Location: Oakland
Top Restaurants in Oakland
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Most Popular French food in Oakland, California, United States
Find out what French restaurants to try in Oakland. Oakland, in the hub of the Bay Area, is both historic and modern. Visitors will find a little bit of everything in this diverse metropolis, from the picturesque waterfront to expansive hills. Explore Oakland's growing arts, entertainment and food scene or enjoy recreational opportunities like hiking, sailing and biking. Root for one of the three professional sports teams or take a tour of a historic landmark. The city is easily accessible through Oakland International Airport, train, automobile, BART, bus and ferry.
Things to do in Oakland
1. Cafe Jolie
Overall Ratings
4 based on 108 reviews
Reviewed By aaiandrea
Friendly, clean and happy atmosphere. The food is well prepared and tasty. We had a luncheon special priced just right. Staff was friendly and helpful in assisting with choices on the menu. It was not very crowded but the noise control could have been better . Must be the acoustic in the place.
2. La Note
Overall Ratings
4 based on 370 reviews
Reviewed By Andreas G
It has been three years since I last reviewed La Note. There have been some changes. As is the case everywhere, prices have increased due to rising rents and labor costs. Perhaps because of this, as has been the case at other restaurants I frequent, it has become easier to get tables. Usually when I go to La Note during the summer, I reserve a table on the patio. This time it was a spur of the moment decision, and although we arrived shortly before noon there were multiple tables open and there were open tables throughout the time we were there. On a sunny warm day sitting at a shaded table is just lovely. If the only tables available are inside in the stuffy crowded and noisy indoor dining room, I go elsewhere. Yes, I dislike the indoor room that much. As for food, I've tried many items, but after trying quite a few, I always come back to the grilled tuna sandwich. It is built on a great bun, and who doesn't like great buns. The tuna is not overcooked, but instead on the medium to medium rare boundary. The portion is generous. The herbed tomato and aioli on the sandwich and the green salad that it comes with are also nicely executed. Although it is now a $16 sandwich, by local standards you get a lot for your $16, and of the several "tuna sandwich" offerings in the area that I have tried, it remains my favorite. I don't know when the patio officially closes, but when it is no longer an option, I no longer dine at La Note. If you haven't tried the patio at lunch, I highly recommend that you go within the next few weeks. Service was good as well, and I would give the place 4.5 stars if I could.
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3. Michel Bistro
Overall Ratings
4 based on 53 reviews
Reviewed By Andreas G
My wife and I âdiscoveredâ Michel Bistro several years ago. We had returned from a lovely visit to France, and although Fringale in San Francisco is a wonderful place to eat French food, we wanted something in the East Bay. We were at the time very happy with the service, food, and value that Michel Bistro offered. We returned every few months sometimes with guests in tow, and enjoyed exploring the menu. I had read that the restaurant was sold a few months ago. This was confirmed during our recent visit for a âWine Down Wednesdayâ event. This entailed a tasting of six French wines and assorted hors dâoeuvres at $20/person. We then stayed for dinner. It was quite an adventure, and much more of an adventure than I really wanted to engage in. In a nutshell, the food was still good, but there were many things that were just âoffâ and these detracted from what could have been a very pleasant experience. If the new owners read these reviews, then I hope that they take the comments to heart. If our experience was the new normal, and things arenât improved, I am going to guess that business will decrease, and in another six months to a year there will be another change of ownership. I received an e-mail announcement of the Wine Down Wednesday event on a Friday evening. On Sunday, I went online, and made a reservation request providing a time window in an effort to be flexible. There was no response, and so on Wednesday morning I wrote to the restaurant asking about the status of the reservation. I got a response and an apology, and was told that our reservation was confirmed. Unfortunately, the time was not defined, and so this prompted yet another e-mail. So if you are keeping score, three e-mails to get a reservation. When we arrived, the staff member at the hostess station could not find our reservation. This was an unwelcome development. When the regular hostess appeared, she did find our reservation, and I will say that whatever she is getting paid, it is probably not enough. She was spectacularly good at her job. We began with the wine tasting. The new owner was pouring and described the wines. It would have been lovely if a âmenuâ had been provided so you would know what wines you were drinking and what hors dâoeuvres they recommended pairing with the wines. It took quite some time to get a menu. That should have happened when you sat down. Rather than walking the floor with trays of hors dâoeuvres, and serving them, they were placed on a table near the bar, and for some items, in the time it took for you to walk from your table to the food, the trays had been emptied. It was simply not a very efficient way to do things. We enjoyed four of the six wines we tried, and all of the food. The kitchen seems to have survived the change of ownership, but the coordination between the kitchen and the dining room seems poor, and in this case particularly poor. We confirmed our decision to stay for dinner. We had mentioned this to the owner, but it was not relayed to a server. My wife ultimately went and asked the hostess whether it would be easier if we moved to a table in the part of the dining room not used for the wine tasting event. She came to our table, brought menus, and took our order. We shared a bottle of wine, and then waited. And waited. And waited. When our food finally arrived, I mentioned to the waitress that I had ordered a side order of frites since these are no longer included in an order of mussels. She said it was coming right up. So I waited. And waited. The waitress came back ten minutes later to ask how the food was. And what about those frites that were coming right up? And after about fifteen minutes they did come, and they were tasty, but rather ill-timed in terms of their arrival. They did take the frites off the bill, but it is not about the money. My wife ordered a bavette steak. When you order this in France, you get a steak. When someone brings you a steak knife, you think you are going to get a steak. What you ended up getting was a $32 steak salad. My wife thought the meat was properly cooked, but was disappointed in the presentation. I would have been disappointed as well. I thought the dish was a poor value, and the menu does a poor job of describing what you will actually get. My wife thought it was pretty light on the main ingredient. As for the $22 mussel dish, the broth was very flavorful, and the mussels were pleasantly plump, and not these nanomussels that are served at places like Zut. However, of the perhaps 15-18 mussels that were in the serving, three had not opened during cooking. I think when they donât open, you are well-advised to not serve them. Perhaps I was very unlucky, but perhaps a bit more attention should be paid to this. When you eat this dish in France or Belgium, you typically get frites, and also some bread. The broth is one of the lovely parts of the dish. A single slice of bread, which is what the dish came with, is not sufficient to the task. You can rectify this with a $5 side of frites, but now you have a $27 main course. I tend to like the mussels at Lukaâs (Oakland) as much if not more, three versions are offered, they come with frites (or did the last time I dined there), and they are $18. When all was said and done, there were things we liked, but the overall experience was flawed, and not up to the standards of the past. Michel Bistro was a restaurant that I typically visited several times a year. I suspect that I will not go back as often. Perhaps it was an anomalous experience, and we were just unlucky, but when you spend $180 on your evening, you really donât want to deal with issues like this, and would like to come away with a greater sense of enjoyment and fulfillment.
