Garibaldis

Went with my Husband for our First Wedding Anniversary !!
We already made reservations for dinner. But it wasnt that crowded.
We were greeted by the hostess after a 5min wait & then taken to our table. I decided to go for the pre-​fixe menu which had the pumpkin soup with Truffle Mascarpone Cheese, Honey-​Rosemary Chicken with Yukon Gold Potatoes and finally the dessert Caramel Pudding with Grapefruit. My husband ordered the New york Steak. The pumpkin soup was to die for. Chicken breast was juicy, tender and melted in my mouth. My husband loved the steak as well. The portions of the dinner were big and we had some left overs to take home as well.
Check the photos !!
I would love to visit Garibaldi’s again.
Definitely recommended !!

Had plans for dinner with an old friend from out of town at B (downtown — really good!) but there was a power outage that affected the whole downtown area. So at the spur of the moment I remember that I had wanted to try this place and why not?
I’ll tell you why not, it was a total miss. We were early (5:15) and we were told we could sit at the communal table for happy hour fare or sit at a private table right next to it and have dinner. OK, we wanted a private table but we were hungry (my friend was on east coast time). So when we were seated we were told that they would not be serving dinner for 15 minutes. We asked if we could order an appetizer off the happy hour menu before dinner — no. A bit pretentious but why argue so we ordered a cocktail and waited.
Soon after we ordered, a waiter set two salads in front of us. The only issue was they were not ours. Another waiter quickly came and snatched them back and took them to the correct table. After we were served out salads, two glasses of wine also arrived from the bar. We informed the server we had not ordered wine yet. When I did order a glass of wine, there was something oily floating on the top and I had to send it back.
I can look the other way at these service glitches at my local neighborhood bistro but if your going to try to be a prentitious restaurant, repeated mistakes like this really become glaring failures.
When my lamb entrée was served I almost laughed at loud. I would have complained had I not been with a friend that I had not seen in years and I did not want the evening to become a negative experience. My $ 28 lamb tenderloin entrée was two tiny stips of meat laying on a pool of pumpkin purée. Each strip was three small bites. $ 27 for six bites! It was embarrasing.
The food tasted fine, nothing over the top, but it was generally good. But given the miniscule portions, the spotty service, the atmosphere and the fact that everything was relatively over priced, there are many better options just a few steps down College Ave.

Lucky? Spoiled? Maybe. But whatever you want to call it, I had the pleasure of being treated to dining here, impromptu, last Friday.
The restaurant was busy, but there was no wait and plenty of seating in the quiet back room which we decided to dine in over the more boisterous front room. This back room was perfectly lit, modern yet organically decorated, and the perfect setting for us and the other dining couples that seemed to also prefer this more intimate setting.
Our waitress was great, knowledgeable, attentive and really friendly. And the attitudes of the rest of the wait staff were also exceptional. They really did an outstanding job.
The Food (see pictures):
Pre-​fixe menu (3 courses for $ 30 can’t beat that!)
1) Saffron Tomato Soup–
I love soup! But tomato soup is probably my least favorite because they tend to remind me of eating a bowl of pasta sauce… but not this one! I was really pleasantly surprised at the complexity and well balanced flavors of this soup. I’m happy my dining partner kept letting me eat it!
2) Chicken Breast–
I forget the exact name of this dish but it was a PERFECTLY fried chicken breast. Succulent and moist, it basically melted in your mouth. The buttery yet tangy sauce went perfectly with the arugula and perfect Yukon gold potatoes. Once again, someone who is not the worlds hugest chicken fan, is impressed by the deliciousness of this dish.
3) Vanilla Panna Cotta with Strawberries–
Simplistic, creamy, not too sweet. The panna cotta was the perfect stage for the fresh and flavorful strawberries. I have to say that I love panna cotta’s creamy yet not too sweet nature and this one was superb.
Steak Tartare–
My appetizer was gorgeous. Perfectly buttered little crispy toasts served as a tasty device to shovel wonderfully seasoned steak tartare into my mouth. I loved the capers which added just the right zing to the meat. And loved the raw quail egg. Quail eggs are love.
Braised Pork Ravioli–
While this dish was definitely well done (pasta, texture and sauce all done quite well) it did not quite shine like the rest of the items that I was served that night. It was rich but some how lacked the pop that really made the other dishes sing. Don’t get me wrong, I devoured every drop, but I would have liked a little more pizazz.
Overall, a fantastic and romanic evening and very tastefully done. With the wide selection of delicious eats in the area, I’m really pulling for this organic and classy joint!

«Have a wonderful evening» Yes, Kelly E. and I WILL having a nice evening. It was lunch time. Many awkward looks exchanged.
After hitting a few pedestrians on the street on the way there thanks to Kelly’s driving, we made it. We even paid for parking instead of finding a side street. That’s how cool we felt going to Garibaldi’s. The door had a G as a door handle. So classy, Garibaldi. Whoever you are.
This place is really great with the décor. We were so distracted by the nice touches that we barely made eye contact with our waitress (who, by the way, made excellent eye contact — *so excellent* that we decided to NOT make eye contact because it was getting a little creepy).
Fritto Misto
Pulled Pork Sandwich
Seafood Stew
I think I enjoyed the Fritto Misto the most out of the 3 dishes we had. They made it interesting by frying several varieties of summer squash. I was underwhelmed by the pulled pork sandwich although it did have a nice kick of heat at the end. It just wasn’t worth $ 15. The seafood stew had fresh seafood, but they sprinkled alot of almonds over the top for some texture. And I’m not sure if it was a good thing because it sort of messed up that nice saffron broth. Also not worth the $ 17.
The food is similar to Wood Tavern on College, but Wood Tavern’s food tastes fresher, more refined, and also costs less. Not too keen on returning to Garibaldi’s for lunch.
I hear their steak tartar is good, and dinner perhaps better overall. This won’t be my only visit.

Garibaldis is the type of place that you expect to dazzle your socks off… today though I was not wearing socks.
I liked the decorum and the art on the walls. The cool colors and the rustic wood table that the 10 person party I was with sat at. The service was very attentive and I appreciated the constant water refills.
To start they serve a slightly sweet bread with a seasoning of sorts on top. Pretty yummy. The lunch menu was a simple one page which I appreciated for the simplicity. I ordered the half sandwich/​half soup: grilled chicken and tomato-​ish soup. The sandwich was good but not completely satisfying. I think because about 6 people in my party ordered the half sandwich that they made several sandwiches and cut them in half. Which is fine except my half sandwich had a very tiny sliver of chicken, which I assume is because the other ¾ of the breast went on another sandwich. I left lunch a little hungry which is unfortunate. The soup was very good and it was accompanied with barbecue chips which were tasty also.
I think my favorite item was the sparkling lemonade. Which was sweet but not overbearing.
I cannot say I left this place with the burning desire to return, but if invited I would try dinner or brunch here. After all my coworkers massive burger certainly looked worthwhile.

Great deal for October: Buy 1 lunch entrée and get 1 lunch entrée for free through the end of October. A bunch of coworkers went there for lunch today, the food is great and the price is lovely. Definitely will be visiting at least once a week for the rest of October.
What are you waiting for? Go Go Go!

Happy Hour road trip to Oakland…
nice bar area and cozy long table.
the perfect mojito with a custom topped Hamburger on acme bun.
Happy.
the food was very good.
this resturant has evolved into two halves.
5 dollar cocktails and 567 small plates.
open 4 – 6

The overall atmosphere of Garibaldi’s has changed since the split of the space into two restaurants. It feels more cloistered and formal, however, the food is still tasty.
Fall off the bone short ribs, nice cocktail program, in season ingredients; it’s all there.
One disappointment was the chocolate budino on the dessert menu. When I think of budino, I envision a thick pudding-​like dessert and memories of my favorite budino at LA’s Pizzeria Mozza comes to mind. What we were served under the guise of being a budino was an almost flourless chocolate cake. It was still good, but shouldn’t be labeled as a budino.

It was a daring move to spilt the restaurant in 2. It has lost the wonderful bar and the décor is a bit something, ostentatiously austere comes to mind but makes no sense. The host was great but I did not care for our server even though she did a fine job. The food was good and nicely presented but not as good as I remembered. Less of the geriatric crowd which I like. worth trying.

Garibaldi’s was fantastic. We had a great night out. To start, we had a fantastic Bordeaux. We were undecided about which wine to pick, and while there wasn’t a sommelier, our waitress found another waiter with more wine experience to help us pick out a bottle. And she made a great recommendation!
To start we shared the tempura squash blossoms, which were filled with a cheese rice mixture and just perfect. It was like summer on a plate.
For our meals, he had the halibut and I had the shortribs. Everything was fantastic, and we cleaned our plates.
Dessert was the chocolate budino. My BF rarely likes chocolate desserts, but I insisted based on the other Unilocal reviews. Thank you for the suggestion!

My review is purely based on the service. The food was fine, although what I got for lunch shouldn’t really be the basis of a review (pretty simple salad and pasta). But I had some service issues with the restaurant:
1) When I called and inquired about parking, the hostess gave me a lot of attitude. I was about to leave for the restaurant for a professional lunch presentation, and I just wanted to know where I should park. College Ave. is all meters and I didn’t have any quarters. I basically got a «not-​really-​our-​problem» attitude. At the very least, would it be that hard to stock quarters to make change for your customers for the meters? If she had even been more pleasant about it I wouldn’t have cared.
2) We had a group of about 15 in the back room. Everyone’s table got bread but ours. I was starving, so after about 15 minutes, I asked our server for some bread. «She’s bringing it out…» Another 15 minutes later, still no bread. Asked the busser. «We’ll bring everything out at once.» [[puzzled looks from our table.]] «Uh… no, we just want some bread.» We eventually got bread about 5 minutes later.
3) The presentation was scheduled from 11:30−1, with lunch to be salad/​soup, entrée, and dessert. The salad/​soups came out at about 12:10. The presentation ended at about 12:50 and the entrees were brought out (seriously) at 12:55. This was a pre-​planned event with a set menu, so it’s not like the kitchen was surprised at having to serve a large party. I barely had time to gulp down my pasta and left without dessert. Our hosts were very apologetic about the delay and hopefully they got some $$ knocked off the bill.
I’ll give it another chance sometime but I was surprised at these lapses in service at what looked to be an otherwise nice restaurant.

I was in Oakland to have dinner with a friend as this is our halfway meeting place. Each time we start at Caffe Trieste for coffee and chatting and then pick a different restaurant to continue at. Though there were a number of restaurants on Piedmont Avenue to choose from, I really wanted something quiet and comfortable; a place to hold a civilized conversation. Most of the eateries on Piedmont Ave seem to be very popular, crowded and loud. Not a bad thing, but not for this particular meeting.
So this is an Italian restaurant? It didn’t strike me as that at all. I will say that the excellent service really stood out. My friend had the Fava Beans and Short Ribs — too rich of a combo? She thought so, despite it being good. I had a perfectly cooked steak: crispy outside and pink inside. The potatoes with the steak were greasy, though. Very comfortable and easy to have a conversation in this place and easy parking in the library lot next door.
While ordering I told our server about the crispy outside and medium rare inside, however, the woman who served the food knew that I wanted it that way and commented on it and asked if the outside looked right to me. Wow. That impressed me — they really communicate behind the scenes.

We enjoyed a sunny Oakland afternoon outside of Mezze for happy hour. Went for a round of margaritas. Our server didn’t seem very attentive. There were lulls in time when our drinks sat empty (and lonely). Our appetizer came out a bit late as well. This place was fairly dead when we were there.
Maybe this is just the Happy-​Hour treatment.
I decided to go for one of their signature cocktails, the Pandora (yeah, I’m an Avatar nerd), and it was decent.
All in all, a bit of an average experience.

Garibaldis was good before. Now it’s even greater. If you’re ever on the Berkeley side of College Ave for brunch, keep on driving until you hit Oakland. Garibaldis is worth it. The remodel, expansion of Marzano, and new pastry chef will have you singing high praises. The restaurant is intimate, the food is divine, the service is top notch, and I wish I had my camera on me to help capture the ambiance. I loved loved loved the light fixtures. The chandeliers were an intricate weave of wood carving. It was almost antler like. Very cool and different.
We skipped over the prix fixe brunch ($ 17 for fruit, an omelet and mimosa) in favor of sharing the French Toast and Garibaldis Burger. This was really wonderful in that Garibaldis turned it into a first and second course meal. It wasn’t family style. Garibaldis split each entrée into two and served it to us as if it were our own. I had the most beautiful plate of french toast laid in front of me. One slice slathered in maple syrup, topped with crème fraîche and blanketed with an apple hazelnut compote. The applewood smoked bacon on the side was the best piece of bacon I have ever tasted. Forget Peter Luger’s in Brooklyn. The bacon at Garibaldis is where it is at. Meaty and minimal of fat, the bacon was delicious. The smokiness put it in a league of its own and Garibaldis was generous. We’re not talking skinny thin pieces of bacon, these were hefty slabs. Back to the french toast, it was perfection sans cinnamon.
Mmmm. As soon as we ate our last forkful of french toast, our Garibaldis burger had arrived. We both had half a burger and an accompaniment of shoestring potatoes. It was high class Pik-​Nik. We didn’t get our burger plain. We added white cheddar and caramelized onions. The burger was huge and medium (recommended by our waitress) was just right. Still pink and juicy every burger chef should take notes from Garibaldis! The burger was a little messy to eat since it was so big but each bite was divine. We had succeeded in the perfect brunch. French Toast for breakfast and a burger for lunch. We were quite full and were not able to partake in dessert.
I will add, however, that Garibaldis was particularly enthusiastic about their new pastry chef. She specializes in an Asian Pear Upsidedown Cake. The cake is complimented by a balsamic peppercorn gastrique. Does that sound intriguing? There are quite a few items on the dessert menu that I think could be promising (Cardamom Panna Cotta, Toffee Ice Cream with potato chips…) if spicy cake does not float your boat. In short, whether it is wine you seek next door or a full bodied meal, Garibaldis will surely deliver.

In these uncertain economic times I’ve become a bit, eh, frugal. Not cheap, mind you, but always on the lookout for a deal. Happy hour prices seven days a week? Now that’s a deal! That’s how I ended up at Garibaldi’s last night.
Garibaldi’s features a large section of their bar menu that’s half price between 5pm and 7pm AND 9pm to close, seven days a week. While the food options change, they usually feature a few pizzas, some sandwiches and snacks. I honed in on the burger and fries which was a steal at $ 7 (I splurged and added cheese and grilled onions) and let me tell you my friends, this was one tasty burger. Add on an expertly made $ 5 margarita (also happy hour priced — score!) and I had one hell of a meal for under $ 20.
Food aside, I really enjoyed the atmosphere at the bar. They have a fantastic selection of top shelf liquor (Right Gin? Why hello there!) and our waiter was on top of things without being overbearing. I could certainly see myself returning to Garibaldi’s for snacks and some cocktails at the bar, especially at these great prices!

Garibaldi had an uptown feel. they have a nicely sized bar. I was surpised to see that they valet. this place was a little on the louder side. we made reservations and were seated right away. I enjoyed the décor and the lighting give the place a nice personal feel. our waitress was cool.
we started with the hummus, which was good, the flatbread was oily, which was a little different. we had the crab cakes, which I really enjoyed. for the mains, I ordered the duck prix fixe, which came with asparagus and bread pudding as dessert, it was very good. my friend ordered the filet mignon, which was also very good and melted in my mouth. this place is cool because they make their own soda, my friend ordered the orange soda, spiked with rum, it was very good. I had the white wine sangria, which was okay, very light.
overall, nice restaurant. this place is one of those restaurants that you should not go to if you’re hungry, the mains took an hour to arrive. but if youre not dying to eat, this place has good service and good food.

I was very disappointed today. We made a reservation at 1:00 PM. We walked in and we waited for a while because there was no hostess there. We were then sat in the corner towards the back where the servers come out and yell «Corner!» every time they walk around the corner.
We ordered drinks and then were told that the bar was backed up and that our drinks would be coming in a moment. It did take a while for the drinks to get to the table. As we were sitting and waiting I saw a woman working behind the counter making food and touching her hair and face repeatedly. At one point she was carrying bowls that were stacked really high and her hair was all over the top of the bowls that were laying on her shoulder.
Then our drinks came. They were pretty good. I ordered the Eggs Benedict and my husband had the Burger. His was really good because I had some bites. Mine on the other hand was cold. It came with a side of potatoes and the potatoes were hotter than the the Eggs Benedict. I was really unhappy with my food.
We ordered the Garibaldi’s Cookie Jar for dessert. That was the best thing for me. Warm cookies with a side of this vanilla stuff. It doesn’t make up for my cold food though. The cookies came out warmer than the Eggs Benedict.
The drinks cost the same as our food and the drinks were better. I don’t know that I will be coming back here again even for dinner.

I am one lucky lady.
For my 200^th review, I had lunch with my folks at Forbes Mill
For my 300^th review, I had dinner with my folks at Fleming’s
and for my 500^th review, I had lunch with my folks at Garibaldi’s!
This was my first time at the this restaurant even though I had made many a reservation for others when I worked for Chiron. The ambiance is lovely and inviting as was our waitress. The lunch menu was perfect and I know that Toni will review what she, my Dad and my Uncle Jim had (since they ALL had the same thing). I will tell you what I had along with my «real» mom (and yes, I am so lucky to have a wonderful mom and step mom and wouldn’t have it any other way).
I ordered their prix fixed lunch. This was a great deal for $ 15. It included an appetizer of (I forget the name) but the waitress had me at fried balls, a lovely chicken sandwich and a dessert of blood orange sorbet and 2 small cookies. The sorbet was too tart for me but I knew Toni would love it. My mom ordered a burger. It was HUGE and perfectly cooked. It came with very thinly sliced fries-​with a texture almost of those potato fried things in a can. They were yummy. She also had coffee and asked the waitress if it was strong. The waitress of course replied it was great and then I inquired as to what brand of coffee they served. Of course it was Peerless (which I detest) so I had a diet coke instead.
The food was great and aside from my guy and my daughter not being with us, the company was perfect.

So during the «taste of the east bay» week, we wanted to check out this restaurant, that we’ve always managed to pass by, but never tried. So to make a long story short,
sent me an email to rate this restaurant after we ate there, so this is what i copied and pasted from the survey:
1. They did not have the prefixed 3 course meal for lunch that was advertised for the «taste of the east bay» on sunday when we went.
2. My fish and chips was bland.
3. our appetizer did not come until AFTER they served us our entrees, and didn’t even bother to apologize for that. plus, the damn thing was salty!
4. It took them like 15 minutes to get our drinks/​coffee, and another 15 to get our orders.
5. The waitresses were pretentious with no reason to be.
6. We actually ended up leaving a better tip than expected simply bc we didn’t want to wait another 20 minutes for them to come back with the change.
7. I will never be coming back here.
8. I will be putting this on

I first ate at Garibaldi’s about 5 years ago. I thought that the place was overpriced and pretentious and that the food was mediocre. I’ve been back several times in the last year or so, and I’m really coming around to like it!
I had dinner at Garibaldi’s last night and loved both of my dishes. The summer soup that I had as a starter seemed incredibly bland to me when I first tasted it. Suddenly I realized that it was subtly delicious. I was reminded of my first meals in Japan after I had gotten off a plane from India — I thought that the sashimi was under-​flavored because it wasn’t infused with hot spice! For the main course, I ordered the roasted half-​chicken, which my dining companions were praising to the skies when we were there in June. The chicken itself was perfectly cooked and full of flavor. The accompanying vegetables had lots of acid that really brought out the best in the chicken.
The prices are a little on the high side, but they’re far from outrageous.