Eccolo

i miss eccolo so much!

Dear Eccolo:
Quel surprise when I walked past a few weeks ago to see you an empty shell of your former, delicious self.
You were my absolute favorite place for a nice dinner out without the kids. How I will miss you and your excellent staff, divine cocktails and warm ambiance and ohhh… dessert. Thanks for the great birthday and anniversary memories… now to hunt down my next favorite spot. I’m taking suggestions. You’ll be a tough one to beat.

A quote from my favorite lunchie:
«…where am i going to go for lemon drops now?!
what else is gone from fourth street??? wow, no cobb salad, tuscan fries, hamburger with homemade pickles on soft lafayette cakebox buns wah! and no sketch ice cream to go to afterwards — this is so awful!!»

Closed August 09. According to the Chronicle, the owner could no longer compromise his ideals re cooking to maintain a financially viable business, so he shut the restaurant down and threw a lot of people out of work and ended his busiiness with a lot of suppliers.
Sorry to hear this. Had some good meals here.

Came here Friday for some after work cocktails. My boyfriend heard of this place after reading an article in SF Gate. We arrived well before there was any rush whatsoever.
We ordered strictly drinks. My boyfriend got the Southern Gentleman and I got the Smoke Screen. First off, the bar is completely trendy with its stainless steel counter. The lights above the bar are housed in copper covers. There is very little seating, but I still liked the vibe. The bartenders were efficient and quick to their task. After our drinks, my boyfriend and I shared Kubler absinthe. It was strong, but I have a huge aversion to licorice so it wasn’t to my liking. With our drinks, the staff served the bar patrons with roasted spicy sunflowers.
Good place for drinks on a low-​key Friday. My next venture is for their food and wine selection.

Brunch.
Loves.
Service.
Awesome.
Memorial Day.
Cara Y. and most excellent-​and-​lovely friend Karen S. celebrate super-​special-​double-​birthday-​brunch.
Melissa, our server, was awesome. Witty, funny, totally on top of her game, paid for our birthday drinks. She also celebrates her birthday in May.
Grapefruit and avocado salad. Fabulous. Delicious.
Soft-​shelled crab po’boy. Amazing. Loved it. Even without the bread.
I learned what is in a «French 75.» I’m joining their fan club.
I wish we’d stayed and had dessert instead of crossing the street and being disappointed at Sketch Ice Cream.
Eccolo = lovely.
Hot summer nights = May babies.

This place really merits 3.5 stars.
My mother and I treated ourselves to dinner here pre-​performance. When we were seated I informed my server that I needed to out the door by 7:30 to get to Yo-​Yo Ma’s concert. Since we had a condensed time frame, they fired everything at once and servfed it all at once. Unconventional but it got us out the door exactly at 7:30 as promised. Nice.
Cooking squash blossoms totally intimidates me so it is something I like to order when it is on the menu. Eccolo’s version is quite lovely, stuffed with a mild cheese (mozzerella?) and fried perfectly so that the blossom is crisp and and the cheese is slightly melted.
The clam and sausage pasta was quite tasty. The spicy sausage did overpower the delicate flavor of the clams but since the sausage was so tasty, I didn’t mind. The pasta was hand rolled and resembled gnocchi. The pasta was dense and chewy which I enjoyed immensely.
We shared the rabbit entrée and were disappointed. The components, leg and thigh, sausage and baby favas were good but the dish lacked something to make it great.
We ended with the meyer lemon pudding and it was aiight. I would have preferred a more tart and tangy pudding to cut through the dense texture.
I did spy the delicous looking hot fudge sundae that the adorable older couple got next to us. I just love seeing cute little old couples together. I want to be one one day. Well, maybe not old, but cute definitely.

I could eat those damn Tuscan fries everyday and never get tired of them. They’re wisps of potato, not quite chips, not quite fries. And the pieces of fried rosemary and sage mixed in just makes them even more awesome. I ordered a glass of vermentino and could have made a meal out of just those two things.
I was there for lunch with some family. We started with the Tuscan fries, two of us ordered the culotte steak sandwich, one had the ahi sandwich and one had salad. My steak was a bit much to handle as a sammy and I ended up pulling it off the bread. The sammies come with homemade chips, but after the lovely fries I really didn’t need them. Our server really knew his stuff and answered all our menu and wine questions confidently.
I’ve been to this restaurant in previous incarnations and my only complaint is that the place is lacking in soul. Perhaps since it has been so many different restaurants, the ghosts of previous visions remains, but the décor is pretty generic… walking in you could be at a Louise’s or Il Fornaio — it’s just seems a bit corporate.

Every so often you get a server who makes a value judgement about you. Yesterday I was classed as ‘not worthy’. Oh well. Next time I’ll wear my tuxedo.
Chicken sandwich was mostly bread with chicken cooked medium rare. If I wasn’t sure their food was fresh I’d have kicked it back.
Ordered a cider and it came it a half-​filled champagne flute. Cider should be served in a pint glass. For what it costs, it should be served in a pint glass by a nude model.
(4 stars for a negative review? I wanted to document the experience, but this isn’t what Eccolo is usually like.)

My prior review was fom my first visit. Subsequently I had one not so stellar visit where the service was quite poor. But our visit yesterday for lunch made up for it. We had a wonderful waiter. The food was superb. Chopped salad as well as asparagus with beets, bacan, and a mustard vinaigrette both were great. I enjoyed my bolognese though I prefer one with a little tomato in it.

Stopped by for a late Sunday brunch. Mom’s burger, ordered medium-​rare, came out very close to well done, and my chopped salad was extremely overdressed and had too much overpowering blue cheese. I am a fan of strong cheese, ordinarily.
The server did offer to bring a new burger but we didn’t have time for that. Also my stomach was a little unhappy after my meal at Eccolo, so I don’t think we’ll be back. Onward & upward.

Ouch.
I had some reservation about Eccolo only because… well, it’s in Berkeley, haha. I have this love/​hate relationship with Berkeley — there are strips of this town that are pretty damn awesome. The rest of it… um…not-uh.
Anyway, apparently the street that Eccolo is located on, is the trendy spot of Berkeley… after a short walk along the street, I can see what they were talking about. Pretty cool actually.
So, here’s the 4 stars (borderline 3) — ya’ll gonna love this…
First of all, the menu changes CONSTANTLY — this ain’t no Chilli’s (Yes, I know that was double negative). It’s not the same all the time; the menu is printed daily on a slightly thick stock of paper — you can see the smears sometimes.
That evening, I started with the Tuna tartare toasts with jalapeño, cilantro and lime — STAGGERINGLY fantastic.
Presentation was outstanding and the food came out very quickly.
But the best?
Grilled Niman Ranch sirloin steak with chanterelle mushrooms and parmesan.
Get this.
If you ever come here — GET THIS… trust me.
The food overall was great… now here is the borderline 3 star portion.
The tartar was not my original appetizer selection; it was the Carciofi alla giudea: artichokes fried in the style of the Roman Jews.
The waitress came back to tell me it wasn’t available.
I ordered a Bud Light.
The waitress came back to tell me it wasn’t available.
But they had Guinness.
I ordered that instead.
The waitress came back to tell me it wasn’t available.
Ouch.
Not good if three things you order ISN’T AVAILABLE. I was only mildly irritated. Ok, maybe a little more than «mildly.» But seriously, your business is FOOD and DRINK and you don’t have either? Pfffffffffffffffffffft…
I asked for a martini; Three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-​cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel
She came back with an absolutely well made martini — I was impressed.
She came back one more time to tell me that she was comp-​ing the drinks because they didn’t have a damn thing I initially wanted haha!
Thus the 4 stars.
Pricing…it’s moderate to high, but could have been far worse.

Yesterday, I made a 3 pm reservation for lunch on
for Eccolo. I looked forward to this lunch and I fought traffic to get there. After patiently waiting for the train and then to find parking, I arrived. It was 3:06 when I met the hostess to be seated at my table.
She informed me that I was six minutes late and the kitchen was not serving the lunch menu any longer today.
I mentioned that it took me half an hour to get there and I apologized while explaining that I got stuck on the other side of the railroad tracks for a while.
She checked with the kitchen and then said they already put everything away.
Boo hoo. That really sucks. I suggest to her that the last reservation on Open table should be 2:30 not 3 pm if they were that eager to close to guests.
And then I went around the corner to Café Rouge (who also «stops» their lunch menu at 3 pm) and they gave me their full lunch menu to order from. A nicer welcome indeed.
Lunch at Café Rouge was divine.
Café Rouge did a great job, Eccolo, not so much this time.

I was very happy with this meal. I admit, we found this place when going to Slow Food Nation, and trying samples of Eccolo’s lardo and finnochio salumi. Obviously, we got the salumi platter, and were not disappointed. The red and white white salumis both had lots of flavor, and good texture. The lardo, well, it’s fat, so what could possibly be wrong with that? The prosciutto I found a touch gamier than I’d like, but it was still excellent, and the pancetta was pretty perfect. The cured pork loin was also very tasty. The cheese worked well with the prosciutto, but I wouldn’t go out of my way for that bit. We also had the frito misto, which was lovely, with the wafer-​thin sweet potato and radish chips really being the highlight of that dish.
I had a glass of the perbacco, which was wonderful. For the main, I had the spit roasted wild boar, which was excellent, and my husband had the chantrelle ravioli. I think he won for flavor, but the texture of the meat was outstanding.
Overall, the meal was outstanding, but the service was a little spotty, thus not a 4.5 or 5 star review. I kept getting bumped by the wait staff as they walked past our table, so I suppose that where you sit may effect the service. It’s a bit out of my way, but I’d definitely go there again. Next time, I may just get a world of appetizers, as they all sounded very good.

Good

One cannot live without inconsistency.
— Carl Gustav Jung
Carl’s quote may sound nice and all, but inconsistency in a restaurant is definitely not a plus. One time I ate here every dish was PERFECT – the steak so tender and seasoned, the mashed potatoes were a delight on my tastebuds and the chocolate dessert served as an aphrodisiac for the week!
But this consistency did not keep up… Their menu changes a lot here which is usually a bonus, but I guess they don’t train their chefs enough on how to prepare enough types of meals, because the other three times I went, both for dinner and for brunch i was only happy with about half of my meal!!! And since my bill was not half off, I did not leave as happy as the first time.
So go here and cross your fingers and hope for the happy, joyful dance of the tastebuds I had the first time I was here and not the flee of the tastebuds I experienced other times…

Elegant, but somewhat pretentious restaurant in the heart of 4^th street. We went here for dinner one night, and felt a bit under-​dressed as everyone around were in business attire discussing stock options and politics. We were dressed semi-​casual, and were a lot younger than the rest of the crowd there. The snooty couple next to us kept giving us glances as if we didn’t belong there.
The menu changes daily, which is pretty cool i guess. Our waiter was a bit dull and appeared as though he hated his job. I can’t even remember what we ate, which means the food was forgettable, but yet way overpriced.

Snooty crowd — the middle-​aged women next to us kept talking serious shit about their friends. The word «shit» and «bitch» came up quite frequently and we requested a change of tables as a result of their airs.
I got a lot of food for what it’s worth (and it’s not exactly cheap), but the quality could have been slightly better and the portions slightly smaller. That’s about it.

They have excellent accommodations to help you plan a special occasion. Depending on how big your party is, they offer different options. The staff was very good with following up with the reservation I made weeks before. However… the follow-​thru wasn’t followed-​THRU to our actual meal.
Service was mediocre… we’ve had peppier/​attentive servers at… Apple Bee’s! To add, when it came time to the bill (everyone’s least favorite part) My Crush was double charged on his card from a bill from the other table! Not coool…
HOWEVER… minus all that… we had a decent time. It’s nice to have a fancy meal for special occassions. Even if they don’t sing for a birthday celebrant. =P
I celebrated a birthday brunch here last Saturday with 15 friends. We all had a good time. I especially enjoyed the brunch cocktails! The Bellini & Pink Slipper were yummy. So were all of our dishes. I ordered the Poached Eggs & Asparagus. Tasting my friends’ dishes, everything was wonderful. From the Dungeness Crab Omelet to the Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict, it was all delightful.

I have been dying to try this place since it replaced the Island themed restaurant that used to be there when I was in college. That and it is from the former chefs of Chez Panisse.
Silly me wanted to do a walk in and get the full experience, but reservations are best made for this establishment. We were seated at the bar quite quickly on a Saturday afternoon.
We ordered the pan-​fried chicken and Stilton cheese salad with Belgian endive for starters. I’m not a big fan of Stilton, but after I picked it out this plate was delicious.
My friend had a burger, which he said was delicious, but I settled on
one of the specials for the day. Funny thing is… I can’t remember what it was, but I know their specialties are usually what is in season and fresh. I remember it being good, but I have completely blanked out what it was. I guess it wasn’t THAT good.
The best part was they served Acme bread as a mini appetizer. I *heart* Acme bread. And my glass of water was never empty, (even though they occasionally forgot to fill my friend’s glass). Hey what can I say, I like preferential treatment =P
Nevertheless, this place perfectly fit my expectations. It was a nice place to go while doing shi shi home utilities shopping and the service was fantastic.