Valley Pub

Went here for a nice dinner with my girlfriend. The service was alright, felt a bit judgemental? But whatever, no helping some people. The service itself was quick however. There wasn't too much down time between drinks, appetizer, and entrée. I was a bit disheartened to learn they didn't have the apple cider that was on their menu. The food itself was delicious! The buttered shrimp was cooked perfectly and the sauce was amazing. I got the salmon burger which was similarly delicious! My girlfriend got the scallops which she loved though she thought her potatoes were a bit overcooked. All in all a nice restaurant if a bit expensive but not outside of what was expected.

Place was great. Food was amazing, all organic and local. Staff were awesome too and everything was very very timely. Only thing I thought was odd was that they had valet. Makes zero sense. Everything else was a great experience and is a diamond in the rough for sure.

Harvest and Ale is a brand new Oakland restaurant serving a variety of dishes made with locally (relatively) sourced meat and vegetables. This is the eatery's opening week and, as is often the case, nothing is running at 100% yet. I took my mother and fiancée here on a Wednesday night and it was crowded. I made reservations for 6:15 pm by emailing them at 3:30 pm the same day. Don't expect to just show up and be seated quite yet, but reservations aren't necessarily hard to get either. We were promptly seated at arrival and the waitress set us up with bread and water while we checked the menu out. It is a soft opening, so not everything was available. The three of us each decided to order a different signature cocktail and dishes from three different categories (salad, sandwich, and entrée). The cocktails, while flavorful (initially) were VERY strong. To some, this could be a positive aspect, but for us it was negative. Out of the three we ordered (Cherry Lux, Mango Heat, and Charred Pineapple) the mango heat was the best. Beware though! These each cost about $16 and the price is not on the menu. Unfortunately it took a tad bit too long to get our food brought out to us... around 25 or 30 minutes. It felt even longer because the management had yet to figure out how to properly set the air conditioning for a packed house. In the end though, the wait was mostly worth it. My dish, the Barnwood Salmon, was absolutely amazing. It's crab meat crust made it different and it was extremely flavorful and cooked excellently. I would highly recommend it. My mother got the Free Burger which is a chicken burger. She enjoyed it and I can say that we all enjoyed the fries it came with. In fact, the fries are up there in terms of the best fries I've ever had. My fiancée had the Quinoa Chickpea Salad and, unfortunately, did not like it. It was completely missing the dried cranberries it was supposed to come with and she claimed that the quinoa was overcooked/soggy and generally made the whole salad soggy. One other thing that I would like to add is that the restaurant does not give you good sized portions of the sides and the plating needs to be improved. Comes across as sloppy and lacking, not minimalist and fancy. See the pictures I've included. I can honestly say that I want Harvest and Ale to succeed. Oakland needs new restaurants like this one. As of now I am giving 4 stars with the hope that I can bump this up to 5 in the future after some of the kinks are worked out. I definitely do recommend that you give this place a try.

We've been meaning to try this restaurant since they opened, and we're so glad we finally did. The vibe was somehow modern and nostalgic at the same time. Everything was clean and everyone was friendly and helpful. And the food was PHENOMENAL. They have a bar that looks like it'd be a lot of fun for a night out. It won't be our last visit, that's for sure.