Downtown Restaurant

I can’t believe I had this bookmarked to review for like 4 years. Guess it’s been closed for a year now! Besides Chez Panisse, at the time I ate here not many nice sitdown restaurants especially in this locale. My things have changed and Berkeley is now going through a culinary renaissance. I don’t know of any replacement for their style of Mediterranean seafood/​tapas focus. RIP

CLOSED+CLOSED+CLOSED+CLOSED
Don’t be fooled, the website is still up but phone disconnected.
Oh well it was a great pre-​theatre place but gone, gone, gone…

–CLOSED–
Summary based on several lunches, dinners:
–good choice for something a bit upscale in downtown Berk
–service has been ok or better for me, apparently unlike many of the other reviewers. This is based on multiple visits.
–prices ok
–parking awful before 6 and can be difficult close by after

«I like chicken, I like it real good, I like chicken, I cook it with wood
Chick-​ennnn, only chick-​ennnnnnn (chorus)
I like chicken, I like it real nice, I like chicken, I eat it with rice
Chick-​ennnnn, only chick-​ennnnnnn.»
So goes the famous «Chicken Song» my friend’s brother drunkenly composed. There are many other verses, believe me you don’t need to hear all of them. I rarely order chicken in restaurants, because one is just not *supposed* to, and I prefer ordering things a little less pedestrian. However, my dining companions insisted that Downtown was famous for its Chick-​ennnnnn so I gave it a try. Served on a bed of mushrooms, asparagus and greens it was outstanding. It was cut «airline» style with the skin cooked to crunchy deliciousness. I nibbled off other plates — a nicely done short rib stew and a duck leg confit.
We had started with the fried olives stuffed with anchovies and a plate of the fried asparagus with a good aioli. The more gluttonous of the group (yeah, I’m talking about you, Grandpa) took to dipping the fried olives into the aioli.
We opted to skip dessert, but as the owners are neighbors and patients of my Grandpa’s we were sent a yummy cookie plate on the house.
Will definitely go back for the Chick-​ennnn. New verse inspired by Downtown: I like chicken, I like it cooked under a stone, I like chicken without any bone.

I like this place a lot. It’s got a nice vibe to it, an enjoyable bar to sit and snack/​dine as well as drink, and the prices are relatively reasonable. Make sure you try the french fries (absolutely out of this world), as well as their homemade potato chips.
The fish sandwhich is one of the best lunch values you’ll find.
If you’re in Downtown Berkeley, try Downtown Restaurant. You’ll enjoy it.

Meh.
The «service is stupid bad» as fellow Unilocalers have noticed.
The food is ok … nothing was stand out great … except maybe the beet salad.
Last night we were in the neighborhood, so we stopped in about 8 pm for dinner. The restaurant must have just cleared out since most of the tables were empty and not set.
A group of 4 nudged in front of us while we were at the hostess stand waiting … and waiting to be seated at one of the many empty tables.
A waitress asked the group of 4 what table they would like … and then she spent the next 5 minutes setting that table for them. We waited and waited. We watched about ten employees do a lot of nothing while we waited more.
We were about to leave, when the actual hostess appeared and seated us. And then we sat at our table and waited for a while (a long time, really, and we noticed those same ten employees do a lot of nothing buzzing around). Finally, our waitress approaches and takes our drink and salad order. Later she came back for our entrée order.
Food comes. Drinks come. All went well from here … but the experience did not leave us wanting to go back again. This was our third or forth time here, and each visit was ok, but nothing was worth finding parking and running through the cold like we did last night. Next time maybe Venus or LaNote would be better.

This review is for drinks, service and atmosphere.
We walked over to Downtown after our surreal experience with the DOT doorman at Triple Rock. We really just needed a couple drinks to finish off the night.
Service was solid and the martini’s were very good. I was surprised that they were wrapping up and asked for last call at about 9:45. I didn’t realize any of the bars and restaurants in Berkeley kept Blue Hair hours. They were pretty dead.
The atmosphere was very nice and upscale casual here. There are televisions around showing a continuious loop of something akin to German TV ala’ Mike Meyer’s Sprockets.

This is like Berkeley’s little business lunch spot.
I arrived at 11:30 am for an interview, and I was the only person there.
The environment is nice, but a bit nondescript. This is no «theme» restaurant.
The menu was appealing. I select and super duper liked my salad which had cold shrimp, avocado, fennel, and grapefruit with a green goddess dressing. It was way yummy. Also good was the pear tart, which was more crust than fruit, and the fruit could have been a bit more warmed.
I liked the menu and thought it was mighty affordable for the choices. The place seemed a little empty/​passé, which is sad.

Recently I ate in 4 nice Berkeley restaurants on consecutive nights. So I feel uniquely blessed to compare them :)
Corso (of course)
Caffe Venezia
Lococo (North Berkeley)
Downtown
I ate at Downtown once for lunch a while back and enjoyed it. This time however — sorry it was just bad.
I arrived late to meet my family (they knew I was going to be late). When I arrived there was no hostess in sight (actually there was, she was just ignoring me…). So I started look around for my family. Not like walking into the dinning area and bothering people, just looking from the hostess station.
Finally I guess I bugged the hostess enough that she actually approached me. I was confused as to why she was speaking to me since she had been completely ignoring me… and hostesses don’t usually do that… right?
At about the point it looked like she was going to ask me to leave… she mentioned that, «Oh maybe you mean those people in the back room? Go look.» and she walked away. I am not making this up.
I was a bit shocked, but whatever. I did find them alone in the «back room» which I was quite glad to have — it has a decent amount of space. My family let me know in no uncertain terms that the food was ok but the service was not.
I ordered the char, a type of fish, which I have never had before. The description sounded really good, so why not.
The fish arrived literally 5 mins later. My sister was shocked, she said her food took forever to arrive.
The fish was not bad, but not very interesting. It came surrounded by an unbelievably bland sauce and 2 or 3 micro sized potatoes. It would have been an «LA Story» moment, except the slab of fish was pretty big. At least I had an amazing glass of wine (hint Downtown didn’t make it!).
Overall, stupid bad service and poor food — high food quality though — just completely lacking in imagination and preparation.

Sometimes a lunch is just a lunch. Sometimes it’s a job interview.
I kept reminding myself, «I’m having a nice lunch in Berkeley,» and practiced letting go of the outcome. Two prospective colleagues and I dropped in around 1 pm, and the host seated us in a window immediately. The menu consisted of a full array of California and American favorites.
I chose a hamburger, medium-​rare, with a salad instead of fries. Iced tea for the beverage. The burger and the tea were perfect, but I felt the salad dressing was a little underwhelming. One of the managers paid for lunch, but I believe my order would have come out to about $ 14.
Conversation turned on business, and I managed to give the gentlemen a favorable impression. What the outcome will be is still undetermined. I do know this — I did have a nice lunch in Berkeley.

So I came here on Thursday night I think? It happened to be a Wine Dinner meaning the menu for the evening was special and had a list of wines to pair with it. You had a choice of Ala Carte or the whole shabang. We did it Ala Carte. But I got to see everyone else’s dish that we didn’t pick out. It was so beautifully presented. Unfortunately, even thought I’m about to describe what I had that night, they probably don’t serve it anymore.
Drinks:
d’Arbo Fruit Syrup Soda: Peach Passion fruit $ 3.00
totally expensive for a small drink but totally worth it. fresh and fruity.
Starters:
Soup of the Day: Potato Leek $ 7.75
totally not worth it… it was pureed and drizzled with a bit of olive oil
Roasted Garlic & New Potato Gallette with thyme and fontal $ 10.50
gallette’s are sorta like a quiche, only personal sized and its free formed. no pans or molds used. It was OUT OF THIS WORLD. Okay, I admit it, I loved it more maybe because it had potatoes in it (I LOVE POTATOES!!) but it truly was a wonderful dish. The crust was buttery and flaky, the potatoes and the garlic together omg melt in your mouth.
Entrée of sort:
Duck Terrine with green peppercorn and cognac served with cornichon, crostini and dijon $ 9.75
I actually liked this dish very much. Although, it wasn’t very filling ;[ unfortunately.
Braised Lamb with heirloom tomato, fresh butter beans, toasted almonds & herb de Provence $ 16.00
this was my friend’s dish, the sauce was a bit too tangy for my taste. He seemed to enjoy it though. The lamb was fabulous, so tender and yummy. The tomatoes were really good too.

I’ve now been to this restaurant at least 10 times and can safely say that 8 out of 10 times, I’ve been incredibly disappointed with the service and kitchen timing. Here’s a run-​down of what you can expect:
— You’ll be seated and ignored by the wait staff.
— When you manage to flag a wait person down and get some help, more often than not they’ll forget to do what you asked for.
— Orders from the kitchen can take an incredibly long time. You’ve been warned. DO NOT go to this restaurant before a show at Berkeley Rep or the Greek, or your evening will be off to a very stressful start.
— Be prepared to police the wait staff to ensure that you receive all of the food you ordered. Most of the time, the kitchen will forget a few items, which is infuriating because those items will be on your bill.
The food itself is decent, the menu is interesting, and the wine list is OK, which has me believing that the concept is solid but the owners may just be permanently out of town or busy launching other restaurants. It really does feel like no one is in charge when you go there.
It’s such a shame because the location is great and it’d be nice to have such a convenient place to get a quick bite or a great meal before a show. Perhaps the owners will read enough of these bad reviews, fire the staff and re-​launch the place with a competent team.

Downtown is a lovely restaurant in Downtown Berkeley (get it?). It’s more known for its bar scene, which is well deserved, but the food there is quite excellent.
I went there with my family for a graduation dinner. We started off with calamari and champagne and i ended with the lamb. It was all very good, especially the champagne. I love champagne.
The aesthetics are nice with simple lines yet layered and warm so that you dont feel like the place is too pretentious. The service was decent, though our waitress was a bit off at times, making us wait unusually long. But overall, the price-​quality-​portion ratio of this restaurant is good. I would reccommend coming here with family or a date. If you come on the right night, you can catch live music as well.

Well… i just ate here and had to review. Since I’m becoming a Unilocaladdict.
We were seated quickly but waited 15 minutes for anyone to come to the table with water, or menus. then we ordered a bottle of wine and some apps. they came back and didn’t have our wine and didn’t actually bring a wine list, just told us they didn’t have the wine we ordered. ugh. 5 minutes later she returned with the list and left!!!
The hostess dropped by and took our wine order. by that time i was in withdrawals and the gals i was with were rubbing my shoulders.
25 minutes in we got our wine, and slowly the mediocre food. We thought about another bottle, but lets go elsewhere to finish our night.
Will never return. Service would have saved it… but killed it.

Like a bad boyfriend, this is one of those places that consistently disappoints me. Sure, I keep coming back for more because I’m hoping this time it will be different – the food will be transcendent and the service pitch-​perfect!
Of course, none of this ever happens here, but because of its close proximity to Berkeley Rep, I’ll just continue to park it at the bar, order the soup and turn a blind eye.

Came here with some friends after a few rounds of beer at Jupiter. Service was friendly and attentive.
Food was OK. We started with fried calamari, kumamoto oysters, and the patatas bravas. Calamari was OK, small portions, oysters were fresh, and the potatoes were food with a nice kick to them. Caesar salad was OK, a little bland for my taste. I had a rib-​eye steak, which they prepared medium rare, as requested. Good and satisfying. Some of guys had the lamb, others, had the pork shoulder, others had various seafood dishes.
Overall, I thought it was priced pretty for what we got. We didn’t get dessert, and some of the guys still hungry (Top Dog!).

Great location, generally pleasant service, above-​average food and great drinks. If you are on a budget, skip it. If you are not overly concerned about your finances, enjoy the Downtown Margarita and have a good time.
This is a place to go if you are in downtown Berkeley with a group and can’t decide where to go – and don’t mind paying $ 30 plus/​person.
My favorite way to enjoy Downtown is to sit at the bar and have a few drinks with a snack. Bartenders have always been friendly and pour generously.

This place is pretty pricey for a Berkeley restaurant and looks nicer than the food actually is by far. The ambiance is nice with nice linens and it is a more upscale feel than the rest of the other places you could eat in downtown berkeley, but the food itself is not really worth it. I lived in berkeley for 4 years so I have tried a lot of restaurants there and this is one of the few I actually left somewhat disappointed… You could go many other places and get more bang for your buck

«When you’re alone and life is making you lonely, you can always go… Downtown…»
Unfortunately, this was NOT the happy-​go-​lucky tune that I was singing in my head after we left Downtown Restaurant in Berkeley the other night. In fact, I’m struggling to justify the two stars I’ve assigned to this review. Let’s recap:
First off, the décor. One word: Disjointed. A hybrid between cheap and cheesy. While some may consider hanging used plastic grocery bags from the ceiling in a wreath-​like arrangement and illuminating them with pink neon lights «new age», I couldn’t help but see a resemblance to bundles of cotton candy. It was straight-​up weird. The theme was kindof minimalist neon nouveau meets IKEA apartment lighting. I really wasn’t digging it. Especially the infusion of real bouquets of beautiful flowers mixed with artificial neon tulips. Odd.
Secondly, the service. Our waitress was clearly new, for she not only referred to several items on the menu as if she were once a server at Chili’s (pushing the «up-​sell» without really offering suggestions as to what was worth trying and what we might actually LIKE), but she also messed up on our bill, charging us for two of the drinks that we ended up sending back because they tasted so awful and another drink which never even came. I couldn’t tell if she was trying really hard with us, or if she was just so preoccupied with learning the ropes that she really couldn’t give my party of 6 the attention we deserved.
[Then again, perhaps I’m officially an SF dining snob? Have our standards risen so high because we’re just so damned spoiled with all of the amazing restaurants we have immediate access to in San Francisco? Something to think about…]
Anywho, I wouldn’t come back here anytime soon. Bad service, weirdness for the look and feel and so-​so food. The only dish worth mentioning was the seasoned potatoes we shared as a starter. Everything else was, umm. forgettable.

I’m in 100% agreement with Tsada. We went here last night before the theater and were shocked — what happened to our former favorite?
I think there’s been a change of management. There’s a new menu, certainly, focusing on small plates and shareable entrees. Which, in itself, is a great thing. They’ve also gone from being a place where you sometimes waited 15 minutes before anyone even offered you a cocktail to the sort of joint where you can eat an appetizer and a main in 45 minutes. Which, again, isn’t terrible on the face of it – for many theater patrons, it’s a godsend.
But the service seems rushed and slapdash, and the new menu (riddled with typos, by the way) offers no guidance as to the size of the plates. All the meat items are grouped together, all the pastas, all the seafood — from tiny nibbles to full-​on entrees, with no clue about which is which. I ordered pasta for my main, for an example, and got three small ravioli, appetizer sized at best. Hmmm… might have been nice to know that when I ordered it.
With the exception of a plate of lovely patatas bravas, everything we ordered was not up to snuff. We shared a Caesar salad that was sodden with dressing. My ravioli sat in a pool of what appeared to be the water they were (over)cooked in, topped with underripe heirloom tomatoes and way too much oregano — bitter, sour, yuck.
My husband ordered sturgeon, which he told me tasted well past its prime (heavy ammonia smell). He’s not a fussy fish-​eater in general, so I asked him if he thought it was possible he’d gotten a bad piece, or if he thought the were passing off bad fish on purpose. We talked about it for a few minutes, and he finally decided that if he was the chef, he’d want to know — maybe they got a bad order?
After we searched for our waiter for a few minutes, one of the managers came over and asked if we needed something. We explained about the fish, and she told us that it was impossible (!) that it was off — «We get fresh fish every day.» Uh, yeah. We know. But just because it’s delivered every day doesn’t mean every piece of it is flawless. She grudgingly took it away and asked if there was something else we wanted. The whole episode was really poorly handled.
As we didn’t have time to wait for a full entrée to be cooked, my husband ordered a cheese plate to keep his stomach from grumbling during the play. It took almost 15 minutes for it to come. When it did arrive, it was a two tiny triangles (less than 1 inch on a side) of cheese. Worst of all, there were smudges of bleu cheese all over the cut sides of the triple-​cream. Ew, come on – basic sanitation would be nice. Wipe your knife!
We always have enjoyed the homespun desserts at Downtown, but we were so put off by the entire experience that we passed on them, out of fear that they’d gone downhill, too.
I guess it’s time for us to find another pre-​theater spot. Sad…
=========================
Original 4-​star review 5÷2÷06:
—-
Nice pre-​theater option right upstairs from the Berkeley BART station.
The food is seasonal, interesting and well-​prepared, as you’d expect from a kitchen run by Chez Panisse and Bay Wolf alumni — I’m starting to think that’s a prerequisite for getting a restaurant license in Berkeley.
None of the food was mind-​blowing, and there were a few things that I looked at and went «oh, hmm — interesting idea but…», although everything we ordered was at least good. Special props for the Baked Alaska dessert, one of the best sweets I’ve had in a looooong time.
Service was professional without being stiff or faux-​formal. Wine, beer, and booze lists were interesting and well balanced.