The December Hit List: Top of the Mark, Ernest, House of Prime Rib, and More

There might not be a bar with a better view of The City than Top of The Mark. It’s old school, it’s celebratory, and it’s the perfect place to start (or end) date night. Martini or Manhattan, you can’t go wrong with either choice.

Learn and explore Native foodways and Kickapoo culture through Wahpepah’s Kitchen, now open in Fruitvale in the former Reem’s space near the BART station. Chef Crystal Wahpepah will be serving up things like blue corn waffles, blueberry bison meatballs, a version of her grandmother’s hominy and venison soup, and so much more.

Chef Brandon Rice’s creativity still knows no bounds at his market-driven, globally inspired Ernest. Take this dish featuring Hawaiian hearts of palm, local matsutake mushrooms, roasted pine nuts, and pine nut butter — just thinking about it sets our mouths watering.

There’s nothing quite like visiting the great HOPR during December — it just screams festivity and celebration. King Cut, English Cut, House Cut, do whatever you want. Pro tip: Study the secret menu before you visit, and you might be rewarded handsomely.

Smoked trout tostadas with creamy avocado crema and crispy shallots, vibrant pozole verde, blue corn quesadillas, duck carnitas, filet mignon huaraches… if this doesn’t get you going, then you’ll have to explore the rest of chef Dominica Rice’s Bombera yourself and tell us what to order.

Bayview’s Old Skool Café is so much more than a café. The youth-run international soul food spot provides jobs, culinary training, and second chances to formerly incarcerated and foster care youth, and the menu features globally inspired comfort food. As such, you’ll find deliciousness in the form of mac ‘n’ cheese, short ribs, fried chicken, sweet potato peanut butter stew, and so much more.

Chef Alex Hong’s Michelin-starred, seasonally inspired Cal-Ital tasting menu is looking pretty good right about now — consider white sturgeon caviar with artichoke, black truffle, frisee, and flowers, for example. Or the double ravioli filled with roasted chestnuts, quince, and pancetta on one side, and squash, herbs, and spiced butter on the other.

San Ho Won, the new Korean restaurant from Jeong-In Hwang and Corey Lee, is off to a fiery start. The menu centers around meats cooked carefully over charcoal, but there’s so much more to explore, like crispy soondae or sanma pajeon (blood sausage or mountain yam pancakes) to start, soups and stews like kimchi jjigae pozole and galbitang (short rib stew with homemade rice cakes), and large-format dishes like spicy chicken tteokbokki, and of course, a buncha banchan in between.

Without a doubt, Pizzahacker produces some of the Bay Area’s best pizza. Take one bite of Jeff Krupman’s pies and tell us otherwise. Consider The Ohio, which features crispy pepperoni, bright pepperoncini, provolone, fresh mozzarella, Grana Padano, and herby oregano on a thin charred crust. It’s magnificent.

Wife and husband duo Monica Kim and Chad Kaneshiro’s Diamondhead General Store might be one of our favorite new spots to open this year. You can get your plate lunch, you can get your poke, you can get your shave ice, and you can get your bounty of pantry provisions all within the same wonderful little store, and it’s all so, so good.

Aslam’s Rasoi is one of those spots we wish we went to more often. The Pakistani/Indian spot run by Chef Mohammad Aslam and his son Asif has lots of standbys, but we really do love everything that comes from the tandoori section. Don’t miss the keema aloo mattar.