A modern Asian-American restaurant with a playful menu and a kitty theme has landed in Oakland’s Rockridge District.
Oken debuted in late May at the very triangular real estate of 6200 Claremont Ave., formerly Haruki Japanese Restaurant. Spelled backward, the name is neko — Japanese for “cat.” It’s the latest endeavor from the team behind the city’s Ohgane Korean BBQ, the expanding chain Oh G Burger and the popular OK’s Deli, recently named a top sandwich spot by The Mercury News.
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The vibe is casual-upscale with reservations available on the website. As for the cuisine it’s a little Korean, a little Japanese, a bit American and all quite interesting. There are Korean-inspired dishes that might be unfamiliar to those who haven’t explored Seoul. Other dishes will be very familiar to people who’ve eaten at OK’s Deli, like the Sichuan hot chicken and possibly soon the triple-cooked, ramen-spiced French fries, according to Oken’s Instagram.
The menu splits appetizers into cold and hot groups, the former including raw-fish presentations like oak-smoked hiramasa sashimi with English peas and kelp-cured halibut crudo with Asian pear and sesame leaf (both $24). The latter has that Sichuan chicken, made popcorn-style with five-spice marinade and honey mustard ($18), and a dashi omelette with gochujang Gulf-shrimp sauce ($22).
Entrees include the supremely meaty kalbi ssam with short rib and mini-“hambaga steak” — a Japanese hamburger-type patty — with fresh kimchi and garlic confit ($46). There’s also a tsukune chicken-dumpling noodle soup with soft-boiled egg and chicken fat ($25) and hwe dup bap, which is a rice dish with fermented soybean-cured ocean trout, salmon roe and veggies and herbs ($25).
The beverage list takes up a whole menu page and features wines mainly from Europe (glasses and bottles), Japanese sake, Korean soju and foreign and local beers. And for dessert, right now there’s one option: a chocolate devil’s-food cake with roasted soybean-sesame cream.
Details: Soft-opening hours are 5 p.m.-9 p.m. Thursday, 5 p.m.-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 5 p.m.-9 p.m. Sunday at 6200 Claremont Ave., Oakland; okenoakland.com, instagram.com/okenoakland
