Laney Bistro - Oakland

Hi Neil, Chantel, April, Donisha, and Binh, Hello and good afternoon to you all. I hope you all are having a safe, healthy, and a wonderful Sunday afternoon. It was nice to see you all and to thank you all for your excellent service at the Laney Bistro. Evelyn, Yiping, Autumn, and I came to the Laney Bistro on Thursday March 16, 2023 at 5:15pm to have dinner to celebrate Laney Bistro's 1st opening day, after the Laney Bistro had been closed for the 3 years hiatus from the pandemic. We are so glad and happy to see the Laney Bistro had a soft 1st opening on Thursday March 16, 2023. We had enjoyed our such very delicious dinner at the Laney Bistro and we want to thank Neil, Culinary Arts Manager, April, Laney Bistro Manager, Donisha, Laney Bistro Server, and Binh, Laney Bistro Student Worker for their excellent, awesome, friendly, and courteous service to the Laney faculty, staff, and students. I had posted the pictures on Yelp of Lily (me Laney Library Technician II, Evelyn, Head Librarian, Yiping, Laney Librarian, Autumn, Laney Librarian, with Binh, Laney Bistro Student Worker, Donisha, Laney Bistro Server, and April, Laney Bistro Manager, hoping that post will go viral to attract more Laney faculty, staff, and students to come to the Laney Bistro for lunch and dinner!:

I am currently a student at the Culinary Arts program at Laney, and even though some of us didn't get to have the experience of dine-in customers, I can tell you the teachers made everything possible for us to at least we were serving customers! This is my las semester, and honestly I am so sad because I am going to miss coming to the bistro, cooking and at the same time chatting with my classmates from our different stations. The food is never bland, and I as a Mexican can accept that their mexican food is very good! I will definitely go back some day when the dine-in is back!

Okay, I take back everything negative that I said previously. Laney Bistro is great! It turns out that the IT department at Laney is not good at following through with website requests and didn't update the calendar. Just make sure it's not a campus holiday and that classes are in session before you go.We had a fabulous dinner tonight! The food was delicious and elegantly presented. The menu was nicely thought out and available to preview on the website. The halloween-themed desserts were fun and delectable. The prix fixe offering is three courses plus an amuse bouche for only $25! The value for the quality is just off the charts. I'll be coming back again and again.

I know if I talk about this place more people might show up and I would rather it stay the quiet secret that it is , but they are just sooooo sweet and attentive and yummy that I don't have the heart to gatekeep. I mean you get a 3 course meal for under $30! And the students, they're not the jaded waitstaff you normally encounter. They are trying to learn their selected trade and are very attentive. I cringe when I see people (curmudgeons and the like go out of the their way to be mean to them like they were in an average diner. But I digress. They are open Wednesday and Thursday evenings. If you are in the area (you can park in the lots for free there is no reason to not spend the $30 in your pockets (well your card . What are you waiting for? You only are missing out on the next food star , before they were a food star : You

This has got to be one of the best kept secrets in Oakland a real treasure! The food is delicious, presented beautifully and incredibly inexpensive! All the work is done by students of Laney College under the direction of Chef Chantal Martin. Currently (September 6 November 18, 2023 they are serving dinners on Wednesday Thursdays only from 5:00pm 6:30pm. Each week they offer dishes from a specific country or region. Last week (their first this season was for China, this week was Japan and Korea. Next week (9/20 21 will be Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand. After that is , in order, India, France, Italy, Spain, Greece/Turkey, Lebanon/Persia, Africa, Caribbean, Mexico and South America (on 11/17 18 . No dinners will be served on 10/18 or 11/23/23.This week's meal was a real bargain at $25 for a 3 course dinner plus an Amuse! With each course you can choose from several dishes including vegetarian options. It began with a beautiful eggplant Amuse on a mushroom/vegi base. My chosen first course was called an appetizer but could easily have been a main course a Korean Crab Gimbap which were toasted seaweed rolls of fresh crab, soy roasted Portobello mushrooms and many other goodies. It was delicious! My main course was a Chicken Ramen dish (I totally forgot to take a photo! but, though a bit small was quite tasty. It had all the ramen goodies including the soft boiled egg, ginger poached chicken, noodles, etc. I opted for the cutely named Fluffy, Jiggly Japanese Cheesecake. I was surprised upon Googling to learn that this is a real thing. It was soft and rich and quite tasty.You can check out their menu which seems to be updated on the actual day of the dinner at: laney.edu/bistro/menuEven if you do not know what you are going to have or what country it is from, this place is worth a try. The only difficulty may be finding it on the Laney College Campus. It is beautifully situated right on the Lake Merritt stream to the bay just south of the college's swimming center. Here is a Google Map link showing you it's location: google.com/maps/place/La…Pro Tip: They do not include a space for a tip when you pay by credit card. The servers, however, will be overjoyed if you tip them directly.