Oakland: À Côté
I finally made it into 2015! I mean, my blog finally did.
You know what I mean.
Back in January, I met up with SY and VT for Restaurant Week at À Côté after work one night:
Finding parking in the area was horrendous. It took SY and I longer to find a spot than it did to drive there. Argh.
When we arrived, VT was already there waiting for us. She'd scored a cozy little booth in the back of the restaurant. The place was swanky aka it was dark with lots of mood lighting:
À Côté's Restaurant Week menu allowed you to choose between two appetizers, two mains, and two desserts for $30. SY, VT, and I all have similar tastes because we chose all the same dishes except I went for a different dessert.
I apologize for the poor quality of my photos. I gathered as many faux candles as I could, but it didn't really help and the last thing I wanted to do was bother other patrons with my obnoxious flash.
For the appetizer, we all elected the parsnip leek soup with chive oil over the romaine and radicchio salad:
The parsnip made the soup slightly sweet and the creaminess was lovely. Too bad the bowl was basically a plate. Way too shallow.
For our main, we turned up our noses at the kabocha squash gnocchi and instead went with the seared scallops with beet risotto, golden beets, and tangerine buerre blanc:
While everything tasted great individually, I honestly just wanted a bit of salt to sprinkle on top. All the components on the plate were slightly sweet from the beet risotto to the golden beets to even the scallops. Sweet parsnip soup, sweet scallops...then dessert...what happened to savory meals?
For dessert, both SY and VT chose the coupe À Côté, which was a pecan praline and caramel brownie with bittersweet chocolate ice cream, hot fudge, and caramel cream. I, on the other hand, went with the ganache glazed caramel pots de creme made with salted caramel and paired with a pecan lace cookie:
Go decadent or go home, right?:
The chocolate ganache was uber rich, as was the salted caramel creme. Each spoonful felt like a sin, but in the best way possible. The caramel was slightly bitter, which helped the cut down the overall sweetness. It was my favorite of the night.
I know you're not supposed to judge a restaurant by its Restaurant Week menu. But I can't help it. I'm judgmental like that.
À Côté? It was aight. The food was good, but nothing to write home about. Or write in a blog about. I left feeling like I could still eat more.
Like 20 piece chicken mcnuggets and a large fry.
À Côté
5478 College Ave
Oakland, CA 94618
(510) 655-6469
http://acoterestaurant.com/
You know what I mean.
Back in January, I met up with SY and VT for Restaurant Week at À Côté after work one night:
Finding parking in the area was horrendous. It took SY and I longer to find a spot than it did to drive there. Argh.
When we arrived, VT was already there waiting for us. She'd scored a cozy little booth in the back of the restaurant. The place was swanky aka it was dark with lots of mood lighting:
À Côté's Restaurant Week menu allowed you to choose between two appetizers, two mains, and two desserts for $30. SY, VT, and I all have similar tastes because we chose all the same dishes except I went for a different dessert.
I apologize for the poor quality of my photos. I gathered as many faux candles as I could, but it didn't really help and the last thing I wanted to do was bother other patrons with my obnoxious flash.
For the appetizer, we all elected the parsnip leek soup with chive oil over the romaine and radicchio salad:
The parsnip made the soup slightly sweet and the creaminess was lovely. Too bad the bowl was basically a plate. Way too shallow.
For our main, we turned up our noses at the kabocha squash gnocchi and instead went with the seared scallops with beet risotto, golden beets, and tangerine buerre blanc:
While everything tasted great individually, I honestly just wanted a bit of salt to sprinkle on top. All the components on the plate were slightly sweet from the beet risotto to the golden beets to even the scallops. Sweet parsnip soup, sweet scallops...then dessert...what happened to savory meals?
For dessert, both SY and VT chose the coupe À Côté, which was a pecan praline and caramel brownie with bittersweet chocolate ice cream, hot fudge, and caramel cream. I, on the other hand, went with the ganache glazed caramel pots de creme made with salted caramel and paired with a pecan lace cookie:
Go decadent or go home, right?:
The chocolate ganache was uber rich, as was the salted caramel creme. Each spoonful felt like a sin, but in the best way possible. The caramel was slightly bitter, which helped the cut down the overall sweetness. It was my favorite of the night.
I know you're not supposed to judge a restaurant by its Restaurant Week menu. But I can't help it. I'm judgmental like that.
À Côté? It was aight. The food was good, but nothing to write home about. Or write in a blog about. I left feeling like I could still eat more.
Like 20 piece chicken mcnuggets and a large fry.
À Côté
5478 College Ave
Oakland, CA 94618
(510) 655-6469
http://acoterestaurant.com/
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