2 Best Restaurants in The Bay Area, California

After several years as a leading chef in San Francisco, Mark Liberman crossed the Bay Bridge to open this deeply personal restaurant that channels his Colombian heritage in a contemporary way. The dining room's tasting menu from the large open kitchen almost always starts with an arepa course (like cornmeal pancakes) and then weaves its way through a series of intricate compositions that are never overly elaborate and often lean on produce from nearby farms. Liberman is particularly gifted at making less frequently seen cuts of meat and types of fish (for example sweetbreads, monkfish, or sturgeon) absolutely thrilling.

Originally a terrific pop-up during the COVID-19 pandemic, chef-owner Anthony Salguero's Salvadoran-Californian restaurant quickly became a Bay Area-wide hit at its permanent Old Oakland home. Lighter-style, minimal-intervention wines pair wonderfully with the squid ceviche or the unique chicken wings with homemade hot sauce. Green walls and expansive windows add a cheerful vibe to the already energetic crowd enjoying the signature creative pupusas and excellent cocktails like a Martini Colada that is exactly as it sounds (a coconut and pineapple-flavored martini), except somehow is meticulously pulled off.