A 16 + Daily Stats

I've said this over and over, add nausea, that I am not a food critic. I'm not getting paid to be a food critic.  I'm not going to go into great detail about this restaurant. A 16 is at the site of the old Girabaldi's on 5356  College Ave. in Oakland.

It's expensive, so bring your cards. This was not a loud room. In fact if they had a stereo it was not turned on, or someone forgot to turn it on.  We were the loudest people in the house for sure. There was 6 of us total. We had 3 or 4 appetizer. Most worthy of description was a large anchovies, the size of a 6 month old trout from the hatchery, poached in balsamic vinegar, raisins, deep fried encrusted walnuts, a little lemon, and wine. It was delicious.

The service is OK, but I found myself looking for a new plate and folk often. Speaking of forks, Geri dropped hers, and no one came over to retrieve it. It made a hell of a racket too. I don't see how you couldn't hear it. There were wait staff 10 feet away from us, hello. No one ever asked if I wanted fresh pepper for my salad, which was a little to saturated with dressing, but tasty none the less. No bread or olives were served before dinner.

We shared everything with each other, because we wanted to taste everything and get the whole experience. Some of the entree' items were great. There was a fresh pasta dish that was almost like a gnocchi with a hot oil sauce that I could eaten an entire plate of, no problem.

The pizza was fair to good, but not great. The tomato sauce on one of the pies was sweet as can be, as was the mozzarella di bufala, very nice.

Of the 3 desserts we had the apple turnovers were the best, and the fresh gelato ice cream was very good as well. The cappuccino was heated to the perfect temperature, but they only brought one sugar with it, no chocolate, no cinnamon.

We brought our own wine and I think the corkage fee was $25.00. No big deal.

I found this restaurant lacking something, but I couldn't put my finger on it, and then I realized the two words I was looking for was excitement and details. Besides the fact that I was excited to see my friends, I didn't feel any excitement from the wait staff. They completely missed the little details that make a decent restaurant a great restaurant. There was not a festive atmosphere, and a restaurant should be festive. I don't need or want bubbly service, but dour service is worse. There was no show of enthusiasm. It was a low energy atmosphere and it should be a high energy. SHOW TIME PEOPLE.

Maybe it was an off night. Monday's are tough on a restaurant staff, and I usually don't go out to restaurants on a Monday. The food often times lack imagination and again, attention to detail. Everyone is burnt out from the weekend. As Elvis Costello said, "I don't like Monday's, I want to shoot, oh oh oh, the whole day down."

This west coast 24/7 bullshit burns people out. If I owned a restaurant it would be closed, without question, Sunday and Monday.

This restaurant doesn't have enough for me to go back again.

I give the food 1 and a half joints, and the service 1 joint.

That's it.

Peace,

Make Food/Not War

Food consumption;

Breakfast; potato pancake w/Irish cheddar, 2 eggs over easy, 1 piece of olive bread (no butter), black coffee 1 sugar

Lunch; nuts

Dinner: brussel sprouts, chicken cheese ravioli w/cherry tomatoes, fresh garlic, and artichokes, Romano cheese, small salad

Exercise; 6 miles walking