Forge Rockridge — Restaurant in Oakland

Great pizza, really poor service. I went here with my friends for dinner tonight and ordered a cocktail. When it came to the table, it had a big, dead black bug floating right at the top of it. The girl who brought it out (who was not our waitress) left before I could say anything. When I finally got the attention of our actual waitress, she rolled her eyes and said "there are a lot of bugs outside." Now, I understand that there are bugs outside, I really do. And if I had been sipping on a drink for a while and a bug happened to land in it and die, I'd deal with it. But I had clearly not touched the drink, and she knew that it had just been served to me (or at least she should have). Without the slightest hint of an apology, she said "it's going to take a while for them to remake it." Now, I've worked in the service industry for the majority of my life in various capacities. I have had beautiful, perfectly cooked cuts of meat returned to me as "unacceptable". I've had customers insist their meals should be free, eat almost all of a meal and then send it back and refuse to pay for it, the works. It sucks, but It's just part of the industry. If there's anything I've learned, it's not to argue with the person you're serving. Just try your best to put on an apologetic front and do what they ask. It just goes with the territory- you are, remember, serving them. It really doesn't matter if it's inconvenient for you at that moment or if you disagree with them, it's your job to make them happy. And I understand that maybe your job sucks and people that need things fixed make that harder-I get that. But if you literally can't chalk up a smile or even a hint of an apology, you really don't belong in this line of work. On top of that, my friend's food was 15 minutes behind everyone else's (with no apology or explanation, of course), our appetizer was brought out by some bus boy to literally every single table on the patio before he finally realized it was us (and it was a hot dish), all of our food and drink orders were brought out by different people, and our waitress never came to collect any of our plates when we were done with them (which is kind of gross after a while). But don't worry, her 18% gratuity...

A family dinner. I wanted coal fired pizza, but apparently Tony's Neapolitano in SF is the only choice for that. So, living in the East Bay, I deferred to wood fired.

First, starters means before entries, not after. While the brussel sprouts were good, the timing was bad.

We ordered 2 Neapolitan pizzas. The pizza only has a 24 hour rise, so the flavor is bland when compared to what it should be, a 72 hour rise. There is nothing artisanal about 24 risen dough. Char is not supposed to mean heavily burned. Learn to cook pizza. Basil was almost non-existent, as was the cheese and it shouldn't be yellow, which most of it was. Also, their sauce was bland and too little, with no fresh tomato flavor, which a good brand of canned tomatoes should give you. Again, learn to make pizza.

The fish and chips were good, though I like a lighter breading.

Other than the pizza, the worst was that server was too serious and stood over us while we completed the bill, a tactic I'm sure everyone hates. Their program defaults to 18% ON THE TOTAL BILL, which he didn't deserve and, it purposely does not show the pretax amount. Sadly, my husband fell for the trick and intimidation, which resulted in his over tipping by at least $4. Shame...

Went there for a company outing, and our server was amazing and attentive to our whole table throughout our dining experience. From the beginning, we were seated as members of our group trickled in. Water and appetizers began being served ahead of everyone arriving. Once just about everyone was there, our server was still bringing out various appetizers and started bringing out the pizzas, asking us for our input on what we liked and what we may want next. One personal touch I loved with appetizers, was they brought some to a section of the table they had seen areived later and said they hadnt believed that those guests had a chance to try them yet and set them in front of the guests. We weren't left looking for our server when it came to refills on drinks as well as she had an amazingly attentive eye. We had a gift exchange, which they allocated another table in the restaurant to hold and even took care of any trash for us as well. Handling large groups is never easy, but they made it...