OLIVETO, ROCKRIDGE

Since my little sister, Cathy, was in town with her boyfriend, Ben, we decided to head out to dinner at a place we hadn't tried before. We ended up in Rockridge, which is a really nice area in North Oakland, filled with shops, and on that day, a street festival that was winding down when we arrived. We headed over to a restaurant called Oliveto, which is a pretty famous restaurant in the East Bay. The upstairs area is the fancy party, but they also have a small cafe downstairs, specializing in small plates and pizzas.

The cafe is pretty cozy, but they had quite a few seats available and we were seated immediately. After perusing the menu, we decided to order a few small plates. Tom, Cathy and Ben ordered pizzas, while I ordered a chicken brochette.

Here's a photo of one of the small plate: a salad of octopus and beans. Normally Tom loves octopus, but he also hates celery, so he was so so on this.

And then there was my chicken. On the menu it was $15, so I was expecting something more substantial than a single skewer of chicken. Now, it was really tasty, with lemon zest and grilled bread sandwiched between the chicken pieces, but for $15, I should've gotten at least 3 of these.

Not surprisingly, I ended up being pretty hungry. I stole some pizza from Tom, but even then I was hungry. So post dinner, we check out Ici, a very famous ice cream place also in Rockridge. There was a line out the door, but I gotta say, it wasn't worth it. I just like gelato much more then ice cream. At least it filled me up, though.

So even though the food (what I had of it) at Oliveto was pretty good, the price are just too high for the portion sizes. I wouldn't mind going back if someone else were paying. Actually, Ben paid, but I mean more like my parents, but I'd just prefer to go somewhere where I don't walk out hungry.