Piedmont Avenue Dishcrawl

The other week I joined the folks from Dishcrawl East Bay for a 'crawl' of Piedmont Avenue. As with the Old Oakland Dishcrawl, we didn't know ahead of time where we'd be eating, just the general location. There are a ton of restaurants along Piedmont Avenue, so it wasn't easy to guess which ones we'd be visiting.

There were a number of familiar faces for this Dishcrawl, including Christina Mitchell of East Bay Dish and Leigh Costain of Eat Oakland. The large, enthusiastic group was led by Kealoha Pomerantz of Dishcrawl East Bay, and helped out by J.P. Fernandez who led the Old Oakland Dishcrawl.

We met at Vegan and Tikka Masala which features Indian and Pakistani Cuisine. From the street, it's a hole-in-the-wall place (which previously was home to a Caribbean restaurant). But it's bigger on the inside than on the outside, with a lovely patio area in back. We tried a variety of vegetarian dishes. I liked everything I tasted, and had to remember to pace myself because we had three more stops.

Our next stop was Baja Famous Fish Tacos. Unlike our first stop, Baja has been around for a long time (in restaurant terms), since 1992. While they're famous for their fish tacos (which were great the last time I tried them), we got some other tastes. Though I had to wait a bit, my vegi flautas were great—well worth the wait.

Then it was across the street to Bar César. You may recall that K and I ate there last year. As before, I liked everything except the empanadas. People had high praise for some of the drinks, and the servers brought out generous portions of food.

Our final stop was for something sweet at Sparky's. While they're best known for their burgers, we were were there to sample their milkshakes. We got tastes of blueberry, vanilla and coffee, and all were great. Like our first stop, Sparky's also has a nice patio area behind it.

The Dishcrawl concept is a great way to sample four restaurants in an area. Clearly a lot of people think so, because this month's Dishcrawl at Jack London Square is already sold out. It's also a very social experience, with a chance to talk with different people at each stop as well as the walks between stops.

More pictures from the Piedmont Avenue Dishcrawl:


Also check out the coverage on the Dishcrawl website.