Boot & Shoe Service

Alright, time to update that bad boy from SIX (!) years ago. This is some of the best pizza in the Bay, hands down. for me it goes Cheese Board, Boot and Shoe, Pizzaiolo, La Val’s (O YOU HAVEN’T HEARD OF LA VALS?)
But anyway, they’ve since expanded and it’s much easier to get a table here now. Love you, Boot and Shoe. You’re a great date spot and really help to show people what’s what in the East Bay.

I just wanted to check in to say that the breakfast crew at Boot and Shoe has improved dramatically. Thank you. Glad you’re in the neighborhood.

AMAZING coffee. Best in the area. Great food. Pleasant atmosphere. Lovely service. Definitely will be coming back here! Great place to sit and do work over a coffee or some food. There is a bar area and lots of people on laptops working. Free WiFi also.

I adore this place. Everything is great! The ambience is wonderful, with dim lighting and a gorgeously designed space.
The drinks, food and service have been excellent each time I’ve been. The pizzas are made in an oven in the middle of the front room, so you’re able to see the dough being tossed and the pizzas being prepared. I’ve tried a couple of the pizzas and salads, and they were all amazing.
It’s also in a dreamy little neighborhood right near Lake Merritt. Doesn’t get better than Boot & Shoe!
Bön Appétit!

So I came here with my bestie for dinner the other day. Love the décor. Simple but clean. We tried to sit outside because it was beautiful out. Except for the nats. UM no. So we decided to move inside. Our waiter said sure and walked away. UMMM were we suppose to pick up our own shit? So I grabbed my plate and my glass of wine and so did my bestie. Two other waitresses asked why do we have our plates and wondered why our waiter didn’t do it for us. So she took our plates and seated us. By the way all the waitresses and waiters are kinda emo monotone personalities. So don’t expect any lively personalities. haha Just threw me off guard.
Thankfully when we got inside, we were given a different waitress. If asked questions she would answer and with detail. So that’s a plus!
We started off with two appetizers: I forgot the correct names so bare with me. I’m just going to call it as I see it haha
We had 3 pieces of crispy bread with liver spread and either roasted cherry or some other type of fruit. Garnished with some type of leafy substance. Which was actually really good! I’d get it again!
We had 4 balls of fried risotto garnished with parsley. Would of been better if it had some type of aioli drizzle that gave me a little punch. It was okay but not OMG I want more.
Main Dishes:
We both ordered pastas. There’s only 3 options. haha
So the bf got spaghetti pasta with light red sauce of some kind. It was actually reallllly tasty which trust me that’s a good thing. I’m not huge on red sauce. It’s bleh usually for me. This I would actually get. High five for that!
I got Fusilli pasta noodles (I think) with green peas, chicken and light sauce. Not sure if it’s light cream sauce, or butter and wine but it was perfect for me! So good!
We shared their signature pizza. The margherita pizza with buffalo mozzarella. HMMMMMmkay
Well ummm I should of asked for more toppings. LOL It was soggy, tasted like it was not fully cooked, the crust tasted burnt. It takes pretty pictures tho. haha but I wouldn’t get it again.
Desserts:
The bff got some type of custard thingy. It was okay
Mine tho! Apricot and blueberry, with some type of grains and warm creame!!! MMMM mmmm MMM that I would get again!
Over all, I would probably try it once or twice more and if it’s still the same reaction from a new menu (which they do everyday) —– kinda cool! Then it’s probably not meant to be. My taste buds just are saying EHHH move on … haha so until next time… on to the next…

The food was very delicious. The service was great.

Solid, interesting food. My son and I came to eat some pasta and he devoured the entire thing in one inhale. It must have been good. If you’re open to it, you can sit against the wall in a pinch and have a nice quick bite to eat. Nice wine by the glass choices. Their chocolate chip cookies are amazing.

This is a great place to go for a hipfancy brunch.
You can expect a hefty bill, however the food is excellent. Also be prepare to enjoy your food at a table less than a foot away from yours.

Still top notch pizzas however very odd service the other night.
Our server was friendly enough but somehow seemingly refused to serve us a salad that we ordered. By the way, the salad was straight off the menu and no fuss meaning we did not ask for any substitutions, mispronounce anything or make any special requests to it.
Let me explain the occurrence…
Everything started off fine. She went around to each of us and the five of us gave our orders which was inclusive of four pizzas, an order of castelvetrano olives, the arancini, several beverages and one of their salads. She repeated them all back (which she had all written down) but she did not repeat the salad back which I politely reminded her of. She sort of hesitated and said «oh ok» and jotted something down. But something seemed amiss about her behavior to us ordering this salad and all five of us noticed it.
Our orders arrived, we consumed it and then the check made its appearance. But surprise, surprise — we realized the salad never made it. But I had an inkling already this would occur. By that point I didn’t really care since want it that badly to begin with and what’s the point of bringing it up at the end of the meal. But if the kitchen ran out of a key ingredient and couldn’t produce the dish, isn’t it customary to communicate this to the customer? I promise something like that will never make me upset but a lack of communication might annoy me. I scanned the receipt to make sure we weren’t being charged for it and it was not listed. I was relieved about that since something about us ordering the salad seemed to rub her the wrong way and I’d rather not bring it up with her if it truly did. So while she probably just wanted us to believe she simply forgot about it, it appears she never intended for the salad to arrive to our table from the get go. Mind you, I’m bringing this up not because my issue is that we didn’t get the salad but rather the very strange and unexplained behavior displayed by our server.
I still love Boot & Shoe but next time I’ll probably skip the salad here to avoid this type of annoyance.

5 stars for:
1. Alcohol. My wife was very happy with her cocktail. They also have a pretty good beer selection and the waiter made the perfect wine suggestion for my mom.
2. Service. Quick, friendly, and as noted above, helpful.
4 stars for: The food. We started with the arancini with gremolata, followed by farro with gulf coast white shrimp, spinach & hot pepper, and finished with a margherita pizza with sausage added to it. None blew us away, but they were certainly very good. I think the highlight was the sausage on the pizza.
I have no complaints, but I think my wife and I will stick with the nearby Star for pizza.

We’ve been back several times with our special out-​of-​town guests… it’s always crowded, but always a treat. The menu changes constantly. Prices are not cheap, considering portion size, but quality is high.
This time around, we ordered two drinks: Smooth Operator and Santo Spirito. Both drinks were excellent. Great complexity and interesting enough that I’d order them again.
We started off with an arugula salad. Loved the combination of golden beets and the tangy dressing, the cream sauce. However, it was a really small amount of food for $ 12. We had to order another plate of salad, the garden lettuces, for $ 10. This was also perfect, crispy, fresh bites. However, only a few bites. Yikes.
The rigatoni ($ 19) with house-​made sausage hit the spot. It was well balanced. The tomato sauce was packed with herb flavors. The pasta perfectly al dente. Everyone thought the sausage was the best part. Our guest tried to order an extra side of sausage, but this was not available to order separately. So strange.
We got a salami pizza with an added egg ($ 23). The fresh parsley was a nice touch — gave the salty, meaty flavors a counter point. As delicious as it was, I have to agree with the other reviewers that the middle of the pizza was much too soggy. Therefore, dinged one star!
Chocolate «soufflé» with hazelnuts was really delicious. Rich, classic flavors.
Still an excellent spot for a special meal, but too expensive to be a regular spot.

I really cannot say anything negative about my experience here, even though we sat outside and it was fairly chilly they gave us tons of blankets and the wine kicked in soon after!
We were a party of 5 including a little one, and although the Unilocal details says not good for kids the 7 year old loved the pizza and live music!
Fisrt service from the lovely ladies at the front that do thier best job to seat you ASAP to our waiter Excellent.
Now the food, pizza’s are authentic Neapolitan style done in the wood oven they literally melt in your mouth, toppings are simple, fresh and mouthwatering good! I had the Gnocchi which is not traditional it is more like chicken and dumplings lick your fingers freaking good, the sauce is creamy and the dumpling licks it up perfectly!

Margherita pizza was phenomenal. Fluffy dough, perfectly sweet sauce. Take it from an east coaster. This place knows good pies.

The Epitome of the «new industrial» Bourgeois Aesthetic. Mallory Archer or Lucille Bluth would approve of the drinks.
Excellent food, great mixed drinks. They excel at brunch in particular. The French Toast was on par with Grand Lake Kitchen, but took a different direction with their preparation, which was welcome. My friend’s dishes looked amazing and having had a bite or two of the other entrees, was pleasantly surprised.
Was kinda disappointed that they used CANNED strawberries atop this rather expensive (for eggy bread, let’s be honest here)…so, perhaps ask the host if the fruit is fresh before committing. I’m sure you can’t always have fresh fruit all the time or there might have been a SNAFU in the kitchen that prevented fresh strawberries from happening. I can empathize. Perhaps it would have been better to say that they were out of them before slopping those on, but whatever.
I had the French Toast another time a few months later and it had FRESH fruit atop it, and that made up for the previous faux pas.
Mixed drinks were well done, very well proportioned. Helped offset the sadness encountered with the greasy spoon diner canned strawberries. (insert tiny violin solo here)
All in all, an excellent place to take a friend out to lunch, I’m definitely looking forward to returning.

I eat here a lot – probably a little too much. But at least I can expense some of it. I came here in the early days and although they were good, they’ve really become great. Its a mature operation that really cranks out quality food. Recently, I took a New Yorker here who said «this place rivals anything we have in Manhattan.» Yup. The best way to think about this place: an Italian-​themed Chez Panisse with a tattooed wait staff. How can you approach this place?
Pluses:
–Salads are the best. Anything they produce is amazing. I’m at the point where I just order a salad and don’t bother to see whats in it.
–Ravioli/​pasta. Recently, they had a short rib ravioli that was A+.
–For lunch: chick pea ragu never fails.
–Tonic: there’s a lunchtime non alcoholic version and then there’s the gin version. Must haves.
–Desserts: no misses.
–Wine list: great plus the staff makes great recommendations.
Minuses:
–Not a minus really, but the pizzas, though good, aren’t what I’d call the best on the planet. Whereas the salads and pasta qualify as Earthly standouts, I frankly prefer the pizza at Arizmendi or the (fried dough!) A16 version. Again, pizzas are good, just not the wow factor of the other food. Hence my 4 starts, but it should be 4.5.

I’ve been here so so many times. Boot and Shoe has become the local restaurant I can’t wait to take visitors to.
Whether for lunch or dinner, their food is delicious. Mind you, I’ve only ever had the pizza. Which is absolutely what I recommend. Their huge oven is awesome and they have live music some nights.
They also have a café open during the day on the left side of the restaurant. I had no idea and walked in for lunch one day to be pleasantly surprised.
They also have an outdoor space that I’ve yet to explore but looks cozy and bright.
In short — definitely go here for delicious pizza. Great vegetarian options and super friendly staff.

#7
So here it is – my 2016 update for Boot & Shoe Service.
I felt like it was time to update my review since I have given B&SS several more chances since that first experience. Too many of my industry friends talk it up too much for me to simply let it slip away due to one bad interaction.
It was raining again last night and my best friend met me and a few other friends at the Libertine next door. He and I were hungry and decided to embark on the B&SS to grab some small bites to share before making our way out. We ditched our friends and were on our way.
We were greeted immediately upon our wet entry from the rainy outside and led to a table towards the back. There was a little candle, two tiny open dishes upon the table top: one with coarsely ground salt and the other with red pepper flakes. As we sat we were approached with a jar of water and two little glasses to begin with as we looked over the drink menu.
There were many servers all working diligently together, as a team. We never waited long for anything and any question we had was answered with superior product knowledge along with suggestions and preferences by the staff.
I chose a martini and he chose a glass of white wine. Both were exactly what we needed to relax and think about what we wanted to share.
We began with a cauliflower dish that was drizzled heavily in a greek yogurt dressing along side broccoli, and some endive, I believe. We also had some fresh bread to accompany the cauliflower dish. It was spectacular.
We moved on thinking about our entrees:
House Made Sausage with Spaghetti Pasta
Gnocchi in Cream Sauce w Herbs
Both pasta dishes were excellent. The house made sausage is really amazing. Just spicy enough in all the right places. The light sauce that accompanied the meat and pasta was divine. Not too heavy, just right. The Gnocchi was splendid. The little fluffy pillows of potato pasta were delightful and the cream sauce was heavy, but not too heavy. It was actually great when we dipped pieces of the house made sausage in it. What a lovely combination.
After all of this, my friend decided his sweet tooth was calling and wanted dessert. I have no idea how – but anyway. He asked one of our servers which of the top two choices on the menu she would choose. There was an apple upside down cake and a more fruity dessert with prunes and cream. He decided on the apple cake and he said it was marvelous. It did look beautiful.
This visit, along with all the others (with the exception of the first) were excellent. I knew it was time to update and give credit where credit was due. B&SS really is a winner. Thank you for making me love this place.
Stephani Smiles for B&SS ;)
#deliciouspasta

Really good pizza but it’s expensive.
Came here last week to celebrate my birthday. I’ve wanted to check it out for a while but never got around to it.
Wow was the pizza ever amazing! Buckle at the knees amazing! This is how a meat pizza should taste. My only complaint was the bill came and man it wasn’t a happy birthday anymore… this place is kind of pricey for such thin small pizzas.
It is sadly worth the price, but only for special occasions.

There’s been so many trendy pizza and cocktail places that it’s becoming hard to distinguish them. Boot & Shoe has all the makings of a solid place but the execution fell short.
While waiting for my friend to arrive, I ordered a gimlet. Refreshing but with a slightly weird aftertaste? Almost like B.O. and nowhere as delicious as the gimlets at Make Westing. We were seated shortly after on the back patio. I actually preferred the patio with it’s cute string lights versus the pitch black restaurant itself.
The two of us shared the sausage pizza with peppers and the maccheroni alla chitarra with sand dabs. Did you get that? Yeah, me neither. The waitress reluctantly explained to us that it’s basically spaghetti in white sauce with fish. She seemed antsy and uncomfortable and when we asked about the daily specials, she couldn’t even remember! Seriously? Her response «We have some sort of white fish? but I think it’s sold out… ummmmm… and OH! this broccoli dish?»
The macchernoi ended up being delicious but the portion size is tiny! It seemed like 10 spaghetti noodles total with tiny chopped pieces of fish on top. I would’ve eaten the whole thing in 2 bites if I wasn’t sharing with my friend. For $ 18 bucks, it’s good but not worth it!
Since pizza is one of the focuses here, I did not expect the middle to be so soggy! The thin middle could not support the weight of the cheese and toppings, giving it a wet consistency. It’s a shame because the crust is so crispy and perfectly chewy.
Overall, flavors were good, service was meh, and the portions/​prices were terrible.

A great add to the Grand Lake neighborhood. Pizza is one of the focuses here, and Boot & Shoe’s thin crust take is quite delicious. I particularly enjoyed their sausage pizza with roasted chicories, mosto cotto and grana. Moreover, they offer a delightful brunch menu, with a polenta dish proving quite satisfying.
The place is divided into several portions. There’s a bakery to the left that serves baked goods and smaller items, while the main dining area to the right is where most of the action is. There’s also a bar area in the back that serves solid cocktails, in addition to a good beer and wine selection. Throughout, the ambience is quite vintage and rustic, enabling this place to look as if it blends into the neighborhood. A solid choice in Oakland’s bustling dining scene.
Just a note — they don’t take reservations. This isn’t a strike against them in my book; in fact, I have to give the front staff kudos for handling a particular situation well. I observed a particularly entitled person walking in, insisting that she had a reservation for 6 and demanding to be seated promptly. Um, of course the staff here would know what their own policies regarding reservations are. Despite persistent whining from the prospective patron, the staff explained their policies politely and defused the situation. Great work!