CITY GUIDES | CALIFORNIA
Oakland’s Best Restaurants: 15 Standouts From Tacos to Tasting Menus
By Mei Chen | Jan. 12, 2026
Bombera
AUTHOR BIO: Mei Chen has worked for nearly a dozen start-ups in as many years, taking her to several West Coast cities. While she’s sure her current day job is permanent, she also has her eye on Carmel.
I have lived in and out of the Bay Area long enough to develop a personal relationship with Bay Bridge traffic, and Oakland has usually been the reward at the end of it—a city I gladly called home, and later used as my day-trip escape when I was living in San Francisco.
Oakland has a way of mixing everyday chaos with small, generous surprises, like a neighbor who keeps odd hours but drops off a container of dumplings the next morning and pretends it is no big deal. That same energy shows up in the dining scene: creative, unfussy, and stubbornly itself.
If someone asks where to eat in Oakland, I can rattle off a longer list than anyone needs. This is the trimmed version, my personal version of a “restaurants near me in Oakland” Google search. These are the best restaurants in Oakland right now.
Bombera
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Chef and owner Dominica Rice-Cisneros turned a onetime firehouse into a restaurant where the hearth does the talking. Her duck leg in mole verde arrives with tortillas so good you’ll think about them quite possibly forever. Michelin gave it a Bib Gourmand, but mostly it’s just the kind of place that makes Oakland proud of its Mexican cooking.
Best for: Mexican cooking on fire and smoke
Burdell
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Chef Geoff Davis calls it soul food, but that undersells the ambition here. His scrapple, inspired by the one made by his Pop-pop, begins with Berkshire pork from Sweetwater Farm braised in onions with sage and cornmeal. His chicken-liver mousse comes perched on a cornbread waffle, boiled peanuts show up dressed for dinner, and the shrimp is as saucy as the dining room itself. Burdell has already pulled down Restaurant of the Year honors and a James Beard finalist nod, and you get why after one meal.
Best for: Soul food with ambition
Commis
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James Syhabout’s Commis is the fine-dining room everyone else in Oakland still measures against. Two Michelin stars, a hushed dining room, and plates that feel like you should take notes before eating them. You come here when you need dinner to feel like a ceremony.
Best for: Two-star Michelin dining
Daytrip Counter
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Daytrip went from fermentation science project to something more casual, but the energy stayed. Now it’s rotisserie chicken, salad bowls and house cocktails, Best done for groups as combo meals that fill a table starting at about 40 bucks. Or sit at the counter, devour caesar fries and a black sesame coconut cookie, and realize this is still one of the city’s most original ideas.
Best for: Casual nights with edge
FOB Kitchen
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Janice Dulce’s ode to Filipino flavors is the kind of room that feels like a party you lucked into. The lechon kawali crackles, the adobo cuts deep, and you’ll be sticky with wings before you finish your second drink. Michelin slapped a Bib on it, but locals already knew.
Best for: Filipino comfort food and cocktails
Horn Barbecue
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Matt Horn still draws the kind of lines you usually see at DMV offices, only here they end with ribs and brisket. The new downtown location smokes just as hard, proving Oakland hasn’t lost its pitmaster. Michelin gave it a Bib, but you’ll just remember the bark.
Best for: Texas-style barbecue in Oakland
Jaji
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Jaji may be brand new in Oakland but it already feels like it’s been here forever. Afghan bolani and mantu show up with California restraint, and the room buzzes with the ease of a place that gets it right early. It’s one of those openings that immediately joins the shortlist.
Best for: Modern Afghan flavors
Jo’s Modern Thai
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It looks like a neighborhood hang, and it is, except it also happens to be a the best Thai place in town. Chef Nui Suraj’s curries come bright, salads come alive, and the cocktails carry just as much weight as the cooking. Jo’s is proof that Thai food can be both local hangout and destination at the same time.
Best for: Thai food with California brightnesss
Mägo
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Mark Liberman cooks Colombian flavors with NorCal precision, and the result is one of Oakland’s most interesting tasting menus. It’s also surprisingly affordable: seven courses for just under a hundred bucks. Aside from the price, nothing seems discount: wood fire meets heirloom beans, ceviche might appear next to duck, and it somehow all seems elevated, well-crafted, just near perfect. Michelin noticed, but you don’t need their stars to know this is special.
Best for: Colombian-inspired tasting menus
Parche
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At Parche, Paul Iglesias builds a Colombian menu that feels as much Oakland as Bogotá. Wood smoke underpins the seafood, the cocktails sparkle, and the whole room hums with energy. Michelin came calling, and it’s easy to see why.
Best for: Bold Colombian cooking
Pomet
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Aomboon Deasy runs K&J Orchards by day and this Michelin Green Star spot by night, so yes, the fruit is absurdly good. Duck ragu pappardelle can sit next to a simple peach, and both will feel equally considered. It’s farm-to-table stripped of pretense and full of flavor.
Best for: Ingredient-first dining
Snail Bar
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Snail Bar is a natural wine bar and bottle shop in Temescal that earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand by backing up the buzz with small plates that feel dialed-in. The namesake snail is the point of the visit: served in the shell, bathed in garlic confit and cashew miso butter, finished with a bright coin of kumquat. With its original owner relocating to France, the kitchen is now in the capable hands of Sammy Chang, which is less like a reboot and more like a new chapter of something that was already on-point.
Best for: Natural wine and clever plates
Sun Moon Studio
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Booking one of the dozen seats at Sun Moon Studio requires diligence: at you’ll need to be quick in refreshing the OpenTable page at noon six weeks in advance. You’re reward is witnessing Alan Hsu and Sarah Cooper at work. The 11-course menu, at $180 per person, feels as much like an art installation as dinner. You’ll leave wondering how Oakland pulled off something this intimate and exacting.
Best for: A true Michelin-star experience
Tacos Oscar
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Don’t let the line scare you—it moves quick, and the payoff is worth it. This alleyway spot with a Bib Gourmand has built its reputation on tacos that change daily: pork chile verde one night, mushroom mole or camote with queso fresco the next. The handmade tortillas are the constant, folding surprise-and-delight cooking in something that tastes like Oakland itself.
Best for: Creative, casual tacos
