understory oakland — Restaurant in Oakland

I should give an honest disclaimer here: I don’t leave many reviews because I do think people only either say when they’ve experienced something phenomenal or something deeply negative and rarely report on the mundane. Unfortunately, I do fall into the former category for this, as the food here was truly phenomenal. Truly unreal. I can’t recall the last time I enjoyed a menu so much without a “but” somewhere in there. “Oh I liked the xyz dish buuuut there was too much abc…” you know the deal. I couldn’t say that about this menu. Not once.

My partner and I dined in for dinner and ordered the oyster mushrooms, the lechon chicken wings, & the morcon. For drinks he had the ube horchata and I had the mango pandan.

Where do I even begin? Oyster mushrooms had us nearly licking the bowl. The mushrooms themselves were perfectly cooked inside- meaty and flavorful. The batter on the oyster mushrooms was crispy and crunchy and seasoned so well and the delicious dip was our favorite dipper I think we’ve had …anywhere. We sat there trying to guess the ingredients because it tasted a little tamarind-y, a little vinegar-y, so hearty… & finally one of the amazing & talented chefs unearthed the secret: banana ketchup! I was floored. I wish I could give you all a sample of that incredible mashup. You’ll just have to come in to experience it.

The lechon chicken wings were crispy and yet soooo juicy. Even the green onion garnish was so well wilted and seasoned, my partner and I both found ourselves eating every last bit. The dipping sauce for the wings was my partners favorite and we definitely found ourselves dipping some mushrooms into it when we ran out of banana ketchup! Definitely recommend!!!

The morcon was a beef roulade (think: meat stuffed with fillings and then sliced into nice rounds) with bites knuckles the most out of this world divine heavenly tomato sauce base — I just —- I need to be swimming in it. It also came with a hearty serving of lemony cabbage and a loving heap of rice. The beef itself kept its flavor so well and wasn’t tough at all to eat. It was stuffed with what seemed like carrot, red pepper, and another item (I’m reaching for egg, but am probably wrong!). It was a really fantastic mash up of ingredients and was such a hearty dinner to have. If I could redo my dinner here last night, I would have ordered the morcon just for me and apologized insincerely to my sweet partner as I spooned up every last bit of this intensely flavorful dish.

For dessert, we got their sticky rice ice cream (pictured) that was topped with some fresh fruit and herbs & served with some crunchy sweet rice. The ice cream itself was lightly salty which was perfectly paired with the sweet and tart of the fresh fruits. It was a delicious way to end the night.

My partner and I split all of this, and with our two drinks (which were such winners— you can’t go wrong with a not-overly-sweet ube horchata or a mango pandan mocktail), + the added in 20%, our tab came out to $110. It was definitely enough food to keep us stuffed for the evening.

Understory reopened recently in Fruitvale and I really encourage everyone and their mama to flood this spot because they really deserve every accolade.

Sweetest staff, friendliest vibe, most incredible food — top to bottom— I’ve had in such a very long time.

Damn good dining is...

Elevating Oakland looks, feels, and tastes like this, full stop. One look at their insta and you’ll know what I mean.

The food is the star: a medley of global flavors - subtle, balanced, and not heavy (like most brunches)! Drinks evocative of early summer on a tropical island. Hands down the best brunch we’ve had in Oakland.

We walked in honoring masking policies before speaking with the delightful cashier! Settling in, we sat outside on a wonderful day with our pup.

Can’t go wrong with the Chef’s choice brunch sampler for two! The spread had the umami garlic rice and a perfectly jammy fried egg centered between beef bites reminiscent of Cơm tấm, a salad reminiscent of burmese tea leaf salad, and tender eggplant/bokchoy in a finger-licking sesame sauce.

Munching away, we took our side of fries and put it on the sampler because the sesame sauce was so damn good! The fries were bomb with the sweet wings in the sampler.

Cheerful exchanges from non-hurried, charming staff, put this over the top. Community is alive and thriving here. There’s no better place to soak in vibes on a Sunday morning, supporting up and coming chefs.

We’ll be back for the ube waffles 🤤 Understory and its staff made for a...

Stumbled upon this cool shop. We were intrigued by the mishmash of world cuisines labeled on Yelp.

I liked the quirky design of the wallpaper. We were seated outside.

We got the chef’s choice which came with lemongrass pork, lechon, coleslaw, garlic rice, fried sunny side up egg, pickled veggies, tocino, and ube waffles. It was $40 and fed two people well. The server recommended we get pancit to get us more stuffed but this amount of food was good enough.

Our favorite thing was the lemongrass pork. It tastes Vietnamese, like something my mom would make. The lechon was dry; I wish it had a sauce. The tocino and rice was solid. The ube waffles were dry and crunchy; not sure if it was supposed to be like this?

We checked in for an agua fresca of the day; sadly, there was a hair in our drink. ☹️ We also waited around 40 min for our food. We watched as several guests ate and left before we got the food. It came out just as we were about to inquire.

All in all an interesting concept with cool Asian...