Broccoli & Chocolate

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Review: Shashamane

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Atmosphere: 3/5   ♦   Service: 3/5   ♦   Food Quality: 3/5   ♦   Value: 3/5
Times Visited:  One   ♦   Will I Return?:  Happily
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Named after a town in Ethiopia, this Oakland restaurant at Broadway and 25th is one of the nicer Ethiopian venues I’ve been to. Shashamane is easy to miss from the front but has a clean, nice interior with hundreds of flags from around the world circling the rim of the large, open dining room and connected bar. I have to admit, these flags provide a lot of entertainment and trivia; I can identify far fewer world flags than I would have imagined.

shashamane restaurant

Bar area with world flags at Shashamane in Oakland.

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Review: Mijori

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Atmosphere: 3/5   ♦   Service: 3/5   ♦   Food Quality: 5/5   ♦   Value: 3/5
Times Visited:  One   ♦   Will I Return?:  Yes, please!
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MijoriMijori is a Japanese restaurant and sushi bar just north of 580 on Grand Avenue. There’s actually a whole strip of good stuff right there on Grand that I’ve really never explored but looks fun. And, I don’t entirely fear for my safety right there, so that’s always good.

We hit up Mijori with friends on a Friday night at about 8pm. We found ourselves fighting through a mass of people just to get within arms reach of the tiny whiteboard posted just inside the front door where we could write our names on the wait list. This place has some serious followers, and we waited with them for the better part of an hour to get our chance at a table…. 

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Review: Oliveto (Cafe)

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Atmosphere: 3/5   ♦   Service: 3/5   ♦   Food Quality: 3/5   ♦   Value: 2/5
Times Visited: One  ♦   Will I Return?: Not Likely
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Oliveto is a fancy cafe and restaurant in Oakland, just off Highway 24, that has a bit of a reputation.  It’s a bit fancier than I normally shell out for,  but my friends had heard good things so we went to check it out.

The facility is on a corner lot on College Avenue just near a Bart station and it’s signage does not lend itself well to being seen in the daytime.  We arrived in three separate cars and no one saw it on the first try.  It has a larger (though I didn’t see the extent) restaurant on the 2nd floor and a very small cafe on the ground floor with an even smaller amount of outdoor seating.  We had wanted to try the restaurant proper but found that it was not open for lunch on Sundays.  So we settled for the cafe…. 

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