S.F. pastry pioneer arrives, plus more Peninsula and South Bay openings
Blueberry pastries from Craftsman and Wolves, which opened a new Mountain View bakery. (Jen Fedrizzi/Special to the Chronicle)
The Peninsula and South Bay continue to draw some of the most diverse restaurants in the Bay Area.
New openings in June range from fine-dining destinations to businesses that specialize in Uyghur, Indian and Thai regional fare. An underrepresented subgenre of ramen? It's here, now.
Read on for more on 10 new Peninsula and South Bay restaurants.
The Peninsula gets elegant pastries
Popular bakery Craftsman & Wolves has added its first brick-and-mortar location outside of San Francisco. The sleek new Mountain View bakery is stocked with Craftsman & Wolves's elegant cakes and creative pastries, such as the famed "rebel within," a savory muffin with an oozing soft-boiled egg hidden inside. New items only available in Mountain View include a savory kouign amann made with the flavors of a Philly cheesesteak and a sweet choux bun filled with vanilla crème fraîche, whipped ganache and guava-kalamansi jam. It opened soon after the death of founder Lawrence Lai in late April.
Acclaimed chefs debut new restaurant
The lu rou lasagna at Yeobom Darling in Menlo Park. (KELSEY MCCLELLAN/Special to the Chronicle)
Yeobo, Darling, is chefs Meichih and Michael Kim's third and most personal restaurant yet. Newly open in Menlo Park, it's an expression of Asian American identity, connecting their Korean and Taiwanese heritages with their training in the country's top fine dining restaurants. There's 48-hour marinated kalbi with seasonal banchan and Taiwanese staple lu rou fan, braised pork over rice, served in cheesy lasagna form. The Kims are known best for Maum, an acclaimed Korean tasting menu restaurant in Palo Alto that won a Michelin star before closing due to the pandemic.
L.A. ramen royalty arrives
People are lining up at Tsujita, a ramen hit from Los Angeles that just opened in San Jose. It's devoted to tsukemen, bowls of thick, chewy ramen noodles served with an umami-rich, warm dipping broth on the side. Chronicle associate restaurant critic Cesar Hernandez praised the "potent" sauce, as well as Tsujita's tonkotsu ramen.
A Jewish deli for the Peninsula
After the team behind Cal-Italian favorite Che Fico closed their Italian market in Menlo Park, they quickly replaced it with Bubbelah, a Jewish-inspired fast-casual restaurant. Che Fico's menu has long featured dishes influenced by Jewish cuisine from Rome, honoring co-owner David Nayfeld's heritage; Bubbelah advances that theme of Jewish diasporic cooking. The menu includes everything from house-made pita bread with dips like baba ghanoush to chopped chicken liver and spring onion latkes. Bubbelah is currently open for takeout and delivery only.
An influx of Uyghur food?
The Bay Area lost most of its Uyghur restaurants to the pandemic, but the cuisine is starting to see a resurgence. The latest Uyghur restaurant to open is Kusan Bazaar in Mountain View, whose owners operate two other South Bay spots that specialize in the cuisine. Expect dishes like grilled lamb kabobs, chewy laghman noodles and beef noodle soup. Kusan Bazaar also joins Mrs Khan Uyghur Cuisine in Menlo Park, a Top 100 Restaurant.
An all-day Indian cafe
Kerala-style pastries, chai and coffee are the specialty at Chayakada in San Jose. There are puff pastries filled with egg, beef or vegetables; several kinds of chai and Indian filter coffee. The spacious, 4,000-square-foot cafe in a South Bay shopping center offers ample seating, a free library and game room.
Popular San Francisco bar expands
Dishes from Horsefeather's new Palo Alto restaurant including miso linguine (far left), duck fat fries (center) and Korean chicken wings. (Colton Redwine)
While Horsefeather is best known in San Francisco for its cocktails, its new sister location at Town & Country Village in Palo Alto is a large, full-service restaurant. Head there for dishes like a double cheeseburger, duck fat fries and miso-cream linguine. The bar menu features popular drinks from the San Francisco original, which opened in 2016, plus new creations and several non-alcoholic cocktails.
A new Thai option
There's no pad thai on the menu at Sen Thai Noodle in San Carlos. The Peninsula's newest Thai restaurant focuses instead on less Westernized dishes, including khao soi (a curry broth, crowned with egg noodles and a chicken drumstick, boat noodle soup (a fragrant soy broth with bouncy meatballs) and Thai beef jerky.
More high-end sushi
The uni course at Ren, a new omakase restaurant in Menlo Park. (Bryan Ngo)
The Peninsula's latest omakase option is Ren in Menlo Park, an eight-seat sushi restaurant from a team of Bay Area sushi veterans. They include Wen Zhao, previously a chef for 10 years at the once Michelin-starred Omakase in San Francisco; Jiabo Li of Iki Omakase in Palo Alto; and Sunny Noah, who worked at Omakase and the Michelin-starred edomae spot Sushi Yoshizumi in San Mateo, and has since opened Iki Omakase, Nagai Edomae Sushi in Redwood City and Tancho in Castro Valley. Ren's $198 menu features 18 to 20 courses of edomae-style dishes, including sushi made with seafood from Tokyo's Toyosu Market.
A fast-growing matcha darling
Japanese matcha cafe Maruwu Seicha just opened its third Bay Area location in a year. The newest outpost in San Jose, following San Francisco and Palo Alto, serves the cafe's popular, matcha lattes and soft serve ice cream.
