Wood Tavern
6317 College Ave. @Alcatraz, Oakland
http://woodtavern.net/menus.html
Review date:  January 2010

Wood Tavern has gotten so much favorable press that I understand it’s a madhouse at dinnertime. So we took the opportunity to take both Inez and Betty, an elderly friend who used to live in our neighborhood, out to lunch instead.

Not only was it less crowded, parking was a breeze – right across the street! – so we sat down and ordered. Their menu is very similar for lunch and dinner.

Carlos and I both ordered the beet salad. We absolutely love beets, and there’s nothing better than fresh red and yellow baby beets, lightly dressed, with some mixed greens (not too much) and toasted cracked hazelnuts. The red beets were diced; the yellow were thin carpaccio slices. There was the merest sprinkle of sliced green onion on them – unusual, yet the sharp bite just accentuated the delicate sweetness of the beets.

They bring a nice basket of mixed breads to the table, so I snagged two slices of the walnut bread because I wanted to order some pate and cheese for lunch. I chose the Lomo pork and Whiskey-chicken liver pate, along with the triple cream cow’s milk Jean Grogne and a Petit Basque firm sheep cheese. This turned out to be a very light lunch – just so you’re warned – as there were just four paper-thin little rounds of cured pork and a good dollop of extra-smooth chicken liver pate. The board came with a small mound of fresh finely diced cucumber pickle, and a wonderful sharp mustard that really set off the pate. Next time I’d probably add a little pork terrine, or more of that Petit Basque. Each meat or cheese you order is $4 apiece, and there’s a selection of four different items under both categories to choose from. 

If I had ordered a soup, I think it would have been fine – when it’s winter, cold food is not quite satisfying enough. The soup that day was a braised beef/wild rice, so I’m sorry I missed it!

Betty had the BLC – a riff on the BLT by substituting sea bass for the bacon and pickled cucumber for the tomato. Served on toasted bread, it was messy but delicious. It came with a finely chopped dill cabbage slaw on the side.

Carlos had the bouillabaisse, which unlike Mezze’s less successful attempt back in November, did state on the menu they were using a saffron cream broth. They pulled it off very well, too, using a lot of mussels to give a deeper flavor to the broth, and good-sized chunks of that sea bass. It was especially good when he dunked some of their excellent bread into the bowl, LOL.

We ended with cappuccinos, which had too much milk. Inez ordered the warm chocolate cake. It was a little too large, a little too sweet. Chapeau!’s version was so much better, albeit slightly more expensive. Wood Tavern needs to remember that bigger is usually not better, when it comes to the final course.

I liked Wood Tavern, but we liked Corso so much more. I can agree that at night the noise level would be overwhelming. WT is good, but for dinner we’d choose Café Rouge or Corso instead.

Lunch for the four of us: 2 starters, 4 cheese & meat sides, three starters, one dessert, two beverages (I didn’t get charged for my usual iced tea, which I didn’t notice until I was writing this review), with tip came to $131.