THE SLANTED DOOR
You’d be pushed to find a more perfect marriage of cuisine and raw ingredients than Vietnamese food and Californian produce. And you’d be pushed to find a more perfect Californian Vietnamese restaurant than Charles Phan’s the Slanted Door. Acknowledgements to local suppliers run throughout the menu – Estancia beef, Prather Ranch carpaccio, Hodo Soy Beanery tofu – but they’re clearly used for quality, not just convenience. This is fresh, vibrant cooking that’s as impressive as the view across the water to the Oakland Bay Bridge. Options range from raw bar selections such as Kumamoto oysters, to the aforementioned tofu (braised, with mushrooms, sweet roasted chilli and lemongrass), via exemplary Gulf shrimp rolls with a powerful hit of fresh mint.