Saigon Harbor remains one of the East Bay’s strongest weekend dim sum options — the fried taro dumplings, steamed rice rolls, and sticky rice in lotus leaf all rank among the tops in the area.

The historic San Pablo Avenue brunch spot, set in an actual log cabin, is offering its entire menu — pancakes, scrambles, hashes, and all — for takeout, curbside pickup, and delivery. Keep an eye out for the daily blue plate specials, which run the gamut from a classic Monte Cristo to a carnitas torta.

For decades, Saul’s has been the East Bay’s gold standard for Jewish deli classics like (house-smoked) pastrami sandwiches, latkes, and matzo ball soup. It’s now also one of the area’s best options for a weekend bagel brunch: perhaps the East Bay’s finest bagels (now boiled and baked in house), plus an assortment of smoked fish options. Other morning staples include a classic salami-and-egg scramble and a pastrami and corned beef hash.

The classic downtown Berkeley brunch spot, a favorite for generations of Cal students, is still welcoming long lines of diners to enjoy pain perdu, French-style omelettes, and combo plates like the “Cote Ouest”: a three-egg omelette with ratatouille, homefries, and a choice of toast. The garlicky breakfast potatoes alone are worth a visit.

The popular West Berkeley chaat house, known for its huge crowds on weekend mornings, is open for takeout, curbside pickup, and outdoor dining — and still serving all of its customer favorites, including its dosas and its bhatura cholle (aka the “big puffy bread”), which almost everyone orders.

Perhaps best known for its weekday focaccia sandwich brown bag lunches, Chez Panisse alum Kelsie Kerr’s West Berkeley breakfast and lunch spot also serves up a mean Saturday brunch — a weekly tradition that the restaurant revived after staying closed on weekends for the bulk of the pandemic. The menu changes every day, but keep an eye out for sticky buns, sourdough waffles, and picture-perfect fried eggs.

This North Oakland institution serves a mean fried chicken breakfast plate, with or without the waffle, but the real star of its breakfast and brunch menu is what’s probably the creamiest, most delicious side of grits you can find in the East Bay. No one will blame you if you finish your morning meal here with a slice of pie.

This Rockridge restaurant is serves its brunch dishes every day. The menu aims to offer something for everyone, from pancakes and Benedicts to morning fare with Korean and other international influences: omurice, morning tacos with kalbi, and Korean fried chicken and waffles.

Since reopening for indoor dining (though takeout and delivery are still available) FOB Kitchen has also resumed its three-day a week brunch hours, which means you can snag one of their silogs (garlic rice breakfast plates) — say the one with tocino or a Filipino eggplant omelette — on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings.

Before the shelter in place hit, this counter-service spinoff of SF Cajun institution Brenda’s was probably Oakland’s hottest new brunch spot. It’s now serving the restaurant’s time-tested classics including a flight of beignets, a po’ boy, or a hearty plate of shrimp and grits for pick up or delivery from 8 a.m to 8 p.m. daily — with the option to dine at the restaurant Thursdays through Mondays.

Huge classic American breakfasts are the calling card of this West Oakland diner, a newly reborn version of a beloved El Cerrito spot. Well-stuffed omelets and fluffy, buttery pancakes are the way to go here, but the Asian-leaning dishes (teriyaki plates and such) are worth trying too: The Spam-and-egg rice bowl really hits the spot.

By far the most popular brunch spot in the vicinity of Lake Merritt (the weekend lines are legendary), Grand Lake Kitchen is open for takeout with a limited — but all-day — brunch menu that includes both sweet and savory versions of French toast. The restaurant has a second location in the Dimond that’s also open.

The dining rooms in this classic Oakland Chinatown banquet house and dim sum parlor are once again open, and Peony remains the most reliable takeout dim sum option in the neighborhood. You’ll find all the classics here, but also slightly more contemporary and hard-to-find options: Buried in the restaurant’s vast menu are gems like pan-fried daikon cake with XO sauce; crispy-garlic-topped “typhoon style” taro cake; and cute, Instagram-ready piggy-faced steamed custard buns.

After rising from the ashes of a small fire back, this East Oakland pizza restaurant is back to slinging some of the better East Coast–inspired pies in the Bay Area. That’s especially good news for fans of egg-topped brunch pizzas, including the ham, bacon, and hashbrown-topped Merica and braised kale and sausage anointed Tuscany.

The chic Laurel District diner is open for breakfast, lunch, and weekend brunch, Wednesday through Sunday. The waffles and biscuits are spectacular, as are the breakfast sandwiches, and there are plenty of vegetarian-friendly options — and mimosa and bloody maria kits to boot.

The Alameda Cantonese restaurant doesn’t have as full a slate of dim sum offerings as it does when the carts are making their rounds in the dining room, but it’s got enough classic items on its menu — from har gow and siu mai to black bean spareribs — to cobble together a solid dim sum feast.

Like all the other Koi Palace locations, the Dublin dim sum destination is offering a selection of frozen dim sum for customers to steam (or bake) at home — everything from har gow to chicken feet to Portuguese egg tarts.