Cholita Linda

Vanessa Chavez wrote her fish taco recipe in Germany, missing her Peruvian grandmother's cooking. She and Murat Sozeri sold the first ones at the Jack London Square farmers market in 2008 with no ticket pads, no change and no thermometer for the oil.

Why go

The tilapia is battered and fried to order, and the East Bay Express put it at the top of a menu it liked all of: There are five taco options, all of them good, but the Baja-style fish taco is king for a reason.5 Salsa roja brings the heat, a white baja sauce of house aioli and Mexican crema cools it, shredded cabbage adds crunch and a squeeze of lime cuts through, all on corn tortillas delivered fresh every day.5 Chavez cooks across her whole family: her mother is Peruvian and Chinese, her father Mexican and Cuban, and she grew up in East Oakland with her Peruvian grandmother in the house and in the kitchen.4 The asado sandwich uses her mother's beef marinade. Alix Wall told that story for Berkeleyside in 2014, six months after this Telegraph Avenue room opened and a month after San Francisco Magazine called the fish tacos the best in the Bay Area.4

Order this / avoid

Order: two fish tacos. That is the dish the room was built on.
Order: the asado, Peruvian-style beef with caramelized onions, arugula and jack on a French roll, pressed in a cast-iron panini press.4 5 At the Ferry Building counter the Chronicle's critics dab theirs with the house vinegar hot sauce, which travels.2
Order: the Cubano if you want the other sandwich. Pulled pork shoulder, black forest ham, mustard, pickles, aioli and Swiss on grilled French bread.6
Avoid: the chicken and the carnitas tacos. The East Bay Express found the cabbage and the crema-based sauce made less sense on them.5

What locals & experts say

The East Bay Express, reviewing the Temescal room in April 2014: The batter-fried tilapia is crunchy and surprisingly light; the corn tortillas, delivered to the restaurant fresh daily, are soft and toasty.5
The same review, on why the format works: the tacos are "street-style — made with care and using much better ingredients than you'll find at your typical lonchera, but also completely unfussy: just four or five simple components wrapped in a corn tortilla."5
MacKenzie Chung Fegan and Cesar Hernandez ranked the Ferry Building counter ninth in July 2026: Cholita Linda, a Pan-Latin all-day café, tends to get overlooked, but it's consistent, full-flavored and fairly priced. Sandwich and drink came in under $25.2
East Bay Express readers voted it a favorite in the paper's 2021 poll.3

Good to know

Ordering: at the counter, and it comes out fast.5
If you do not eat meat: the tofu taco takes the fish seasoning and is fried without batter, so it is gluten free too.5
Other doors: Alameda, the San Francisco Ferry Building, Walnut Creek, and since 2026 Strawberry Village in Mill Valley.6 1 This page is the Telegraph Avenue room.

Verdict

should-visit — Chavez has been frying her tilapia to order since a market stall in 2008, in a region the East Bay Express called a land of grilled-fish tacos. Order two of those and an asado sandwich, and put the vinegar hot sauce on the sandwich.