In the East Bay, Sichuan Style sets the standard for classic, tongue-numbingly spicy Sichuan fare. Standard orders include the fragrant, chile-topped fish fillet soup; the wok-charred cabbage; and the water-boiled fish, which comes swimming in a pool of spicy bright-red sauce. Whatever you do, make sure you order one of the big, puffy rounds of sesame bread and plenty of white rice.

During this pandemic, Saul’s has been even more of community staple than ever, serving its menu of updated Jewish deli classics — its pastrami sandwiches, latkes, and matzo ball soup — for takeout and, when it was allowed, out on its expansive parklet. Most significantly, the restaurant has seriously upped its bagel game, boiling and baking its own well-blistered, crunchy-exteriored beauties in-house. Grab some cream cheese and an assortment of smoked fish to build your own bagel brunch.

A pair of Chez Panisse alums have opened a tiny lunch counter spot just around the corner from the mothership in Berkeley. The aesthetic is there, and so is the flavor — dine on flatbread sandwiches filled with spicy chicken, herbs, cabbage, yogurt, and harissa, pints of soup, and beautiful salads with the Bay Area’s best produce, perfectly arranged. There’s nowhere to sit, really, so this is best eaten as a picnic in a Berkeley park.

The progenitor of the whole dang California cuisine movement, going back 50 years, and still the Bay Area’s most prominent avatar of unfussy, local, hyper-seasonal cooking, Chez Panisse needs no introduction at this point. The fine-dining institution has been a shadow of itself during the pandemic, but the kitchen is turning out some lovely takeout: perfect wood-fire pizzas and fresh pasta meal kits, as well as a handful of more substantive entrées like cioppino.

This “new generation Thai” restaurant from former Hawker Fare chef Supasit Puttikaew has become a neighborhood comfort food staple in the Gilman Street corridor, serving up excellent (and quite spicy) pad Thai; “Thai-spicy” party wings; a legit version of khao mun gai (Thai-style poached chicken and rice); and, trust us, some of the tastiest fried Brussels sprouts in town.

As one the East Bay’s premier practitioners of the art of plant-based faux meat, the Butcher’s Son has built up a huge following for its lineup of “meaty” sandwiches — takes on everything from a classic all-American cheesesteak to a Reuben to chicken parm, with all of the faux meat products developed and made in-house. Expect the longest lines during weekend brunch, when the restaurant serves such specialties as hemp milk pancakes (with or without a vegan doughnut stuffed inside) and a tofu scramble breakfast sandwich that’s been dubbed the #Thisismyaddiction.

One of the most stylish, intimate Japanese restaurants in the Bay Area, with its (shoes-off) tatami-style tables, Ippuku has, of course closed its dining room and shifted over mostly to selling bento boxes during the pandemic. The yakitori specialist is mostly known for serving the East Bay’s most delicious chicken skewers, and, for now, you can get those in a bento box format: a handful of skewers, some vegetables and pickles, and nori-topped rice. As a bonus: The Japanese beer and sake list is one of the best around. Call in to order.

A relative newcomer in Berkeley’s stylish Fourth Street shopping district, Pollara is the only restaurant in the area specializing in Roman-style pizza al taglio — long trays of crisp-bottomed, rectangular pizza that might come topped with prosciutto, or with ‘nduja, onions, and potatoes. During pre-pandemic times, the pizzas would be cut to your preferred size with scissors and sold by the inch. Now, you can pre-order whole or half pizzas online and reheat them in your oven at home.

Tucked in the back of this well-stocked Middle Eastern grocery store is one of Berkeley’s best-kept secrets: a kitchen that turns out perhaps the tastiest Persian food in the East Bay: juicy, well-blackened kebabs; tender lamb shanks; and homey stews like the classic, green herb-packed ghormeh sabzi. Regulars know to snag a bag of Persian flatbread before they leave. Online pre-ordering for curbside pickup is available.

This perenially underrated half-Mexican, half-Venezuelan spot currently serves a somewhat pared down to-go menu, but the restaurant is still dishing out what might be the the Bay Area’s tastiest arepas, including the star of the menu, a classic reina pepiada (or “curvy queen”) that comes shockingly overstuffed with shredded chicken tossed in a mashed avocado dressing of sorts. On the Mexican side of the menu, there’s shrimp a la diabla over rice — chef Tony Torres’ best and most famous dish — and a full lineup of mezcal cocktails as well.

Now housed in a larger, sleeker new space after a 2012 kitchen fire, Great China still serves some of the finest, most elegant Northern Chinese food in the Bay. The Peking duck deserves all the praise it gets (and holds up surprisingly well as a takeout item), but the menu is also loaded with outstanding seafood dishes and sublime dumplings, as well as a number of Korean-Chinese specialties, including an intensely satisfying version of jjajangmyun (noodles with black bean sauce). Oenophiles will appreciate the deep, well-priced wine cellar focused on Burgundies.

Newly relocated to the old Brennan’s spot in West Berkeley, the Bay Area’s only Montreal-style deli is best known for its preposterously tall and meat-centric sandwiches — massive quantities of Augie’s Montreal-style smoke meat, and not much else in the way of adornment, crammed between two slices of rye — and its classic brown-gravy poutine. Prior to COVID, this was the local hangout spot if you wanted to catch a hockey game on TV. For now, there’s takeout, plus vacuum-sealed packs of smoke meat. Text or call your orders in to 510-984-0283.

Before the pandemic, this downtown Berkeley izakaya made a name for itself for its inventive, forward-thinking small plates: smoked mentaiko potato salad and fried black cod fish cakes that ooze with melted cheese curds. You can still buy many of those dishes for takeout, but the kitchen team has largely revamped the menu to focus on simple, convenient comfort food dishes: katsu sandwiches, ginger pork rice boxes, and vacuum-sealed bags of things like Japanese curry or slow-braised wagyu beef meatballs for customers to reheat at home.

On weekend mornings, in particular, Vik’s is an occasion unto itself: Prior to the pandemic, it was a bustling, cafeteria-like gathering place for loud, boisterous extended families and groups of friends. For now, the Berkeley institution is offering its whole menu, including a daily-changing selection of lunch thalis, for takeout. Almost every customer gets an order of cholle bhature (“the big puffy thing,” as the restaurant’s online menu describes it), but all of the chaat is solid to very good — from pani puri to assorted kathi rolls. The adjoining market is a good place to stock up on Indian pantry staples like rice, chutney, and canned mango purée.

This West Berkeley breakfast and lunch spot has always been all about serving casual, unpretentious California cuisine that’s built for takeout: the seasonal, vegetable-centric soups and salads; the hearty plates of meatballs; and maybe the East Bay’s most luxurious brown bag lunch featuring whatever focaccia sandwich the kitchen has cooked up for the day. These days, it’s the neighborhood’s go-to destination for an absolutely clutch work-from-home lunch.

This little family-run restaurant is the area’s go-to spot for hearty kebab plates: gyro and chicken shawarma sliced, hot and crisp at the edges, off the restaurant’s two side-by-side vertical spits and served with zippy green hot sauce and a big scoop of impeccably seasoned rice. Even during these takeout-only times, the service remains friendly and attentive.