The Bay Area’s East and South regions boast some incredible restaurants, offering everything from upscale bistros to laidback eateries, including some known only to locals. We’ve noshed and sipped our way through hundreds of them, seeking out the very best — and now we’re ready to proclaim the top 50 restaurants in the East and South Bays.
We’re rolling out our restaurant critics and food writers’ top picks this week, starting with Nos. 41-50 on Monday, Nos. 31-40 Tuesday and Nos. 21-30 yesterday. Today, we’re revealing the next batch.
So let’s get started — because whether you’re craving beignets, pork belly tacos or burrata Pugliese, you want to get right on that.
A guide to the abbreviations:
$: A typical entree is $15 or less
$$: $16-$50
$$$: $51-$100
$$$$: More than $100
Bombera, Oakland: When you want a Chez Panisse cafe in a Mexican home
Located inside an old firehouse in Oakland’s Dimond district, Dominica Rice’s Mexican restaurant is an epicenter for Chicana culture and thoughtful, gourmet Mexican food made by grandmas in an open kitchen. A hearth drives much of the stellar menu, from garlic-and-lime marinated roast chicken to grilled filet mignon with crispy Oaxacan cheese.
House-dried and ground masa is transformed into the corn tortillas for legendary pan-seared pork belly tacos, and house-smoked trout becomes the topper for the most precious little tostadas we can’t stop thinking about. Even corn on the cob is elevated without being fussy, its gleaming kernels glossy from lime, chile and whipped pumpkin and sesame seed butter.
Whether you’re attending a Chicanx art show, masa-centric pop-up or just sipping a watermelon margarita from your leather-backed perch at the bar, you can’t help but get swept away in the party vibes — think paper fan streamers — of this bright, light-filled warehouse and garden patio.
Don’t miss: Spicy carrots with toasted almond misantla are a must. Also wonderful: the smoked trout tostadas, pork belly tacos, duck carnitas mole verde, citrus flan crema Catalan and, of course, seasonal margaritas.
Details: 3459 Champion St., Oakland; www.bomberaoakland.com; $$
District 7 Kitchen, San Jose: When you’re craving Vietnamese fusion
Twenty years after introducing Bay Area palates to Vietnamese cuisine via his Three Seasons restaurants in San Francisco, Palo Alto and Walnut Creek, executive chef John Le is cooking in the heart of the Bay Area’s Vietnamese-American community.
The contemporary District 7 Kitchen he opened in San Jose’s Little Saigon showcases his style of fusion cooking and introduces new diners to his finely crafted sauces.
Start with the refreshing and well-composed Green Papaya & Grilled Shrimp Salad, the Soft-Shelled Crab Spring Rolls or perhaps the nori-wrapped Salmon Rolls. The Three Seasons Garlic Noodles, wildly popular through the decades at all of his restaurants, are a must. You can add crab, prawns, chicken, even duck confit or Korean beef. Le’s Shaken Beef is a refined version made with beef tenderloin.
The surprising fusion addition is Lomo Saltado, a signature dish in Peru. What’s that doing on the menu? Le fondly recalls that during his Saigon childhood, his mother would make French fries sauteed with beef, spring onion and fish sauce. He created a Viet-Peruvian version for his customers by adding a touch of aji amarillo, the Peruvian chile paste.
Don’t miss: If you consider yourself an adventurous eater but have never tried durian, Le makes a Durian Tiramisu that tempers the fruit’s assertive aroma. Eat, enjoy and proudly cross that off your bucket list!
Details: 979 Story Road, San Jose; www.d7kitchen.com; $$
Snail Bar, Oakland: When you’re feeling snackish and thirsty for natural wine
When this corner bistro opened last year, it got immediate buzz for its funky, natural wines and French-approved crudite and chilled seafood. Since then, it’s become apparent the eatery from chef Andres Giraldo Florez (a vet of Saison and Alinea) has much more to offer. It’s rare to find any missteps on the small, ever-evolving menu – and that includes the snails, as beautiful as biology illustrations and served bubbling in a miso-cashew sauce.
General manager and beverage director Carlos Camacho keeps the wines interesting with selections that might range from a natural malbec from Argentina to a grenache rosé from up the road in Richmond. Having a glass with a few snackable plates is a great way to prepare for a late dinner – and we have suggestions.
Charred bread with smoked tomatoes, aioli and a blanket of mangalitsa lardo takes pan con tomate into the porky heavens. A Venezuelan pancake called cachapa presents as an omelet but is made with sweet corn, gooey burrata and a scorching hot sauce (you can add optional black truffle). And ham and cheese is the Platonic ideal of this midnight sandwich, with mounds of tender, spiced meat between bread crisped into a buttery lacquer.
Don’t miss: The pan con tomate is nonnegotiable, as are the cachapa, ham and cheese and snails.
Details: 4935 Shattuck Ave., Oakland; snailbaroakland.com, $$-$$$
The Bywater, Los Gatos: When you don’t have time for a trip to NOLA
Acclaimed chef David Kinch may be stepping back from his three-Michelin-starred Manresa at year’s end, but there’s good news for fans of The Bywater: He will remain involved in the evolution of the restaurant where he pays tribute to New Orleans, the city that inspired his love of cooking.
Impeccably fresh seafood stars in the Creole and Cajun dishes. The Gumbo Filé broth is rich, dusky and, depending on the day, studded with oysters, fish, crawfish or crab, and maybe some brisket from the smokehouse. Fresh oysters are available three ways: raw, with mignonette and cocktail sauce; broiled, with chile butter; or as Kinch’s cheekily named version of oh-so-rich bivalves, Oysters Rock a Fella. The Shrimp & Avocado Remoulade, which never leaves the menu, gets its zip from the horseradish-tinged sauce.
In a meaty mood? Unlike NOLA’s traditional red beans and rice, the Rich Man’s Red Beans and Rice here features a wealth of housemade andouille sausage, smoked pork shoulder and house-cured bacon.
The Bywater chefs also explore the cuisines that reflect the Crescent City’s other waves of immigration. On the special Monday menu, Banh Trang Nuong, a Vietnamese rice-paper “pizza” topped with egg, shrimp and chiles, makes for a lovely shareable starter. And the crispy glazed Tamarind Wings are irresistible.
Don’t miss: Any gumbo, jambalaya or fish special and soft-shell crab when that’s in season. At Sunday brunch, the Chicken and Waffles gets raves.
Details: 532 N. Santa Cruz Ave., Los Gatos; www.thebywaterca.com; $$
Donato Enoteca, Redwood City: When you feel like touring Italy
Marvelous, red-checkered-tablecloth meals abound in the Bay Area, which is home to scores of Italian-American restaurants. There are times, though, when a tour of Italy is in order. That’s where Donato Scotti comes in. The chef-restaurateur’s ethos and menus have been rooted in regional Italian cuisine since he opened his eponymous places in Redwood City and Berkeley, long before Eataly brought its regional emporium to Silicon Valley.
On the antipasti menu, burrata Pugliese from the south of Italy is the perfect foil for three types of peppers. A grilled salad of Calamari e Fagioli showcases both Monterey Bay calamari and imported Italian butter beans, Bianchi di Spagna. From Scotti’s home near Lake Como comes the recipe for the traditional Bergamo ravioli of wild greens and Taleggi o Vero, the pasta shaped like a scarpinocc (or shoe) and cooked to al dente perfection, then dressed lightly in a brown butter sauce and crowned with crispy shallots. And the wood-fired oven turns out pizzas with toppings such as housemade nduja sausage, a spicy specialty of Calabria; pesto, the pride of Genoa; and Mission figs grown here in California.
For dessert, how about a traditional tart from the heel of Italy’s boot? The Bocconotto Pugliese is filled with pastry cream and luscious imported amarena cherries.
Don’t miss: November brings the most prized of truffles, the white ones, from northern Italy to the menu. Look for large raviolo with egg yolk and white truffle, risotto with white truffle and other specials.
Details: 1041 Middlefield Road, Redwood City, with Scotti’s wine bar, bistro and shop, called Cru, located nearby; www.donatoenoteca.com; $$
Shepherd & Sims, Los Gatos: When you want seasonal cuisine seven days a week (lunchtime, too)
Don’t let the whimsical cat mural over the front entrance fool you. There is some serious cooking going on inside this restaurant that made its debut a year ago.
Billed as an American brasserie, Shepherd & Sims is everything that South Bay diners have come to expect from chef-owner Jim Stump (The Table, Forthright Oyster Bar & Kitchen, The Vesper, Lamella Tavern) and wife/co-owner Angelique Shepherd: creativity, seasonality, high-quality ingredients.
At this large restaurant (indoor seating for 150, outdoor for 75), chef de cuisine Robert de la Mora, formerly at the helm at Forthright, delivered a summer menu packed with stone fruit, corn and tomatoes and has now pivoted to autumn and winter dishes. That means the refreshing and unusual Heirloom Tomato Salad, with compressed watermelon, a caramel-peanut crunch and Thai basil, won’t return until next summer. But the Creole Risotto, thick with smoked ham hocks, and Olive Oil-Poached Spanish Octopus, with a white soy miso emulsion and Japanese eggplant, may be sticking around.
Long hours are part of Shepherd & Sims’ appeal. While so many restaurants in this post-pandemic period have had to limit themselves to dinner service just four or five nights a week, this Stump restaurant has managed to offer lunch/brunch, happy hour and dinner seven days a week. You’ll want to be especially nice to this crew.
Don’t miss: The Roasted Cauliflower, bathed in a rich red curry sauce and topped with golden raisin relish, Thai basil, mint and fried shallots and garlic, has become a Shepherd & Sims signature. Yes, a cauliflower dish that good. Buy one for the table to share. Or selfishly make it your entree.
Details: 15970 Los Gatos Blvd., Los Gatos; www.sandslosgatos.com; $$
Delage, Oakland: When you want an intimate and gorgeous kaiseki dinner
There’s probably no more Instagrammable Japanese restaurant in Oakland than Delage, which serves set kaiseki menus of sushi and seasonal dishes. The meal might begin with “crystal bread,” a clear orb floating on river rocks that crunches like ice and is topped with smoked salmon and wasabi cream. Or a perfectly fried cube of Alaskan black cod in a white-miso sauce slashed with red-chile and green-shiso oils, like an Ab-Ex painter is working in the kitchen. Or a ceramic eggplant vessel that exhales a cloud of steam to reveal kombu “umami broth” dotted with arare pearls.
As dishes emerge from the back, diners can watch executive chef Mikiko Ando work her magic in the front. The Hokkaido native evinces the concentration of a brain surgeon as she places microgreens and flowers on fresh fish, the majority brought in from Japan. Bluefin tuna is sumptuous with a brushing of house-seasoned soy, and torched-skin butterfish lives up to its rich, melting name. A small but nicely curated list of wine and sake rounds out the experience. Enjoy a glass while uploading food porn to all your jealous followers.
Don’t miss: The menu is ever-changing, but you can look forward to at least two courses of excellent nigiri.
Details: 536 Ninth St., Oakland; delageoakland.com, $$$$
Mazra, San Bruno: When you want swooningly delicious Middle Eastern food
Habibi — the Arabic term of endearment — appears in every corner of this whimsically decorated all-halal Mediterranean restaurant in San Bruno. Do it for the habibis. Take it easy, habibi, good food takes time. Caution, wet floor, don’t slip, habibi. Each sign feels like someone’s grandma is pinching your cheeks. And the food — tender kabobs, six-hour lamb shank and fresh, addictive salads — has that same comforting sensibility, with some chef-driven touches. No wonder this converted Middle Eastern grocery store took the No. 2 spot on Yelp’s Top 100 national list in 2021.
The Jordanian owners, the Makableh family, have decorated the former Green Valley Market with bold Arab pop art and strands of artificial cherry blossoms, so there’s always something to look at as you tuck into specialties such as slow-roasted shawarma, street-style wraps and whole heirloom purple cauliflower tossed in tahini sauce. Everything is made from scratch, down to the seasonal strawberry lemonade and pineapple-cantaloupe juice. Even the self-serve black tea — hot, laced with cinnamon and complimentary — is next level.
Don’t miss: Double kabob plate, hummus, Arabic salad, oyster mushroom kabob, sambusa.
Details: 504 San Bruno Ave. W., San Bruno; www.eatmazra.com; $-$$.
Le Papillon, San Jose: When you’d like a top-tier dinner at a surprising price
If you thought the circa 1977 Le Papillon had settled into some sort of musty existence on Saratoga Avenue, think again.
Executive chef Scott Cooper is bringing bright, contemporary flavors and surprising combinations to the prix fixe and tasting menus. A black garlic romesco adds umami to the Grilled Rack of Lamb. An Asparagus Salad is made new again with yuzu sabayon, crisp prosciutto and rye. Toasted Couscous “Risotto” features porcini mushrooms, leeks and tomato confit.
Of special note is the Roasted Chilean Sea Bass entree, a stunning filet so artfully cooked that we head-slapped ourselves for even thinking of ordering steak. The fish, sitting on a yuzu beurre blanc, was served with pickled shimeji mushrooms and a precious, labor-intensive potato mille-feuille (that’s French for 1,000 layers, and we counted nearly that many).
At many top-tier Bay Area restaurants, high-end entrees hover in the $50-$70 range, and Michelin menus cost hundreds. That makes the prix fixe here a veritable bargain at $100 for three courses, $120 for four courses.
Service at Le Papillon is impeccable, with the waitstaff anticipating the needs of diners, yet remaining unobtrusive. Would the party of six lingering over conversation and coffee like yet another cup? No? Then please keep enjoying each other’s company.
See, civilized dining and culinary creativity aren’t mutually exclusive.
Naturally, you’ll want to make reservations. Remember to dress appropriately and put the cellphone on mute when you arrive.
Don’t miss: DoorDash is never going to deliver souffles. So if you’ve never had the ethereal pleasure – or it’s been a long time — you owe it to yourself to order the Grand Marnier Souffle.
Details: 410 Saratoga Ave., San Jose; www.lepapillon.com; $$$$
Top Hatters, San Leandro: When you want a creative menu that’ll make your hat spin
The offerings at Top Hatters are as distinctive as its location in an old hat shop. Start with a cocktail named for a head-topper, a Trilby Thistle, perhaps, with bourbon and artichoke or a honey-tequila Bee’s Beret. From there, it’s a dive into DanVy Vu’s playful cuisine, which takes notes from Vietnam but is as hard to nail down as a fedora in a windstorm.
Fluffy doughnuts with scallions and bacon are dusted not with sugar but Parmesan; they’re like a savory version of Cafe Du Monde beignets and just as easy to gobble. Descriptions for the small plates might make one’s head spin – mushroom and hemp-seed pate with truffle oil and Big Sur goat cheese, anyone? – but the kitchen somehow makes the combos irresistible. Oxtail over creamy grits is pure comfort with zips of flavor from Chinese sausage, Asian pear and orange gremolata. And the charred Savoy cabbage with maitake and sous-vide egg is one of the best things on the menu. It’s smokey and buttery and will have you rethinking this most Eastern Bloc of vegetables.
Vu helped run a zeppole shop, so it makes sense to end with her lemon-ricotta version with three dipping sauces. And if you’re feeling adventurous, there’s Vietnamese egg-custard coffee, which you can amp up with Amaro Montenegro.
Don’t miss: We’re smitten with the Savoy cabbage with maitake, savory doughnuts, oxtail and grits and the tissue bread.
Details: 855 MacArthur Blvd., San Leandro; tophatterskitchen.com, $$
But wait, there’s more!
These are Nos. 11-20 on our best 50 list. Find the Best 50: Restaurants 1-10, Restaurants 21-30, Restaurants 31-40 and Restaurants 41-50 here.
