Revival Bar+Kitchen — Restaurant in Berkeley

#revival #Berkeley #BerkeleyRestauants

The menu is brief, which should mean focus & quality to the food. However, at Revival this is not the case. Service is uninterested, robotic; suggesting staff is overwhelmed or under unseen pressure. Welcoming or pleasant would not be words I'd use to describe the employees.

Drinks. Ah yes, how to serve a lukewarm martini on a night when it's 45 deg. F. outside. The beverages tried hard but somehow missed, as if they were measured correctly but there was no heart, no creative enthusiasm, & certainly no smile in their preparation. $2.50 gives you 4 slices of too- crusty artisan bread smaller than a 3 × 5 card. Not good. We ordered two baskets but got only one small dish of olive oil. Suggestion: Charge $6.00 & include softer (fresher?) bread, 6-8 slices, & give more olive oil. Warm olives in the appetizer section could've been set off by fresh chopped herbs or lemon zest, but they weren't. The olives lacked any distinction. A freshly-opened jar from the grocery store would've had more appeal. My plate was the $16 mezze. Fried kale leaves were crisply done but greasy somehow. Lentil humus had zero flavor: no garlic, no lemon, no tahini paste in the bland yellow spackle as presented. A black dab on the plate had some saltiness to it, which was favorable, but there was not enough of it. More of the molar-cracking bread, this time slightly toasted to a dental implant surgeon's delight. Be careful & remove the crust before consuming. A fresh kale caesar salad nearly hit the mark. Generous portion, good taste, yet alas, no garnish or flair, just a crumpled swoon of dressing-coated plant material asking for acceptance in a non-committal way. Then there was the beet & burrata salad. Having tried burrata salad iterations internationally, this one was the most sorrowful representation ever: a narrow plate held a somewhat colorful and almost attractive display...except for opaque white mucous-like globs supposing themselves to be burrata. Not a chance. This white stuff was bitter & frighteningly bad. You know that feeling you have when you realize "this is not good" regarding some food item? Yeah. That. We sent it back. Making a well-informed decision to cut the dinner losses there, we then hit the grocery store for ice cream & wine, items that are remarkably easy to rely on for satisfaction, unlike the food and beverage at Revival. Notes: Decor is pleasant here with dark woods & amber Edison bulbs, big windows with half-frosted glass for discreet dining if you're seated next to them and yet you can still look outside at the sky or any wandering crowds. Other patrons in the place the night we visited were woefully quiet, even a large table with wine all around, suggesting they too experienced a less-than dinner.

What would it take to revive Revival? Staff members who enjoy their work, for starters. Being host to your city, offering a taste of your kindness, your welcome & your creativity would be fabulous. Cook with care, with love & dedication to craft, rather than by rote or under duress. And charge more! If it costs more to help staff earn a living wage so they can be happy at work, do it! Charge more! If it means more talent in the kitchen & using disposable bamboo tasting spoons for checking the wares before they hit the table! Revival, we believe in you! You've got some great ideas! Your investment in booze alone means you want to stay a while, crafting cocktails & creating a place for long chats in a relaxing environment. We know you can do better. Please re-think, re-work & re-continue your amazing concept. Let us revisit your establishment once you have re-emerged from the tent of your bitter cocoon....

I have been bombarded by posts from the owner regarding Berkeley Measure GG, which will increase taxes on carbon footprints of local buildings via consumption of Natural Gas which, in 2021 amounted to 43% of Berkeley's carbon emissions.

43 percent. Think about this for a minute. This owner claims this will hurt her business and will "do nothing."

My response to this is that such a mindset is dangerous and self-serving. She says, "It will do nothing."

This is irresponsible, appalling, and absolutely untrue. A quick look at the facts refute her accertions.

Sorry, Ma'am, but Natural Gas is not an essenual ingredient for any food preperation that I am aware of. If you can't hang with reality, you just can't hang.

I cannot support such a mindset regarding businesses, especially businesses related to food items. As a life-long Chef (I am 65 and in the industry since my teenage years). These ads within the media world are about as lame of an excuse as I have ever heard regarding ANY issue, local, State, or National. In fact, her media blitz is very harmful.

Yes, I am fully aware of profit margins within restaurants. I fully understand "overhead." However, this is a flat out sell out.

You can adapt. This is what humans have been doing as long as humans have inhabited the planet. Honestly, it's not as difficult as she obviously believes. It only took a few years before smart phones dominated the planet. Change is inevitable. Such resistance to change is dangerous and willingness to progress forward or not) will determine how we all will survive as we begin to face the greatest challenges of human history.

You forgot to mention that Berkeley will offer assistance ($$$) to aid in the transition. There is a TON of things local restaurants SHOULD have been doing YEARS AGO!

This issue is not JUST about the future. It's about THE PRESENT!

Just look at the news. It could be World, National, or (duh) LOCAL!

Houses were burning all of this weekend in the Oakland Hills. Berkeley residents were asked! to EVACUATE! Fires are raging just about everywhere across the nation and around the world. Why do you think hurricanes are so powerful and so frequent and so damaging in recent times? Our climate is killing people due to attitudes just like this owner.

If Revival can't hang, maybe it should get out of the way and give a better steward a shot. If you can't adapt, you're in the past. If you are not part of the solution, well, guess what? You're part of the problem.

43 percent. Jeeze, such resistance is seriously damaging and should not be supported even if you DO serve a good hamburger! That money spent on You Tube ads, certainly could be put to better use.

Personally, these ads I am being blasted with are insulting and suggests that we have a long road ahead before convincing people to get their heads out of the dirt and join modern civilization. Our future AND present...

I had the shrimp cocktail for starters. The sauce was very good but the shrimp was bland and flavorless. The texture was off putting. Plus I paid $12.00 for 4 shrimp.

I had the braised beef but had to return it. The meat was chewy. The dish came with polenta and spinach. The spinach tasted terrible (I like sautéed spinach but whatever they put in the spinach was not tasty). I returned it for a pepperoni pizza. By the way the beef dish was $33.00 and I think the amount of beef in the dish was less than 4 ounces. The dish was dominated by green polenta and spinach.

The pizza sauce was way too spicy and I didn’t enjoy it at all. The chef added a lot of raw arugula on top of the pizza. This was not a good choice because there were two strong flavors (arugula and pepperoni) fighting for attention.

There is a reason classic flavors and classic cooking methods work. I think newer chefs are trying to reinvent flavor profiles. But maybe that is too nice of a way to explain it. It just may be the chef doesn't have a good understanding of how to cook and her own taste buds are not common to what most people want to eat. I left hungry.

My husband had a scallop fettuccine and he liked the scallops. But the overall dish wasn’t good. The scallops had caviar on top but the menu didn’t describe the dish that way.

The only thing we enjoyed were our drinks (wine and a margarita).

We won’t be back.

CHEF AMY, I'm so glad you replied because it was very clear that you are tone deaf to people's comments. I've read a lot of reviews on your food and lots of people have sent their food back because it tasted bad.

Regarding your Shrimp, it tasted bad. That's all I can say whether you agree with it or not. I did not like it.

The meat was chewy! And the spinach tasted bad in whatever you sauteed it in. That's why I sent it back and I was hungry so I asked for the pepperoni pizza. I didn't take time to read all of the ingredients, didn't think I had too -- it was a pepperoni pizza. I can honestly say arugula on top of pepperoni doesn't take good at all!

Yes anyone can write a review. I am the customer and I spent over $120 in your establishment last night and I thought the food tasted bad, was not of high quality (chewy meat) and my opinion counts! All consumers should stand up and start writing reviews on subpar food. If you went to a restaurant, dropped over $100.00 on the meal and you didn't like it your opinion would count.

Now that I know what kind of restaurant this is (a sensitive chef who gets their feelings hurt and their hackles up) I would recommend EVERYONE stay away from this restaurant unless they want to feel ripped off.

Like one gentlemen reviewer not so long ago said "Better to go to McDonalds down the street for a better meal"

Karen L Fisher Disgusted and disappointed diner on 4/1/22 at...