2022 Best Of The East Bay: Meals Meals + Drink

With a pit cease to this space, you’ll find a vibrant menu that blends the flavors of Italy and France. Since 2021, this charming French-Italian restaurant has been a fixture in Walnut Creek’s eating scene. Rubbed with jerk spices and seasonings, this chicken plate appeases diners with its smoky, zesty, tangy, sweet and spicy flavors. Perfect for carnivores, this area will please your palate with its scorching USDA prime steaks and award-winning wines.

Be ready for a wait when you come to this much-buzzed-about Newark spot, where pie folks line up earlier than the doorways even open. That being said, Walnut Creek has its personal popular originals like Va De Vi, a small-plate restaurant with an intensive wine listing that arrived in 2003. More just lately, Manakish Oven & Grill opened a few years in the past, beautiful clients and social media with fluffy flatbreads, and Lita opened in 2022 with a clubby vibe and Caribbean flavors. And, of course, there are old-school gems like Morucci’s Si Mangia Bene, slightly sandwich shop selling potent cold reduce sandwiches for cheap. It’s pretty much inconceivable to hate a rooftop bar, and the appropriately named Rooftop Restaurant & Bar isn’t any totally different, with its retractable roof and heaters for those nights when it’s a bit chilly. It is usually a bit busier at night time, with the locals desirous to take pleasure in those views of downtown Walnut Creek, but it’s price dropping in if you’re on the lookout for a nicer spot to eat and drink.

And if you’re looking for savory, their frozen, housemade pot pies — chicken, vegetable, andouille and potato — are able to bake at home. Since the bakery’s opening 38 years ago, flaky pies have been popping out of the ovens daily. As the bakery’s title suggests, these gateaux — Del Bonta’s custom-designed wedding ceremony cakes and a Christmas-season Buche de Noel among them — are Del Bonta’s claim to célébrité. But when loyal customers started asking for holiday pumpkin and pecan pies, Del Bonta complied. And soon, her customer requests led to year-round pies ($27-$35) — traditional banana, coconut and chocolate cream, in addition to fruit pies made with the bakery’s signature buttery streusel topping. There’s a quiet confidence that radiates from Morucci’s, certainly one of Walnut Creek’s favorite delis.

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This bistro/wine bar has been a longtime native favorite, with its extensive record of wine flights and evident humorousness, as displayed on the prolonged wine menu. The menu is eclectic, running the gamut from Italian classics like risotto to customer favorites like lechon and Alaskan black cod in a soy glaze. If you’re within the temper for a more basic food pairing with wine, there are three cheese plates to choose from while enjoying a glass (or flight) of wine from Napa, Italy, France, Australia, or more. Lita is amongst the newer restaurant choices in Walnut Creek, debuting in early 2022, and brings with it a enjoyable, scene-y vibe that fits its Latin Caribbean cuisine and drinks. The lobster corn dog or the empanadas are a enjoyable method to kick issues off, food-wise, and the ancho chile espresso quick ribs is worth considering if you’re staying for a meal. Grab a cocktail throughout pleased hour (or, anytime really), such as the mangonada margarita, which comes with a chamoy and Tajin rim.

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In business since 1985, Beckmann’s added pies to the lineup about 20 years ago. The bakery’s ubiquitous presence at farmers markets — 40 of them, from Alameda and Aptos to Saratoga and Scotts Valley — means there’s a freshly baked pie close to most Bay Area residents. And we’ll go additional (true confession time) and say that Beckmann’s has saved many a summer potluck attendee. Try the cebiche mixto, an order of the yucca fries, or the pulpito a la parilla if you’re in the mood for octopus off the smaller bites menu, earlier than branching out into the lomo saltado, adobo, or paella. Pie fans can (at least partially) bypass that downside at this San Jose shop, which focuses on mini pies — 1.5-inch diameter pies you can devour in simply a couple of bites. (Or one. Just saying.) So go forward and order that apple almond pie — and the blackberry AND the pineapple, too.

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This Sacramento import opened its Walnut Creek location in 2016 specializing in loud, over-the-top burgers. The most sought-after is the Johnny Cash Burger ($18), which is gussied up with crisp onions, bacon, peppers and barbecue sauce. It’s a rich, sweet and crunchy burger that feels both nostalgic and timeless directly. For a extra adventurous burger, strive the extra gamy lamb burger ($19), made funkier with creamy, acidic goat cheese.

Weekend brunch service is the busiest, when prospects fill up the parklet and share plates of paper-thin plantain chips with smashed avocado ($10.95) and bottomless mojitos ($22). The bubbly ropa vieja empanadas ($14.95) make for an outstanding appetizer with a smoky, spicy chipotle aioli. The Cuban sandwich ($13.95) can also be good for sharing, as it’s reduce into bite-size fourths. If you’re in the mood for a complete meal, go with the fittingly charred chimichurri steak ($28.95), which comes with sweet potato mash and paprika-spiced corn.

Price run $7 to $8 for a slice, $5 for a hand pie and $38 to $42 for a full 10-inch pie — they usually do savory pies, too. The Chicken Bacon silversingles quantity ($11), for example, combines chunks of herb-roasted rooster breast with bacon, broccoli, peas, carrots, pink potatoes and gravy in a garlicky all-butter crust. Its manufacturing location doubles as a retail store the place you can cease in for coffee and pastry or choose up a pie to take home. The 9-inch pies ($20-$22), which regularly include triple berry and chocolate pecan, weigh in at roughly 1.3 pounds. The 5-inch hand pies ($8) let you keep all that goodness to yourself — and there are savory offerings too, such as hen pot pie ($8 for a private sized pie). Maple Pecan Tarts ($6), glistening fruit tarts and cheese pies share show space with Alfajores ($2.75-$3) in flavors of dulce de leche (that’s the traditional one), fig and Valrhona chocolate.