OUR SECOND ANNIVERSARY

Tom and I celebrated our second anniversary last night with dinner at Wood Tavern in Oakland. It's been one of the new, hot restaurants in Oakland since opening last year, and my cousin had given us a gift certificate for Xmas. So we saved it up to use on this occasion. We arrived a little early and decided to walk around the neighborhood, which has a cute strip of small shops and restaurants- there's a bakery, butcher, grocery store, wine shop, coffee shop, tea shop and chocolate shop. Basically everything you need for a gourmet destination in the middle of North Oakland.

After a bit, we decided to head over to the restaurant. It was packed (actually, we'd noticed how packed it was when we'd walked by earlier) and it was very noisy. But after reading the reviews, I wasn't too surprised. The hostess was very nice to us and showed us to our seats immediately. The setting is really nice- high ceilings, a bar that stayed full the entire evening and lots of tables scattered throughout. It wasn't a huge restaurant and along with its popularity, it stayed full the entire time we were there- including a line of ppl waiting to get in.

Since it was our anniversary and we had a gift certificate, we definitely splurged a bit. The menu wasn't very long (keeping it very seasonal) with 6 appetizers, and around 6 entrees. I was interested in the butcher block, with a number of house made charcuterie (3 of the 4 items featured duck), but opted instead for a Smoked Alaskan cod served on avocados and baby shrimp. Tom was interested in the bone marrow, but decided to order the Butcher Block so he could share it with me. Here's my appetizer.I was rather silly in imaging a hot appetizer but of course, if it's smoked it's going to be served cold. That's the whole point of smoking- to preserve foods. The fish was tender, but was too smoky for my taste and wasn't my favorite thing. I did enjoy the avocados and shrimp a lot though.

Here's Tom's butcher block. I liked the house smoked duck breast, but his favorite was the pork terrine with figs and the duck rillettes. Served with little warm toast pieces, whole grain mustard and house made relish, he liked it a lot.

Ok, I'll admit that after my appetizer, I was full. I'm such a lightweight. But the meal was well timed, and by the time out entrees arrived, I was actually hungry enough to eat a bit of it. (Had it arrived right after the appetizer, I would taken two bites and asked for a doggy bag). I ordered the pan roasted half chicken. True, it's not the most creative thing in the world, but lots of people were ordering it and I learned why- the meat was so juicy and tender and just delicious. Plus, they basically deboned the chicken for you, so it was easy to eat. It was served on a bed of fingerling potatoes, spinach and radicchio, but there was so little raddicchio that it was more of an afterthought, really not adding much to the dish. Overall, I thought it was delicious and happily ate the leftovers for lunch today (I had to save room for dessert after all).

Meanwhile, Tom ordered the steak. He doesn't often get to eat beef, so took advantage of the opportunity to do so. Plus, it was served with crispy leeks, which he was looking foward to. He definitely enjoyed his meat, which was actually cooked to the requested temperature. Plus, there was a wine reduction sauce that he liked. Best of all, it was all served on a big pile of Parmesean mashed potatoes, which were very parmesean-y.

And of course, I can never pass up dessert. (By this time it was too dark in the restaurant to take pics) I wasn't interested in most of the options that they had on the menu, so I ordered a strawberry sorbet. It was very well made (strawberries are in season right now- I eat a ton of them every week) and they gave me a lot of it. It was a nice, light way for me to finish my meal.

Tom ordered a warm chocolate cake. He says he got it so I could try it, but I never order warm chocolate cakes since their so ubiquitous. Their version was pretty good, though nothing extraordinary. Overall, we had a really enjoyable dinner. Our waitress was super nice to us, despite the restaurant being packed and having a lot of customer to handle. It was a pretty pricey dinner, but thanks to our gift certificate, Tom claimed it was the cheapest expensive dinner he'd ever had.