls, good sized bar separated from the dining area -- they win big points for that -- and open kitchen.  Neither Carlos or his mom drink so don't ask about the wine list, I forgot to look at it.  Bistro food with a Mediterranean bent.  It turned out we all picked meat dishes, so a review of the fish offerings will have to wait until we go back, which we plan to do.  I'd rate it a touch below JoJo's but trying hard. The space is much more pleasant than most bistros and they don't crowd the tables on top of one another -- one of our pet peeves with many places.
 
I tried the artichoke-feta cheese appetizer, a medium-sized filo triangle with a small tangle of greens on the side.  Good but would have been a lot better if the filling hadn't still been a bit cold in the middle.  The breads are okay, nothing special but adequate, served with olive oil although Carlos (of course) requested butter, which they brought.  Next time we'll try some of the other starters.
 
Entrees, blow by blow:
-Duck confit was a bit salty on the breast meat (I've noticed many restaurants seem to forget to wash the meat before cooking--wiping just doesn't get enough of the salt off!) but the leg/thigh was fine.  Inez didn't mind the salt; Carlos and I tend to be more sensitive about it so for most people it's probably okay.  The waiter asked if medium-rare on the breast meat was okay with Inez, a nice touch because she prefers well-done. If he hadn't asked, we might not have remembered to tell him.  She loved the sides of chard with pecans and even enjoyed the lentils, something she seldom eats.
 
-Filet mignon was one of the thickest, largest filets we've seen in a while.  Presentation was stacked, very lovely although of course Carlos had to disassemble it to eat it.  The chard and mushrooms side was a bit too salty, so we mentioned it to the waiter.  Otherwise it was perfect, excellent quality beef and cooked exactly the way he requested, to the rare side of medium-rare.
 
-I had the special, lamb loin marinated in pomegranate juice, served with fresh pimento peppers stuffed with balsamic caramelized onions.  Again, beautifully presented and the sauces were perfectly balanced.  It ranked right up there with Soizic's lamb tenderloin, and that's the highest praise I can give.
 
Desserts:
-Chocolate croissant bread pudding with whipped cream -- very buttery, maybe needed a little more chocolate sauce to satisfy devoted chocoholics like Carlos.
-Apple-date crisp -- very good, a bit sweet.  They should have used the traditional butter/flour/sugar crumble instead of crushed cookies, but I'm a crisp/cobbler snob, having grown up in the Midwest.
-Winner of the night was Inez's chocolate-orange pot de creme with the side of two perfect, tiny beignets with chocolate cardamon dipping sauce (the remains of which Carlos appropriated, to mix into his bread pudding!).  The chocolate-orange flavor was intense but smooth, an exquisite dessert.  
 
A very nice touch that all too few restaurants do was the suggestion of specific dessert wines to pair with each dessert.  And the dessert chef likes a LOT of whipped cream on top; tell the waiter if you want them to hold it down -- but we enjoyed it, LOL.  Cost (since alas, we didn't drink) was $112 for the 3 of us without tip.