Oakland Recommendations

This should help you: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/16476/view=beerfly

I suggest The Trappist.

 

The Trappist is an awesome beer bar that serves decent hearty pub food. It's small and cozy, and usually gets pretty packed during normal peak hours. If you want better food but still a decent beer selection, try CommonWealth: http://www.cmonoakland.com/

 

I haven't. I heard their food is good, but their tap list is pretty standard and stagnant. The tap list at CommonWealth has a lot more local and seasonal offerings, but I'm sure you can't go wrong either way.

 

Commonwealth has good food offerings, but their beer selection, as one might deduce from the name and the slant of the cuisine, is British Isles-style, as opposed to the more Belgian-heavy beer selections at the Trappist and Luka's - that may not be a significant deciding factor for you, but just fyi. Between Luka's and the Trappist, Luka's definitely has the edge as far as the food menu goes, but Trappist's beer selection blows Luka's away. So pick your poison, basically.

 

Last time I was in CommonWealth, half of the beers on tap were from local breweries. The same cannot be said for Luka's, which has a really boring tap list:

http://www.lukasoakland.com/Menus/Beer.pdf

The Trappist is in its own world (along with Beer Rev) for beer selection, but the food isn't as good as CommonWealth.

 

Oh, I didn't mean to say that Commonwealth's beers were only British imports - just that their selections shaded towards those styles, even when domestic/local (like Dying Vines).

 

You might also Consider Cato's, or get your food "to go" from Souley Vegan and enjoy it next door at Beer Revolution.

 

I definitely recommend going to Trappist/Beer Rev. They're right down the street from each other. Trappist's food is pretty pricey, though. There are lots of places nearby, though, there's a vietnamese place on... 8th I think that I really like. Don't know its name... or location. I've never been there sober.

 

Best restaurant review I've ever read.

 

The beef cubes are amazing!

 

I love Barclay's . Great beer selection, good place to watch sports. Decent pub food, but I've never had anything there that made me want to go back for the food. You might check yelp for comments on the food.

I should say that I've only been to Cato's once and all I had to eat was a bowl of their black bean chili. But it was a damn good bowl of chili, and I would go back for that.

 

For food and beer at the same place then Luka's, Barclays, Pacific Coat Brewing, Triple Rock or Cato's. I've eaten and had beer at all of them. Barclays has the largest menu of decent food selection and good beer, Luka's has good food, Pacific Coast has decent food and varied guest beers, Cato's good beer, good food--pub like atmosphere, and Triple Rock has good beer and food too.