Mua — Restaurant in Oakland

My mother and I visited MUA on 5/23/23 for their happy hour as we attend weekly. We sat there and ordered food and drinks as usual. My mother felt her drink was extremely watered down. She made the mistake of bringing a small $3 bottled shot into the bar and our bartender immediately noticed. He quickly addressed the issue and mother was very apologetic about the mistake and explained calmly that she did not know it was a bar rule breaker but never became disrespectful to the bartender for doing his job. He explained we could get kicked out of a bar, he could get in trouble or it could mess with their liquor license which we listened to and completely understood. He explained that we all make mistakes and to never do such a thing again as it could be seen as rude to the staff. We agreed. We apologized multiple times. He said he forgave us but though he said this, his energy completely changed. He began giving us dirty looks. We heard him telling all the other staff about what we had done and kept shaking his head as all the staff stared at us. We became extremely uncomfortable. Before this mistake, we sent back our blackened catfish because it was not properly cooked. It took a while for them to remake this dish, so we ended up getting it to go as it came when we were getting ready to go. The next morning, I grabbed the food to take to work for lunch and my food box was open. As I went to close the box, I noticed a bandage laying in my rice. The bandage was brand new. There was no fluid on it and the edges that stick to the skin were clean with only traces of paper from the packaging on it. It seemed they were upset with us and decided to mess with our food. My mother and I came back the following day to report the food. We asked for a supervisor or manager. The tall blonde haired bar back said that neither one was on site. We didn't believe that. Then he said HE was the supervisor and that his wife was the manager but she didn't come in today (we knew he was lying but proceed with our complaint because we didn't want to argue). We explained to him 100% what happened, even where we went wrong. He looked in our faces with a mug the entire time and didn't say anything. He never asked which bartender, when it happened and never showed any concern about finding a disgusting bandage in our food. He knew all of what we told him before we told him because he was in the restaurant the day it happened. He said little to nothing. I said I at least want my mother to get back her money for the fish. He said OK! Gave her the money and as he turned away he sarcastically said, "See you at the next happy hour!". She should've got her tip money back as well because she tipped the bartender very well (we always tip) but she tipped more because she felt so bad the bartender was upset! We won't be back to spend another penny and I will urge everyone I know to not eat there since they think they can do horrible things to peoples food! I've been coming to MUA for 6+ years. I have brought many family members, friends, co workers, my significant others etc. who all love MUA because of my recommendation. I have NEVER had a bad experience at this restaurant until this day. Because of a small mistake, they crucified us. And that leads me to believe they've always felt a way about us because one mistake will not make you completely SWITCH on your regular customers. I will say within the last few months the food has been hit or miss. The drinks are all of a sudden watery with no flavor or liquor. I will finish this saying karma is real! They are lucky we respect ourselves enough not to become irate because messing with peoples food is LOW!!!

SIDE NOTE: They deleted my review from 5/23/23 and I'm now reposting it and will continue to repost it. It was my personal experience with the restaurant, and they WILL...

Mua is just one of those restaurants that you can't really describe, you just have to go and see it for yourself. To me, it feels like one of those community artist lofts in East Oakland where multiple artists build and create multiple rooms and pathways that twist and turn through a large open warehouse space.

Upon entering it doesn't look very big, you can see some dining to the right, but the host stand isn't here... You have to proceed forward creep past the long bar on the right and down to the left to get to the host stand where the whole restaurant opens up in front of you. A large dining area with a staircase on the back left that leads up to three areas of additional seating upstairs, including a 2nd bar to service this part of the restaurant. The decor is unique, hip and artistic. There is usually a DJ playing lounge style beats or some other down-tempo music on Friday and Saturday nights.

The menu is an eclectic mixture of dishes, primarily tapas style, although they do have a couple entrees you can select. The menu tends to have standard items, but I believe rotates selections as well. The no-cheese mac and cheese is my wife's go to selection, but from there we usually choose all sorts of various flavors. On a recent trip we both really enjoyed a smoked trout and endive salad. It was just fantastic. The server recommended the pork jowl lettuce wraps, which were really flavorful but not really my favorite of the night. They included a spiced poached apple (i think?) that really kicked the dish up a notch, but it was a little too fatty for my personal preference. I know some friends who would give me a lot of grief for not giving it more kudos!

The beer and wine selection, as well as the original cocktails here are always a safe bet. You can really never go wrong with anything. Mua can get quite busy, so if you have a party of more than 2 people I would recommend making a reservation. The staff here are awesome and are always very helpful with the menu and suggestions. Don't be afraid to ask if you don't recognize something, I am constantly being introduced to new ingredients and flavors when we visit places like this. Ask what it is and try it, because you...

We love Mua. Their cheeseless butternut squash mac and cheese is reason enough for me to want to come every week! Almost all the appetizers and share plates are excellent (they change the ahi tuna appetizer a little and it's no longer as amazing, but still fun) and the entrees are consistently well prepared. Our favorites include the twice cooked kale, any seasonal veggie salad like asparagus and grapefruit, or nectarine, the chicken liver pate, the aforementioned mac and cheese, the gougeres, shiitake mushroom crostini, and Brussels sprouts. The Berkshire pork jowl lettuce wraps were actually disappointing this visit- very greasy, fatty hunks of deep fried pork haphazardly thrown onto wet butter lettuce leaves dripping with what felt like soggy stewed pears and inconsistently drizzled sriracha. After i was done picking the deep fried fat chunks out, I was left with half the amount if pork- good thing I wasn't starving!

Husband's steak was sufficiently red, and when we usually order burgers here they are typically cooked the way we request them (a bit on the rare side) with fun shoestring fries. Our pineapple upside down cake with coconut ice cream was a match made in heaven- not too dense, and the cool creamy coconut married well with the warm fluffy cake and juicy pineapple.

They have excellent cocktails and a good beer selection to round out the menu, and very lively if somewhat loud music being spun by a live DJ upstairs. Definitely a great place for drinks and dinner. Lots of fresh young trendy faces were...