Encuentro

Recommends

Catherine Price

Joined 3 years ago

Citysearch Editorial Review. Less than a block away from the Amtrak station at Jack London Square, encuentro is a vegetarian addition to the neighborhood's burgeoning dining scene, and takes its name from the Spanish word for "a gathering." Its founders carry serious vegetable cred-- Eric Tucker is executive chef at San Francisco's vegan Millennium, and Lacey Sher is the former owner of Down To Earth Restaurant in Red Bank, New Jersey. But the menu goes far beyond tofu. From a housemade truffled mushroom pecan pate, served with grain mustard, fig onion marmalade and caper berries to a faro and smoked goat cheddar salad, the dishes are creative and attractively presented--and, for that matter, quite reasonably priced. (The most expensive item on the tapas-style menu is $12.) The space itself is loft-like, with glass walls that can make it feel a little like you're eating in a fish bowl, but as the evening wears on and the air outside cools down, they become covered with a mysterious fog.