Cafe Rouge

Came here for a lunch meeting. I ordered the tuna salad, per the waitress’ recommendation and it was just ok. It was one of the saddest looking salads I have had because the romaine is pale green, the avocado was pale green, the sunflower seeds were a colorless taupe and the tuna was pale pink and brown. :(I did like that the tuna was poached but for $ 16, there wasn’t a lot going on.
P. S. Good service though.

Mediocre at best. We ordered a hamburger, medium, and the trout for dinner… Hamburger was well done and had an odd flavor. The trout was vey oily without a lot of flavor… service was decent, restaurant was very loud. I got food poisoning from the trout… a horrible experience to say the least…
I wish we would have read the reviews prior to trying this place. Would have dined elsewhere.
Would never recommend nor would we ever return.
Ten thumbs down.

food was ok, but service was bad. had to wait endlessly for food and beverages to arrive
waiter was never there

Service was slow at the bar. Rouge Martini was good. We ordered the kale salad which was good then we ordered the $ 36 steak which was huge disappointment, it was so full of fat and undercooked. Last time I go there.

If you are in a rush or want a quiet place to talk or enjoy a meal. Don’t come here. However, the food was great. But, the wait staff took for ever to come to the table, to bring us our drinks, to check in in us or update us on our order. And t top it off when i asked for our check, we were given the wrong one. (A more expensive one at that!)

Came here for lunch with my coworkers. Parking is a bit of a hassle during lunch hours.
Restaurant is clean and inviting. Staff is friendly. I ordered their fish sandwich and truffle fries and it did not disappoint. The fish was lightly battered with no concerns of being too oily. My other coworkers ordered the steak frites which seemed to be a popular item. The chicken and porchetta sandwiches turned out to be a bust — the chicken was a bit bland; the porchetta was on the salty side.
For dessert, their flourless chocolate cake with a side order of vanilla gelato was Dee-​lish! I could have eaten the cake all by myself.
i was satisfied.

Good cheap Sunday oysters. But unfortunately got charged for bread when we didn’t order it… not cool

Meh.
Ribs too salty & bbq sauce wasn’t anything special. You get two ribs per order for the happy hour bar bites. All happy hour offerings are $ 5 each. Beer on tap is about $ 5. The acme epi bread was great too but you can honestly buy it at Acme bread for the same price, if not cheaper. Keep in mind if you eat here, you still have to pay tax & tip.
Service was okay. Not as attentive as I would like even though I was by myself so there wasn’t much they had to do except refill my water (my thirst is unquenchable). Only offering I was slightly interested in was the pâté. They were out of chicken liver that day & I’m not a fan of lamb, which was all they had, so I ended up not getting it. The other options were jerky and curry chips, which I wasn’t into. Soooooo long story short, this place is not for me. It was worth giving the ribs a try, but it’s not good enough to keep me coming back for more.

I’ve been hearing about this place for a long time now. Since the lady and I moved into the neighborhood and she had a rather fond memory of the place we decided to visit for dinner. Well, the fond memories shall continue. We sat at the bar and the bartenders were full of great energy. Happy to speak with us. Wanting to answer any questions. Their favorite way (and mine) to answer most questions about drinks (wine in particular) was «here try a taste» and we did and made sure we got exactly what we wanted. The menu was exceptional and because of that difficult to choose an order. We couldn’t order the whole menu, though we wanted to. But those helpful bartenders really guided us through and we narrowed it down to a delightful quail dish but oysters to start. Dessert was great as well but we had to get two of those. Thanks Café Rouge for a great date night! We’ll hopefully be back soon.

By number of visits, this is my favorite restaurant. Of the 300+ lunches and numerous dinners I consider this the MOST creative kitchen I’ve seen. The patio on weekends provides outstanding people watching.

Oh, dear, Café Rouge. Where to begin? It’s not that you’re not trying. In fact, I feel sad for you, because I get the feeling that you genuinely try to be a good restaurant, but you’re going about it in all the wrong ways.
My partner and I waited a too long to book a restaurant for Valentine’s Day dinner. This was the only place around that still had plenty of availability one week out. Our fault for not recognizing immediately that this should have been a red flag.
First, the décor is bizarre. Café Rouge wants to be an intimate restaurant with a quiet, slightly sexy vibe. But the ceilings are weirdly high, and the tables do a kind of unpleasant metallic scraping on the floor, making noise levels closer to a diner. It can feel raucous when it’s only half full. Plus, tables are fitted very close together, positioning you pretty close to your neighbor. Especially on V-​Day, the relative proximity of fellow eaters was a bit family table for my taste.
My partner ordered two salads with dressing on the side & no cheese. Vegetarian options: not so diverse. I ordered braised beef. When our order arrived, only one salad was what he’d ordered; the second was something else entirely. And both orders came with a huge amount of cheese. Again, not what he’d ordered. My order turned out to be boiled beef — not braised. Big difference. Ten seconds after we’d started eating, the waiter came back and tried to retrieve one of our plates because he’d given us someone else’s food. Then 5 minutes later our original order was also delivered to the table. I’m not exactly sure what happened all told — something between a mistaken order and a double order. In any event, it was chaotic.
To their credit, the waitstaff were kind — even excessively so. But the sloppiness of the order mixup, combined with not getting our order right to begin with, combined with not great-​tasting food, combined with the weirdly loud-​even-​tho-​half-​empty vibe was enough to make us pretty uncomfortable. It was far from the romantic night out we were hoping for. We left in less than one hour.
Will not be going back.

Came here on a Saturday night around 5:30pm and the overall experience was 3.5 stars.
We ordered their house-​made jerky from the happy hour menu for $ 5. It was just one piece and it was kind of dry (don’t really think it’s even worth $ 5). For entrees, we got the ribs, sausage sandwich and a hotdog. All the food were mediocre and pricey for the quality. The fries that came with the ribs were too salty and the sausage for the sausage sandwich was overcooked.
Asides from the food, the service and the atmosphere pretty good! The waiter was nice and knowledgable. We got seated pretty fast and the food came out fast too.

Came back here during Sunday brunch to try out a few other items with a friend visiting from outta town. We started off with a selection of the oysters while our side of ribs was getting put together. I can’t recall the name of our server, but my friend and I were very glad he took the time to provide short blurbs about each kind of oyster (so as to help us pick a good spread) in addition to pointing out which were which when they were brought to our table.
Ribs– We were sort of expecting/​hoping for the kind of ribs that have been cooked long enough to where the meat and tendons could be easily separated from the bone. These were definitely more of the sort where you need to get your fingers ALL UP IN THERE, lol… as opposed to a knife and fork type deal. Lovely job on the seasoning though!
Challah French toast– GODDAMN. This thing right here is a killer. Like in all the right ways… I’m talking slices of bread that are practically an inch thick (or more) so that you can have a lightly egged but crispy face on either side of the slice, but still have room for that oh-​so-​soft-​and-​fluffiness in the middle that is the hallmark of challah bread. Cut of a piece onto your fork, dash it through the light syrup on the bottom… Perfection in your mouth! This may well be my favorite spot for French toast!

I usually never have anything bad to say about restaurants and I’m not picky, but this place really missed the mark for me. The food was mediocre and WAY overpriced. I ordered the ribeye when I was there and it was $ 32 but I don’t think it was even worth $ 20. I asked for it to be cooked rare and it was done medium. Plus, it was just not a good cut of meat. Service was slow as well. Over all, they just acted way too pretentious. Hated it.

Excellent food, especially the meat and deserts. Top notch service as well.
Will come back for sure.

Great place to hang out during the day. Great lighting. Can be a bit noisy if it’s crowded. I recommend the Cuban sandwich. A decent pile of ham with pickle spears between focaccia bread. I would’ve taken a picture but I immediately attacked it. Delicious! Wine by the glass can be pricey. They have delicious brews on draft. I had the rotating ipa which was local (Fieldwork). It was called Burning daylight and was great. Of the restaurants I’ve tried along 4^th (Zut, Spengers) this was the best.

I had lunch here with my husband and the in-​laws. Overall, the food was not bad. I had the kale salad (very good) and the happy hour ribs (2 pork ribs for $ 5.00 and they were pretty good), husband and father in law had the burger with truffle fries (both enjoyed their food and the French fries looked light and crispy), and my mother in law had the roast chicken (chicken was a bit dry). We all had a Bloody Mary (5 stars for the drinks!).
The décor and table setting was nice, yet we all felt comfortable wearing jeans and hoodies for lunch. There is a nice bar and it looks like this place could be a good date night spot. There is a nearby parking lot that usually has plenty of spots.
Notwithstanding all of its good points, there was not much variety on the menu. Also, the price point for the food was a bit more than I think it was worth (over $ 200.00 for our meals/​drinks). Finally, our waiter could have been a little friendlier. He seemed annoyed and acted like we were putting him out for most of the time he served us.

I just had one of the best meals ever at Café Rouge! The broccoli soup was a flavorful surprise with a clear broth, not cream base, and generous slivers of fried pork belly! I ordered the Cuban sandwich and it came with thick sliced ham, chunks of tender, tasty pork roast and what tasted like a homemade pickle, accompanied by salty, crispy homemade potato chips! So Good! And for dessert, the olive oil cake on orange flavored crème anglaise, topped with a thick dollop of whipped cream. Each bite of this meal made me close my eyes to better savor the incredible flavor.

«WOW» !!! Back by popular demand it seems like they are going to keep the famous French Toast on the brunch menu.
Can’t comment on the 2 star reviews this place is getting, but I’m telling you, try the French Toast for brunch on Sunday’s
Service was also great our waiter Chris and the other wait staff were awesome and Martha who I guess was the owner or manager gave us warm welcome when we arrived and just as warm when we were leaving.
So hopefully they monitor social media and make adjustments on the other items on their menu because I really like the place and staff.

I love the Rouge for their reliably delicious, creative seasonal menu. Beautiful and comfortable grand room, indoor and outdoor seating. Professional service. We have been rarely disappointed over many wonderful visits through over a decade. And I am picky about freshness and quality of ingredients, lovingly prepared. The Café Rouge is still our favorite local restaurant.

We’ve gone here 3 – 4 times a year for special meals, but the last few visits were disappointing. We went last night for their advertised «porchetta Wednesday» but –despite their website — they were not offering porchetta. We considered leaving but selected alternatives from the menu. I rarely order grilled meats, but café rouge boasts about their meat shop so I thought I would try their lamb chops. Mistake. Nearly half of each chop was fat and grizzle (see photo). A very unpleasant experience.
Oyster specials and service, lovely. But the entrees are too pricy to be hit-​or-​miss.

I have had the pleasure of coming to Café Rouge two times now, and each time I was very pleased by the attentive service… but even more so with the wonderful food. Large windows facing the south allow for happy amounts of natural light to filter in during the day and the mood lighting for dinner is spot on. Both times (once on a weekend and once on a weeknight) the patronage was moderate, just crowded enough to produce a low conversational hum, but not so stuffily packed that you had to strain to hear your companion. Breakdown of the dishes I had below:
Oysters: At the special price of $ 1.25 a pop, these Hammersley oysters were a steal! Super fresh and juicy, and also surprisingly gorgeously plated! I was however, somewhat puzzled at the large difference in size our oysters were. Because we only got two, the disparity was even more obvious lol.
Bourride– This traditional French stew came elegantly plated with two offset crostini pre-​spread with so-fresh-it’s-kinda-spicy garlic on it over a huge portion of rockfish. The clams, mussels, and potato wedges were arranged all around along the edge of the fish (cooked to a lovely «al dente» texture– if such a term can be used for fish lol… just to my taste!). The stew’s broth was an interesting combination: cream colored (which I am more used to associating with thicker roux-​ish forms), but still watery in texture (as though the cream were diluted with the seafood broth?). Regardless, the flavor was not lacking at all. I actually preferred the thinness of the soup as I’m not sure I would have been able to finish it all had it been much richer. Leeks were cooked to such softness, I could hardly recognize them for what they were for a bit hahah… all in all a great dish! =]
Rib-​eye steak: Trust me guys, this dish is AMAZEBALLS. It first caught my eye with the phrase «red wine shallot butter» in addition to the side of fries (which you can get truffled for $ 3 more). My epicurious side was mystified contemplating how on earth you could emulfsify something so non-​fatty and non-​solid as wine, into a butter, but I guess that’s why I eat instead of cook lol. Steak was cooked to perfection, but really it was the generous slab of butter that truly stole our hearts and stomachs. A MUST TRY for any steak lover in the area! Fries are fried to a crispy, almost chip like texture– I actually think this pairs really well with the steak… should you want to use the fries to sop up the extra meat juice/​melted butter XD… so. damn. good.
Definitely going to come back here. Even though it is a bit pricey compared to some of other options on Fourth Street, I’d say it’s well worth every dollar. =]

OK, the food here is really good. So why the 2-​star review? Because the service is consistently poor to fair. I’ve gone here many times because of the food, and here’s the usual experience: Being marooned at the host/​hostess station for a long time before being seated, having it take FOREVER just to get a drink/​bread on the table, appetizers served at a glacial pace. And then the entrée arrives and all sins are forgiven.
But not this time. My friends and I are done with Café Rouge. Service does matter.

A bit of a splurge, but the oysters are worth it!

I thought this place was a was just okay. I felt my brisket sandwich lacked flavor. Service seemed a little slow to check in the table.

Nice place to drop in, if/​when you’re on 4^th Street. Great oysters — now $ 1.25/ea. Service was slow even though they weren’t busy. Very disappointed in the marrow appetizer and the prices are a little high but overall, it’s a good experience, IMHO.
If they’re booked, you may order at the bar. As always, the meat’s excellent. (It’s available for purchase through the butcher shop.) Would rate it higher but both the service and food are spotty (multiple visits).

This used to be a favorite hangout however y-day’s experience was totally unacceptable. Our bloody mary had no vodka in it along with the fact it was tomato juice free, plenty of pepper. You used to make a good one. Our cheeseburgers, 1 — rare, 1 med rare & 1 med were over cooked and the French fries were soggy. We saw that you added the tax for the servers which is unacceptable. The city yes, but not in Berkeley along with your prices have been raised and the food isn’t worth the price. Sorry we won’t be returning.
While sitting on the patio, very nice day, some guy came up to show off his snake. This took care of my lunch completely, gave it to my hubby.
Looks like Sur la Table and Pasta Shop will be our only shopping in this area.
What happened to the once favored Café Rouge?

Food is not great for vegetarians but not too bad. Service is good some times and scattered at times. There is no dish that calls out for a wow, especially for the price. Oh the green tea was all right.

Café Rouge used to have one of the best burgers in the east bay. Now it pales in comparison to Revival Bar and Kitchen or Wood Tavern.
The bacon and the fries were undercooked, the burger itself was smothered in cheese and the accompanying salad lacked vinegar.
I’m leaving an extra star for not overcooking the burger, but I would be hard pressed to return. Particularly given the price. My husband and I spent $ 95 on two burgers, one salad and two drinks.

I usually only comment when I have a bad experience, but I have to say this place should have more than 3 ½ stars.
Wife and I came here for Sunday brunch and it was awesome. The coffee was great and you have to try the French Toast. I mean you really have to try the French Toast. It was «AWESOME». Service was good and I will have to try the steak and frites people are talking about next time.
Just hope that after this review I will still be able to get a table for brunch without a reservation.

Sad to see they’ve set up a TV behind the bar. «What’s with the TV?» «Oh we turn it on sometimes when there’s a game on.»
:-/​
(Cranky Rant: This is how it always starts. Can’t miss the World Cup. Can’t miss the Warriors at the playoffs. Let’s set up a TV for this one game. In a few months it’s on all the time and you can’t have a drink or conversation without the CNN chyron or Sports Center’s CG sphincter dancing around in your peripheral vision. Can’t bear to be away from TV? Perhaps you should drink (or work?) in a sports bar. There are many.)
The food here is still good, but for the bar this may be the end of an era.

This is a great spot. By the outdoor area, you wouldnt expect it to be of decent size inside, too. The servers are excellent, the hosts are friendly, and the food is good. If you want to relax with a friend in a chill environment (minus the occasional train passing by about a block away), then this is the place to go. Had a meeting with a client and her son and am glad they picked this place.

Cute place with outside seating. The food was delicious and the staff friendly. They seem to make the food with fresh ingredients, at least the taste suggested it.
It also seems to be a great breakfast place. It is very crowded and tends to be a bit loud inside.

The ambiance here is great– food excellent– service hit pr miss– prices, a bit excessive-​location great if you’re in the neighborhood.
Amazing Bread an butter to start-​however they charge $ 2 for it, so that can add up.
Nice wine selection, had a Chilean Cab that said $ 35 on the menu but gt charged $ 47 for-​not bad. Enjoyed a beautiful delicate ravioli soup and perfectly cooked Rib Eye Steak.
I noticed they had Braesola on a charcuterie platter appetizer– I asked for just 2 or 3 slices on a plate and they eventually came out– however I got charged ¹⁄₃ of the price of the appetizer. I would have thought the waiter would just bring out a slice or two gratis– not the case.
It made for a romantic setting on Valentines day and if you don’t mind the freight trains blasting past and jamming on their horns all night– the ambient noise was great!
4^th street is a little out of the way for most who live in Berkeley, also it is not the best served by Public Transportation, but if you want to come in from somewhere else its easy to get to and a beautiful area.
Check it out, –incredible food– but don’t count on the best service pr prices.

Great place for brunch or meet for cocktails and their raw bar. Their menus change regularly and seasonally so you can always find something new or stick to their classics: kale ceaser salad, rouge burger, Ora grilled steak. Their bar is well stocked with bay-​area favorites: hangar one vodka and St. George spirits and the bar-​menu is great: meatballs, olives, spiced nuts, and ribs.
Usually noisy because of the high-​ceilings but the out door seating is nice and cozy during colder months because of the outdoor heaters.