Also missing are Taiwanese and English
sck - we’re not looking for a specific small number of cuisines. We want to try them all 
in the coming couple of years, so anything that impressed folks would be great to read about.
Side note: in terms of large countries with many regional cuisines, e.g. China, India, Mexico, for starters, we’ll probably try to hit just a couple of well-thought-of examples.
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May help if you start new topics for request for specific recommendations. This topic is specifically for cuisines that don’t have a lot of representation in the Bay Area. so Chinese, Indian, Mexican isn’t in the scope.
You will also get better results if you know your preferences. China, India for example are huge countries with population and cuisines that are hugely varied. So it’ll help if you know you want e.g. the best Shanghai joint in the East Bay, but it isn’t useful to you if you say you want Chinese and you receive a Northeast recommendation and you find out you don’t care for Northeast style of food.
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Thanks for the good advice. I’ll start some new topics.
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Should you ever wander over to the town of Alameda:
German restaurants are dying out as the owners retire or pass away:
- Speisekammer is very much in the old-style “Gemütlichkeit” restaurant: hearty portions of classic German food. Needless to say, a great place to drink beer, LOL. Don’t even try to go anywhere near it during World Cup times, however! If you want healthy German-style food, then it’s Gaumenkitzel in Berkeley, but I object to people sticking big green salads on the same plate as my sauerkraut, hehehe…
2424 Lincoln Ave, Alameda. Speisekammer/Alameda
If you have not yet tried Ethiopian/Eritrean cuisines (they are very similar) there are several in the SJose area, per Yelp. There are many in the EBay and in SF. A number of them are vegetarian/vegan only, as similar to Indian cuisine, vegetarian dishes are a large part of their culinary culture. Be sure to try their coffee, and if they offer the special coffee service, it is fun to experience it (usually by reservation only).
Austrian cuisine is almost solely in the hands of Naschmarkt, who has locations in Palo Alto and in Campbell. Austrian cuisine: Naschmarkt
There’s a few Caribbean restaurants in the EBay but they seem to struggle recently; Miss Ollie’s, a longtime favorite, has closed up. Yelp lists about ten of them in the San Mateo County area for you to research.
Pre-pandemic, we were very fond of Tannourine, a Lebanese/Mediterranean restaurant in San Mateo. It is a very pretty restaurant inside, a little more polished and “date night” worthy than many kebab places. One thing that struck me was their Arabic coffee. It is not listed on the menu so you’d have to ask if they still do it.
This is old-style, traditional coffee: boiled grounds in a very long-handled copper ewer, steeped with green cardamon pods, and poured into a cup. You MUST like cardamon, but if you do it is a lovely, aromatic coffee, similar to espresso in strength.
Ph: 650-638-1960. 120 W 25th Ave, San Mateo. Tannourine/San Mateo
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Britannia Arms does very good English food.
There’s a brand new Haitian restaurant in Oakland, T’chaka. Also, Delah is a growing mini-chain doing authentic Yemeni coffee (and snacks). They’re in SoMa, Grand Avenue in Oakland just off Broadway, and I forget where else.
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Berkeleyside had great coverage of the Yemeni coffee scene in Berkeley, Oakland, and SF. And more on the way.
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Another Austrian place is Leopold’s, on Polk St.
A couple of Taiwanese restaurants in the Peninsula. Have not tried them, just a Googling. If any of our HO members have tried any of these, please let us all know about your experiences:
Shihlin Taiwan Street Snacks, 142 E 3rd Ave, San Mateo
Joy Restaurant, 1489 Beach Park Blvd, Foster City
Taiwanese Eats, 426 MacArthur Ave, Redwood City
Also, a Japanese restaurant that is a bit different than usual. This is a long-time, very traditional place, but puts a bit of fusion into their menu. We love tofu, so ordered their housemade tofu. It was more like a pudding - quite different than anything we’ve had elsewhere!
Sushi Maruyama
279 Baldwin Ave., San Mateo, CA
BTW, not rare, but exceptional quality:
New England Lobster Company
824 Cowan Rd, Burlingame
Warning: parking is limited in space and difficult at peak times
We once watched as four middle-aged Chinese women knocked off at least 8 dozen raw oysters in about 15 minutes. Talk about fast food lunches!
- NELC makes a lovely lobster/corn chowder, and they also sell it frozen.
- If you need a lot of the best Dungeness crabmeat, NELC’s quality on their frozen crabmeat is better than any other company we have tried, and we have tried a whole lot of places. It was literally impossible to distinguish from fresh crabmeat. My spouse was in Heaven for a full week!
- They run regular sales on fresh lobsters/lobster tails, and sell them in frozen pkgs in various ways: tail meat only, claw and tail, etc. You might want to get on their mailing list; they do a lot of sale specials.
Also, you should definitely take advantage of the excellent French bakeries that have opened up in the Peninsula. We envy you residents for that!!!
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Catching up on some old food newsletters:
Huge reco for a dish SFChron’s Cesar Hernandez says is very rare: Puerco al horno tacos
From the owners’ native Nayarit, Mexico: puerco al horno, roasted whole suckling pigs for its tacos. NOTE: The truck has apparently moved to 1948 Alum Rock Ave San Jose, where it competes with several other food trucks.
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FYI per SFChron Dec 28:
Singapore’s oldest café had only one outpost in NorCA, which will reopen: Killiney Kopitiam at 552 Waverly St. in downtown Palo Alto closed on Dec. 26, 2023. Fortunately, the chain’s “flagship” location will reopen Spring 2024 at the food-packed Westfield Valley Fair shopping center in San Jose. 2855 Stevens Creek Blvd, Santa Clara
My note: Valley Fair, btw, was smart in switching from hidebound retail giants to in-demand restaurants, such as Din Tai Fung, Baekjeong and Mario Batali’s Eataly: it has the highest mall sales per sq. ft. in the entire state of CA.
Parche - Contemporary Columbian
2295 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94612
Parche/Oakland - Dinner Menu
Eater did a writeup prior to its opening: Canela Bistro Alum Embraces His Colombian Roots
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Rio California - best Brazilian food in the SFBA! Their feijoada tastes exactly like the one our Brazilian friend used to make for us (pronounced " fay-jwa-dah, with a soft ‘j’ that sounds almost like an ‘sh’). The feijoda is served only on Wed & Thurs; the cafe is aimed at downtown workers so they are open only M-F for lunch.
Preservation Park is a delightful little urban renewal park smack in the midst of Downtown Oakland. Rio California is inside the park, just walk towards the center and you’ll see the signboards. Dining is mostly outdoors, btw; they have very few tables inside.
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Haitian (have not tried this place):
T’Chaka
901 Washington St. Oakland
inside Swan Marketplace, Old Oakland district
Reports are very good on the oxtails, griot, jerk chicken. Cocktails only(?). Replaced Miss Ollie’s, a much-loved Caribbean restaurant.
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Hunanese cuisine is somewhat different than Sichuan, the latter being more commonly found.
Wojia Hunan Cuisine
917 San Pablo Ave. @Solano Ave., Albany, CA
(Note: Do NOT park in the lot next to the restaurant! That belongs to the businesses on the LH side)
Just off Hwy 80 at the Buchanan St. exit.
Wojia Hunan: Menus
In addition to Hunan’s characteristically fiery dishes, Wojia also delves into the region’s smoky flavors — try the “special fried rice” with smoked pork or the smoky grilled pork chop dusted with cumin and crispy garlic. The savory fried glutinous rice balls are also an immediate showstopper and local favorite, and beautifully presented. In addition to Hunan’s characteristically fiery dishes, Wojia also delves into the region’s smoky flavors — try the “special fried rice” with smoked pork or the smoky grilled pork chop dusted with cumin and crispy garlic. The savory fried glutinous rice balls are also an immediate showstopper and local favorite.)
A group of us Chowhounders went there 2018 but alas, when Chowhound died so did the Google links to the writeup the diners all contributed to.
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I arranged that Wojia lunch, and started topics in both CH and HO. The HO one is still here:
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Thanks, Ernie! I knew some folks tried to save the old Chowhound reports, but I didn’t have any links.
Pucquio draws its contemporary take on Peruvian cuisine from the artistry and traditions of its country of origin. The very tiny restaurant delivers favorites like aji de gallina and arroz con mariscos with unexpected details like olives, walnuts, and parmesan cheese. On the dessert menu too, riffs on Peruvian pastries like sweet potato donuts filled with dulce de leche and rice pudding brulee with purple corn sorbet are memorable deviations from the norm. // 5337 College Ave. (Oakland), https://www.pucquio.com/menu
My spouse and I love Peruvian food but menus tend to be the same in all of them. The exception was Pucquio in Oakland’s Rockridge neighborhood. Owner/chef Carlos Moreira does traditional dishes with genuine creative flair. A simple dessert of ice cream with the booziest pisco-soaked currants ever knocked our socks off, LOL.
Sister Moroccan restaurants: Aziza and Mourad.
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Aziza: 5800 Geary Bl* vd., SF betw 23rd Ave & 22nd Aves (NOT Streets). https://azizasf.com/menus/main-menu/
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Mourad: 140 New Montgomery St. SF, CA betw Natoma St & Minna St. https://www.mouradsf.com/menus/
Absolutely DO NOT MISS the couscous at either restaurant. Owner Mourad Lahlou’s recipe for it takes 10 hrs and it is exquisite!
Mourad is more upscale, creative Moroccan preps without the overhyped belly dancing/draped walls shtick. Aziza is the equally creative but more relaxed CA-Moroccan little brother, more neighborhood/less fancy (note: parking is WICKED hard in the Richmond district where it’s at; I used to live there).
For the Moroccan tourist experience (if it’s your first time with this cuisine), go to El Mansour/SF; for better quality/impressive execution go to Mourad. For amazing fusion on an approachable level, Aziza is our choice – but do the traditional tourist route first if you’ve never tried Moroccan food.
There are only 7 countries in the world that are global food exporters. The U.S. is of course first and biggest, but Morocco is also one of them. It has a rich variety of foodstuffs and a long history of great cuisine.
Have not tried these:
Good Good Culture Club offers the flavors of SE Asia and the Pacific Islands. The colorful Mission District restaurant hosts a variety of cuisines, all wrapped up into one unique package. 3560 18th St. (@Mission), SF
https://goodgoodcultureclub.com/
5 Rare Dishes to Taste at San Francisco and Oakland Restaurants
https://www.7x7.com/rare-dishes-san-francisco-restaurants-2665754913.html
This is a rare Napa budget article!
https://www.7x7.com/yountville-napa-valley-on-a-budget-2659487529.html
It’s from March 2023, so be sure to check to make sure everything is still relevant.
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There’s a Peruvian restaurant in the Emeryville Public Market.
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Don’t know if you’ve tried Ettan/Palo Alto yet. Copra, in SF’s Japantown, is coastal South Indian and Sri Lankan cuisines from the same owners:
Copra: Coastal South Indian + Sri Lankan Eats
Note some Yelpers ding them on service, but staffing is an ongoing issue for most restaurants these days, sadly.
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