THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Lungomare Menu

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Lungomare Restaurant Review:

Owned by Chris Pastena, who is also a trained chef and proprietor of Oakland's popular Chop Bar, Lungomare is a quietly casual-classy waterfront retreat with imaginative coastal Italian cuisine. Quality ingredients and an authentic warmth help transform first-timers into longtime loyalists. Executive chef Craig DiFonzo is justly confident --- and takes his time to get each dish exactly right: his celery root and apple salad with fragrant truffle vinaigrette is an edible anthem to freshness; antipasti include garlicky grilled ox tongue and hearty mushroom-crowned Community Grains polenta. Seasonal main dishes include pork cheek orecchiette; squash and amaretto cookie ravioli; Ligurian seafood stew; and meatball-potato pizza. (DiFonzo's crusts are delicately thin and chewy.) Rich and thick enough to stand a spoon in, salted caramel chocolate budino is definitely worth saving room for, as are Pastena's power-packed, mature-tasting barrel-aged Negronis and other cocktails. The wine and beer lists favor California.