There was a tiny update about Bull Valley in the Oakland side link. I used to go all the time, but not since a disappointing visit after the re-opening in 2021. Anyone been recently?
PS; daughter just moved from Brooklyn to Oakland so I hope to do more eating in the area, and am looking for ideas.
HTH - weâve been here for 32 yrs and so many changes!
Dining has definitely improved in the Oakland/Alameda/Hayward/San Leandro area. NO restaurant makes everything well: if you want burritos, donât go to La Calaca, go to Gordoâs in Albany, for example:
If you enjoy fine chocolates, stop by Michaelâs on Grand Avenue. He makes a Bourbon Salted Caramel Truffle (also in a cigar-shape) that is the finest liquor/chocolate confection weâve ever found, and we are solid Recchiuti and Royce fans.
We are not Bakesum fans â we find their fusion bakery good too sweet, lacking good butter, and overwrought in the Instagram style of âlooks impressiveâ â but like Michaelâs and Ikaros, they are within 1 block of the Grand Lake Theatre in the Lake Merritt area.
Thank you! HTH is happy to help?
Oh! âHope this helps!â. It does. We (husband and I) are from NYC but have lived in Vacaville 30+ years.
The food scene in Oakland really crashed after the Loma Prieta quake. Glad to hear it has been building back with even more diverse tastes.
If you like upscale Mexican and donât mind a noisy dining room, visit Casa del Toro in downtown Hayward. Inventive food and a huge tequila list.
Edithâs Pies in Uptown Oakland, near the Paramount Theater, has long hours and great pie. They also have quiches and savory hand pies, but I havenât tried those yet. Other good places in that immediate area are The Crown and Delah Coffee for coffee (the latter is Yemenite and is a unique experience), Drakeâs Dealership for beer (there are Red Bay Coffee and Humphrey Slocumbe Ice Cream kiosks in the same courtyard), Shawarmaji for Middle Eastern, and Firebrand Breads.
Old fashioned diner-esque:
https://www.oleswaffleshop.com/
Same people next door:
And Roy at Drakeâs is good guy:
More Oakland thoughts (and thx to the moderators for breaking this off into a separate thread!):
Weekdays, lunch only: Rio Cafe in Preservation Park (downtown Oakland). Have not been since pre-lockdown, but on Wed&Thurs only, have an excellent feijoda. It tastes just like our Brazilian friendâs version (she was from GoiĂąnia); a great pork ânâ beans stew, complete with farofa (donât add too much of it; itâs filling!). The lemon seafood risotto was also very good, as are the coxinhas (chicken croquettes). Their jerk chicken is extremely popular. Limited indoor seating, some outdoor patio seating, and there are benches in the Park itself. Many people do take-out. Tiny place but line moves fast; study the menu on-line and be prepared to order (or order in advance via phone).
Afghani: the best Afghani food is in the Fremont/SJose area, but a close contender is in Dublin (25 min straight out on 580 East, except at commute times), Khyber Pass. In Oakland area, best Afghani is the newest â Pachaâs Afghan Kabab in Old Oakland. Their mantoo, meat dumplings, are excellent. Yogurt is housemade. The challow (spinach) curry is amazing; get the brown rice (âbrownâ from toasted spices, not the healthfood grain). Kebabs are also very good.
Indian: there are 2, and they are different from one another.
**Namastey Patio/**Oakland has amazing food from a Nepalese family. We detest the bias towards using tons of sugar in Indo-Asian cooking and Namastey uses less than any other. There are 2 fusion dishes on the menu: tandoori asparagus & mushrooms, and scallops with blueberries. Both are sensational, a 5-star thumbs up from my spouse, who usually loathes fusion dishes. One of the only restaurants that has goat curries, with generous chunks of meat. Great spicing altho they hold it down for us dumb Americans, so you have to insist upon real âmediumâ â even their medium-low is a 6 on our scale of 10 chiles (we love hot food). Chicken samosas are huge but deliciousâone order equals a large entrĂ©e.
Indian Grill/San Leandro (note their parking lot is a private pay parking lot; it is NOT free. SLeandro meters only take cash, not coins; if you want to use a credit card, use the private pay lot.) caters to the local Sikh community so they have a lot of vegetarian and vegan dishes. Fish pakoda was moist and delicious. The saag paneer is one of the best versions weâve had from anyone. Not a lot of sugar used, but there are several sweet/sour sticky sauced dishes that need rice. IG has 1 big claim to fame: their kheer, almond and rice pudding, is hands-down the gold standard for this dessert. It is phenomenal!
Breakfast: There are many, most arenât that great.
Brendaâs/Oakland has lines out the door on weekends even after almost 4 yrs, which says it all for this Southern-style sibling of the SF Brendaâs Soul Food.
Mamaâs Royal CafĂ©/Oakland is a retro classic diner that was remodeled pre-pandemic to look exactly the way itâs looked for the last 40 yrs, right down to the paint color. Skip the lunch items and concentrate on breakfast; the short order cook makes great poached eggs, coarse-chopped hash, and pancakes. A rarity is decent rye bread for toast.
Thai is everywhere, most are sickly sweet. Choose between 2 extremes, plus 1 new:
Farmhouse Kitchen/Oakland is one of a local mini-chain. It has fancy Instagrammable cocktails and all the menu standards Americans expect. Most, not all, are reasonably well-made, beautifully served. We like it better than Joâs Modern Thai/Oakland, which has enough sugar and salt to preserve its dishes for all eternity.
Monkey Thai South Shore Center (not to be confused with the one on Main St.)/Alameda is where Thai people eat. The food is seriously incendiary, and many dishes arenât found elsewhere, with a number of offal and sticky rice dishes. Some of the staff doesnât speak English, which can lead to ordering errors. Also, complaints of menus not having current prices are noted by Yâers. Their sai oua is fiery, and they also sell it in 1-lb. pkgs. Donât bother coming here for pad thai or boiled chicken; itâs not what they do well. This is a place that has chitterlings, fried crickets and fried silkworms, and quail on the appetizer list.
Personally, we reserve our Thai food yearnings for **Khom Loi/**Sonoma County, which absolutely deserves that Michelin commendation it received. Limited menu; Thai street food that has almost no sugar (altho they also hold back on the chile heat) with several unique dishes.
Bhan Mae Vane/Alameda got a nice review from an HO member and so far Y rvws are positive. We have not tried it yet (Laotian/Thai) but itâs on our list.
Ben ânâ Nicks Bar and Grill/ Oakland is a pub with pretty good Reubens and very good burgers. We donât drink so canât attest to the beer, but this was darned good food for a bar.
Malaya Tea Room/ Alameda is a unique Malaysian/British afternoon tea room. Tiny, must make reservations (they DO NOT take walk-ins) and you have to be patient because the staff makes the sandwiches fresh after your order. These are substantial sandwiches on regular bread, not tea sandwiches, so itâs filling. The tea is high quality and made properly, which also takes time. Absolutely delightful and there is nothing else like it in NorCA.
Oh man⊠I may have to move!
But nah⊠Iâve always said that living here ( in Solano County) is what lets me afford to eat elsewhere. I still have to get over my dread of the drive, but I will make it so!
I am fine driving in to Napa, and Sonoma, and most of Sacto, but remain intimidated by San Francisco and the East Bay.
Similar to when I lived in NYC outer boroughs.
Shrugs. Weâve had a few traumas on the way there and back.
These cuisines donât use tons of sugar but you seems to be getting dishes from restaurants which cater to US focused customer base.
I like Commis and MĂ€go in Oakland.
Citizen PIzza and Spinning Dough is good for pizza.
Thank you! I remember Commis!
Traditionally they do not. However, Big Corp. sugar has really pushed into Asia and foods are getting sweeter. Had an interesting conversation with Geoffrey Deetz when he still had Temple Bar and he agreed that he had seen a marked increase in the use of sugar in Southern Vietnamese cooking before he left to come back to the US. Said it wasnât quite as bad yet in Northern Vietnam.
All restaurants here have to cater somewhat to the tastes of Americans; how else would they remain in business? We loved Daughter Thai/Oakland when it first opened, but after a couple of years the food became progressively sweeter and âdumbed downâ.
And âauthenticâ remains a moving target. Many âauthenticâ foods Americans would likely not be enthusiastic about eating. Have you ever had a Nicaraguan tamale? Those things are like lead weights in the stomach, LOL - dripping with lard. It bears an uncanny resemblance to the Macanese pressed rice. I have my MILâs recipe from Hong Kong, and it uses at least 3x the amount of lard or solid Crisco that âmodernâ recipes for pressed rice call for.
BTW, for fun, check out the very unusual dishes (but popular with locals) profiled on Netflixâs âFlavourful Originsâ - when has anyone seen any goat cheeses in a Yunnan restaurant in the US?
We can, as diners, only pick and choose between whatâs offered to us. Many diners seem to be perfectly happy with eating sugary Indo-Asian food. As long as I have the option NOT to do so, Iâll take it.
I love " Flavorful Origins". Forgive me, but I donât quite get the reference. I am never sure what âAmericansâ means, and I am still sorting out regions in China. I remember being surprised to think of cheese associated with China. Are goat cheeses popular in Yunnan restaurants in China? Which season and episode are you referencing? Iâm sure I can find it.
Maybe this one!
Iâm pretty sure it was Season 1, but donât remember which episode (I was binging so the episodes just kept continuing with the next one). Itâs a quick throwaway line on how Yunnan has so many cows and goats because they make most of the domestic dairy products in China. Surprised the heck out of us as we had never heard that before!
Certainly itâs not âtraditionalâ, probably a (relatively) recent development as the CCCP tries to modernize agriculture with the goal of reaching US-efficiency levels; i.e., # of farmers per # of people. Canât remember the exact WSJ or NYT article that was discussing the CCCP agricultural push in general terms, but it was maybe 3 or 4 yrs ago. The US was way ahead of China, something like 10x more efficient in producing food.
Ghazni in Hayward also has very good Afghani food. Weâve ordered from them a lot.
And for something truly unique, thereâs Golden Safari in Hayward for Nigerian and Kendejah in San Leandro for Liberian.
Their bolani is fantastic.
Sorry but have to disagree here - first of all you started by saying in very broad strokes that âIndio-Asianâ cuisine has a biased towards sugar which is definitely not true based on many discussions within extended family and friends from that region. You then started to change by just bringing up one example of one discussion of a very specific, small region which again is first of all debatable but also nothing which can be generalized over a very broad geographic area.
In addition, even here in the US where restaurants tend sometimes to cater too much to US tastes, it is quite possible to find not overly westernized regional food but you have to look for it, e.g. places like Kin Khao, Isarn Garden are good examples for Thai and there are examples for many other cuisines
Fine, whatever you like. BTW, I am not saying the traditional cuisines themselves emphasize sugar, so I should clarify that for you. I am saying MANY Asian restaurants in the US, INCLUDING those in the SFBA, tend to add a lot of sugar - and if you call them on it, they will say, âOh, but Americans like sugar!â
Which they do. Unfortunately.
You wrote âwhich they doâ. I think âtheyâ means Americans. Does it include you and me? Not that thereâs anything wrong with that! ( Seinfeld reference).
Asian food, usually Chinese, is known to adapt local ingredients and tastes in restaurant food produced here. Yes, Americans like sweet stuff, so they add sugar. Chinese-Mexican cuisine uses lemons, peppers and other local flavors, same idea. Adjust to local tastes and available ingredients.
