📍Added in April: Hunan cooking is known for its fiery heat, but while Wojia offers no shortage of chilies, in various fresh and pickled forms, the menu’s strength is in the way it shows off the range and elegance of the cuisine: decadent smoked-pork fried rice (a showpiece for Hunan charcuterie), meatball mapo tofu (a Sichuan interloper), and glutinous rice balls tossed with chilies and fermented black beans—a salty, spicy, sweet delight. Even the simplest stir-fried vegetable dishes sing.

📍Added in April: If you rated Bay Area restaurants on the ratio between culinary ambition and effort put into self-marketing, one of the top spots would have to go to this little takeout lunch spot with no signage and nearly no social media presence — even its name is just the street address. But the quality of 2207’s fried chicken, patty melt, and yakiniku-inspired ribeye donburi speaks for itself. My go-to order? An impeccably fresh grain salad topped with crisp-skinned harissa chicken.

📍Added in April: When this scrappy, graffiti-bedecked turo-turo joint first opened in East Oakland 11 years ago, it served as my introduction to homestyle Filipino cooking: juicy adobos, fragrant garlic rice, and “XXL” lumpia as long as my forearm. To this day, the restaurant still holds up as an OG of the East Bay Filipino scene. While the G Fire wings are crowd favorites, I ride hardest for the oxtail dishes—especially the unctuous peanut-sauce kare-kare, when it’s available. Cash only.

📍Added in April: Marin County isn’t known for being a bastion of Salvadoran street food, but this cheery San Rafael storefront holds its own against the best grandma-operated driveway pupusa stands (aka my gold standard). Whether you get the classic revueltas, oozy zucchini-and-cheese, or a more idiosyncratic filling, Blankita’s pupusas are sublime—toasty and balanced, with a wonderful crisp-edged texture. Equally tasty: piping-hot chicken (or sweet plantain!) empanadas fresh out of the fryer.

📍Added in April: If there’s no such thing as a perfect restaurant, explain this gem of a strip mall Viet-Cajun spot that serves the freshest crawfish boil in town until 4am every night. Cajun Bistro has that bare-bones, “hanging out in your mom’s basement” vibe I happen to love, but it’s the pristine head-on shrimp and crawfish and the creamy, addictively garlicky “Sweet California” sauce that keep me coming back. Add some of the tastiest crab-infused bun rieu in town, and you’ve got a winner.

What’s not to love about a friendly, family-run Thai Chinese spot that cranks out solid renditions of at least three different cuisines and stays open until 1 a.m. to boot? Located across the street from a casino and just minutes away from the airport, A One is the ideal late-night restaurant, known for flavorful Thai curries and stir-fries spiked with Malaysian shrimp paste. Mostly, I come for one of the most addictingly savory, decadent versions of garlic-butter crab around.

My favorite Eritrean breakfast spot is this humble coffee shop locally famous for its shihan ful, a garlicky, olive oil–slicked fava bean dip that you scoop up with hunks of warm, crusty French bread. It’s a rich dish, spiked with enough berbere and fresh jalapeño heat to leave your tongue tingling. In fact, Alem’s dominates the entire category of foods you can mop up with crusty bread: The Eritrean-style egg scramble and the fata (a spicy bread salad) are also outstanding.

The family that runs Antojitos Guatemaltecos got their start selling tamales from the trunk of their car, so it’s no surprise that exquisitely tender, banana leaf–wrapped renditions of this Central American staple are the star of their new restaurant. This is a rare destination for homestyle Guatemalan cooking in the Bay Area: seared steak and plantains over rice, hot mugs of atole de elote, and perfectly seasoned Pollo Campero–style fried chicken.

This Daly City staple is my favorite kind of hidden treasure: a takeout counter tucked inside an anonymous-looking convenience store on a quiet residential street, slinging food that’s 100 times better than it has any business being. Homestyle Korean barbecue is Bart Grocery’s claim to fame, and dollar for dollar, the generous—and outrageously delicious—galbi (beef short rib) plate, packed in a tidy bento box with japchae and white rice, might be the best deal in town.

For the best handmade pasta in the East Bay, you can try snagging a reservation at Belotti’s beloved main restaurant—or, failing that, you can do as I do: stroll into its casual sister “bottega,” a cozy pasta deli on Piedmont Ave. Grab a window stool and, minutes later, dive into a bowl of world-class spaghetti with burrata or plump, postage-stamp-shaped agnolotti, which come glossed with a velvety beef reduction. The smell alone is enough to drive you wild.