It’s been a while, but I did have a nice meal at Iyasare on 4th St several years ago.
About 11 years ago, I enjoyed La Furia Chalaca on Broadway, for Peruvian. I haven’t had that much Peruvian food, and there might be better options elsewhere, but I thought it was a neat place for a resto pretty close to JLS.
Our only Burmese restaurant in Toronto closed in 2019, so I’m hoping to have Burmese food next time I visit the East Bay (or Saskatoon- nice Burmese restaurant in Saskatoon!)
Sadly, Slainte is closing at the end of this month, citing lower traffic and higher crime rates. We had another great fish & chips dinner there yesterday.
Sorry Shrinkwrap, I guess you didn’t get there yet.
My old crew has abandoned Oakland because of the crime, everywhere and have gone elsewhere. Yoshi’s was our favorite BITD and has grown immensley. Great Jazz. Be safe!
I loved going to Sacto from Oakland for a day trip on Amtrak on the CC. Took the kids a few times BITD to the Rail Museum and old town. Of course BITD you could go anywhere without a care. We could walk to JLS from the boardwalk, the Gingerbread House, Mexicali Rose, El Caballo all without caution. Please watch where you park in Oakland. Something has been going very wrong there recently and the crime has driven great eateries and their customers out. Our friends, who actually live across the tube, had their little Prius ‘smashed and grabbed’ at the Amtrak station just last week. The booty? Two bags of dirty laundry😆. Not so funny.
Maybe look at Alameda’s choices?
I’m sad to hear this. My uncle lived in Oakland until he passed away, and we would usually meet him at restaurants around JLS. I probably ate at 2 dozen restaurants within a mile of JLS from the 1970s until 2010.
We ate at Scott’s Seafood the most.
I remember staying at the Best Western on Broadway around 2008, and it was already a fairly scary place to stay. There was dried blood on one of the clean towels
We stayed at the small hotel on JLS once, which was nice inside, but it didn’t feel too safe walking around after dusk. I stayed at an inn on the water in San Leandro another time, around 2013. The hotel itself was nice, but it was disturbing to see a middle-aged male guest check in with a much, much, much younger woman who appeared to be a sex worker.
Our last 3 visits to the area, we stayed in Berkeley when we stayed closer to Oakland. On my most recent visit in 2018, we stayed further away, closer to Orinda, for a wedding taking place near Orinda.
I’m really sad to hear the crime and poverty have become worse. It’s become worse here, in Canada, too.
Those earlier days were the best for memories. We’d do our Christmas shopping around the square, hit up all the many old timey seafood restaurants, old style Italian Luigi’s on Broadway, the Sirloin & Brew for great salads, cheap wine and questionable steak products, visit The Elegant Farmer restaurant on my great aunt’s b’day (it was her favorite) and if we planned it right, we’d watch the holiday estuary parade where all the fancy boats would show off their lighted yachts and speedboats. Had a few reunion parties at Scott’s. Sigh.
I keep hearing about all the closures in Oakland. Anything in the Rockridge neighborhood? Then, there’s Berzerkley. I hope you have success with some of the new openings! Keep us posted!
I have some good memories of meals along College Ave, when we used to visit Oakland a lot. I haven’t had a chance to visit that part of Oakland since my uncle passed away several years ago.
4th Street in Berkeley seems to still be going…short walk from Amtrak. I was there on a weekday afternoon a couple weeks back. All the restaurants look open. Angie’s Montreal Deli (old Brennan’s space) is closed however.
Just FYI when you decide to drive: we have been going to Moussaka/San Leandro for the last year. Owner/Chef Nilgun Boyar is a former sous chef at Quince, the Michelin three-star restaurant in SF. Boyar hails from Turkey, raised by Turkish and Greek parents. She went to culinary school in Switzerland and worked in fancy hotel kitchens in Turkey before landing in the United States. She has called Moussaka Mediterranean Kitchen “her return to her family’s home cooking roots.”
Her Chickpeas Schwarma Bowl, well-seasoned with roasted cumin, so impressed my niece who is vegan, she asked to return two days later to Moussaka. We love her Meat Moussaka and the Hunkar Beyendi (braised lamb over eggplant puree).
Nilgun is a warm and extroverted hostess who loves to welcome diners. Note there are two dessert menus at Moussaka: Nilgun also has an in-house separate bakery called DessertChu. Her housemade Mango Mousse Cake, Tiramisu, and especially the Baklava Cheesecake, are swoon-worthy.
