Camino

Ate here Sunday night! Excellent! What a refreshing place to dine. The food was pure and simple. Grilled artichoke with citrus segments like blood orange Genius! The kabocha squash with nuts and yogurt sauce was creative and light. We had the pork panoply of leg and sausage perfectly cooked. Service was outstanding with every staff member making eye contact and some how interacting with our table. Delicious non– alcoholic beverage Rosemary shrub. Desserts the persimmon pudding was the showstopper. Incredible flavor and wonderful texture with roast apples. The orange cake was very good. It was pricy however the quality of ingredients was phenomenal.

Had an amazing meal at Camino with friends. The wood fire hearth is an amazing centerpiece that sets the mood for the meal. Had amazing duck offal toast, cured hering fennel salad, grilled pork with amazing sausage, Orange cake. Good products, great service, and no tipping! I will return

If my employer’s office party served food like this, I’d get the message that they are about to undergo a massive layoff.
I had seen people complaining about small serving sizes in their reviews of its place.
I had seen people complaining about inattentive services in their reviews of this place.
I was glad that the serving size was small, because the food served was practically inedible (and I hate wasting food) — had they given us more of the same, we’d have felt guilty being so wasteful. It was either flavorless or insanely salty.
I was glad the server was gone for a long time without checking on us because I could not have come up with anything good to say about their food nor did I have enough faith that another dish, even offered for free, could have done any damage control. We told our server that both our entrees were super salty, to which he simply said «thanks for the feedback.»
The only saving grace was the wine, which we brought from home for $ 25 corkage fee.

I can’t believe it took me so long to come back! I came here last year for the restaurant week, had a memorable meal, then got busy trying new places I’ve never been. I came back this year for the restaurant week again, had another fantastic meal, and swear to come back soon!
There are good restaurant, and there are great restaurant. Camino definitely falls on the exceptional category. This place has a very small but ever changing seasonal menu, which means everything is fresh and and every dish is well thought out. I love their attention to details, not only to the food but the drinks too. During my current visit, I had some of the most well crafted cocktails I’ve had for a while. I also love that they pay their staff a livable wage, and service charge is included in the check. Some reviews mentioned that their portions are towards the smaller side, I personally had no issue with that.

Had been excited to try camino — despite the Unilocal reviews. And I have to say we agreed with what seemed the predominant Unilocal opinion: great space, interesting food, pricey and left hungry.
We went for brunch and found it all to be fine to good. Nothing amazing. The lamb ragout was the only standout for me, but nothing I would go back for. A solid 3 – 4 star place, rates 3 for value.

Unremarkable for the price.
Brunch:
Potatoes were over salted, French toast was thick and dry although the compote was tasty, the savory plate was odd and pretty mediocre.
The ragu with poach egg was great and the baked egg and sausages were good.
Beautiful space but be prepared for long communal tables.
Coffee was burnt and bitter.

Not all the portions were small.
Arrived just on time for a 6:45 reservation (best I could get a month in advance) on a Saturday. As a party of three we were seated at the end of a communal table. Advantage: we didn’t have strangers on both sides — disadvantage: we had table space more suited to two.
Mr. D. and I each had an aged rum cocktail, nice mixology on that one. Our server brought my wife tastes of two wines, even though she was only ordering by the glass.
A sort of amuse bouche of a pickled vegetable was presented. A thin slice for each diner. First courses arrive. The winner, my son’s wood roasted oysters. Second place went to my wife’s artichoke salad, but she complained bitterly about the tiny portion. My pig’s head fritters were the loser. I expected a patty but the chef had other ideas and five tater tot shapes were presented. There was a bit of chew but the texture was gone. (Same thing with the sweetbreads at Animal. Note to chefs: Stop this) The sort of slaw along side the pig’s head was tasty though.
A request for bread brought a small fougasse with good butter. Why isn’t this offered as a matter of course?
For mains, Mr. D and I went with the duck. This was a nice portion with slices of breast; I received a drumstick and Mr. D got the thigh. The duck came with a grain, identified as farro but in smaller grains than usual. This was a great dish. My wife’s rockfish was also delicious, but the portion was small.
Mr. D. had a nicely made tequila cocktail frothy with egg white with his main course, I had a glass of Saumur.
We had room for dessert. Tunisian orange cake was spot on and in portion suitable for sharing. Ricotta with honey and roasted apple was also great, more would have been desirable.
If you consider that the service charge is built into the meal prices, they aren’t too bad. A bit more generosity would be nice.

The food and ambiance are deserving of more stars than two, but the pricing and the portions make this place pretentious and even ostentatious. If you are willing to charge that much money for such small portions, the food has to be so good that it makes me want to reflect on my life! :) But the Rockfish, tasty as it was, came with two tiny pieces of potatoe, and the slices of roasted pork where almost see-​through! Don’t get me wrong, everything was cooked well. Nothing was overcooked. It even tasted good. But none of the flavors screamed «wow.» The cook took no risks, so to speak. Nothing brought tears of joy to my eyes. What is described here as «delicate flavor» is more like slightly under-​seasoned food. It made me miss my own pork roast!
To display the fire oven the way they do, show an open flame in the background to the kitchen, I expect generosity of spirit, and portions that don’t make me cry! Bless you guys for what you are creating, but not in this lifetime of mine will I throw away my money like this. Cheers!

Three is all it gets. 4 «salads» 2 «apps» and 3 entrees. I get why do a bunch of menu items «ok» when you can do less and make it great… Missed the mark here. Didn’t have high expectations but I would have liked to see more from the wood oven. Desserts average as well. Décor and ambiance are awesome. Service was good but slightly slow for cocktails (even if they are crafted).
Trendy? No. Good following? Perhaps. Chef needs to get off his laurels of working for Alice and get uncomfortable with what he’s doing, I bet he’d do better out of his comfort zone.
B

This place is special. I came because I learned that the chef has an innovative style and takes great care to have a waste-​free kitchen. The first thing I noticed was the «no tips» sign on the front door and on the menu. The restaurant truly cares about a living wage for all its employees so that wage is factored directly into the price of each item. Brilliant!
The ambiance is cozy and relaxed. The staff is sincere and kind. The food was just what we were looking for and its so cool to see the food cooked in the big wood oven at the back of the restaurant. Simple food, thoughtfully prepared with a delightful balance of flavors. The vegetarian dish was perfect, flavorful and nourishing. Real food done really well.

This restaurant is wonderful. I am shocked that their rating on Unilocal isn’t higher… except for when I remember that Unilocal is usually a platform for a bunch of uninformed whiny babies. Ha ha — love/​hate you Unilocal!
The food is cooked by experienced (read Che Panizze) creatives that know how to pair texture and taste in an unusual way that makes their delicious creations seem easy and natural. I have no doubt the process is not easy. We had the mushroom and eggplant gratin and the fish with radish. The fish was delicious, lightly battered and crispy fried — a paper towel couldn’t pick up extra oil. The radishes perfectly paired. The mushroom dish was the best I’ve had in a very, very long time. The consistency was perfect. The white radishes, I assume lacto-​fermented, were –maybe al dente– but cogent and bright — actually perfect. The mushrooms in season and rich like steak, the egg a rounding add. The addition of LF foods, though, yes very «in” — actually improves flavor quite a bit, especially for vegetables.
The atmosphere was quite nice. There was an element of medieval commonwealth, joviality and warmth. The shared tables, church pews, and bible chairs seemed familiarly broken in and comfortable.
The service was also very good. The greeter was professional, polite, engaged, and genuinely pleasant. Our server was knowledgable and competent. The floor manager (maybe) for the night was also genuine and knowledgable. I don’t need to be best friends with staff when I eat at a restaurant. All I cares about is if the food is exceptional and the staff is competent– don’t need a song and dance. And, I hope that the no tips model is the rising tide that lifts all boats.
The cost is not cheap, though it is not overly pricy either. You are paying for expertise and skill. It is all well-​worth the money.

I’ve been wanting to dine at Camino since my good friend recommended it to me like over two years ago… Hey, I get busy… I have been following them with their newsletter and my mouth drools every Monday morning when I read what’s on the menu for the week. My first time in this part of Oakland and it really is a lovely and quaint neighborhood. Definitely a coolness factor in this part of Oakland.
What I love about this place the most? It’s not the beautiful hearth oven or rustic and comfortable ambiance. It’s the livable wage they offer their employees by eliminating tipping.
Food: Ordered the sheeps milk toast, oven baked oysters and the boudin blanc sausage with pork leg roast. I thought everything tasted very good and well seasoned. The white sausage was delicate. The duck fat potatoes… really wish that I ordered a meal of just those. Amazing!
I liked the taste of our food and it had a subtle quality of being cooked in the hearth.
Service: The server was good but really wanted to reiterate to us that portions are small. A little irked about my reservation but the hostess was so nice that I forgave her.
Requested a romantic table… hostess thought that meant to seat us next to the moms with babies. I’m a mom, so absolutely no offense. But i made a specific request when i made the reservation because I wanted a romantic dinner.
Ambiance: Beautiful and homey. The hearth oven is really striking.
The food is pricey but the quality is excellent. Ice Tea is NOT refillable — they must brew each order. But it comes in the cutest glass pitcher! Our meal of two appetizers and one entrée with two ice teas was over $ 70.

This place is a totally overpriced joke. (Go to Penrose down the street!) Including charging me for things that I did not order, spilling a drink on me and my companion without apology or cleanup, the smallest portions known to man, taking 45 minutes for food to come, and forgetting my entrée order entirely — which came with a hefty serving of passive aggressive denial. They include service in the cost of the food which sadly results in the shittest service. I’m all for eliminating tipping, but keeping the service level high would be the only way to encourage the adoption of the policy. They fail spectacularly.
Again, go to Penrose, cheaper and incredibly awesome.

I absolutely love dining in Oakland over dining in SF. Once inside of Camino you can definitely tell the difference between the clientele, it’s a lot more like Portland than SF and of course, I love Portland. The atmosphere is very relaxed and unpretentious. The service is stellar.
Hate the communal tables — are we still doing this? Fortunately, we came in on a Monday evening when the amount of people sitting at the long and slender table beautifully lit with mood votives was sparse. We had plenty of room to stretch out. I guess when I think of food being cooked over an open fire, I immediately think of Francis Mallman. This romantic image of man and fire, cooking vegetables directly on/​in the coals until the outside is charred beyond recognition and the inside is supple and sexy.
Yeah, I didn’t get that here. Couldn’t really tell that anything had been cooked on the open fire.
We started with the bonito toasts to nibble on while we drank our bubbly.
Smoked bonito, salted mullet roe toasts with radish salad $ 16 (
) | More like the consistency of a deli tuna on top of crispy rye melba toast with a sharp and bright purple radish salad. Really good. That radish salad was worth its weight alone. Would have been an excellent platform for some celery leaves so you get a faint herbal whiff.
Oysters with absinthe $ 20 (
) | Five delicious and delicate oysters topped with breadcrumbs. Only two out of the five had any liquor that mixed in with the fennel-​y absinthe. So damn delicious, but oh so damn small.
Grilled sheep’s milk ricotta, sprouting broccoli, sunchokes $ 15 (
)| Basically a slab of ricotta with big ass hunks of soft sunchokes and tiny broccoli rabe. Missed the «grilled» flavor, as assuming it was grilled over the fire. Tiny Broccoli rabe needs to be on everyone’s to eat list.
Grass-​fed NY steak, smoky lentils, cabbage, chile butter $ 45 (
) | Was sadly disappointed by the lack of char on this steak. Decent size portion shared between two people. But, DID NOT get that primordial longing from within that usually comes with consuming things cooked by an open fire. Lacked any sort of smokiness or really sound char that I look forward to.
Wood oven-​roasted kabocha squash with eggplant gratin, radicchio and an egg cooked by the fire $ 29 (
) | Hella small portion of squash! Good technical skills on the egg, probably wouldn’t miss it if it hadn’t been on the plate.
Warm persimmons, persimmon pudding w/​whipped cream $ 12 (
) | More like an English spotted dick pudding; cake like consistency. Delicious persimmon cake. Came with four slices of Fuyu persimmons that were supposed to be warm, it’s in the title, they were cold as those ginormous hipster square ice cubes everyone has these days.
Jaggery ice cream with wood oven-​roasted apples and almond candy $ 11 (
) | Two scoops of ice cream made from unrefined sugar, apples that were cold and didn’t have any smokey flavor and 5 almonds that made brittle.
The persimmon bread pudding + jaggery ice cream desserts should be merged. Persimmon pudding dessert lacked any texture, I used the almond brittle from jaggery ice cream to put on my persimmon cake. The «roasted apples» with the jaggery ice cream should have DEFINITELY been warm. There was no text book warm/​cold/​cakey/​crunchy texture or interest shown in the desserts. And it’s all about the desserts for me.

Came here for my cousin’s birthday dinner. Right off the bat, I loved the ambiance. Relaxed yet sophisticated feel with the awesome large redwood tables and huge stove of flames in the back. From the start, the service was quite slow. The food, sadly, also took quite a while to reach our tables. We weren’t offered bread and butter nor did the guy come back to ask me for my choice of drink. Almost every time we had to find someone ourselves. I did have the gin drink which to my surprise did not taste so much like the description would have you think — it actually reminded me of wheatgrass for some reason. The green color made me think of that even more. The drink was stiff and quite easy to drink.
We started off with the Endive salad. I enjoyed the dressing and the texture of the sheep’s milk cheese in contrast to the crunchy endive. We also got the cheddar cheese which came with two slices of wheat bread. I very much enjoyed this appetizer along with the kids. For entrée, I opted for the duck breast with sausage, potatoes, and a measly amount of green beans. Every part of this dish was quite delicious even though the sausage was pretty random. The dish was a bit heavy and I wish it would have came with more green vegetables. I was quite surprised that their entrees were good portioned that even my almost 6 foot cousin was full after his meal — or maybe it was from the few beers he had.

My wife and are so fond of Camino that we recently held our wedding reception there. We picked Camino primarily because of the food since everything that we’ve eaten there has been delicious. It’s not surprising that Chef Russ is a semifinalist for the James Beard Award. The food comes first, and it really shows.
Some of my favorites at Camino include the roast duck, which was the main course at our wedding, the roasted dungeness crab, which is often a special during the winter months, and the roast quail. They make really tasty pork head fritters too.
Although I don’t have any first hand experience with this, vegetarians and even vegans were happy with the food that we served at our wedding.
Nearly all of the food is roasted in their wood fireplace, giving the food a nice smoky flavor. Most of the seating are at the giant kings tables, where everyone sits communally — this was a lot of fun for our wedding.
The service is always friendly and helpful, and very down to earth. Allison and Brian were very accommodating and flexible when we were planning our wedding reception, and everything went off perfectly. Camino remains one of our favorite restaurants, and we recommend it to all of our friends.

Not your typical ordinary brunch spot. The food is unique that comes with a steep price. For two, we ordered:
–Sweet condiment plate: sheepsmilk ricotta, walnut butter, dates and homemade
Seville orange marmalade. This plate was excellent with unique flavorful texture.
— French toast with fruit compote, hazelnuts and crème fraîche. Huge portion.
–Stoneground oats with brown butter, maple syrup and almonds. Very odd texture not to my liking.
Overall, the food was decent and definitely not your typical morning brunch menu. We did enjoyed it but the bill came out to be quite high.

Soooo it was good. Some might say four stars. But I just wasn’t blown away enough to give it four stars.
I came here for brunch on a weekend — my sorority sister made a reservation so we got in no problem.
So I wanted to get a mimosa originally. But 14 for a mimosa??? ONE mimosa? That’s nuts. I feel like 10 is acceptable. 14 is crazy.
Anyway, it was pretty expensive. Food was above average but nothing blew me away. I ended up getting sausage and the baked egg because it was literally all i could afford. And definitely got coffee over the mimosa because, $ 14 meh.

I enjoyed the ambiance and love the rustic décor. It felt very cozy and comfortable. I really liked the layout of the restaurant too. It seemed to flow well. Our wait staff was very attentive and helpful.
I thought the cocktails were really good. I enjoyed the Hot Toddy and aside of the alcohol, still and sparkling water is placed at your table.
I tried 2 of their appetizers, the chicharron and sheep’s milk cheese with herb jam. They were both good. The sheep’s milk cheese with the herb jam tasted like a pizza.
For my main course, I ordered the pork loin ($ 29). I was really disappointed in what I got for $ 29. In all fairness, the dish was good, but the pork loin was the size of my palm and I’m a petite person. It did come with some type of sausage, but still for $ 29… I would expect a bigger piece of pork.
There were 8 of us in our party so we ordered all of the items on the dessert menu. My favorite was the hazelnut-​chocolate cookies. I didn’t care for the candied pomelo peel. The cookies were good with the ice cream dish we also ordered. I can’t remember the flavor, but it came with walnuts and it was good!
Overall, my experience was a good one. Food was good. We ended up spending $ 62/​person combined with our drinks, apps, main and dessert.

If you love sitting in a gorgeous restaurant, with friendly service, a wood-​fired oven, and mediocre food, then this is the place for you. What a disappointment! I was expecting so much more from this place. The food was just so-​so. Not a single item we had was worth raving about.
Mine: two oven-​baked eggs with «cream and herbs». Boring, pretty flavorless and completely unexciting.
Mine: house-​made pork sausage. Decent.
Hers: french toast. Very eggy, and not a lot of flavor. Bland.
On top of that, it was pretty expensive for not a lot of food and not great food at that. I get their whole «no tip» thing and the higher menu prices could be a reflection of that. But, even so, I would not pay $ 20 again for a very boring sausage and eggs breakfast.

Whoever was on the design team for the restaurant that converted this place from an old furniture store should be doing it more often.
The décor in this place is beautiful. Huge, chandelier type candle things hanging from the ceiling. Can’t really describe it, you have to see. All the tables are wood. There are separate tables and long tables. In the back they use wood burning to cook. They burn wood, which the hot ash falls and then cooks the food. They also have one of those adobe oven things for pizza.
We had mussels for the appetizer, which were very good, just wished there were more of them, only about 10 or 12.
The main courses are EXCELLENT, but you will pay for what you get. We had the lamb, and the cod. The lamb had several different cuts, due tot the fact they buy the whole animal instead of just certain cuts The cod was amazing as well.
It’s open later then most places in the area, so that makes it great for people that don’t want to eat at 6 pm. Try it!
They change their menu every night!