Title: Luke Tsai, East Bay Express, had a more interesting meal than we did: http://www
Author: jean komatsu
Last saved by: Owner

Luke Tsai, East Bay Express, had a more interesting meal than we did: http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/at-shakewell-the-spanish-inspired-restaurant-from-two-top-chefs-is-more-engrossing-than-reality-tv/Content?oid=4059124

Shakewell
3407 Lakeshore Drive @Trestle Glen, Oakland, CA
http://www.shakewelloakland.com/menu/
Review date: Feb. 3, 2015

Chef Jan Biesty and GM Ted Nugent took over the former Mezze location to partner on Shakewell in the Lakeshore neighborhood. Prior to opening Shakewell, Biesty was the Executive Chef of the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, best known for its restaurant, Scala's Bistro. Nugent has held a variety of positions including Executive Chef at Fresh Cream in Monterey, General Manager at Café Rouge in Berkeley, and Executive Pastry Chef at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, where he and Biesty met. Nugent still handles the desserts, but is in charge of the service front of the house.

Shakewell has gotten a huge amount of press, with favorable reviews from Bauer at the SF Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury News, Zagat, Eater SF, CBS's SF station, and SF Weekly. It has rapidly become a Chowhounder favorite as well.

The warmer color tones of Mezze are gone, but the décor remains welcoming if a little more industrial/'environmental chic' than before. The hard surfaces do make it a touch noisier, however. Some space has been removed from the open kitchen area, with three tables added in by way of some banquette seating. 

Carlos and I discussed ordering one of the bombas (read the SJose Mercury's excellent discussion with Russell Moore of Camino/Oakland about the different rice varieties used in the bomba vs paella issue: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_21412400/paella-rice-bomba-vs-arborio). But as there were several small plates we wanted to try, we decided to skip the rice and go for a variety instead. We ordered the following:

Bacalao croqetas, squid ink aioli.
We love bacalao, the dried salt cod so beloved by the Portuguese, who took it everywhere they went...and since the Portuguese Empire spread across the world over five centuries, salt cod shows up in numerous cuisines, where it is a beloved, if now expensive, ingredient. 

But you'd never know why it was popular from this timid version. For the price we were expecting two, or maybe three at most, small fritters. Instead we got four fritters, mostly mashed potatoes. Only the faintest flavor of salt cod made it through the silky mash, although the frying was crisp and greaseless. 

The squid ink aioli had a mild taste with no garlic at all, so bland met bland. If it hadn't been for the nice light crust on the fritters there wouldn't any flavor or texture to this dish. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't very memorable. We've had better bacalao dishes elsewhere – Cana Cuba/Oakland, the twins La Salette/Café Lucia in Sonoma Cty, Trabocco/Alameda.

Short rib-stuffed mushroom, queso fresco, pickled onions.
The short rib meat was tender, well-shredded, tossed with a reduced au jus to keep it moist, and piled high on a single large portobello mushroom cap. There were just a few crumbles of cheese, not enough to make any impact, and the pickled shallots were just a couple of teeny-tiny shreds on top. 

I found it a little salty, more from the jus reduction than any extra salt added. Carlos thought it was fine, but I felt it was seasoned as if it were going over a soft polenta or mashed potatoes. The mushroom's blandness wasn't enough to offset it, although a few more pickled shreds would have helped to add some acidity. 

Once again, this dish was good but not remarkable.

Crab toast: Dungeness crab, pain de mie, golden miso-verjus dressing, celeriac, chervil.
Carlos dearly loves Chinese shrimp toast, but this dish bore no resemblance to it. It was a thick, trimmed rectangle of nicely-toasted bread, piled high with crab salad. 

Carlos isn't fond of shellfish salad, especially when most of the taste was of the thin batons of raw celeriac and dressing. The crab was poorly cleaned. The best part of the dish was actually the toast – it was on point; crisp on the outside, still very slightly soft on the inside.

Duck liver mousse, wild huckleberry gastrique, walnut-raisin levain, friseé, walnuts.
We love duck liver so we order it whenever possible. This was like almost everything else we received at Shakewell – just good enough to pass, nowhere near the best. The mousse wasn't very rich, which was good. But the liver flavor was mild, which was bad. Foaming made it nicely light in texture if blandly inoffensive.

The huckleberries were dessert-sweet. The gel that covered the mousse was a mix of duck stock and a touch of huckleberry juice, which would have been perfect on its own. Instead a large heap of the berries in sugar syrup sat atop the ramekin to add too much sweetness. I scooped as much as possible off onto the plate. 

The small heap of frilly friseé and toasted walnut halves were lightly dressed, if impossible to pick up with a fork. But what undermined the dish was the bread. It was mediocre compared to the fine pain de mie used on the crab toast, and stale to boot, sliced too far ahead of time.

Grilled shrimp, cornmeal fenugreek blini, green onions, chipotle citrus butter sauce, kefir lime.
We love blini and we love cornmeal, but combined with the fenugreek...not so much. It was a dubious combination at best, like cilantro at its worst, but crunchy. The green onions were eye-wateringly sulphurous. The sauce was buttery but without much oomph, having little taste of chipotle or citrus of any sort. These were two small blini each topped with a large shrimp, which were good if not the freshest-smelling shrimp we've ever had. We wouldn't order this again.

Roasted beet salad, friseé, sweet herbs, French feta, olive oil croutons, sherry shallot vinaigrette.
We adore beets but this was a fail from both of us. The friseé was mediocre and the dressing tasted like a very strong, too-tart red wine vinaigrette. All the beets were fresh, but some were unpickled and some were too strongly pickled. The feta wasn't enough to offset the sharp dressing, and the croutons were MIA. 

Carlos mixed in a little of the huckleberries in syrup into his portion, which he said improved it immensely. I added the last smear of duck liver mousse onto my plate, and even just a smidgen with each mouthful smoothed out the excess acidity on the bitter greens. It was enough salad for two without being a ginormous portion, but we left over half of it uneaten. 

Fried romanesco cauliflower, basil, romesco.
Carlos called this the best dish on the table, and I agreed. Lightly battered in a tempura style, the cauliflower was perfectly deep-fried, not greasy, and the romesco was a good accompaniment. It lacked the rich garlic flavor it should have, but had a nice spiciness to it without being overly chile-hot. This is one of those rare vegetable dishes where we could easily have eaten two plates, although the portion is meant to be shared.

Seville orange tart, crème fraiche.
This turned out to be a lovely little dessert tart of a shortbread crust filled with a lively orange curd. I requested the crème fraiche on the side, as I like it but Carlos doesn't. I found its lightly whipped tanginess perfect to offset the curd, but he liked the tart just as it was. We both agreed this was an above-average dessert: simple, but well-executed.

I had an iced tea with dinner. Carlos had a cappuccino, which was nicely done although the foam was too coarse.

A real positive for Shakewell is the service. It's excellent by today's standards, with good pacing and consistent attention to detail. That's no small thing, and indicates good professionalism in the front of the house, consistent with the resumes of the owners.

We liked Shakewell although based on what we had, we're surprised it's made such a splash over rivals such as The Barrel Room, Cana, Mockingbird, and Homestead. It's a step above Sidebar but a full level below Camino (albeit a lot cheaper than the latter). But it's also a level below Hopscotch, which does match Shakewell in price. 

Still, we didn't have any of the bombas or meat/fish entrées. We're planning to return and try more of the menu, and will keep an open mind until then. At the moment, though, we'd rate it no more than 2.75 stars, with the salad and bacalao barely reaching 2 stars. Of the rest, only the fried cauliflower and the orange tart were worth ordering again.

Two people, dinner: seven small plates/sides, two beverages, one dessert, with tip was $139.