photo: Christina Mitchell
After the more upscale Commis and the Asian street food-inspired Hawker Fare, James Syhabout’s third restaurant is more of a tavern. Box & Bells opened about a month ago, so I met Sandy of Food Hoe, Ben of Focus Snap Eat and Brenda of Bites & Bourbon for dinner last week. We started with cocktails, so I ordered the boozy Fourth Regiment (rye whiskey, vermouth, triple sec, bitters, celery, $10). The menu was divided into four categories: Nibblings, Small Plates, Meats and Sides. We shared everything and ordered several dishes: the unusual Anchovy & White Bean Toast (sieved egg & chive, $7), the meaty Country Pork Rillete ($11) and the creamy Gem lettuces (blue cheese, lardons, saltine crackers, $11). The Fried Chicken ($15) was interesting because after dipping it in the raw oyster mayonnaise, it almost felt like we were eating fried oysters. The Mussels Tikka Masala with grilled flatbread ($15) were nice, but not even close to the complex flavors in Hawker Fare’s magical mussel dish. The Toulouse Sausage, lentils, mirepoix & bacon ($23) way flavorful but seemed way over-priced. We also shared two desserts. The Butter-Bourbon Pudding (snickerdoodles & oak barrel chantilly, $8) had a nice flavor, but the texture was kind of corn starchy and the Spiced Pumpkin Walnut Cake (caramel, espelette creme fraiche, $8) turned out to have more pudding than cake in the bowl. Everything was good, but nothing really stood out to me. However, I would go back one day to try the Box Burger (aged beef fat, caramelized onions & gruyere on sesame pretzel, $16). It looked juicy, with a capital J.
5912 College Ave, Oakland
Christina Mitchell
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What a great way to have a blogger dinner! I’ve been hearing a lot of hype over this restaurant, but I’m now hearing mixed reviews. Either way, I’d go just to try the mussels tikka masala.