Caffe Verbena

Overpriced, small portions and the very unfriendly attitude that they are doing you a favor. The hostess is irritated at your very presence and her one aim seems to be to give as little service and food as possible. The waiters are scared out of their minds of her. Serving food graciously would be appreciated instead of nickling and diming on portions. Most of us who write here can afford food. It is the total experience one wants — not a female Soup Nazi as Seinfeld
would put it.
Good food at far happier places that seem happy to have you is available and for much less. This is like being an unwanted guest inspite of bringing the hostess a hugely expensive gift. At best, you hope to be ignored.

They still owe me three dinners for two for a network I installed there.
Would have been nice if they gave me a heads up or give me back the hardware for said nertwork.

Caffe Verbena during the near 3ish hour is a no man’s land for service. got a menu from an amigo and he disappeared never to appear again. i stood waiting around awhile. later, the bartender offered to serve me at a table. i choose to sit at the bar.
caffe verbena is discretely located in the rear in the corner of the builiding that faces broadway.
music: instrumental?
sampling:
–crispy rock cod with crunchy cabbage and tarter sauce on rosemary ciabatta (10): crusty fried fish with a nice taste. fish probably previously frozen but prepared well. no problems here
–moretti (italian lager 4) shades of stella! not as smooth though. moretti owned by heineken.
–fresh squeezed lemonade (3): filled with ice and tangy lemonade. definiely home made! not a lot of juice.
dining uptown:
–seafood items seems pricey, tuna tartare (15?) fish of the day (a.g=market price)
–lunch and dinner prices essentially the same for all items, minor variance
–happy hour (4 – 6) $ 4 for drafts, well drinks? (not sure), red & white wines.
–parking bad, free street parking blocks aways, bartable (but why bother?)
–verbena probably best dining option downtown but pales in comparison to other oaktown options.
–an improbable repeat.

I came here for lunch the other day while in Oakland. I ordered the pizetta with grilled asparagus and cherry tomatoes. I really thought it would be a tiny little pizza, since it came from the appetizer menu, but it turned out to be quite large. I could only finish half. The crust was a bit soggy in the middle and the toppings kept falling off, but it was quite tasty.
The fresh squeezed limeade was pretty good as well.
Overall, it was good, but certainly not the greatest thing ever.

Summary based on several business lunches:
–standard California business lunch menu
–standard prices
–standard service
–parking is terrible
If the people you’re with have to have standard food, you might as well come here. Otherwise, I’d go to some place in Chinatown.

So my boo and I live a few blocks down the street from this place at the Uptown.
I came in here one time to while exploring Oakland, and its surrounding areas, and always wondered what this place was. I saw they had interesting happy hour specials and menus, so I figured why not, it would be a nice date after work, plus if you’ve had too much to eat or drink we can walk off the calories on our way home.
We came in here one day, and it was totally dead. We were totally ignored by the bartenders, and sat there at the bar for a good while before we just got up and left. The happy hour special ain’t that great to put up with such crappy service. Granted we came in and weren’t in suits like the other guys at the bar, but still. Not even a hello, or hang on, I’ll be with you in a sec. After getting tired of waiting, we just walked out.
Can’t say anything about their drinks, or food, but the place is nice.

I’m not a big fan of negative reviews, but this place has gone way, way downhill. The bar is good, the service is fine. But the hostess is dreadful and the food is just okay.
First we get there only to be ignored by the hostess, who definitely saw us but felt a greeting or eye-​contact would not be in order for some reason. It was an extraordinary blow off. When she finally did get to is, it’s like we had irritated her. I get it, I do, people have bad days, but I got way more of an «I just don’t give a sh – » vibe. I will admit her attitude was catching, but I think I can be open to good food if it comes my way.
My husband and I ate here last week and the Crab & Artichoke Brandade was flavorless, or more fairly, cheese-​flavored. Not a whiff of artichoke or crab to be seen. My beet salad had literally no dressing. There were a few chunky beets thrown on the plate, and a sliced chicken breast on top. The chicken itself was delicious, but it was the only good thing we were served.
My husband had the chicken as his main, and it was well-​prepared and tasty. But aside from the house-​made lime and lemonades, there was little about this meal that was memorable. Or thoughtful, or that contained any effort at all. Come on, even the bread was stale. Really?
There are some stunning food choices to be had right now in Oakland. A restaurant that treats its patrons this badly, and clearly doesn’t care enough to put any heart in their food, really doesn’t need to be an option. I’ll take my business elsewhere.

Lunch here twice: salad nicoise time 1 (not a «sharing» lunch) and then a shared lunch with my friend Karen: brussel sprouts, tuna tartare, a salad. Generous portions, nicely done, a nice little oasis in Oakland near where I work. Scouted the wine list: looks pretty nice by the glass. I worked until recently in the TL in SF. Love the TL, love it: great Vietnamese, etc., great post-​work watering holes, and some aesthetic spots for dinner. But I miss Stars, and Verbena (while not Stars) presents that civilized alternative for lunch. (Soluna is good in the TL, but Verbena sings.)

Good food, I especially like the tuna tar tare and their fries are really good too.
Good service.
Good price when it is on the company, a bit overpriced otherwise.
Note: their menu online does not match their actual menu.

Simply stated this place is not what you payed for. It has a very nice location, bottom corner of a big office building with some out door seating, as well as a large table in a back corner for groups of about 8. This is where we sat… and waited… and waited… and waited. Just because you automatically add gratuity doesn’t mean we don’t expect some semblance of «pleasant» service. The place really wasn’t that busy, and we had a good view of the pass, where our server spent a good portion of our visit. I ordered the seared ahi salad… meh…not that flavor full of dressing, ahi took on a grayish tinge, and the eggs were massacred. Everyone else ordered sandwich’s or burgers, none of which looked appetizing or worth the money. The fries looked like Sara Lee frozen stuffs. Lame. Seems like a good place for cocktails after work, and that’s about it. Pass

Went here for a business lunch the other day. Dug the vibe but the menu was very limited. Our client told us that the menu used to have more options. Huh. We ordered the calamari as an appetizer for the table. It was good but they filled up the plate with pieces of fried onions, jalapeño and lemon (!) — I felt cheated. I ordered the ahi tuna salad — it was excellent — the ahi was crusted with sesame seeds and perfectly seared. The salad had higher quality greens along with some roasted potatoes, artichokes and french green beans.
Would have rated this higher but we had spotty service. A place that caters to business lunchers should not make their customers wait around to get their bill handled — we sat there forever until (another) waiter helped us out.

Fairly run of the mill. Some of the food is good, but nothing particularly outstanding.
I will say the service was good both times I was there.

This is the place I always have my boss take me because I simply can’t afford it.
:D
This little bistro is an excellent place to take clients, reward employees, or just splurge. Great fine-​dining experience in a downtown, close-​to-​work setting. Otherwise, you’ll have to drive out 15 minutes or so to get to Chez Pannise or some other place in Rockridge – definitely can’t afford that long of a lunch…

When I Google mapped this place, I thought, ‘Ack. a café in the lobby of the APL Building. It’s going to be a guy, a microwave and a some coldcuts. How wrong was I? Really wrong~
I got to the lunch a little late and everyone else had ordered so the waiter came over and I asked for whatever he considered the best fish dish not even asking him what it would be. I thought I was being decisive but after he walked away, I feared the worst. No need. He brought back the salmon and it was perfect. Great bread, salad and cappuccino.
This place is a very, very nice place. Stylish with a tasty menu. I do agree with some of the other reviews that it might be pricey for everyday dining but it should be on your ‘go to’ list if you’re a Oaktown regular.

I love this place!!! Located in downtown Oakland in the 12^th Street City Center.
The afternoon bartender kicks ass! He’s a super friendly dude. The mini burgers are toooooooo die for during happy hour.
Lunch is great as well. I usually get a cheese burger with garlic fries… YUMMY!
Wine selection is pretty good and the cocktails are delish as well!
Great place to take a client, friend for happy hour or to go on a date.

In case you didn’t see her review on this page, Mama J summed it up best…
«This place is perfect if you work in the area and either (a) you can expense the meal/​drinks; (b) your boss is with you anyway; or © you venture in for a happy hour. Other than that, there are way too many other places that are hipper, less expensive and have more interesting food.»

My friend works in the same building, so we met here for happy hour.
As the other reviews have already mentioned, there is definitely a corporate/​business crowd, but that’s to be expected, given the location. There were suits at the bar guzzling martinis (Ketel One, with a twist), but there is a lovely atrium that was quite pleasant to sit in, with all the views of, well – a small grassy area and adjacent large buildings (still nice, nonetheless).
I was impressed with the happy hour menu. Select $ 5.00 drinks and apps (we really enjoyed the seasoned fries and mini-​burgers). Well drinks and beers on tap were $ 4 during happy hour (s) from 3−6pm, I’m pretty sure.
So why not 5 stars? When I asked for a side of ranch dressing to dip my fries in, the server who brought out our food acted as though this was soooo not the type of place that would have ranch, and said «We have caesar, but we don’t serve ranch» Umm… okay. I’ve seen ranch all dolled up at several «nice» restaurants, so this seems like a bad move on Verbena’s part. Regardless, the food was yummy, but the «East Bay Breeze» I ordered was way weak alcohol-​wise.
I guess I should have copied the suits and gotten a martini.

My brother recently had his wedding reception at and catered by Verbena.
I’d never went here before so I didn’t really know what to expect — according to my brother and his wife, the food that they had sampled was really good so I was optimistic. Luckily, they didn’t disappoint, at least when it came to their catering services.
The starting salad was unbelievable good — I don’t think I’ve ever eaten a salad dish that I could sincerely consider ‘delicious’ but this one was. The salad was a simple spinach and spicy pear salad with caramelized onions, goat cheese, and almonds. It being a hot, July afternoon, I wasn’t too keen on the spicy pears but by the end of the dish, I was already mentally taking note of the ingredients — I wanted to recreate it.
The main dish I got was the braised beef with herbs and mashed potatoes. I expected a small square meat and a huge mound of potatoes as restaurants always seem to cheap out on the quality stuff by putting more cheap ingredients like potatoes but that wasn’t the case here — in fact, it was quite the opposite.
When I got my plate, I was surprised to see a huge slab of tender, medium rare beef and a smattering of mashed potatoes underneath it but I wasn’t complaining. The beef was so tender, I never once used my knife; the meat literally fell off the bone. And instead of being packed with grease and salt, the beef was cook just perfectly — I was able to finish my plate without feeling too full or like I had just pigged out.
I give Verbena, or Caffe Verbena as the sign actually says outside the place, only 4 stars because, like I said, I’d never eaten here prior to my brother’s wedding so I don’t know what they’re like on a regular night, but if you have an up-​coming special occasion that needs catering, this place is definitely one to consider.

This place is perfect if you work in the area and either (a) you can expense the meal/​drinks; (b) your boss is with you anyway; or © you venture in for a happy hour. Other than that, there are way too many other places that are hipper, less expensive and have more interesting food.
I went here for my «welcome lunch.» So, option (b) applied, thus I had a great time enjoying my pricey plate of halibut (which was quite tastey). They bring you warm focaccia to start, which will be sure to put you in a good mood – especially if you’ve already enjoyed a cocktail. They get pretty busy during lunch, so reservations are suggested.
I also went here recently after we filed a killer of a motion (and by killer I mean it was practically the death of me and my group), so option (a) applied. I must say that I was already pretty faded by the time we reached Verbena (we went there after lunch at Max to get dessert and drinks). So, take the following with a grain of salt.
We ordered the strawberry sorbet, cheese cake and molten dark chocolate cake. And of course drinks – I got the 20 year old tawny port, which was good. The desserts were a little disappointing though. The sorbet was not sorbet – it was ice cream that just looked beautiful. So, I asked, and sure enough, the chef informed the server that it was indeed ice cream. Us lactard’s have a 6^th sense for lactose in sheep’s clothing.
But my other digestively superior colleagues kept it, and when I made a stink (drunky mcgee gets a little sassy) the server brought me some homemade pineapple sorbet, which was bomb. BTW, if this review was based on the server putting up with, and being an all around sport about, my sass, then I’d give them a 4.5.
The other desserts weren’t very good though. The cheese cake looked like crème brûlée because there wasn’t a crust. For good cheese cake, I’m told it’s all about the graham cracker crust. I got the molten dark chocolate cake and it was not only not molten, it was dry and slightly burnt. When I was asked about why I wasn’t eating it, I made the server try it (drunky mcgee strikes again), but he agreed with me and ended up not charging us for it.
At this point it’s 5pm and some of our other friends from work got wind that we were already out and about (might have had something to do with the fact that drunky mcgee emailed them to rub it in and to make fun of their lack of drinking prowess – clearly, different words were used, but I don’t want Unilocal mad at me for my potty mouth).
Another friend joined us and she got the fried calamari – the calamari was really pretty good – they tempura fry it, so it’s light and has that slightly sweet taste – but they gave her the dredges. Just like it’s not cool to make nachos out of the end of the bag, it’s not cool to make someone pay for calamari that is full of crumbs. Oh, and we got another round of drinks during their happy hour. So, now, option © applied. But you can bet your ass that I’ll still try to make option (a) apply!

very nice comfortable setting in downtown Oakland. check out the website for fotos. I WANT to like this place because we need more business entertaining spots like this in Oakland. however, the quality of food really needs to be cranked up a notch or two for verbana to achieve this status in my book. I had the pan seared salmon which looked and tasted like school cafeteria food not the perceived upscale restaurant this is. the server looked like she should be working at a McDonald’s or behind the counter of the US Post Office. Her attitude exuded, «I’d rather be somewhere else.» After I advised her of my lunch order, she grunted one word back to me, «drink?» For the prices this place charges, i expected a little better than, «you want fries with that?» attitude. She never even smiled during the entire conversation. The other time I ate here I had a different server and the experience was completely opposite of what I just described. Let’s see what happens the next time I dine here.
Jekyll or Hyde?