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.

Open just three days a week, in a snug, nautically themed space adjoining a smog inspection station, Mississippi Catfish is a somewhat surprising destination for best Southern-style fish fry in the East Bay, and maybe in the entire Bay Area. But the virtues of the catfish and the butterflied shrimp, both fried with lightest and crispest of cornmeal batters, are self-evident, and the small, oniony, Mississippi-style hushpuppies that come with every order are so good, you’ll find it maddening you can’t order a whole basket of them on their own. When it’s available, the creamy black-eyed peas are the best of the side offerings.

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.

What separates Yimm — and its sister eatery, Imm Thai Street Food — from the vast array of other Thai restaurants in the East Bay is restraint. There are plenty of spices and condiments, but its fluttering use of ingredients like Kaffir lime, sweet basil, chile, and even garlic are calibrated to add heft to complex curries and a whisper of brightness to dishes as simple as cold noodles (i.e. Yimm’s terrific Mee Cook). Don’t miss the Kua Gai, a Thai staple wok-fried noodle dish with calamari and leafy greens.

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.

Steve Joo’s ode to dooboo and banchan is a sight to behold, especially given that the two foods typically get co-star status to other dishes. At Joodooboo, the attention is placed front and center on those items, with subscription worthy banchan made of seasonal ingredients and tofu that can only really be described as “pillow-soft.” Dig into a farmer’s bowl featuring the latest banchan selections over rice, with an added side of dooboo, and you’ll most likely find yourself heading back to the counter to take some extra servings of the banchan and tofu home.

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.

The East Bay’s only two-Michelin-starred restaurant continues to be Oakland’s fine-dining destination of choice for a big, blowout tasting menu meal. James Syhabout’s contemporary California cooking is precise, gorgeous tweezer food, but classic Commis dishes like the slow-poached egg with smoked date and alliums, served with some of the finest sourdough bread you’ll ever encounter in a restaurant, have plenty of comfort and soul as well.

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.

“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.

Kingston 11’s charms include its bold Jamaican flavors, infectiously upbeat reggae music, and one of the most diverse dining crowds in the Bay Area. Chef Nigel Jones’ food remains reliably great, with jerk chicken and oxtail stew as the biggest crowdpleasers, though the curry goat, made fiery with a few shakes of Jamaican pepper sauce, is the kind of dish you rearrange your schedule around. Lovers of rum-based cocktails, this is your spot.

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.

Even before the Bay Area Filipino food scene’s recent run of mainstream success, this family-run takeout spot had already established itself as an East Oakland mainstay, dealing out XL-size lumpia; meaty, slow-cooked stews; and crunchy-sweet chicken wings, all served with a healthy dose of ’90s hip-hop swagger. Don’t let the steam table setup fool you: This is grandma food through and through, from the oxtail and eggplant stew known as kare kare to the many different permutations of bright, vinegary adobo.

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.

Oakland’s only dedicated Trinidadian restaurant is about as bustling and lively a restaurant as you’ll find in the city, between the sound of musicians regaling outdoor diners with steelpan drumming and the smell of jerk spice wafting in the air. A big plate of curry goat or jerk chicken — some of the tenderest and most flavorful in the Bay — over pelau rice makes for an ideal meal, as do the curry-stuffed Trinidadian roti wraps, which are one of the world’s great street foods.

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.

The Bay Area’s only Liberian restaurant has been dishing out some of the Bay Area’s tastiest West African fare since it opened in 2017, and it continued to serve its full menu of quintessential comfort foods — like slow-cooked oxtail stew and heaping mounds of flavorful jollof rice — throughout the pandemic. There aren’t many other restaurants in the Bay where you can find traditional dishes like palm butter stew (topped with a crab leg, no less) or sautéed potato greens — and certainly not cooked with this level of care.

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.