Commis, Oakland CA

Dined here a while back and it seems they don’t change much of the food items.
I think a 2 star restaurant shouldn’t serve their tasting menu items on chipped plates.
Food could be more creative and executed better for this caliber of an establishment. The beet dish was supposed to have finger limes. It didn’t and when we asked the server they seemed to just shrug his shoulders.
The congee was just loose grains of rice floating in a bland broth. I suppose at the end of the night the cooks were just firing food as quickly as possible and didn’t cook the congee long enough.
Seems like very few ingredients are local or particularly special. There are many more fabulous 2 star restaurants with better food concepts and food. A great sample would be Harbor House in Elk California. Well worth the money and experience with thoughtfully prepared foods and was far less expensive than this place.

I dined here back in August and got the tasting menu. It was a very creative meal and it was fun to try new ingredients for the first time, such as, lotus root and guinea hen. Their signature dish, slow poached egg yolk with smoked dates, alliums, and malt was one of my favorite things that I ate all year, it was true perfection. I also especially loved the tomatoes with oysters, scallion rice, celtuce with mussels, and the pain perdu dessert. Commis was also a pretty good price compared to the other 2 michelin starred restaurants in the area.

Amazing experience! Service was incredible the moment we walked through the door. Really interesting fusion flavors - we left so satisfied. Totally worth it!

A lot of it made sense, some of it did not. Truffles over scallion rice, why? The sweetness and onion would overpower the truffles, esp winter black truffles. The A5 addition was understandable but was offered because it's A5 instead of really syncing with the rest of the plate besides an addon. The black garlic waffle, super creative but it's difficult to eat with the rest of the dessert and once the surprise factor of it being black garlic instead of blueberries is over, what's left? It doesn't cohesively blend with the rest of everything else.

Everything you expect from a michelin 2 star restaurant. Great service, great food, small servings, expensive bill. Come in with realistic expectations and you will not be disappointed