Horn BBQ Is a legendary barbecue restaurant in Oakland, California. It has 4 stars on yelp and long lines whenever it’s open. Horn barbecue has been attracting long lines ever since it opened. A fire closed them down and made them re-open in April 2024 at 464 8th St., Oakland.
Pyeong Chang is a Korean restaurant located in the Temescal district of Oakland, where a cluster Korean restaurants are situated. Burma Superstar is a couple doors down, while Bakesale Betty and Pizzaiolo are a block or two away. We were looking for some higher-quality Korean food than is present in San Francisco. They also have a location in Berkeley on University. Our last visit was in Spring 2023 at their Berkeley location.
Zachary’s Chicago Pizza is a popular pizza restaurant in the San Francisco East Bay that serves Chicago style pizza. They have been packing them in for over thirty years. They serve select individual slices (Sausage, Pepperoni, Vegetarian) and whole pizzas, both thin and stuffed (thick) crust. The thick crust has filling between the layers. They also have half-baked pies and gluten free pies for sale. Our last visit was in Fall 2018.
Fenton’s Creamery has been around since 1922 in Oakland. They produce their own ice cream and toppings batch by batch on site. They serve breakfast, sandwiches, burgers, salads, but the main draw is of course, ice cream. Their creations are simply huge. Even the kid’s ice creams are huge. Our last visit was to the Nut Tree Vacaville location in the spring of 2015.
Why did we dine here? – B-Side BBQ is the sister restaurant to the every popular Brown Sugar Kitchen in Oakland. We liked that restaurant and are big BBQ fans.
Why did we dine here? – Brown Sugar Kitchen is run by Tanya Holland, who draws upon her African-American heritage and her formal culinary training from France. This restaurant is located in an industrial part of Oakland, not far from Emeryville. We happened to be in the area and had this legendary place on our hit list. Our meal was for lunch on a weekday, so the wait was short. This place is packed during the weekends for breakfast.
Why did we dine here? – Hawker Fare is run by the owner of top rated Commis Restaurant, making this casual eatery a must visit foodies spot. They focus on Asian street food or more every day cuisine with everything from Chinese to Thai dishes. No reservations, loud music, loud vibe.
Sura closed in 2013 and is reopening as another Korean restaurant, Copan, under the ownership of long time restaurant Ohgane.
Plum Restaurant by Daniel Patterson, of Coi and Il Cane Rosso fame, has opened a more casual restaurant in Oakland’s revived Uptown district. This restaurant is situated right next door to Bakesale Betty’s, and kitty corner from Ozumo and Pican. The focus is on organic, local, seasonal, and pastured meats. They serve lunch and dinner, our review was for lunch.
Marzano is a casual neighborhood Italian trattoria restaurant in Oakland with two locations. Their specialty is woodfired oven neapolitan pizza. We dined at the location on Park for brunch. Their sister restaurant is Garibaldis.
Commis is a hot restaurant in Oakland run by James Syhabout. He has cooked at several superstar restaurant; Manresa, The Fat Duck, el Bulli, Mugaritz, and Alkimia. Commis focuses on Contemporary California cuisine with a focus on local, sustainable, and eco friendly practices. The restaurant is located in the Piedmont Avenue area of Oakland, home to hot spots like Bay Wolf, Dopo, and Fentons. Commis received one Michelin star in 2010.
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Dopo is a small Italian neighborhood restaurant in Oakland’s Piedmont Avenue shopping district. The chefs used to work at Oliveto. It is located almost across the street from Fenton’s and opened in 2004. They recently opened a sister restaurant Adesso a block away. They do not take reservation unless you have a party of 5+, so wait times can be long. We went at 5:45pm and just barely got a table. We saw them offer wine to some people waiting.
Shan Dong Mandarin Restaurant is a family run Chinese Restaurant in Oakland’s Chinatown focusing on Shan Dong regional Cuisine. The focus is on noodles and dumplings. It was top rated on Yelp and has been mentioned in newspapers, so we decided to try it.
Ohgane Korean BBQ Restaurant is a popular restaurant in North Oakland’s. They specialize in Soot-bool BBQ or Mesquite wood BBQ. Most Korean BBQ places use plain gas. They serve an all your can eat Lunch buffet for $9.99, and have an all you can eat dinner special Monday through Wednesday for $19.99. Their normal dinner menu has entrees around a high $25.
The Korean tradition is to cook the meat on a charcoal grill at the center of the table. The cooked meat is wrapped with rice, a thin slice of garlic, soybean paste or red chili paste, with a fresh lettuce leaf.
Flora was listed as a 2008 Best new restaurant by the newspaper, so were in the area and tried it.
It is located in uptown Oakland near the Fox Theater, in an area that is being revitalized. It’s not a war zone but pretty gritty right now. They serve American food with a decidedly local flare.
Pizzaiolo opened in 2005 and has been packing them in for pizza since. The Chef-Owner used to work at Chez Panisse.