Bucci's

Last night, Seppo and I met one of his coworkers for dinner in Emeryville at Bucci's.

I think they bill themselves as modern Italian cuisine. I think that fits pretty well. They did a lot of little details very well, very cleanly. The olives, bread, and olive oil that came before dinner were all quite excellent. The olive oil in particular was so fragrant and fruity, quite remarkable.

I don't feel up to an extensive review, but suffice it to say that I had a grilled rib eye steak that I think was in every way the best rib eye steak I've ever had. It wasn't something that made me want to fall to my knees and weep or anything, but it certainly hit all the right notes for what I want in a steak. It was perfectly done, halfway between a warm and cool pink almost all the way through, quite tender, while maintaining a bit of a satisfying meaty chew, the grill marks lending a nice robust [read: carcinogenic] flavor, and the accompanying sauce adding a really welcome and complementary touch of brightness and tinge of sweetness. The mushroom and arugula salad that came with it was, in a word, fantastic.

I ordered the steak because I didn't feel like having pasta last night, and just sort of expected to have "steak" which is almost always pretty good, but sometimes fairly average, and also sort of unsurprising in most ways. This steak quite surpassed that.

I'd go back for the steak alone. The ambience was quite nice as well. The service staff was quite nice and efficient and dignified, without being either too friendly or too offputting. Just a great balance.

They really do get the small details quite right. Still, something about the restaurant or menu keeps me from making any definitive recommendation to someone else one way or the other, but I did enjoy this one visit quite a bit.