Saturday (7/18/09) dinning with the view of the marina for a surprise 60th birthday celebration for a friend of the family...none other than Quinn's Lighthouse in Oakland.
LOCATION: Off of Embarcadero with plenty of street parking else park in the lot across the street for some business (not gated & pretty open parking on wkends). Note there is 1-flight of stairs into restaurant (like 7 steps), & I can't say I notice a ramp. Bar area upon entrance then dinning area directly to the left & more restaurant space upstairs to the right. All wooden chair seats seem to have arm rests, so not ideal for a man/woman that's a 4X or larger, but then again I didn't ask if they had armless chairs. I wouldn't say really handicap, or elderly friendly overall, but a good location for families, kids, couples, & groups.
CUST SVC: Overall service for this birthday celebration was great! About 2-3 staff members waited on party of about 17-18 people; all patient with taking orders, prompt service upon request for this or that, & thorough w/ check-up throughout the entire meal w/ drinks & clean-up. Keep up the good work team ;-)
DRINKS & FOOD: Birthday dinner celebration had a preset menu that was selected by birthday lady's son & daughter in law. Their (unsweetened) Iced Tea & Sparkling Pink Cranberry Lemonade were tasty, both get recommendations. House Pear Salad was just ""'ok"" & so was their Clam Chowder. BF-Jayson & I were hoping to be ""awwwed"" w/ the Chowder, but felt it was canned so lines up there w/ Progresso (& sure Progresso likely cheaper)..cute how they made the croissant-fish tho. Dinner entrees on our preset menu included: Seafood Pasta Linguine, Slow Roasted Prime Rib, BBQ Baby Back Pork Ribs, Chicken Tuscany, & Stuffed Salmon. BF-Jayson had the Chkn Tuscany...we couldn't fig out what to do w/ the avocado that was placed on top of chkn (as if last min on Iron Chef or something)...didn't really compliment the dish, but dish was good. I had the Stuffed Salmon, which I really did enjoy..the mushrooms, bay shrimp & lemon butter sauce all came together very nicely. My sis-Estella had the BBQ Pork Ribs...the ribs were cooked tender, juicy, fall-off-the-bone good, but still a great bite. Collectively we all thought the string beans were ""blah""...crunchy, no seasoning, & just cooked really.
DESSERT: Chocolate Cake was more dense/dry than moist. Their choc cake makes the perfect promo for ""Got Milk"" commercials 'cuz U reeeally need some milk after 1-2 bites of this...unfortunate, they don't serve milk (no even for kids *bummer*). Now the Lemon Cake a la Mode, SCRUM-DIDLY-UMPTOUS! Moist lemon cake w/ a scoop of creamy vanilla bean ice cream was awesome...5 stars for this & a definite recommendation!
END OF DINNER: The birthday lady had a great dinner ringing in her 60th w/ family & friends, & all guests enjoyed the food, drinks, & service here. We'll see the next time ""Mary & Jayson"" visit, but I'd recommend this place & would come back ;-)
Pros: Great cust svc, good food, & easy parking
Cons: Didn't seem handicapp & elderly friendly
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