It’s hard to improve on the izakaya formula – a comfortable neighborhood joint with tasty bar bites, washed down with copious beer or bracing spirits. But chef Matt Meyer has given the genre a brilliant twist with Good Luck Gato, an “izakaya cantina” near downtown Oakland that blends the best of Mexican and Japanese cuisine. It’s eye-opening how well, in Meyer’s hands, the East-West flavors elevate each other. A simple-looking taco is the menu’s blockbuster: It pairs a handmade tortilla with pork-curry sausage, ginger pico de gallo and a fried Jidori egg whose warm yolk collects in a wooden dipping bowl. There is a Mexican street corn boiled in dashi and slathered with uni-butter sauce – then topped with more fresh sea urchin – and a Choco Taco that will detonate your expectations for this bodega-freezer dessert.
The Bay Area is so spoiled with new restaurants, even 7x7 editors sometimes have trouble keeping up. Every new eatery adds its own spice to the dynamic culinary scene, and each one is worthy of a celebration all its own. From the Japanese-Mexican fusion of Uptown Oakland’s Good Luck Gato to the Ligu.
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