The Best Brunch Spots In Oakland

Ah, brunch. When else can you spend the morning hours drinking champagne and guzzling enough maple syrup to make a dentist cower in fear? If this sounds like your ideal way to kick off a day, you’re in the right place. This guide has all of the best restaurants in Oakland to eat brunch, including the iconic birthplace of Millionaire’s Bacon, a dim sum palace in Chinatown, and The Town’s favorite spot for biscuits.

THE SPOTS

Sequoia Diner

The Laurel District spot looks like a classic diner that got a Magnolia Home makeover, complete with wood booths and swiveling stools at the counter. They make fantastic brunch and even better baked goods, especially the biscuits with golden brown tops and crisp edges, plus housemade jam to slather all over. Another ordering requirement is the pecan sticky bun that could cling to any wall. In the savory department, the braised beef hash is always a hit. There are no reservations, so you’ll have to get here early (they open at 8am most days) or count the passing station wagons on MacArthur while you wait.

Kitchen Story

Yes, the food at this Asian-leaning brunch spot is prime content for your social feed, but it's also punchy. Like the original SF outpost , decadent dishes are portioned for a herd of bison, and just really damn good. You’ll find deep-fried, mascarpone-filled french toast topped with rich honey butter, a face-sized galbi omurice covered in velvety demi-glace, and a spicy Bloody Mary garnished with a candied bacon slab and more vegetables than Alice Waters’s garden. For a place where the food goes maximalist, the dining room is demure—it looks like a breakfast nook with dark wood accents and checkerboard floors—and isn’t as loud or chaotic as its sister location.

FOB Kitchen

The tocino at FOB Kitchen is only available during their daily brunch, so use that as an excuse to spend a morning at this Temescal spot. The pork steak is caramelized around the edges like a sticky halo, and even better mixed around with a sunny-side-up egg, punchy garlic rice, and the house hot sauce. You’re also coming to the Filipino restaurant for golden brown lumpia, solid fried chicken, and cocktails with names like “Fresh Off The Boat” with pandan and red bean and “Feelin’ Myself” (mezcal, grapefruit, and guava). Whatever ends up on your table, prepare to spend an hour or two soaking in the tropical theme, complete with palm leaf murals and a clan of houseplants, and contemplating ordering another round of tocino.

Peony Seafood Restaurant

Peony is one of the Bay’s few Chinese banquet halls, and while you may end up here for a massive wedding reception or big extended family dinner some day, it’s best for brunch. The Cantonese restaurant on the top floor of the Pacific Renaissance Plaza is a multi-room maze where you can go for a spread of dim sum every day but Tuesday. Try the baked barbecue pork buns and wiggly mounds of cheung fun, and always finish the meal off with their adorable pig-shaped mango jellies.

Portal

When you’re midway through an AM lap around Lake Merritt and start to lose steam, take a break at this American spot nearby. The big picnic tables and bar overlooking the water is exactly where you want to be with a pitcher of cranberry mimosa in one hand and a forkful of challah french toast in the other. Now that you’re fueled up with champagne and syrupy toast, you can get back to your power walk.

Grand Lake Kitchen

Grand Lake Kitchen is a reliable brunch place in Oakland’s Dimond District (there’s also another location by the lake, of course) when no one made a reservation and everywhere else is booked. It’s easy to walk in for their solid brunch standbys, like a pork belly hash and the slightly tangy french toast made with sourdough. Sink into a bright teal booth and debrief last night’s debauchery over an Irish coffee or a boozy slushie.

Brenda's

In the Bay Area, the word “beignets” is synonymous with Brenda’s. The soul food spot with an original location in the Tenderloin opened this bigger, brighter outpost in Temescal. The place is usually mobbed most weekend mornings with families devouring shrimp and grits on the patio and hungover friend groups resuscitating themselves with coffee and a flight of those sweet and savory donuts. None of the mostly fried menu will change your life, but it’s easy to leave satisfied and full enough of powdered sugar and crawfish to spend the next couple of hours horizontal on the couch.

Montclair Egg Shop

On any given morning, about half the residents of Montclair roll down from their wiggly, tree-lined streets to start their day off with incredibly strong coffee and, of course, eggs, at Montclair Egg Shop. The diner, housed in a cottage straight out of Animal Crossing, has been around for 50 years and counting, with all the usual egg-centric suspects—fluffy scrambles, benedicts, and french toast that’s even better when slathered in their house apricot jam. When in doubt, go for their potato pancake, a crisp-edged hash with little chunks of ham and onions.