Wood Tavern

I finally found a seat after coming back 2 times. It is a nice little place on College Ave in Oakland, albeit difficult to get into. I had heard very good things about it, from someone who works there and on KQED. The place is little pricey. The food was good. I was expecting to be blown away, I wasn’t. That is not to say that there was anything wrong with the food.

My wife and I dined here on a Thursday night and they were still turning people away who did not have reservations.
The dining room is small and dimly lit with hardly anywhere for people to sit who might be waiting for their table to come open.
We had the following:
Cheeseboard appetizer
Scotch Egg
Burger
Pork Chop
The cheeseboard was fine. It included 4 different cheeses, thinly sliced apples, and almonds with spicy honey. There was nothing special about the cheeses and the accompaniments did not seem to fit the cheeses on the plate. Generally you have something that compliments each cheese, but this did not seem to be a consideration here.
The scotch egg was quite good. A soft boiled egg encased in sausage and deep fried. If you like scotch eggs, I highly recommend this one. You usually get an over hard boiled egg inside chewy sausage, but this one really takes greater care in the ingredients and quality. It also comes on a bed of capers, which really help set off any overly fried or fat taste from the dish.
The burger was fine and was not memorable. It comes with the «Niman Ranch» beef, which is supposed to be a thing that people in NorCal care about for some reason, but you’d be hard pressed to find people who know why. And it comes on a Baguette, which is a little too tough and chewy for a burger. You end up smashing the beef when you bite the sandwich.
And finally the highly rated Wood Tavern pork chop. I will say that it deserves it praise… to a point. The chop is moist and flavorful with a silky, tasty marsala sauce underneath it. Now the problem that I found is that with such a large chop, you’ll be eating it for a while. And after about ¹⁄₃ of the chop you start to notice the salt building up with each bite and before you know it, it’s too salty. I didn’t eat the whole thing, maybe ½ and saved the rest for home.
Overall, the place is good, but not worth return trips, especially at the price. It seems like another above average restaurant that for some reason has a NorCal mystique that likes to over rate things.

Randomly stopped in for a work lunch based on previous reviews. We were very happy we did. The staff was very friendly and attentive and accommodating. The vibe is super cool and classy and the menu was full of fun and fresh items. Around the table we had the arugula salad, burger and pastrami. All were delicious. Looking forward to coming back

I absolutely love this place!!! From the time you walk in, to the time you leave, it’s always a a great time. Whether I’m dining alone or with a friend, I usually find a spot at the bar; each time meeting a new acquaintance. Today was no different. I started with the fried Brussels sprouts, continued with the pan roasted half chicken, and ended with the chicory coffee ice cream profiteroles. Each were great, just as I expected. Thank you Wood Tavern for another enjoyable experience!

This place has a special place in my husband’s heart, and mine as well for that reason. We first dined here a few years ago because we’d heard of the famous pork chop with marsala sauce. Fast forward several years later, and we’re still enjoying that pork chop. Seriously, just get the pork chop. The marsala sauce is smooth, velvety, unique and comforting, and it’s wonderful when smothering a large thick cut of pork. They only serve it at dinner, I think which starts at 530.
The rest of the food is also good, but doesn’t compare to the pork chop. We’ve also had the scallops — which were OK, but the polenta underneath started to congeal, which wasn’t really OK. I’m vegetarian so there usually is only one dish (typically a pasta/​ravioli dish) that I can get. It’s usually just so-​so also, in my opinion; there are better places to get vegetarian entrees. My opinion is to pass on the their offerings and yes, just get the pork chop.
The little details — the comforting wooded ambience, pleasant service, Acme wheat or walnut levain by request, small complimentary dessert if it’s your birthday, endless refills of refreshing water, and butcher’s block offerings (rillete, pâté, with toasted buttered Acme toast) also make for a nice and special dining experience.
And! We last dined here the night before I went into labor, and went again just recently with our daughter. They were also so accommodating for my 9-​month-​old kid: we got seated near the «kids table» in the corner right at the entryway window, which was awesome — she had her own space to squeal in delight and could enjoy entertaining all the passersby through the window.
Reservations definitely recommended! Always!

Review for lunch service.
The boss brought us here for a post-​holiday lunch… WHOA! I would’ve been happy with a rice plate in Chinatown so this was a nice treat!
I came here about 7 years ago and sadly it took me this long to return. Ordered the following:
* Butcher block with terrine, pâté, duck rillette and porchetta accompanied with crostini — A-​MAZING — wonderful flavor, textures wtih sweet and savory
* Porchetta and mustard green sandwich accompanied with slaw — at first i thought the mustard green was odd and would be too bittter but worked well with the garlic spread and sun dried tomato aoili… had a slight kick that i loved as it was sprinkled with chili peppers… YUM!
and the desserts were on point… wonderful pavlova and orange olive oil cake… nice finish to a wonderful lunch… not overly heavy or sweet. Our server was very attentive and made for a wonderful lunch experience.

My girlfriend and I had a great time. I called the day before New Years and asked if they had any reservations. They said they’ve been booked up for a while but they do have the chef’s table and bar that are available to people (first come, first serve). We got their around 5 and put our name in. We were four deep in the line and were told it would take 45 minutes. We found a local dive bar called the Graduate, knocked back a couple PBRs and were called shortly after. They had a table for us!
1. Food was on point. I had the beef short rib pasta with Hen of the Wood Mushrooms. Absolutely amazing. You won’t be disappointed. We also got a few appetizers include the soft cow cheese (sort of like a brie) and the panchetta di testa. Very good! The olive oil they serve is spicy and tasty. It comes with bread that is fresh cut. The darker bread was my favorite. Scallops were tasty but weren’t our favorite item of the day.
2. Service– Very attentive server (I forget her name but she had curly hair). Always made sure our drinks were full. We never felt rush. Food came out at just the right time. Foo
3. Drinks– Can’t comment on the cocktails, we brought a bottle of champagne and had tap water. Water was always full and she kept our champagne bottle in the back chilled. Corkage is normally $ 15. BYO.
3. If you need to kill time– Check out the Graduate down the street for $ 2 PBRs.
Bottom line: Great food, great service, great atmosphere. We will be back again.

This place was very cool and great food.
The ambience is very chill but upscale. Nice music. Very cool décor and crowded personable quaintness. Close tables but friendly patrons.
The food here we ordered: the veggie plate which is not on he menu but is comprised of Brussels sprouts with cashews. ⁹⁄₁₀. The corn meal polenta. ¹⁰⁄₁₀. And some cabbage type addition ⁴⁄₁₀.
The Guatemalan margarita was good and the Moscow mule was amazing. Great craft cocktails.
Friendly staf and awesome atmosphere. Drinks are speedy. Our bill was $ 95 for 4 drinks and 2 entrees.

Our friends arranged for a holiday lunch get together at Wood Tavern. I was looking forward to it as it’s been on my «to try» list. Our party of six was seated at a back corner table, which was perfect for our group. It gave a good view of the busy dining room and the open kitchen.
Our server was friendly and answered our questions about the wine and beer on tap offerings and menu items.
Our lunch started with nice French and walnut breads (
)
For appetizers, we had the:
Butcher block of Pâté, Rillettes, Porchetta and Terrine (
)
Cheese board with four different cheeses (
)
Entrees:
Seafood Stew with rock cod, sea bass, mussels, clams, potatoes, leeks, sorrel in a tomato-​saffron broth with a garlic toast. If you want a hearty dish, this won’t fit the bill. It is a light and tasty dish. (
)
Hot Pastrami Sandwich with Emmentaler cheese, Dijon-​horseradish dressing on a La Farine baguette. Thin slices of tasty hot pastrami piled high. Came with Tavern slaw and house-​made pickles. Delicious. (
)
Overall, the food was delicious and the service was excellent. Water glasses were frequently filled, drink orders filled and plates cleared. Will come back again.

Grab a reservation, you’ll need it!
The bf and I have been trying to go here for months and finally secured a late seating reservation. Make sure you check the menu online, as it changes monthly.
I was prepared to order pork belly, from looking at past reviews and older menus, but was sad to find no pork belly on the Dec. menu. Here’s what we ended up ordering:
— Face Meat (butcher block, there’s a fancier name for it, but I forgot): fatty and tasty
— Bone Marrow: it’s smothered in gravy and super heavy
— Squash Gnocchi: INCREDIBLE
— Half Roasted Chicken (sub fingerling potatoes for french fries): paired with some cabbage and gravy = so worth it!
The restaurant is small, but if you are lucky enough to walk in and get the chef’s table, I suggest it. You get to watch him cook all night long!

My fiancé and I came here for dinner. We made reservations for a Sunday night.
Great service! Always checked on us and made sure our water glasses were full. They were super friendly.
Great food! We had the Brussels sprouts (highly recommend), pan roasted half chicken, and 10 layer chocolate cake (wasn’t too sweet, tasted just right).
It wasn’t as expensive as I thought it would be. I also noticed they serve wine to people waiting to be seated, but not sure if it was complementary or paid for. We would definitely come back again!

We had a lovely lunch at Wood Tavern. We ordered all the appetizers and the stand outs were definitely the delicious lentil and pork soup and Brussels sprouts. The salads were good — we had the beets, salad with persimmon and cheese and salad with shaved Jerusalem artichokes and pomegranate. Unfortunately the salads were mainly lettuce and leaves and very little persimmon, cheese, artichoke or pomegranate.
For mains, we ordered the burger, chicken, pastrami sandwich, seafood bouillabaisse and short rib pasta. The stand outs were definitely the chicken, pastrami and burger!
We loved that they serve acme breads with all the dishes. Our favorite bakery in the Bay Area.

I was eager to give Wood Tavern a try because, if all the buzz is any indication, it’s a focal point of the dining scene not only on College Avenue, but also in Oakland and the East Bay. Indeed, things started on a strong note when I chose the pork belly appetizer to start. So heavenly in the way it just melts in your mouth — exactly the way I like it.
An entrée of seared salmon, however, tasted great and reasonably fresh going down, but soon enough, resulted in (TMI alert) some quite spectacular discomfort later on. In retrospect, it was really raw to begin with. I should have been more proactive and ordered it more well-​done. Lesson learned.
Maybe this was a fluke, but I’m sufficiently scared enough so as to put this place far at the back of my list of places I’d want to visit again.

Was referred here (kind of) by Cheesemonger Jeff here on Unilocal.Ok, he referred me a zillion years ago but I finally made it. Spur of the moment thing. Wonderful neighborhood. A bit parking challenged. The fabulous Lori C. had the duck and I had the seafood stew and both dishes were outstanding. Nice wine list and some great cocktails. We finished off with some nice desserts, a chocolate layer cake and a bourbon sauce sundae and, again, great stuff. It did get crowded. We snagged the last walk in table at 5:30. On a Wednesday night!
Everything that came out of the kitchen looked wonderful and we will be back!

This place is wonderful, what a gem on college avenue.
Was worried there would be a long wait during peak dinner hours on a Friday night, but fortunately there were seats available at the chefs table! Score :)
Started off with crispy pork belly app — omg it was good, although it only comes with one piece — it was piping hot and melts in your mouth. The sauce is delish packed with flavor and bacon bits — I would say it’s on the heavier and saltier side thought.
Ordered the halibut
–was a lot bigger than I thought — came with 2 big pieces of fish that were cooked soooo perfectly
–was not a fan of the sautéed greens it came with (too herby imp)
–everything else on my plate was great, nice delicate sauce — and awesome fish
From the chefs table, I could tell this place does not skimp on the butter. It’s not a place for health conscious and calorie counting people, but those that want to savor each bite!

I’ve always wanted to try this place and finally did for my friend’s birthday. Our party of 15 was already there when I arrived. Since we had such a large party, we had a fixed menu. They gave us two sets of the block & board filled with chicken liver pâté and an array of different cheeses and spreads. Since we had options for the second and third course, I chose the arugula salad and the crusted Alaskan halibut while my boyfriend chose the potato bacon soup and the grilled rib eye stead.
I’d have to say the arugula salad was perfect for me. I love all things lemony and this lemon-​peppercorn vinaigrette was so yum. I was a little apprehensive because arugula is a bitter and peppery type of greens but it paired well with the vinaigrette. I ate the whole thing, but then again, I also love salads. And the halibut was good too. The halibut was salty if you ate it by itself, but when eaten together with the rest of the dish, it went very well together. And the fish was perfectly cooked. It was tender and moist but not overcooked. I loved everything about my dishes. The potato bacon soup was everything you could imagine and more. It was creamy, you could taste the potato, and the bacon was strong but not overpowering. It just meshed well. I also got to try a bite of the rib eye steak and it was tender, moist, and juicy.
And for dessert we had cornucopia of chocolate cake, butterscotch custard, and peach-​raspberry crisp. My favorite of the trio was the butterscotch custard. It was so incredibly yummy. You just have to try it for yourself.

From Corner Tavern for lunch to Wood Tavern for dinner, all in one day and ironically neither time for drinks but the food.
Since it has been almost 3 years since my first time here and I have returned 4 times since for my cousin’s birthday, take out, and then for my annual dinner with college friends this past Saturday, I thought I would add a couple of updates since their menu is ever changing.
We did 2 appetizers and 4 entrees for 5 of us family style. The Double Cut Pork Chops is one of their staples that you will always find on their menu and is a must have. I learned from my mistake during my first visit and always save room for my fair share of this now. My second favorite item here is the Semolina Crusted Alaskan Halibut which shows up around this time of year (August and/​or early September). If you are lucky enough to see it on the menu, get it! The surprise sleeper for me this time around was the braised beef short rib fresh tagliatelle pasta that dare I say, I enjoyed even more than the one I had at La Pizza and La Pasta at Mario Batali’s Eataly in NY.
Service here is always excellent and they will go out of their way for food allergies separating and cooking the calamari separate from our rock shrimp (which was also quite tasty) to accommodate the shellfish allergy. Although good, I would take a pass on the seafood stew and the cucumber and melon salad.
Always a great experience with service and food here at Wood Tavern that I could not help myself and returned the next day to get takeout order of halibut for my parents. Halibut lover dad inhaled half of it in what seemed like less than 10 minutes. It is that good!
By the way, reservations are a must if you don’t want a long wait!

I was rolling around North Oakland in my Whip Black Beauty and was feeling Famished so I rolled to Wood Tavern .
When I arrived it was a Packed House after talking to the Host he seated me at the Bar right away .
The Bartender provided me with a Menu to Peruse and a Glass of Water .
After perusing the Menu for a while I ordered :
For My Appetizer–
Crispy Pork Belly –Frisee, Cipollini, Onions, Peach, Mustard, Peach– Jalapeño, Salsa, Cilantro, Chili Oil .
This is a -«Must Order» it was so good. It Melted in my Mouth.
My Main Course —
Grilled Rib Eye Steak — Mashed Potatoes, Shaved Summer Squash, Roasted Torpedo Onions, Watercress, Parmesan Cheese, Veal Demi Glaze .
I was very Happy with this Choice Also. The Steak was cooked to Perfection !!! It was so Tender it also Melted in my Mouth. The Mash Potatoes were nice and Fluffy.
Dessert–
Peach Raspberry Crisp
Yummy lots of Great and Distinct flavors .
I loved the Décor and Ambiance of Wood Tavern .
The Muted Lighting, Dark Woods and the Large Open Front Windows.
This place would make great date destination.
Service was Great. My Silverware was changed out every Course.
My Bill came out to a little over $ 70 with Tip .
I paid by Credit Card and rolled out.
I will definitely return.

So many Unilocal friends have raved about this restaurant R and I finally went for dinner on one of our dine-​in-​Oakland dinners. A sure sign that they are popular; when we were trying to make an early reservation they had nothing available for 3 weeks. The restaurant was already busy at 5:45 on a Monday evening and was very busy when we left.
R had a burger and fries. I went all out and had the grilled double cut pork chop with pancetta; it was served with black-​eyed peas, fava beans, Swiss chard, and covered with a Marsala cream sauce.
After I placed my order the server said it was a very thick chop. When she showed me the thickness with her fingers it look like it would be four or more inches thick. And it would take 30 minutes to prepare. This worried me a bit, I was concerned that the chop might be to dry.
The perfect way I think to wait for dinner is with good conversation and a good cocktail. I went all out and had the Bad Ass Sidecar. It was a combination of Hennessy cognac, VS cointreau, fresh lemon juice, a lemon twist, with a sugar rim served up. This was the most expensive cocktail on the menu and it was marvelous. R had the Manhattan. When he decided not to finish it, rather than letting it go to waste, I finished it for him, this cocktail was strong and good.
When my chop came to the table fears of a dry overcooked chop went away. It perfectly cooked, and I don’t think it was 4 inches thick. The beans under and over the chop and the sauce added richness to this dish tempted me to come back in a week. However, I doubt I could get a reservation before the menu changes. Despite how tasty this chop was I could not finish it. I took home and enjoyed gnawing on the bone the next day. I had it all to myself, S doesn’t eat pork.
R’s hamburger looked good and the fries he shared with me were perfect. I like thin crispy fries and that’s what came with the burger.
If, like me, you’ve bookmarked this restaurant it is time to move it to the top of the list. Do make a reservation. The restaurant is small and popular. The tables are close together, so, it might not be the place for a quiet romantic dinner.

My boyfriend and I absolutely loved this place. We didn’t realize you needed reservations for a table when we got there at 7pm on Saturday. It was an hour wait to be seated at the counter, which was fine with us so we killed time at Philz.
I feel like we had the best seat in the house. Since I love to cook, sitting in front of the chef as he cooked was a treat. We had such a wonderful waitress (Susanne). She was so informative and we enjoyed conversing with her. She was great at checking up on us too.
Things we ordered:
Crispy Pork Belly
Gnocchi
Ribeye
Blueberry Cheesecake Sundae
Butterscotch Custard
I don’t remember the names of the cocktails we ordered, but one of them was similar to a Moscow mule and the other was some sort of Prosecco.
The food was amazing! Service was amazing! Ambiance was amazing! Perfect for date night. I would call way in advance to secure a table if you want to eat here. If not, the wait for a counter seat could be over an hour.