Wood Tavern is a comfortable neighborhood restaurant that grew into a destination restaurant in its first month, due to the fine reputation of its owners and chef. Read about their culinary chops on their website listed below. It must be exactly as they envisioned it with a great menu, a broad wine list, and a reputable bar. With a cracker jack crew it had to work.
My friend and I started out with drinks, something I don't do regularly, and they were well made. She had a Manhattan and I opted for one of the proprietary drinks, since I like to try something new each time; I'm still searching for a "favorite" libation. The bread was delicious with rustic loafs of white and wheat mixed in the basket. If my friend hadn't really liked the white so much, we may have been fighting over the wheat, it was that good. Sweet butter only added favorably to it. I have suddenly realized that most fine restaurants in America have finally eliminated salted butter; a fine improvement.
When I dine out I go for broke, ordering what I cannot make myself, but fortunately my friend is more prudent and ordered the simple arugula salad, the light and refreshing salad. My order was the pork belly and figs. Luscious from top to bottom, down to the balsamic glaze, very little of which remained on the plate when I was done.
It was so good in fact, that I feel a closer look is necessary. The pork belly had a nice sear and was rested on the figs that had been sauteed with shallots. A dressed water cress was then applied and it was bordered by the sweet and sour balsamic glaze, then sprinkled with toasted hazelnuts. The plating was outstanding and had I not known any of the ingredients, I would have wanted to try it based on eye appeal alone.
The potato gnocchi was well made and light. Although I had never before seen it pan seared, it was a very good move that added more depth of flavor to the dish in general. Good thing too because the fresh vegetables needed a little something. As usual, freshly grated cheese came to the rescue and added the needed salty element to this culinary composition.
The double cut pork chop was the only failure of the evening and I will say that the restaurant was willing to remake it for me and actually took it off the tab, when I thanked them but refused a new plate. As you can see by the bone, this little piggy was over cooked, indeed burned to the bone. Since the pan juices were used for the sauce, every element in the dish was unpleasant. So much so that I didn't want another go at it. I felt very uncomfortable not paying anything for it, so I left a very large tip and wrote that I wanted to pay for the pork chop. Either the waiter went home a very happy camper, or the restaurant was paid. I'll never know but I felt I did the right thing. Still, I would not order that dish again as it literally left a "bad taste in my mouth".
| 6317 College Ave Oakland CA 94618 (510) 654-6607 |
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