Commis

The signature here is a slow-poached egg yolk in a frothy allium puree with a dark pile of smoky, sweet dates, and you can eat it at the bar next door without taking the long menu. James Syhabout won a second MICHELIN Star for this kitchen in 2015.1

Why go

Michael Bauer stayed away five years and the bread brought him back. The Chronicle's critic wrote it up in 2016: It was one of the best breads I've had, and really brought into focus the immense talent of James Syhabout.2 It arrives with house-cultured whipped butter and a second butter flavored with chicken skin and thyme oil. The inspector names the plates: raw Japanese sea bream dressed with aged soy, fermented plum and mustard, then donabe-baked scallion rice under chanterelles dressed with miso from a small-batch local producer.5 Fegan and Hernandez ate the fruit courses in 2025: pineapple guava with scallop, sudachi lime and perilla flowers with shima aji crudo, and an osmanthus blossom cream with apple granita that did the work of a palate cleanser and a fruit course at once.3

Order this / avoid

The menu: ten courses, one price, and nothing to choose. Fegan and Hernandez listed $259 in the dining room in November 2025, and $109 for four courses at the bar.3
Order the bread beside the egg. Flora Tsapovsky called it, in Eater in 2025, some of the finest sourdough bread you'll ever encounter in a restaurant.7
Avoid: treating a Tuesday as a soft booking. The inspector's note is that the room is packed every night.5

What locals & experts say

Michael Bauer, then the Chronicle's restaurant critic, closing his 2016 review: So while I may have been a little late to the party, I now join in to celebrate what is clearly Oakland's best, most ambitious restaurant.2
MacKenzie Chung Fegan and Cesar Hernandez, the Chronicle's restaurant critics, in 2025: If a restaurant is new, hot, shiny, there's a good chance it's in the Town. Located on Piedmont Avenue, Commis is none of those things, but what it is is excellent.3
Flora Tsapovsky, in Eater's 38 essential East Bay restaurants, July 2025: The East Bay's only two-Michelin-starred restaurant continues to be Oakland's fine-dining destination of choice for a big, blowout tasting menu meal.7
The MICHELIN inspector on the room, June 2026: It's cool and relaxed but never casual.5

Good to know

The floor: the Chronicle put Commis on its Bay Area best-service list in October 2025. Veteran servers in suits and ties crumb the table and bring a hook for your bag.4

Verdict

must-visit — Two stars, and the room gives you no theater for them: a long narrow space on a shopping street, ten courses, done in an evening. Book it for the cooking. Take the bar counter when the dining room is full.