Oakland Restaurant Blog - Oakland, California

For French Roast Coffee, it's got to be Oakland's Merritt Cafe. The cafe is at 614 Grand Avenue in Oakland, next to SF Fitness (the old Gold's Gym) and across from Lake Merritt. Check em out! Oakland Merritt Cafe Has Great French Roast Coffee!

A good chef is judged as much by their ability to get great dishes out, on time, and at peak hours in a restaurant. From that measure, there's no better chef than Kaitlin at Flora Restaurant on the corner of 18th and Telegraph in Downtown Oakland, across from The Fox Theater. Based only on my observation of what she was making - made possible by the ability to sit and watch the kitchen masters at work - I selected the pork chop. Talk about yum!

Vo's in located at the corner of Grand Avenue and Webster in Oakland, and has one of the best lunches in the East Bay. I highly recommend their salads, like the one I had while eating with my friend and lawyer, William A. Taylor, the best business attorney in Oakland. After talking with Vo himself, I walked down Grand Avenue toward Broadway and just two doors away was a lot of construction activity. A man happened to see that I was standing there, and invited me inside, as my Flip Video Camera was running. The new place, set to open in November, is called Loring, and it's a hoot of a design. I've never seen anything like it before. Check it out in the video.

If you want to get real hungry for great Vietnamese food in Oakland, watch this video from Miss Saigon Restaurant via Zennie62 on YouTube. This entire meal was just $29 for two people! Miss Saigon's at 3345 Grand Avenue Oakland, CA 94610 (510) 835-3474. Go visit!

District Oakland is a new restaurant and bar that's the sister place to District in San Francisco on Townshend. The concept of the U-shaped bar that's at the SF place has found its way into the Oakland home, too. District Oakland replaces Levende East, in Old Oakland at Washington and 9th Street. And it's sad that Levende's gone, because they had the best Mac and Cheese in Oakland. Enjoy the video!

Here's a map of restaurants in the Downtown Oakland / Lake Merritt Restaurant area as of October 13th, 2012: View Larger Map

There's more news about what The Lake Chalet is up to, and it's coming! Stay tuned.