Mägo - Oakland (CA)

5 /5 Alejandro Troccoli: My family and I drove from more than 50 miles to dine at Mägo for my birthday. It was very well worth it. The tasting menu was well crafted, with a good combination of plates and a hint of Caribbean/South American touches. We sat at the chefs counter and had a front row seat to the kitchen, watching the orchestration that goes into delivering the dishes. Highly recommended!

5 /5 E Lee: Came here during restaurant week and I already want to come back. Non alcoholic pairing was one of the best I’ve had so far. The food was also excellent. Menu was portioned well and I left full but not overly. Very friendly staff who spent time at our table with brief but memorable conversations.

2 /5 Arielle Albert: Came here to celebrate my wedding anniversary with my husband who is a big foodie. We were really excited to visit Mago but were sadly disappointed. I’ll start with the good though - the service! We were there the celebrate our anniversary and on arrival were congratulated and were served a complementary dessert at the end as well! Our waiter was sweet, attentive and knowledgeable. The mid - the food. Presentation was great but my husband and I felt that the dishes lacked flavor. We weren’t blown away by any of the dishes, honestly my husbands favorite dish was a pear with jalapeño on it. Nothing blew our mind, or made us want to come back… The con - we came mid-week (Tuesday) for at 7PM dinner reservation. 7PM with two kids is honestly early for us to get out, and we felt rushed towards the end. We started the night with a cocktail and moved to a bottle of wine halfway through the prefix menu. Important to note we were seated on the bar of the open kitchen. Halfway through the bottle and before we were served dessert the kitchen crew is cleaning up in our faces. Fully brooming the floor, scrubbing the counters, even having an after work beer in front of us. It’s not even 9PM! We felt rushed to finish our bottle of wine and eat the desserts. We noticed it says the restaurant closes at 8:30, but then don’t start a new round of service at 7 if your crew is going to start cleaning up in front of clients (and it’s not cheap!) and our waiter even went home and we didn’t know who to ask our check or make our tip out it. This completely ruined the night. We could have been okay with the sub par food since we have a good evening and the experience was cute, but have the restaurant do the work they should do when the doors are locked in front of Our face after paying so much money was disgusting. To make it worse, there were tables behind us who didn’t even get served their dessert yet, so we can’t even blame it on ourselves for “over saying”. Also music was really soft, felt like we had to speak in whispers.

5 /5 Naj B: After coming for some a la carte food and drinks I knew I had to come back for the tasting menu. I can say that it did not disappoint. Every bite showcased the creativeness and incredible flavors cooked up by the chefs…right in front of you in their kitchen concept. The NA pairing was also a phenomenal selection of fun and exotic flavors including some small batch and locally sourced items.