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Pesto, left, and vodka pies from new San Francisco slice shop Outta Sight.
Cafe Ohlone owners Vincent Medina, right, and Louis Trevino look at handmade wooden posts with traditional native song lyrics burned into them, among the decorations at their new Berkeley restaurant.
Lights in the shape of jamón ibérico at El Chato, a new Spanish wine bar in San Francisco.
The bread course at Polenteria in Los Gatos, with gluten-free focaccia, pesto and butter.
The pandemic’s grip on the dining industry has far from loosened, with staffing shortages and closures still very much present, but it’s hard not to feel optimistic about the future of Bay Area restaurants when dining at these newcomers.
We’ve gained the world’s first Ohlone restaurant, more pop-ups getting their first permanent locations and the return of a beloved dumpling shop. Each month, the Chronicle Food & Wine team vets the Bay Area's newest restaurants and recommends our favorites.
This month’s must-try new restaurants include not one but two pizza slice shops, a Spanish pintxo bar and a standout gluten-free Italian restaurant (we’re serious). They’re listed in alphabetical order.
Claude the Claw is back, and he’s delicious. Birdbox’s calling card — a fried chicken sandwich ($20) with its crispy claw extending out from under the potato bun — is very savory with a nutritional yeast vibe and minimalist slaw. Claude launched Birdbox’s popularity as a pandemic pop-up while the owners’ Michelin-starred Birdsong was closed, and now gets his own restaurant in SoMa. The chicken thigh is crunchy and deeply juicy — the sort of sandwich where you'll be slurping your elbow. Sides include extremely moist and delicate cornbread, not unlike nostalgic yellow birthday cake. Take your fried chicken to go or dine inside the huge, light-filled space. — Elena Kadvany
680A 2nd St., San Francisco. 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and 4-8 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday. birdboxsf.com
Smoked rainbow trout with potatoes cooked in duck fat at Cafe Ohlone in Berkeley.
Everything at Cafe Ohlone is meaningful. The ingredients — from soft-boiled quail eggs to a salad dressing made from local bay laurel — serve as an education in Ohlone foodways and culture, as do the redwood tables and shellmounds (native ceremonial places and burial sites). The highly anticipated restaurant from co-owners Louis Trevino and Vincent Medina, located in a courtyard on the UC Berkeley campus, is now serving ticketed lunch ($44), brunch ($110) and a more casual tea hour ($33). Lunch might look like salty smoked trout alongside potatoes cooked in duck fat, or a floral and tangy chia seed porridge topped with huckleberries and gooseberries. Reservations go quickly, so keep an eye on the website. — E.K.
Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday by reservation only. 102 Anthropology and Art Practice Building, Berkeley. makamham.com/cafeohlone
Crab soup dumplings from the new Dumpling Kitchen in San Francisco's Castro neighborhood.
In its original Sunset location, Dumpling Kitchen had a lot of fans who crowded into the tiny restaurant for its top-quality soup dumplings and Shanghai-style noodles. After it closed in 2019, those fans were left twisting in the wind — until now. Dumpling Kitchen has returned, but in the Castro, inheriting its brightly painted, tropical space from a Puerto Vallarta-themed restaurant. Of course there still are dumplings galore, including crisp-bottomed juicy pork buns ($9.80). There are some funky variations worth a try, too: briny, fist-size crab soup dumplings ($14.80) and, for dessert, “soup” dumplings ($7.75) oozing with molten chocolate. — Soleil Ho
11 a.m.-3 p.m., 5-9:30 p.m. Wednesday-Monday 544 Castro St., San Francisco. dumplingkitchenca.com
Gildas over potato chips at El Chato in San Francisco.
With pintxos waiting in a cold case on the bar, glowing ceiling lights in the shape of jamón ibérico and specials handwritten on a white tile wall, El Chato is the next best thing to flying to Madrid. The new pintxos and wine bar, from native Madrileño Rafa Saenz and former Bellota wine director Erin Rickenbaker, can fit various needs: Grab vermouth on tap ($8) and gildas ($7) on a salty bed of potato chips during happy hour, or hang out over a bottle of mencía, a light-bodied but peppery Spanish red loved by in-the-know wine geeks. The food menu is snacky, but you can easily build a substantial meal. Try tender octopus skewers ($10) and vinegar-cured boquerones ($15) showered with an unapologetic amount of minced garlic. All of the mostly natural wines are available by the glass and many also in cute, 3-ounce “chato” glasses, which enable lots of sampling. As the late-summer sun streams through the windows, you might be tempted to get a porrón for the group ($20) — an ancient Spanish tradition that’s having a moment in the Bay Area. — E.K.
4-10 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 2-8 p.m. Sunday. 2301 Bryant St., San Francisco. elchatosf.com
Pepperoni square pie from Empire Pizza in San Francisco.
There’s good pizza juju at 688 Mission St., last occupied by Pizzeria Delfina and now the home of New York-style slice shop Empire Pizza. A Pizzeria Delfina alum, Brandon Wells, is in charge of the pies, too. These slow-fermented doughs yield super crispy slices topped with flavorful sauces and housemade mozzarella. (No kale, pineapple or guff, the menu admonishes). Don’t miss the “choppin’ broccoli” ($6), a ricotta pie with broccoli rabe and a sprinkling of toasty sesame seeds along the crust — a tribute to a Brooklyn pizzeria known for the unusual addition. Square pies are made from a higher-hydration, oil-rich dough. Try the pepperoni, decorated with a spicy tomato sauce and burnished cups ($7). Add Mike’s hot honey for a hit of spicy sweetness on any slice. The staff use an infrared thermometer to check slices for proper temperature before serving them up on white paper plates. There’s ample indoor and outdoor seating for downtown San Francisco lunch-seekers. — E.K.
11 a.m.-4 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday. 688 Mission St., San Francisco. empirepizzasf.com
There’s an important culinary ritual that San Francisco has long lacked: Eating a slice of pizza, folded in half, while standing up at a slice shop counter. Thankfully, Outta Sight has righted that wrong. The new pizzeria from former Mister Jiu’s chef Eric Ehler and business partner Peter Dorrance is bustling during weekday lunch, with office workers grabbing a quick slice of pesto pizza ($5.25) or hanging out over the pizza version of puttanesca ($5.50), with briny pops of capers. If there are any “Lunch Lady” slices ($6) left — a square pizza rich with vodka sauce and fresh mozzarella, the name an homage to elementary school-era sheet tray pizza — make moves quickly, because Ehler produces no more than 24 slices of it a day. The small, bright-white space is decorated with art and photos by the owners’ friends, with music playing from a silver boombox. Outta Sight continues to also serve whole pies at Hayes Valley wine bar Fig & Thistle. — E.K.
11 a.m.-2 p.m. and 4-6 p.m. Monday-Friday. 422 Larkin St., San Francisco. thatsouttasight.com
Sausage and mushroom polenta at Polenteria in Los Gatos.
The menu at Polenteria, newly open in downtown Los Gatos, is completely gluten-free, with sub-sections of bruschetta and polenta dishes. The polenta is exquisitely creamy, whipped full of dairy, and topped with stuff like foraged mushrooms, house-made Italian sausage and venison bolognese sauce. Bruschetta comes in 12 varieties, available in three-item flights. It’s a small restaurant with only five or six tables, and retro mirror tiles behind the bar. The tiny front-of-house is managed by a bartender and the chef, Yvonna Khananis. The restaurant’s own bread is made with gluten-free flour acquired in Italy. — S.H.
5-9:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. 10 Victory Lane, Los Gatos. polenteria.com
Taishoken is now the best place to consistently get tsukemen in San Francisco.
The new Taishoken looks like a splashier version of the Japanese chain’s first U.S. location in San Mateo. It’s lined with Japanese-style pale wood panels and a long bar ideal for quick, solo slurping. The main attraction is the same tsukemen ($18) served in San Mateo, with thick, chewy, buckwheat-infused noodles and a rich broth for dipping on the side. This is now the best place to consistently get tsukemen in San Francisco. New dishes at this location include $35 lobster ramen, which goes quickly given the kitchen only makes 10 bowls a night; and some small plates like elegant cucumbers topped with jalapeño-miso ($6). Try the sand storm calamari ($12), which is similar to the Hong Kong typhoon shelter style, which is to say it's showered in spicy, crispy breadcrumbs and fried garlic, plus a side of koji ranch for dipping. — E.K.
5-9:30 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday and Sunday; 5-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Open on Mondays starting Oct. 17. 665 Valencia St., San Francisco. taishokenusa.com
Elena Kadvany (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: elena.kadvany@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ekadvany. Soleil Ho is The San Francisco Chronicle’s restaurant critic. Email: soleil@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hooleil
Elena Kadvany joined The San Francisco Chronicle as a food reporter in 2021. Previously, she was a staff writer at the Palo Alto Weekly and its sister publications, where she covered restaurants and education and also founded the Peninsula Foodist restaurant column and newsletter.
Since 2019, Soleil Ho has been The Chronicle's Restaurant Critic, spearheading Bay Area restaurant recommendations through the flagship Top Restaurants series. In 2022, they won a Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Review Award from the James Beard Foundation.
Ho also writes features and cultural commentary, specializing in the ways that our food reflects the way we live. Their essay on pandemic fine dining domes was featured in the 2021 Best American Food Writing anthology. Ho also hosts The Chronicle's food podcast, Extra Spicy, and has a weekly newsletter called Bite Curious.
Previously, Ho worked as a freelance food and pop culture writer, as a podcast producer on the Racist Sandwich, and as a restaurant chef. Illustration courtesy of Wendy Xu.