The magic of Bull Valley Roadhouse lies in its one-two punch of stellar food and cocktails paired with the charm of Port Costa, the tiny waterfront town hidden in the East Bay where the restaurant resides. Expect old-school charm and a food menu comprised of seasonal ingredients, but you’ll do well to order the fried chicken or BVR burger if you’re stuck on what to choose. The cocktails are good and strong, with some original drinks, and there’s a lively music calendar to enjoy, as well.

The specialty at this colorful, rainforest-themed taqueria in Richmond’s 23rd Street taco corridor is its pollo al carbon: whole spatchcocked chickens grilled over charcoal in a garage adjacent to the restaurant. The chicken comes out supremely smoky and succulent, and the bright, zippy housemade salsas are a cut above. For the perfect family meal, order the whole chicken plate, which comes with rice, beans, and warm tortillas — the building blocks for a whole mess of delicious chicken tacos.

While the East Bay has a handful of restaurants that might slightly surpass Gangnam Tofu in their execution of a single specific dish, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more reliable all-purpose Korean spot — as good for its tofu stews as it is for its crisp-edged seafood pancakes and generous banchan spread. Arguably, the best part of the menu is the variety of fried chicken preparations, including a take on popcorn chicken (get the soy garlic flavor) that stays immaculately, miraculously crispy even an hour after you’ve picked up your takeout order.

Yes, it looks like a cafe on the outside. Yes, with retro floral print and checkerboard floors, the inside feels like an entrance to a basement bowling alley. And yes, the limited variety of dishes on the menu can be frustrating. But Funky Elephant excels in almost all of those dishes. That’s partly because they care deeply about produce: Tofu is of the excellent Hodo variety. Mussels, in a fiery-funky, pungent stew, are flown in regularly from Prince Edward Island. Soft-serve ice-cream may not be housemade, but it hails from Straus Family Creamery, a terrific purveyor. Never least, a trip to Funky Elephant would be incomplete without trying its KMG #2 (shorthand for Khao Mun Gai), a deceptively clean and delicious take on chicken (poached) and rice (cooked in garlic, ginger, and chicken fat). 

Chef Mona Leena is putting a fresh style of Palestinian food forward at her Berkeley restaurant, Lulu, which offers breakfast, lunch, and brunch options. The mezze brunch at Lulu will elicit oooh’s from the table as a massive selection of breads made in-house arrive alongside a serious amount of accompanying spreads, such as serrano hummus, labneh, and muhammara, on a conveniently spinning serving dish for parties of two or more. The knafeh pancake is also worth a try, with its crisp phyllo dough filled with melty sweet cheese and pistachios, adorned with a kiss of blossom syrup.

It’s might be the least accessible of campus ‘restaurants’ in the vicinity of UC Berkeley, but Great China stands on its own, and rightfully so: it continues to serve some of the most elegant Northern Chinese food in the Bay. The Peking duck deserves all the praise it gets, but the menu is also loaded with outstanding seafood dishes and sublime dumplings, as well as a number of Korean-Chinese specialties. Oenophiles will appreciate the deep, well-priced wine cellar focused on Burgundies.

Helmed by former B-Dama chefs Asuka Uchida and Shin Okamoto, this sleek downtown Berkeley izakaya serves some of the Bay Area’s most inventive, forward-thinking Japanese food. Think fried black cod fish cakes that ooze with melted cheese curds. It also has largely reinvented itself to focus on pure comfort food with katsu sandwiches and rice boxes.

The East Bay has many izakaya-style Japanese restaurants, but none that are as much rollicking fun as Kiraku, nor any that serve food that’s as consistently delightful and well executed. Must-order dishes include the corn tempura with green tea salt, the grilled whole squid, and the mini kaisen don or one of the other rice bowls to end the meal in the traditional Japanese way. When available, the exquisite (and priced to match) chiraishi offerings give more storied San Francisco establishments a run for their money.

Taiwanese-style dumplings can be difficult to find in the Bay Area, but Good to Eat Dumplings is doing what it can to change that fact. The menu changes frequently, but the move is to order any of the dumplings to start and then add on some seasonal vegetables and noodles as well. If it’s difficult to decide, or if you want to try as many dishes as possible from chef Tony Tung, the restaurant offers a monthly “ja ban bae” tasting menu (reservations required) — assuming you can land a spot before it sells out.

This little North Oakland takeout window has been home to what are arguably the Bay Area’s most consistently delicious tamales going back well over a decade now to back when the place was called “Tamaleria Unicos de Cuernavaca.” Second-generation owner Sergio Gomez still turns out the fluffiest, most flavorful tamales in the city, thanks in part to a liberal use of lard in the masa. Azteca’s pork tamal is almost unrivaled in its deliciousness (especially when drizzled with some of the tamaleria’s good red salsa), except perhaps by the sweet corn tamales, which make for a delightful dessert.

On the one hand, it is a mall food court fried chicken kiosk. On the other hand, its humble setting notwithstanding, chef Fernay McPherson’s rosemary fried chicken is some of the Bay Area’s very best — the crunchiest crust, the juiciest and most tender meat. Standout sides include buttery cornbread and oven-baked mac ’n cheese, which has shards of its crunchy browned top mixed in.

Natural wine bars have been having a moment for quite awhile, and while it may be easy to lump Daytrip into that group — this Oakland spot does include a bottle shop, after all — the rotating roster of dishes is enough to elevate this one above others. The dishes are dubbed “fermentation-driven party food” per the restaurant’s Instagram, and while the food is indeed fun, there’s an undercurrent of seriousness and depth to each dish. A recent miso butter pasta, for instance, featured a honeynut squash miso from local purveyor Shared Cultures, along with kelp pearls and gochugaru; another recent offering featured striped shrimp with a freeze-dried strawberry sauce. The menu changes, so expect to be pleasantly surprised at your visit.

Tucked into a shipping container in Temescal, Tacos Oscar has some of the best tacos in town. It’s inspiringly vegetarian-friendly, with options like a charred broccoli taco with peanut-arbol salsa, pickled onion, cilantro, and a tostada topped with Early Girl tomatoes, lemon cucumber, sikil pak, fried almonds, Castelvetrano olive salsa, and opal basil. Meaty items like the pork chile verde taco are equally craveable.

Born right at the start of the pandemic across the street from her former restaurant, Ba-Bite, Mica Talmor’s new Israeli-inspired restaurant features a dips- and salads-focused menu that’s perfect for these times. As was the case at Ba-Bite, Pomella stars the area’s silkiest and most flavorful hummus, which forms a delicious foundation for a meal of grilled lamb or airy falafel balls, and the chicken tagine with couscous is soulful comfort cooking. Save some room for dessert, as the baklava and other sweets and pastries are especially fine.

Set in a minimalist space full of reclaimed wood, Soba Ichi is the only restaurant in the Bay Area making its buckwheat soba noodles from scratch, using freshly milled buckwheat flour. To best appreciate the noodles’ nutty flavor and light, delicate mouthfeel, eat them cold with the restaurant’s dashi-based dipping sauce. For best results, brave the one-hour-plus lines on weekends and dine-in.

“Nostalgia” pastries became a big trend during the pandemic, with bakers reaching back into their childhoods to recreate (and perhaps fancify) familiar candies and desserts into more sophisticated versions. Bake Sum is one such spot and best exemplifies bringing well-loved Asian treats into a new realm. Filipino halo halo, for instance, is traditionally a shaved ice treat but in Bake Sum’s hands it’s transformed into a croissant bun; there are even some savory options to explore if you’re not in the mood for sweets.

If you find comfort in food carved from a vertical spit, Shawarmaji is the place to go for shawarmas stuffed with flavorful meats roasted to perfection. Order the sarookh with Shawarmaji’s delightful toum, if you’re on the go; otherwise, go for the Arabi plate where the sarookh is sliced into more manageable rounds.

Vegan food is often framed in ways that center omnivores and highlight what’s “missing.” But at vegan restaurant Lion Dance Cafe in Oakland, the dishes aren’t lacking — rather they’re imaginatively combining Singaporean cuisine with Italian and Chinese foods in a fresh way. The restaurant has received plenty of accolades for its food, and while the menu shifts with the seasons, the laksa is always a favorite, as is the shaobing.

Understory is a non-traditional restaurant in the best of ways, from being a worker-led space for POC to making itself an affordable kitchen space for minority-owned businesses. The organization’s work was recently honored with an Emerging Leadership award by the James Beard Foundation — and the food encompasses the backgrounds of the folks who power the kitchen, turning it into a beautiful mix of Filipino, Mexican, Burmese, Lao, and Moroccan cuisines. Try the khao poon soup or adobo, as well as the lugaw, a rice porridge available on a sliding price scale, which ensure no one goes hungry, if they don’t have the means.

Chef Intu-on Kornnawong is cooking their own style of “Thai-Californian cuisine” and it’s turning heads, landing the restaurant on Michelin’s Bib Gourmand list this year. The pork laab burger is worth a spin, as is the massaman curry, if you’re looking for something more vegetable-forward. And don’t skip out on the drink menu; try the Phuket Fizz, made with mango-infused vodka, mezcal, coconut condensed milk, butterfly pea tea, and soda.

The gold standard for banh mi in the East Bay, Ba Le nails every component valued by connoisseurs of Vietnamese sandwiches: the bright, sweet crunch of the pickled carrots and daikon; the abundance of pâté in the dac biet combo; the extra oomph of Maggi seasoning; and, maybe most important, the crispness and airy lightness of the baguette. There aren’t any bad sandwiches on the menu, but the #13 — with meatball and a runny-yolked fried egg — is positively life changing.

Tucked into a seemingly random residential neighborhood, Vientian Cafe has the kind of greatest hits menu that spans pho, pad Thai, and every other Southeast Asian standard in between. But the truth is, Vientian is a Lao restaurant above all else, and to unlock the restaurant’s true greatness, diners should order exclusively off the separate menu of Lao specialties: fermented Lao sausages; catfish steamed inside banana leaves; and an assortment of delicious noodle soups.

Indigenous food is not widespread in the Bay Area, but Crystal Wahpepah is changing that with her restaurant Wahpepah’s Kitchen in Fruitvale. Here she showcases Indigenous ingredients in dishes that celebrate native cuisine — from the Kickapoo bison chili and bison meatballs to the blue corn waffles and deer sticks, made with marinated deer meat. Try the aforementioned bison chili or the berry salmon salad, and three sisters’ veggie bowl made with quinoa, squash, heirloom corn, tepary beans, and a maple olive oil dressing.

Fruitvale has nothing if not an abundance of top-notch Mexican restaurants of every stripe, but if you’re just talking about tacos, served simply and without fuss, Taqueria El Paisa rises to the top of the heap. This place with a meat lover’s paradise — all day long, the sound of the taqueros chopping up suadero (a brisket-like cut), cabeza, and other cuts, still hot off the griddle, punctuates the air. Best of all is the luxuriously tender slow-cooked tripa, or beef tripe. Ask for grilled cactus and onions with your order, and make liberal use of the salsa bar, but exercise caution: Even the mildest options pack serious heat.

San Leandro’s most thrilling and ambitious new restaurant of the past couple of years, Top Hatters has leaned into chef-owner DanVy Vu’s Vietnamese heritage, adding things like banh mi and rice vermicelli bowls to its menu. The constantly changing menu runs the gamut from oxtails and grits to mussels with green curry, best enjoyed on the patio.

Chef Bill Niles (formerly at Tartine) and partner/wine director Sarah Niles have created an oasis of California cuisine in Livermore, where dining on the patio in the evening doesn’t always call for a sweater. The best produce from around the Bay Area is used in the best ways, from fried green tomatoes from Riverdog Farm served with thousand island, and beef tartare with Full Belly Farm mission figs, pickled ramps, and pumpernickel bread. Cocktails are also garden fresh and creative, like the Lost Coastline, mixing gin, lime, fir tips, yellow chartreuse, and smoked salt. The bar is a great place to grab a bite and chat with regulars, while the patio is a magical destination on a warm summer night.

Daly City is rightly recognized as the center of Filipino-American culture and cuisine in the U.S., but the Filipino food scene in the Hayward and San Leandro area is as deep and varied (and almost uniformly excellent) as it is anywhere in the Bay. Within that landscape, Toto’s is the rare spot that specializes exclusively in smoky, sticky-sweet Filipino-style barbecue meat skewers, all grilled to order while you wait. Offal lovers, this is your spot for chicken heads, feet, and tails; tender pig ears; and all different kinds of intestines.

Spanish-Californian cuisine is on the menu at Sabio on Main, and it’s been attracting local diners since the restaurant’s opening in 2015, eventually earning a Michelin Guide mention. The menu changes with the seasons, but the three- and five-course menus are well-priced at $55 and $79, respectively, which should treat diners to the best dishes in-house. There is also an a la carte menu available, as well as a lengthy wine and cocktail list, should you choose.