To close out the 2025 restaurant roundup, here are the final five.

5: Mon Superette

Sometimes when I recommend a restaurant to someone I know, they may report back to me with a different or less enthusiastic response. I was relieved to hear that a friend of mine who lives near Mon Superette on Piedmont Avenue also loved it and continued to pick up to-go food there throughout the year. Mon Superette is a small takeaway storefront from the three owners of Bacogai, Alameda’s best hot-pot spot. One of the chef/owners, Khanh Tran, is taking the lead. She cooks a few things at the back of the store, like fried bananas, but most of the to-go items, such as summer rolls, milk teas and noodle dishes, stock the refrigerated shelves up front. It’s really an ideal place to pick up lunch or find a response to the eternally recurring question, “What’s for dinner?”

Mon Superette, 4060 Piedmont Ave., Oakland; IG: @monsuperette

4: Tarts de Feybesse 
At the end of the pandemic I discovered Tarts de Feybesse made deliveries. Talk about a dream come true. Paul Feybesse not only co-baked with his wife Monique, but also delivered boxes of éclairs himself. I found out about their Vallejo bakery—operated at the time out of a commercial kitchen—after watching a season of Top Chef with Monique as a competitor. I spoke with the reality show alum in 2022 about the couple’s plans to open a brick-and-mortar bakery. They subsequently found a place in downtown Oakland and officially opened at the end of 2024. After the Feybesses were nominated for a James Beard Award earlier this year, they continued to receive heaps of praise for their trompe l’oeil entremets and viennoiseries.

Tarts de Feybesse, 324 24th St., Oakland; tartsdefeybesse.com

TROMPE L’OEIL TREATS The choice of desserts at Tarts de Feybesse includes éclairs, Basque cheesecakes, entremets and ever more onwards. (Photo by J.S. Edalatpour)

3: Donato & Co.
At the beginning of December, I wrote an EBX dining newsletter entry about the fab lunch I had at Donato & Co. But it makes this list for another reason. It reminded me of Rick & Ann’s, but not because the food was similar. When Rick & Ann’s closed this year—though the couple continues to run their catering business—so did a couple of decades’ worth of memories, many of them romantic, but plenty of them about outings there with friends and family. I haven’t consciously looked for a replacement, but I believe I’ve found it at Donato.

Donato & Co., 2635 Ashby Ave., Berkeley; donatoandco.com

2: Dao Artisan Noodle

After an entire year of eating out, Dao’s sautéed pea shoots with garlic stood out as one of 2025’s best dishes. When a restaurant makes that much effort to care about making a leaf taste good, it bodes well for everything else. In fact, Dao made the best bowl of dan dan noodles I’ve ever had. The ingredients—fresh herbs, vegetables and pork—made the difference. When I paid a visit, the kitchen could do no wrong. It left me with a longing and an appetite to explore a lot more of Dao’s artisan menu.

Dao Artisan Noodle, 15032 Farnsworth St., San Leandro; daoartisannoodle.com

Numero Uno: Oken

A scrumptious, well-made sandwich from Ok’s Deli did not suggest that Albert Ok’s next project, Oken, would contain an infinite variety of culinary delights. A baechu, or Napa cabbage, salad looked like a plated work of art, whorled with burdock root, onions, garlic and potatoes. Arranged in a compact circle, an elegant tomato salad came adorned with crispy wonton slivers. Tangy slices of grilled zucchini, fresh cucumber and sprigs of green onion complemented our shared seared piece of trout. But the pièce de résistance for me was a bowl of tsukune dumpling noodle soup. It was made with chicken meatball dumplings, a massive amount of green onions, one soft-boiled egg and housemade egg noodles. Recognizable as a bowl of ramen, this dish was also a reinvention of one. Every dish at Oken looked like something new, something I’d never tried before, but each one also tasted familiar and comforting. I just liked everything about the place.

Oken, 6200 Claremont Ave., Oakland; okenoakland.com