le blog de tranny

Woweee. Last Friday Paul and I decided that we wanted to eat out some place new and exciting, preferably in downtown Oakland because we wanted to explore that neighb, but we had no leads as to where. Incidentally, when I got to work that morning I noticed that Kitty Kat had sent me this article on restaurants in Oakland. Bocanova on Jack London Square was the only restaurant on the list that I’d never been to (I count having been to Pizzaiolo as having been to Boot & Shoe Service), so I promptly booked us a table there for that evening. Like so many other restaurants around here, Bocanova was started up by a Chez Panisse alumnus, but instead of going the American (new) route the chef put a pan-American spin on the menu. Lots of Latin American dishes and a sizable raw selection. And yummy cocktails. It was seriously one of the best dinner dates we’ve had in a while food-wise… by far. It was tempting to just order everything from the raw section of the menu but we wanted to taste the full spectrum. I researched the Yelp reviews thoroughly so I think we ended up ordering all the right things. Many Yelp reviewers complained about the service but they seemed to have cleaned up their act by the time we ate there. Our waiter Joseph Gordon-Levitt was attentive and laid-back in all the right ways. I’d say in general I’m willing to endure shitty service if the food is superb (which it was), but luckily I was faced with no such trade-off.

Pisco sour

Dungeness crab deviled eggs with chipotle aioli

Oysters on the half shell with grapefruit cocktail sauce… honestly I could’ve done without the cocktail sauce — I thought the oysters tasted better with just a squeeze of lemon.

Quinoa salad with shrimp, roasted beets and orange vinaigrette

I’d never tried menudo before but this one was offal-y tasty! (harhar) Possibly my favorite thing that we ordered…

The honeycomb tripe was so tender and flavorful… a much nicer texture than I was expecting.

The Kobe-style bavette steak with chipotle mushroom sauce was, as one might expect, divine. We were feeling pretty full at this point so didn’t order dessert. A steak like this would be my ideal dessert anyway.

Wikipedia tells me that “Kobe-style” beef comes from domestically-raised Wagyu crossbred with Angus cattle, which are given beer and daily massages with warm sake in order to imitate Kobe traditions. This steak was only 19 dollars! I guess the American Kobe-style cows are fed cheaper feed than their Japanese counterparts. Ah well, this is probably the closest to legit Kobe beef that I’ll ever get. I’m no snob!

We ended up paying the same amount for dinner that we did at Rivoli, only instead of being frustrated and underwhelmed with each subsequent dish we were delighted and titillated by everything that was brought to our table. At least now we know better. Bocanova, I will be coming back!