Cockadoodle Cafe, Oakland

719 Washington Street, Oakland – website

I hadn’t been in this area of Old Oakland in a while and it certainly has perked up with new restaurants, cafes and stores. It’s located in an old Victorian building a couple of doors over from Ratto’s International Market which has been around forever. Their website mentions that they are a woman owned business serving new California cuisine with a Latin influence.

We tried to sit in the outside deck area in the back, but even with the heaters on it was a little too chilly… which was too bad, as it’s a great spot with teak tables and umbrellas and even a lovely waterfall, but it’s barely March and the sun hadn’t quite got back that far. We switched to the inside and got to sit in the very front by the very festive chicken display…

The menu is long and has an additional page for brunch on the weekends and includes many interesting dishes that sounded very intriguing, so we will be definitely returning, especially for the graham cracker crusted french toast! A lot of the dishes had latin influences, chorizo with miga, seafood ceviche salad, the ubiquitous huevos rancheros, and I just had to try the Oaxacan Slow-Roasted Pork, Tomatillo Salsa, Mozzarella, Green Onions, and Avocado.

It was filled with tender chunks of pork, avocado with savory salsa and cheese, the salad had a bright citrusy vinaigrette

I also got a biscuit, which was very good although a little dry, which was remedied with a little butter and jam…

The housemade jam was tartly sweet and completely delectable

Mr. K had the egg white omelet which had asparagus, shiitake mushroom, rainbow chard, which came with home potatoes and toast. The toast arrived unbuttered, but fortunately the butter pats were soft and easily spread (disaster averted). It is just never quite the same as when the butter melts into the just toasted bread… The home potatoes were well cooked and crispy from the griddle.

Mr. K was quite pleased with his omelet, it was perfectly cooked everything was clean and fresh tasting. It is actually quite difficult to find a place that can produce a good egg-white omelet.

We really need to come back and explore both the area and the menu at Cockadoodle Cafe. Did I mention that they serve really good coffee and the music and vibe was very exuberant, highly recommended.

subsequent visits: 3-17-07, 4-01-07