Rick M.
Yelp
I have good memories of visits to pre-pandemic Forge. This choice spot along the Jack London Square estuary had it all: location (great people watching), outdoor patio with fire pits, great bar & friendly bartenders, and most importantly, amazing pizza thanks to the wood fire oven. Forge had been a weekly stop for me, and the husband and I spent a lot of late summer nights enjoying drinks and eats on that patio and fire pit .
After the pandemic shutdown, I refrained from eating out for a while. And then health issues made walking to my neighborhood favorites difficult. It's only been the past month that I've started walking again, so I paid a visit to Forge for the first time since 2019. I had to follow up a few days later with another visit because I was so taken aback by the changes I was seeing that I wanted to ensure it wasn't just "a bad day" on my first visit back.
Some of the changes, like closing at 8pm on weeknights, 9pm on weekend, are understandable in this new reality of still recovering restaurants post pandemic as well as the safety and security issues Oakland is dealing with at the moment. Parking in Jack London Square can be risky these days. So I'm not dinging Forge for this.
But then there's the food and drinks. On the two recent visits, we ordered the same things. The preparation of each item was quite different each time. The Cauliflower Bites (fried cauliflower that gets the buffalo sauce and ranch dip treatment) was drippy wet with sauce the first time we ordered and had no evidence of being fried. The second time it had a drier, crispier fried appearance and less wet buffalo sauce addition. The wood roasted asparagus was definitely roasted and blackened on our first visit, but damp and just steamed on the second trip. The dressing for the asparagus was on point however both visits.
We didn't try the pizza on the first visit, but ordered the truffle French fries. I asked for very light truffle oil on the fries, and they were perfect... super crisp, well salted, and with a dusting of Parmesan. The truffle oil was delicate and did not overpower the potato flavor.
On the second visit, we ordered one of our former favorite pizzas: the Fat Boy (sausage, bacon, pickled pepper, red onion, cream, and a runny egg in the center). While the crust was cooked well and the toppings were fine, the dough flavor was just... meh. Forge crusts used to have a pleasant, yeasty flavor that was enhanced by the blisteringly hot wood fire oven. But the crust on our pizza tasted flat. And no brush of garlic oil on the crust edge once out of the oven.
Drink wise, I was disappointed that the beer selections appear to be capped at 7% ABV now? I loved the old Forge with 9-10-11% IPAs and stouts on the menu. And my Old Fashioned ordered on my second visit (with Bulleit Bourbon) was cloyingly sweet.
As for service, the inconsistency continued. First visit we had a server who seemed over it and wasn't particularly gracious. We got to order only after they finished breaking down the outside wait station in prep for closing in an hour. And no check-ins with us once we were served. The second visit brought service we remembered... attentive, fast, and conversational with us.
I love Forge. It's been an anchor for Jack London Square dining. And now that I'm walking again, I want to be more of a patron. I'm just hoping that they can survive considering the economy, their reduced hours, and inconsistencies in service.