Bar Cesar

I have a friend in Emeryville that has decided to show me ALL her favorite food haunts in Oakland where all the working class go to hang out & spend their foodie money. Cesar is on her tour & does not dissapoint. They have a creative latino menu. I highly recommend the beet & tangerine salad. It has a creamy dressing that tied the earth & citrus flavours lusciously. I then move on to the shrimp empanadas & green rice(cilantro, lime). The ingredients are so fresh, I actually ended up with a vegetable tie in my mouth from the cutting up of cilantro. I could have been highly upset, BUT I try to be objective about that sort of thing. It wasn't a small critter, so I will not complain. The waitress, however was kind enough to comp one of our drinks and part of the meal for the surprise. I found the outter shell a little dry for my taste, but the shrimp inside was yummy. As always, I order a sidecar to test it out. I prefer mine on the tart side,it was even & clean. Love to just hang here and chat. Pros: Happy Hour, good for groups more

Went with three friends. Waitress was helpful, staff was nice. All the food was dripping in bad tasting oil. The smoked salmon was fairly good. Tuna sandwich was yukky. Other dishes were so-so. It all left a bad taste. more

Ceasr on Shattuck Avenue is one of my parent?s favorite restaurants, so I was excited to see that they were opening a second location on Piedmont Avenue. My boyfriend and I finally had a chance to go out to dinner the other night, and Cesar has been on our list for a few months now. I?m glad to have tried it, but we won?t be returning anytime soon. After a cordial initial greeting by the host, the service turned pretentious and indifferent. We started with a spinach salad with bacon and grapefruit ? it was overdressed to the point of being almost inedible, and there was so much bacon on it that I felt like I was eating breakfast. We additionally ordered some grilled asparagus and a larger plate of hanger steak. The portion size of the hanger steak was appropriate for its price tag and tasted pretty good, but the slices varied between overdone and bloody rare. Unfortunately at this piont, our asparagus order became lost somewhere in the kitchen, and when we managed to flag down our server to ask about it, she shrugged and said she?d check on it for us. 15 minutes later when we were all but finished with our steak, our asparagus arrived. Nothing special about it, unless you count paying $9 for 4 spears of plain, oven roasted asparagus with a limp green onion draped across them. They had a nice wine list though, and the outdoor patio would be great for Piedmont Avenue people-watching during the Summer. But the food and the service is definitely NOT worth the hype. We may try eating at the bar sometime this Summer and see if we have a different experience. Pros: Nice ambiance, decent wine list, front dining patio Cons: Indifferent service, below-average food, inflated price tag more

I recently attended a private party at Cesar and was very impressed. The interior, with high ceilings and an impressive bar, was beautiful, comfortable, and great for socializing. It was too cold to sit on the outdoor front patio, but it looked quite nice. The tapas menu was tasty, but not delicious, and some dishes were better than others. Thin gourmet seasoned french fries, paella, mini crab sandwiches, and filo pastries stuffed with meats and vegetables were well received, but many of the colder salad plates were just mediocre, and the finger-food shrimp was far too difficult to eat. For dessert, delectable cookies and orange pound cake with whipped cream were great treats, but dense, bitter fudge and overly rich brownie wedges were disappointing. The atmosphere is great and the food is different and fun to try, but the fare is too cold and leaves something to be desired. Pros: ambience, fun tapas sampler platters Cons: food not great more