I Squared

Ghorme Sabzi for the win. Considered the national dish of Iran, it’s the national dish of my tummy right now. Go here everybody, GO HERE NOW.

What a great place… The food was decently priced and portioned, it arrived quickly and tasted wonderful. I am Persian so I have been looking for a nice place in the East Bay to eat Persian food and it has finally come… the host/​owner Sadri was so nice and welcoming and even brought us a complimentary dessert… also the iced tea he brewed himself, a mix of jasmine, mint, and honey, was amazing… I will definitely be coming back here again… i recommend the koobideh kabob, barg kabob, and cucumber yogurt side dish along with the iced tea

My friend and I were starving Saturday night. We perused the menu and decided I Squared was for us. Much to our dismay, the door was locked because it was only 4:45, and they did not open until 5. The bartender was serving two guys at the bar who motioned they opened at 5. Ok, cool. We decided to go to the coffee shop next door to kill 15 short minutes. We return at 5:00 only to find the door is still locked. The same guys are still sitting at the bar, only this time they ignore us completely. We gave up. There was another lady waiting outside also. My friend and I walked to our car, and left. On the way out, it was 5:10, and the same lady was still waiting, and the guys were still at the bar. Tip to the Kabobery, open on time or change your hours! It is rude to keep paying customers waiting in the cold while people (presumably friends of staff or staff) are inside drinking.

Came here on a Friday night with my husband and 3-​year old son and loved it immediately. We were greeted by the owner, who automatically made us feel welcome and made all the right food and drink recommendation. My son is the pickiest eater so we were thrilled to learn that they have a kids menu with things he will actually eat. My son had fresh cut oranges with fresh bread as his appetizer, tortellini for his main, and gelato for desert. We had an appetizer with eggplant and eggs dip with peta bread. I had the lamb shank dish. It was delicious. Lots of meat. My husband had one of their signature dishes, meat with beans and rice. He was happy. Oh and they have a full bar. I definitely recommend trying this place, especially before more people learn about it. I was surprised that we got in without a reservation on a Friday night but it’s brand new. We will be back!

I ordered the Stan and lamb dish for around $ 40 in total and after tip. They were stingy with the portioning and the flavor was lackluster. I seriously felt ripped off by the offering. Service was also slow on a nearly empty Friday night but my girlfriend and I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt. We were rewarded with weird tasting water and poor quality food.

Awesome new Persian place! Made healthy with great quality ingredients! Amazing koobideh and chicken kabobs! Great addition to the neighborhood!

Is this the return of fabulous I Squared on College Avenue, one of our neighborhood Iranian-​Italian favorites? (In fact, we should all have an Iranian-​Italian go-​to. If not, at least a kabob joint.)
The answer appears to be a big Yes!
Friendly people, tasty eats, it’s back in our neighborhood rotation.

We walked by after a long Friday and was attracted by the menu. We loved it. The shrimp scampi was unusual, light, flavorful. The asparagus had a turmeric butter sauce with crispy pancetta, a standout. Great dessert. Good wine. Terrific service.

I’m sad to hear that I Squared will be closing as of tomorrow. We enjoyed the food here.
This was our last meal that I forgot to review at the time.
The baba ganoush & hummus were garnished with black sesame seeds (
) and with the warm pita made a great starter.
Barg Kabaab is marinated filet and was meltingly tender (
). The grilled veggies (tomato, onions, zucchini) and basmati rice were also nicely cooked.
The Roasted Fish in Parchment Paper (
) was well seasoned with a delicious cream sauce on top of a bed of vegetables (potato, olives, artichokes). I like when it’s brought out in the parchment and it’s cut open at the table, which is not how it was done here, but very good nonetheless.
Maybe the cuisine combo was too weird for folks.

I really wanted to like this place more than I did.
First, I think they either need to be Persian or Italian. We had Persian when I was there and it was good. I have been to Alborz (sp) in SF and Walnut Creek and always leave feeling vaguely sick and puff, I think from the salt. iSquared did not have that issue.
We stared with the baba ganoosh (sp-​sorry for the poor spelling, I am being lazy) and while it was delicious, there were only 4 or 6 pita triangles for dippiing. Really, from the looks of the appetizers coming out you should plan on one per person.
I had the kobedeh keab and it was excellent, but again, small portions. The rice was fine and it came with the obligitory grilled tomato.
For desert we had the baklava. I took off one star just for this… basically it was hard, dry, stale and tiny. It shot across the plate when we tried to saw it in half to split.
After my iSquared experience I ordered a Persian and Assyrian cookbook and have been making our own Persian food when we feel like it. You get a lot of baba ganoosh from just one grilled eggplant!
I would pick iSquared over Alborz any day. I like the small restaurant. I loved our server, but I am not sure I would go out of my way to go back. It’s a quandry.

3.5 stars. The ambiance is disappointing (there isn’t any), but the food is great. If I’m going to dine out and drop real cash for a meal, I’d like to feel like I’m actually eating in a restaurant, not a random room with fluorescent lights and tables awkwardly squashed together. My friend and I didn’t want to be the two people stuck at the end of a table for six, but there weren’t any other options.
However, the food is great. We tried a number of things in the name of scientific experimentation. My friend claimed the baba ganoush was «the best he’s ever had» — though I didn’t share the sentiment, I was impressed. We split two entrees: the cabbage wraps — well-​seasoned ground lamb wrapped in cabbage leaves served with a house-​made tomato sauce (also known as stuffed cabbage), and the roasted fish in parchment paper, which comes with red potatoes, sundried tomatoes, olives, artichokes and is served in a light cream sauce. IT was delicious. We kinda wore out our welcome, as I-​Squared, like every other restaurant in Oakland, closes promptly at 10pm, and were the last to leave.
I think the solution to this problem is lies in the following two words: Take Out.

The restaurant is located on College Ave in the Rockridge district amongst many boutique stores and eating establishments. It is located a couple blocks from the Rockridge BART Station but we drove and easily found a space right around the corner.
The restaurant is not too large and had a cozy atmosphere. The tables were full, but we had a reservation and our table was waiting for us when we arrived.
We shared the Steamed Black Mussels with garlic, saffron, and wine appetizer. consisted of 11 average to small-​sized mussels. It had nice flavor and the sauce had a nice color from the saffron. For the price and portion received, we felt the value was not there for this dish.
For entrees, we had the:
Lamb Shank, served with pearl pasta, topped with artichoke hearts, saffron, yellow split peas, tomatoes and a wine sauce. The meat was very tender and easily flaked off the bone with your fork. It was delicious, but I felt that the lamb needed a little more seasoning and the food was only warm.
Sultani Kabaab, which consists of one skewer of Barg and one skewer of koobideh kabaab served with basmati rice. The meat was tasty and was well prepared. The rice was very fluffy.
For dessert, we shared the Warm Bittersweet Chocolate Flourless Cake, which came with a scoop of vanilla gelato. The cake was not overly sweet and was very moist. This was excellent.

Great location.
Very friendly staff — (part owners) who were quick and efficient.
Cozy décor.
Van talked up this place quite a bit so maybe I had higher expectations. Ordered the mussels which were very good — on a scale of 1 –10 where 10 is the best I’ve had, they are around a 6.5. The sauce was good, but not scoop up sauce, more like drizzles on the plate sauce.
For my entrée I had the Fesenjoon per their recommendation. I asked for less chicken and more sauce b/​c I LOVE LOVE LOVE sauce. Van said the last time she visited, the feshenjoon was tastier. I didn’t mind it — but the walnut was a bit too strong and so it felt less «stew» and more «paste».
I would be willing to give it another go if someone wanted to visit, but it didn’t blow me away where I’m planning my next dinner here.

I had high hopes, but everything just seemed to be a little too much of something.
the cabbage rolls were too confusing to the palette. beef stew was too sour. asparagus was too bland. thing that came with the lamb was too mushy.
but…the lamb WAS good. i’ll give them that. and the sauce that came with the asparagus was a hit at our table.
however, i don’t know if just the lamb and the asparagus sauce will warrant another visit.

Had a groupon for this restaurant, and made an open table reservation.
Food: 3 stars
Ambience: 4 stars
Service: 4 stars
Got to the restaurant, and it’s tiny. Not cramped, but small and quaint.
They had a few tables already waiting with reserved signs on them and they were very good about reservations. Although other parties showed up, they explained most tables were reserved and although we were (~5 mins) late they had no problem with that.
Again, the restaurant is really small so if you don’t have a reservation and decide to wait (which i over heard them say was 45 mins) you have to wait outside. The moment you walk in, the waiter/​host greets you only steps inside the door because there is no space to loiter inside.
We ordered the sultani and the lamb shank. They were both big portions.
we wanted to get pita but the waitress mentioned the noon-​o-​panir which is a perfect appetizer. Pita, yogurt, tomato, and feta.
I didn’t try any lamb shank, if the bf didn’t mention it being delicious, it’s not worth trying i’ve learned.
The sultani was really salty, both the chicken and the filet mignon.
Neither of us like to waste food, we, i mean him more than me, will finish everything to prevent that but even with the nice host/​waiter filling our waters promptly we couldn’t stomach the taste anymore.
The waiter/​host was very nice and laid back but profesional too, the waitress was really nothing to mention… She took a very long time to bring us the bill after she had already taken our dishes and that really bothers me at every place we eat, especially because there were a lot of people waiting to be seated and she could see we were done.
I probably wouldn’t stop by if i were in the area because it’s so hard to go without a reservation and i’m a bit iffy on the food. It’s great to try though, I enjoyed the experience.

Definitely a fan of this place! The website talks about how it came to be I Squared. It’s a Persian guy who is also trained in Italian food. That’s why they have both, I’m glad it’s not fusion since most of the time it’s «exotic» bullcrap.
The front guy was super friendly and nice. I do have to admit, the service is slow, maybe because there was only one guy doing everything in the wrong (drinks, serving food, cleaning tables…) but I really didn’t mind. I was having dinner with a friend who was moving back to SoCal so it was nice to feel like we had all the time in the world to talk and not be rushed into deciding what to order and eating quickly. I took the slow service as something more as a forcing the eater to really savor their time and food. We spent about 2 to 2.5 hours there. It was fun. :)
We started off with cocktails and they were delicious! Oh My God they were good. We ended up getting 2 rounds of cocktails… however I thought the old fashioned was too strong for my taste. For those of you who like really heavy smokey whiskeys then their old fashioned would be perfect for you! For me, very smokey whiskeys remind me of band-​aids.
We also got a couple appetizers — mushrooms which were delicious; covered in cheese, white wine, garlic and butter and the smoked salmon. That along with the cocktails made the entrée a very befitting portion. By typical american standards, the entrée would be considered small. We got the beef fesenjoon, fish in parchment, chicken with pomegranate and walnuts and lamb shank. In general the food was pretty good, however, my ultimate favorite was the melt in your mouth lamb shank!
For dessert (it was a special occasion after all!) we got baklava with vanilla gelato (they ran out of saffron gelato) and tiramisu. The desserts were a pretty good ending but nothing special.
I will be going back for their cocktails and lamb shank no doubt!

More like a 3.5 stars but I’ll round up despite the fact that we waited for almost 20 minutes for our waitress to process our credit card. Other diners had the same issue and seemed irate. They probably had an issue with the credit card machine but it would’ve been nice if they had just informed us instead of leaving us there waiting… and waiting… and waiting… in a thunderstorm (just kidding, it’s the line from An Affair To Remember).
The restaurant is small with about 8 tables (some are large and can be shared) plus a bar area that can probably accommodate another 6 to 7 diners. Modern décor and the cuisine is Iranian/​Italian fusion. That peaked my interest.
So we had the following:
Steamed Black Mussels appetizer $ 7 — overall small portion but extremely unique in that saffron was used. The saffron, garlic, and wine reduction was amazing. I wanted to lick the sauce off the plate but then I thought… ummmm…restaurant manners. LOL
Sultani $ 19 — one skewer of beef filet and one skewer of ground beef with basmati rice. Perfectly cooked and the meat spoke for itself rather than being overpowered by seasoning. Really well done dish. I did prefer the filet skewer over the ground beef skewer.
Lamb shank $ 15 — fall off the bone meat. You can tell they marinated this for a while because of the tenderness. A delightful dish for lamb lovers.
Persian delight $ 7 — baklava plus pistachio/​saffron ice cream — interesting combo. The baklava was good. Not too sweet and sticky. Nice flaky crust. The pistachio and saffron ice cream was interesting. You can really taste both flavors. My only complaint was that it was a little on the sweet side. Lower the sugar content a tad and it would’ve been perfect.
Framboise Lambic — fruity Belgian lambic beer. I’m a big fan of these. Yes, kind of a girly beer but so delicious!
Service except for the latter part of the evening was excellent. This is a great alternative for those dining in the Rockridge area.

The last time I visited this place was 1.5 years ago, when I ate here 4 times (always the lamb shank with artichoke) in 2 weeks and quickly gave myself I-​squared fatigue. But 1.5 years later, I’ve been relieved of the syndrome.
I went on a seafood binge yesterday and ordered their steamed mussels with garlic wine saffron and the linguini tutto mare. Both dishes were delicious and really did it for my seafood craving. BF ordered the lamb shank with artichoke hearts which according to him was still fantastic as ever.
The only downside was that service was slow. They only had 2 servers when we arrived (including the maitre d’, but she was sort of out of it and refused to concern herself with anything other than seating people) and it took a long time to get their attention. But mid-​way through, another waiter came over from Hudson Bay and things got smoother.
I will be coming back for more mussels.

I went back with 11 of my friends and everyone left happy and full. One of my friends described the food as an explosion of flavor.
I’ve made some progress in trying everything on the menu, but it’s slow since I keep going back for my favorites which are the stuffed mushrooms, cabbage wraps, the lamb shank, fesenjoon, fish in parchment paper and pappardelle porcini. I also enjoy the tiramisu and cannolis.
The service was a little on the slow side, which is totally understandable given the size of the party. The waitress was polite, friendly and reliably refilling our bread and water.

I’m very disappointed in this place. I thought it was gonna be so good and ending up, it was such a bust.
Food:
–Free appetizer bread + balsamic vinegar and olive oil: too much oil and not enough vinegar. Every time I dipped the bread it, it was just drenched in oil. The bread was ok though, pretty soft and fresh tasting.
–Baked eggplant with mozzarella + parmesan cheese: when this dish first came, I honestly thought it was a pizza drenched in way too much sauce. That’s exactly what it looked like. A thick layer of mozzarella cheese floating on top of some marinara sauce. This dish wouldn’t have been too bad if they didn’t skimp on the eggplant and overdid the cheese. I ordered this because of the eggplant, not the cheese. But overall, it was pretty bland tasting anyway, so I don’t even think giving more eggplant would have helped.
–Prawns kabob: The shrimp was pretty good! It was really fresh tasting and it had a dash of this «white sauce». I want to say it tasted like Alfredo sauce that had an Iranian twist to it. I’m not sure how to describe it, but bottom line is: it was good! The rice that it came with on the other hand… that was a different story… it was too wet. Almost borderline soggy. They could have done better…
The proportions at this place was definitely not representative of what you paid for! I actually had eaten right before I came here for dinner. It was just light hors d’oeuvres but I was relatively half full already. But after eating dinner here, I was STILL HUNGRY! How can you order TWO MAIN ENTREES with an APPETIZER and STILL LEAVE HUNGRY??? ANSWER: small proportions!!!
Price: The bill ended up being ~$ 30. What a rip off for not that great of food AND small proportions!
Ambiance: I’ve got to say that this was a pretty cute restaurant. It was small but gives you a cozy feeling. I love the color schemes at this place. The furniture was very complimentary to the tone of the place. I liked how they had two little sauce dishes filled with salt and pepper on the table and a little mini spoon for scooping. That was a very classy touch.
Service: Pretty good service. However, they did seem kinda uncoordinated in terms of not communicating with each other. Someone would come take our order and then someone else would come ask us if we were ready to order and then someone else would come by and ask us if we wanted to order yet, only to realize that she was not our waitress… hmmmmm…
Overall: Not impressed, over-​hyped and NOT coming back :(Sorry!