Millennium — Restaurant in Oakland

The food was excellent but the service was awful. When I arrived, early, I stood in front of the hostess for a bit while she seemed to sort some mail. There was a special “cook out” event but I guess she had better things to do than to seat patrons. I explained that my dining companion had already been seated. She pointed to the back and expected me to seat myself. My dining companion ordered a vodka martini. It was small and weak. When we received the bill, we noticed there was a $4 “cocktail” fee. When we asked the waitress about it, she said it was a labor fee because the bartender had to make the drink. My companion complained that this was not disclosed to her and it not on the menu anywhere. In fact, there were two other undisclosed fees, a 1% kitchen fee and a 2% “rising costs/wage sustainability” fee on a $170 bill. The total in excess undisclosed fees was about $8. The waitress said she would get her manager. The manager arrived and attempted to talk down to us by saying this is common in the industry. We disputed this, explaining that we eat out a lot and have never been charged a “cocktail” fee on top of the price of the drink. She repeatedly insisted that it was common practice in the restaurant industry. She said she had worked there for 6 years and the fee had been charged the entire time she worked there. I told her I doubt that. She took that to mean that I doubted she had worked there for six years. She said the price was because there was a 3 ounce shot of alcohol. The drink was no more than 3 ounces total and a vodka martini is supposed to have vodka and vermouth. We explained that no additional alcohol was ordered other than the martini. She said it was a deal because if she ordered an extra shot, it would be more. She continued to insist this is common and she accused me of disrespecting her as I continued to dispute that the fee was a common practice in restaurants. She then did a “shut your mouth” hand gesture at me. I took offense and told her not to do that. She repeated it two or three more times. She smacked her lips and turned her head away like a child. She stood up and put her hand on her hip. She said we were not going to resolve this and said she was walking away. I guess she wanted me to agree to something I knew was not true. She agreed to remove the extra fees but then did not return for 15-20 minutes. The waitress came to collect payment but we told her that the manager said she would remove the fees. She said she would check with the manager. The manager returned with a distinct attitude and replaced the bill with one that removed the miscellaneous fees but kept the $4 cocktail fee. I had been to this restaurant roughly half a dozen times over the years, most recently a year ago. We had not received a “cocktail” fee at that time or any other time since 2017/2018. I don’t believe the other fees were there either. I am glad the legislature has outlawed these fees and only wish they had done so sooner. I expect better at such an upscale place. I will...

A must-visit for plant lovers! (5/5 green stars too) I’m giving Millennium 5/5 stars based on all of my visits – it’s one of the few restaurants (in the entire world!) that I’ll always remember for opening my eyes to new possibilities in food. This particular visit (the first to their new Rockridge location) was more of a 4-star experience however. Sometimes great restaurants suffer from unreasonably high expectations. It was brunch and I had the Grilled Rosa Bianca Eggplant Sandwich ($13.50) while my friend had the Mushrooms and Grits ($14) and then we shared a pastry plate (no longer on the menu). The eggplant sandwich was delicious – it made me think of an Ike’s sandwich because of the strong flavors and great crispy-creamy textures. But better than Ike’s! And the flavors and textures are delivered by more healthful ingredients, like the fried pickled okra, white bean-garlic spread and pepper & olive relish. The pastry plate looked pretty and tasted fine but considering the high expectations it was underwhelming. Probably a good choice to take it off the menu; the new brunch desserts sound better. I’d have the eggplant sandwich again, but would prefer if it had a better side – pole beans don’t strike me as much of a brunch treat ;-)

For social and environmental impact I think Millennium deserves 5/5 “green stars.” For decades they have raised the bar on vegan cuisine and this has a lot of value, to show how unnecessary meat can be. The love of meat is a strong force in foodie culture, and Millennium can hold its own when it comes to producing satisfying and flavorful food from plants (and vegan desserts like their ice cream sundae and truffle torte). Ingredients are all plant-based, local and sustainably farmed. Chef Eric Tucker has sourced produce from Tierra farms in Santa Rosa for over 20 years – Tierra practice sustainable agriculture, weeding by hand, avoiding synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, and using rainwater for greenhouse irrigation. So the food at Millennium is a bit pricey but the choice to weed by hand, for example, rather than spray some Roundup on the land, does come at a cost. Their other suppliers, such as Happy Boy farms in Watsonville, also practice sustainable or certified organic agriculture.

The previous tenant built the restaurant using sustainable materials, and Millennium maintained that interior, just adding a herb garden on the back patio to supply their herbal needs and add greenery. Community love for Millennium is reflected by the $120K raised through their Kickstarter campaign to fund the Rockridge location after their SF location was sold. I’m don’t know that much about what they do for the community in return – perhaps support for local sustainable agriculture and a commitment to plant-based food is enough. But they did also respond to the election result with a cocktail special where 50% is donated to...

We found the food and service to be disappointing. We were there for dinner on Friday night. Maybe we had an off night but every dish was consistently a miss. I had been really looking forward to trying their dishes as I had been before for cocktails and dessert and was very impressed by their sophisticated use of flavors.

Food: Sadly all my dishes were underwhelming. I ordered the corriander Arborio fried mushrooms appetizer and it had no flavor to it whatsoever. There wasn’t any noticeable seasoning in the batter. They provide a tiny bit of chili jam but it didn’t compliment but overtook it. I would not recommend the dish unless you just want a plate of fried food. Our friends order the corn riblets which was fancy way to say corn on the cobb slices. They were good but more bc they were drenched in butter.

My entree was Farro risotto cake which was also a miss. The maiatake was roasted well but no seasoning at all. The grilled raddichio was very bitter and didn’t have anything to balance it. The risotto cake was nicely crisped and good texture. The accompanying mushrooms however were pungent and didn’t add anything to the overall dish. Neither did the roasted root vegetable (carrot??) that again was cooked well but no flavor.

The mango ice cream was lovely and had an intense mango flavor. Unfortunately the accompanying mango cake did not have much of a flavor of anything.

Maybe i just ordered poorly but the other people at the table were also not impressed. All dishes were beautifully presented.

Service: The server spoke so softly we had a hard time hearing her and constantly had to ask her to repeat. It wasnt a big deal but she saw we were struggling and didn’t try to help. The worst issue is we had really long delays between courses. Not servers fault but she didn’t update us to let us know if/when our food was coming out. It is a prix fixe so you would think dishes would come out faster not slower. It started to get ridiculous on a 30 min wait for our desserts which you know they aren’t made to order. Our friends had to leave to go back to their kids so asked for the check as soon as the server brought dessert. She gave us the check right away, checked back in a minute and then disappeared again. After another 20mins Our friends really couldn’t wait any longer and found her eating dinner. I get that servers need to eat to but maybe have someone else cover your table when you take a break? Especially when guests asked for the check.

Again maybe and off night but it was an expensive meal for such a disappointing experience. I regret going and would never go back for prix fixe night. Maybe...