I just had my second Saturday night dinner at Faz in Oakland. I know that this restaurant is mostly a lunch crowd place, but this is a safe neighborhood in Oakland and it is convenient to get to via the BART 12th street station -- and parking is very available too if your driving, so do not hesitate to come on Saturday night.

I waited until my second visit to write the review because I wanted to make sure that they were consistently good, and they are. It is my new favorite spot in my neighborhood. I think that everything here is freshly prepared and home made, including the pasta. Yum!!!

Tonight I started out with the Kashk O'Bademjan (Warm Eggplant Puree with Onion, Garlic, Mint and Kashk) served with warm freshly made pita bread. Wonderful! I ate half and took the rest home.

I also ordered the house wine for a very reasonable $7.00 - Faz Cabernet Sauvinon. Quite good, I thought.

My main course was their chicken pesto pizza - Braised Chicken with Basil Pesto, Roasted Peppers & Mozzarella Cheese. They don't call it a pizza on the menu, but it is quite similar, only better. The crust was excellent, and while some may not like this, I really enjoyed the heavy dusting of savory flour clinging to the bottom of the pizza. The chicken was tasty as was the pesto sauce. Very impressive.

I then ordered one of their homemade desserts -- the chocolate torte with pecan crust. Again, amazing. Plus the Persian tea that they serve is piping hot and really flavorul. I had two cups.

Unfortunately, this restaurant started up in the midst of the Occupy Oakland protests, which have discouraged some people from venturing into the Old Oakland and Downtown Oakland neighborhoods. You have no reason to worry. As I said, this is a safe neighborhood. I live at 9th and Clay and walk the neighborhood between my place and the restaurant every day. In over two years of walking to and from the 12th street BART from my condo on 9th street I have never experienced or even seen any violence or crime.

The only caution I would give here is that it is a lightly staffed restaurant at this point on Saturday nights, so, if they get really busy you might have to wait longer then you might like, but the wait is worth it. Sit back, relax and enjoy the food, drinks and the atmosphere

This review was originally written for another site - but they filtered my review because it was on the negative side. Again I want to reiterate that I only give negative reviews when warranted. "I wanted to really like this place as it replaced a restaurant that I frequented quite often. I dined at Faz on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday the week of January 2. I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt as they are new in the building. However, each visit was worse than the last. First I would like to start off by saying the food is good. Not great, but definitely good and reasonably priced. The problem is the staff - no one seems to know what is happening. Today there was a "reserved" sign on our table as I had made a reservations. However, the little metal reserve sign was filthy with old crusted food and it sat on our table during the whole meal. We finally got a hot cup of tea on the third try. Many of the staff/waiters/waitre sses/hostess? stop by to see if you need anything but never reappear with the requested item. They are all very nice but nothing is written down and no one remembers any requests. Today there were three of us. We were there from 12:00 to 1:50. I don't mind spending a little longer for lunch but this bordered on ridiculous. It didn't help to see the main chef/owner?? catering to a table and bringing wonderful different foods out for them to try while we waited, waited and waited. When the wait staff brought our appetizers without plates - well it was just interesting trying to eat warm olives when you have no place to put the pits - that is the pits. Even our coffee order was incorrect as one was supposed to be decaf and was not. Again, nothing written down and nothing remembered. Everyone there is extremely nice; however, service should be a huge part of this organization and it doesn't appear that there is an experienced waitstaff on board. I really wanted this to be a better experience. someone told me to wait a month and go back - really? I don't think I want to frequent a place that takes that long to get their act together. I hope I'm wrong about this as it is nice having a restaurant/bar in the building." That was the end of my original review. I have been criticized by some for "reviewing" during the first week of business. However, Faz is not a new resturant, only new to this location. It is "not" a struggling new restaurant.

Truffle fries are a good snack for the happy hour!

Did someone say, vegetarian "pressatta" with eggplant, caramelized onions, peppers and fontina?