HTH - we’ve 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, don’t go to La Calaca, go to Gordo’s in Albany, for example:
- Ikaros Greek/Oakland - best flaming cheese and a great rib-eye, note European doneness (if you want med-rare, order medium). Also excellent fried calamari, Greek coffee, and their variant on Galektoboureko is very fine when freshly made that day (ask and insist on it), even though it’s closer to bougatsa.
- La Calaca Loca/Oakland – excellent fish tacos, grilled or battered. Good shrimp quesadilla, too. They bring 3 squeeze bottles to the table: mild, green salsa, and habanero.
- Asmara Eritrean/Oakland – we love that they still use the niter kibbeh, and their Assa Tibs (spicy fish chunks) is fabulous with the veggie combo. We love their espresso drinks as well. But if you insist upon being healthy, Café Colucci and its EVOO-based dishes have moved to Emeryville, and they do make the best shiro. Lemat/Berkeley is wonderful, but their parking situation sucks and if you go, try to use Ashby BART.
- We aren’t fans of Saigon Harbor/Richmond dim sum and prefer East Ocean Seafood/Oakland. EOS has upped their game over the last couple of years and altho they don’t bat 100% (nobody does in the EBay) most of their dim sum and noodle dishes are very good. Kitchen/Alameda (next door to EOS) is a small old-style Cantonese, limited dim sum but generously sized and very good. Kitchen gets points for housemade BBQ pork (char siu), something we have not seen a restaurant do in three decades.
- Belotti/Oakland for the most amazing Northern Italian pastas ever. Skip the entrées and concentrate on his pastas, especially the agnolotti and tortelli with polenta. NOTE: they are currently take-out only at their restaurant, but this is temporary. Check website for updates.
- Pucquio/Oakland for creative takes on Peruvian food; one of the rare chefs who dares to do things a little differently than all the other Peruvian restaurants (mind you, we do love LiMA/Concord and Barranco/Lafayette, however).
- Simurgh Bakery/Emeryville for the best baklava ever.
- Belmo Café/Berkeley (well, it’s close to the Oakland border!) for amazing and beautiful individual cakes made with real whipping cream and butter. He loves chocolate and raspberries together, so he always has several different ones to choose from. His eclairs are divine and filled with real whipped cream. You can also get Turkish coffee (espresso, not sweetened) and a very fine mocha. Tiny shop, get it to go.
- Townhouse/Oakland is a retro hippie delight, go for the zucchini fries which beat everyone else’s. The food is a good-not-great level, but they do a couple of dishes very well: their steaks are ALWAYS grilled on-point, the lamb chops are good, and the old fashioned calamari steak in lemon butter is classic. If they have it, their housemade chicken liver paté comes with a good slug of brandy in it, and it’s wonderful (hic). Make a reservation; even if you don’t need it, they’ll treat you better. I have no idea why, but they’ve always been that way, LOL.
- Trabocco/Alameda for Italian seafood and Ligurian specials. Skip the pizzas. The beet/watercress salad is a delight for cress lovers. Sublime ravioli stuffed with oxtail and a vegetarian agnolotti is excellent. His risottos are marvelous; if he’s offering the beet/pork risotto, get it – absolutely unique and delicious.
- Pizza: we must be the only non-fans of Zachary’s [grin]. We like good quality, crispy crusts, dusted with cornmeal. Switched from Star on Grand/Oakland to its sibling Star on Park/Alameda, which we find less sloppy and more consistent, having experienced too many ups and downs with the Oakland location.
- Top Hatters/San Leandro is an excellent quality, global fusion bistro. Changes their menu regularly.
- Ceron Kitchen/Alameda is gorgeous but their food is erratic in quality and quantity. Salads are huge but everything else is petite-sized. OK for lunch, but after 3 visits we really cannot figure out why the food from chef Jaquez is so wildly uneven when he was rock-solid for over a decade at Paradiso/SLeandro.
- We like old-fashioned German-style food, so are very fond of Speisekammer/Alameda. Good sausages, braised sauerkraut (I loathe raw sauerkraut), hearty stews. However, avoid them during World Cup weeks!
- Waki Sushi/Alameda is hands-down the best sashimi in the EBay. It is NOT cheap, but we were just at Hana Sushi/Santa Rosa last week, and Waki’s fish is far, far better. Also consistent; we go at least once a month ever since they opened.
If you enjoy fine chocolates, stop by Michael’s on Grand Avenue. He makes a Bourbon Salted Caramel Truffle (also in a cigar-shape) that is the finest liquor/chocolate confection we’ve ever found, and we are solid Recchiuti and Royce fans.
We are not Bakesum fans – we find their fusion bakery good too sweet, lacking good butter, and overwrought in the Instagram style of “looks impressive” – but like Michael’s and Ikaros, they are within 1 block of the Grand Lake Theatre in the Lake Merritt area.
