510foodie Turns 10!

Today marks the 10 year anniversary of my food blog.  I began writing exactly a decade ago to share my passion for food.  510foodie focuses on local food and to celebrate the occasion, I tried a local restaurant that I have never been to before nor heard anything about.  

Mägo means magician in Spanish and is a neighborhood bistro located in North Oakland on Piedmont Avenue near Kaiser Hospital.  It opened about 7 months ago when it took over Cybelle’s Pizza which had resided there for a long time.  

My friend and I sat at the chef’s counter so we could see the action in the open kitchen which includes a cool looking wood fire grill.  The food is meant to be shared, so that is exactly what we did.

We started with the chicken liver terrine with radish, lemon cream, and homemade challah bread.  The chicken liver was rich and velvety.  I enjoyed the extra texture from the julienned radish as well as the acidity that the lemon cream provided. 

I love sunchokes and this was the first time I enjoyed it as the star of a dish.  The roasted sunchokes were made into a salad with kiwi, jalapeño, and tahina.  The flavors were unique, innovative, and delicious.

We also shared the tagliatelle with broccoli di Ciccio, walnut pesto, and scallions.  The dish was certainly different.  I enjoyed the fresh pasta very much, but the flavors of the broccoli, walnut, and scallions fell flat.  

The wild steelhead trout came with romanesco, capers, and golden raisins.  I haven’t met a trout that I didn’t like and that was the case at Mägo.  The crispy skin on the trout was my favorite part.  

We ended dinner with semolina olive oil cake with lemon curd and citrus fruit.  The dessert was certainly citrus forward which I find to be lighter and a good palette cleanser.

Service was great and I’m happy to support new restaurants in Oakland like Mägo.  Cheers to another decade of good food and drinks!