Oakland: The Mixing Bowl

[rworange]

Did a quick stop by The Mixing Bowl which is in the former location of Temescal Cafe.

I just had lunch so only tried the strawberry lemonade. They also had green tea-pear iced tea. That might have been the better choice. The lemonade wasn't tart, sweet or strawberry-ish enough. Pretty pink color though. It was pleasant, but I'd order something else next time.

Here's a blog with photos
http://singleguychef.blogspot.com/2008/08/mini-dish-mixing-bowl.html

SF Chronicle review
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/10/NSD611GMDG.DTL

For breakfast there are sandwiches, pastries, granola and oatmeal.

Lunch includes rotating soups, sandwiches (one vegan), salads. Some have Asian accents like grilled hangar steak salad with sweet soy dressing.

I thought the list of soups on the menu was the most interesting. Every day there are 2-3 (served with house-made bagel chips)

Googling around, the coffee seems to get favorable mentions.

Beer and wine available. Too bad they close early (7pm). Otherwise it might be a good place to wait while going to some of the other restaurants on that block.

The website is a work in progress, so I'll put some of the menu in the first reply
http://www.eastarrow.com/mixingbowl/

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The Mixing Bowl
4920 Telegraph Ave, Oakland, CA

[rworange]

Breakfast

Breakfast burrito (scrambled eggs, avocado,black beans, salsa, flour tortilla)
Breakfast torta (scrambled eggs, avocado,black beans, salsa, kaiser roll)
Egg and croissant
Egg and bagel
Egg on Kaiser roll (can add cheese, bacon, ham for extra charge)
Bagel & butter
Bagel & cream cheese
Bagel and smoked salmon plate

granola & yogurt & fresh fruit & organic honey
Steel cut oatmeal
fresh fruit

Baked in-house

croissants (plain or chocolate)
scones (cheddar-chive, chocolate chip, maple-pecan)
chocolate-peanut butter crumble coffee cake
carrot-zucchini bread
banana bread
bread pudding & caramel sauce
cookies (chocolate,chocolate chip, triple chocolate chip)

Mitchell's ice cream & ice cream sandwiches made with house cookies and Mitchell's.

Agua frescas - watermelon, fresh sweet plum, pineapple, cantelope, strawberry, honeydew

soups

gazpacho
roasted bell pepper
corn chowder
chicken gumbo
mushroom turkey
turkey chili
tomato
beef stew
potato leek
yucatan chicken
Thai coconut chicken
chicken noodle
minestrone
black bean
andouille sausage-white bean
carrot-apple
jambalaya
Greek chicken stew
tortilla soup
clam chowder

Salads
served with Acme wheat bread
All meats can be substituted for house-marinated soy-ginger tofu

Cobb

Nicoise

Grilled hangar steak with sweet soy dressing
honey-soy marinated hangar steak with mango, jicama, tomato, avocado, and crispy shallots served on a mix of seasonnal greens

Tamarind chicken
Tamarind chicken with carrots, green papaya, cilantro, mint, shallots, toasted coconut and honey peanuts tossed with a spicy-sweet tamarind-date dressing

Grilled chicken with miso dressing
Marinated chicken breast served with carrots, cucumbers, mint, cilantro, mung bean sprouts on a mix of cabbage and romaine lettuce

Soba noodle & tofu salad with yuzu dressing.
Soba noodles served with marinated tofu, green onions, mint, cilantro, napa cabbage, carrots, daikon radish, shitake mushrooms and toasted honey peanuts

Sandwiches
Served with side of home grown greens and house vinagrette

the mixing bowl chicken sandwich
Chicken marinated with Chinese 5-spice, topped with pickled carrots and daikon radishes with cilantro mayo on a soft roll

Pulled pork
Six hour slow-roasted pork seasoned with sweet, spicy bbq sauce on a hamburger bun

Hangar steak and carmelized onion
honey-soy marinated hangar steak with and carmelized onion with cilantro mayo on a sweet deli roll

Classic BLT

Mozzarella/tomato/pesto.

Mama's tofu burger (vegetarian)
Tofu patties with shitake mushrooms and onions topped with cucumbers, pickled carrots, daikon radishes and mayo served on a hamburger bun. For vegan version substitute soy-ginger tofu and omit mayo)

Grilled veggie sandwich (vegan)
Portabella mushroom, zucchini, yellow squash, roasted peppers and edame-garlic puree on a sweet deli roll

[singleguychef]

Thanks RWorange for posting my blog post! :)

I've been back a couple of times to the Mixing Bowl, sometimes to just order a salad for lunch to take home since I live nearby. Last time I tried the soba noodle salad and it was a lot of food, but I have to say I wasn't that thrilled about the dressing, a bit on the tart side. Still, it was fresh and I think reasonable for a healthy lunch. Service is always nice when I go.

[liujenny]

I did have mocha there, it was quite good and the space was very airy and nice. Will try to go back to try the food some time tho...

[JoeThePlumber]

Just checked it out and i must say it left a very delicious first impression.

I ordered the hangar steak salad - the steak is extraordinarily tender, with a delicious glaze and a tangy asian-style salad dressing.
We also tried the pulled pork sandwich - hearty and rich, it BURSTS with flavor.
Our friend had the tomato/mozz/pesto sandwich -- this is a classic dish that always tastes good, but there's something about the way they toast the ciabatta that makes it taste REALLY good.

For dessert we had bread pudding which was fluffy and creamy at the same time, i love biting into all that vanilla bean flavor. We also polished off a half-dozen chocolate chip cookies...which is harder to do than it sounds: they are pretty big, very rich, the chocolate chips are more like large morsels...but they are really inexpensive, which is why we ate as many as we did!

[klyeoh]

Yum! I HAVE to go there after reading your description.
JoeThePlumber? More like JoeTheGourmet!