{"id":308787,"date":"2026-05-10T09:01:33","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T09:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/308787\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T09:01:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T09:01:33","slug":"acclaimed-oakland-asian-spot-oken-to-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/308787\/","title":{"rendered":"Acclaimed Oakland Asian spot Oken to close"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(<a data-ylk=\"slk:KRON;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kron4.com\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">KRON<\/a>) \u2014 Oken, an acclaimed Asian fusion restaurant in Oakland, is set to close. The restaurant opened on Claremont Avenue just a year ago.<\/p>\n<p>Chef-owner Albert Ok earned good reviews from publications like <a data-ylk=\"slk:The Infatuation;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theinfatuation.com\/san-francisco\/reviews\/oken\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">The Infatuation<\/a> and <a data-ylk=\"slk:SF Eater;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/sf.eater.com\/dining-report\/210411\/oken-review\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">SF Eater<\/a>, which described Oken as \u201clayering together Korean and Japanese flavors with other Asian influences.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a data-ylk=\"slk:Tenderloin corner store sold meth over the counter, lawsuit alleges;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aol.com\/news\/tenderloin-corner-store-sold-meth-184304296.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0Tenderloin corner store sold meth over the counter, lawsuit alleges\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Positive reviews, however, don\u2019t pay the bills. Oken cut its lunch service last month, it announced on Instagram. Then on Wednesday, the restaurant abruptly announced it will be closing altogether at the end of May.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe regret to inform you that May 31st will be our last day of service,\u201d Oken posted on <a data-ylk=\"slk:Instagram;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DYBPqXbGlb_\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>. However, while some closing restaurants have launched elaborate screeds, citing post-pandemic dining habits, the economy, or crime and street conditions, Oken declined to elaborate on why it was closing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe restaurant industry is tough and we are not big on making excuses or elaborate sad stories,\u201d the post continued. \u201cWe will take more time to reassess our situation and examine what our options are. Unfortunately as of now we have decided to close.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThank you everyone!\u201d the post concluded.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p><a data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kron4.com\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(KRON) \u2014 Oken, an acclaimed Asian fusion restaurant in Oakland, is set to close. The restaurant opened on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[129738,129737,143,145,144,129736],"class_list":["post-308787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-albert-ok","tag-asian-influences","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-oken"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}