Crate Oakland

Crate is a venue that allows local chefs the opportunity to showcase their food for a limited time, on a rotating basis.
If you’re in a rush or have low patience levels, wait until you have time and patience. I believe they are making efforts to better accommodate the customers, but this is a work in progress. I don’t think they could have anticipated the high demand and are doing their best to meet them.
Let me walk you through the process of getting this meal (because it is a process):
(1) You can only get this on Friday evenings, usually from 5pm until they close, as stated on their Facebook page. I believe they serve until they run out of food. My recommendation is to check with the Facebook page for Crate Oakland before you go as the start time may be different from week to week. I believe they strive for 5pm, but just check so you don’t get disappointed.
(2) Crate uses the 2^nd floor of the club Vinyl so look for that when you are trying to locate the place. If you go when they start serving for the night, you will see a line that forms outside of the entrance.
(3) Expect a very long wait. Get in line to place your order and hold on to your receipt. Immediately upon receiving the receipt, get in the other line to your left with all of the others who are waiting for their orders. STAY IN THE LINE and keep creeping up to the front. I walked in at 8pm and left with my meal at 9pm. Yes, the wait is long, but they have some great R&B music flowing. You can also order some drinks to keep you company as you wait.
(4) I recommend you order it to go. There are tables, but it’s really not set up for a restaurant so you will not find napkins, utensils, etc. readily available. Just go home and enjoy this.
This review is purely for the food I devoured — the garlic noodles with blackened shrimp and garlic crab. OMG…
The food was prepared by Chef Edward who is the owner of Smelly’s Creole & Soul Food, a catering service.
The menu was limited to around 6 items, but you really should just pay attention to the best seller which is the garlic noodles with shrimp and ½ a crab. It’s not cheap… it’s $ 30. Get over it. It’s worth it. There’s more than enough to share. However, I would totally order my own meal because it’s hard to share.
The shrimp and crab are seasoned and cooked to perfection. The noodles are not overcooked and there is plenty of it. This meal is not a waist-​friendly-​first date kind of meal… this meal swims in butter and garlic — pure comfort. This is not for the faint of heart. I can’t say enough about the quality of the meal — you can tell there was a lot of time and attention put into the preparation.
Kudos to Chef Edward who is the owner of Smelly’s Creole & Soul Food, a catering service. After having this meal, I will make sure his catering service is put into the rotation at work. I will also call on him for personal events.