I'm not certain, but the charming surroundings of the Craftsman style home, where the restaurant resides, were even more pleasurable than the meal itself. Having purchased the Bay Wolf cookbook, I felt compelled to try this Oakland institution.
Excellent baguettes and creamery sweet butter are a great way to start. Bay Wolf sets itself apart from many other restaurants by also offering sea salt for those people who find unsalted butter bland. An acquaintance of mine, who was raised on a dairy farm, once told me that inferior cream is used to make salted butter and the best, with the highest butterfat content, is reserved for unsalted butter. For starters my dining companion selected the bruschetta set on a bed of salad greens and slathered in an aioli laden tuna. A tuna sandwich was never so good.
Spring peas and mint caught my attention so I opted for the soup. It was flavorful, but the color put me off. That was because for some reason I was expecting it to be a raw soup, or barely cooked, so the bright green color of both the peas and mint would show off against the white plate. Bringing very specific expectations to a meal is not the best course of action. In this case it diminished my enjoyment of a perfectly decent soup, because I kept thinking it was overcooked. My friend selected the duck liver mousse that really delivered a pleasant combination of flavor, texture and eye appeal. But how can you go wrong with pate? For a restaurant known for duck, it was a slam dunk.
Speaking of duck, my dinner companion and I decided to split an order of the duck entree. The menu description of it being served with fennel and pink grapefruit was intriguing, so we added it to our order. It arrived sans the pink grapefruit. I asked the waiter about it and he said that they will substitute ingredients depending on what is available at the market. Shouldn't that be mentioned when someone is ordering it? Apparently not. I expressed a disappointment, because I was specifically interested in trying the duck because of the pink grapefruit, so the waiter walked away and brought back a bowl of fresh grapefruit segments. No apology for the kitchen having missed plating it, no cooking it, nothing. Wasn't it supposed to be cooked? When I inquired, the waiter said that it always goes on raw. Seriously? I doubted that, so I left it in the bowl. Something seemed seriously wrong with the entire transaction and it was disturbing. We received an apology after we paid the tab, on our way out the door. This was a case of "too little, too late".
Ah, but there was one bright spot, enough to get me back in the door. Their duck ravioli was superb. It didn't need the escarole on the plate, but the fave were delightful and a lovely reminder that this was a Spring meal. The duck filling was so good, I'd like to try making my own. Did they make the sauce with a duck stock, veal stock, chicken soup from a can? I have no idea, but it was luscious with the ravioli and the color was very appealing on the plate. This was a dish worth ordering again, some time in the distant future after I've forgotten about the pink grapefruit.
| 3853 Piedmont Ave Oakland CA 94611 510-655-6004 Open nightly at 5:30pm |
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