Perhaps this was the  “there” that Gertrude Stein claimed was missing from the “other” city by the Bay.  Haven is the sister Oakland dining room to Daniel Patterson’s celebrated Plum. Smart, vibrant and pulsing with exhibition kitchen vibes, Haven offers labor-intensive dishes that create genuine excitement for eye and palate. And most of the intriguing dishes I sampled last Sunday night worked brilliantly.

The kitchen is packed with guys in black engaged in some invisible choreography surrounding each plate. Attractive stoneware plates and platters add to the eye candy. The menus are tantalizing, and so is the bar menu of eccentric cocktails and designer liquors, including a very long list of top flight single malts. Let me put it this way, Haven makes its own house Cynar.

We started with shared plates of roasted cauliflower in brown butter with a thin pool of salty garum on the bottom. This house likes to use salt as a condiment I discovered—sometimes this was welcome. Sometimes it overwhelmed.

A second shared salad of shredded chicories (shown above) was flat out sensational. Purple and green bitter greens were tossed with a berry-inflected vinaigrette, and mixed with toasted hazelnuts and grapes. The chicories were piled high on a rich glaze of duck liver mousse, so that each aggressive forkful gathered up the mousse creation along with bitter greens and sweet/tart dressing.

I could have eaten this dish all night long. No greater praise.

Another dish of tiny Monterey squid was tossed with very tiny broccolini, cranberry beans and a shallows of romesco sauce. Great concept. Alas, this one was so salty even I—addicted to pink Himalayan salt as well as the provençal blends—couldn’t eat it.  The house comped the dish. Classy.

My companion’s meatless entree was without question the finest non-carnivore dish I’ve ever tasted. A thick stew of green herb-laced chick pea couscous formed the base. The dish was embedded with roasted baby artichokes and an enormous slow-cooked egg. Every flavor romanced every other flavor. Completely satisfying, even a steak lover would have been seduced. Kudos to the Haven kitchen.

And for dessert we shared a piece of fresh cocoanut cake, topped with a toasted coconut brittle, unsweetened thick cream, and doused with rum. OMG.
Haven – Located on Jack London Square—enticing view of sailboats, dock action, and city lights beyond—at 44 Webster St., 510.663.4440.