It’s noon on a Monday, and I’m about to eat three lunches. To accomplish such a feat, there’s really no better place than the Castro Valley Marketplace, a 39,000-square-foot, three-story food hall complete with its own grocery store and wine bar.
Castro Valley was once known for its high concentration of fast food restaurants. The opening of Castro Valley Marketplace in 2020, though, ushered in a new reputation for the quiet suburb as a burgeoning foodie destination. Add to that the recent opening of HL Peninsula, the 846-capacity restaurant that calls itself the largest Cantonese restaurant in the country, and Castro Valley is suddenly on my radar.
Since it opened during the onset of the pandemic, the Castro Valley Marketplace, which claims to be the East Bay’s largest food hall, has had its fair share of turnover. But with a recent wave of new restaurants, its lineup is now looking robust: family-owned Vietnamese restaurant Pho 5-10 just opened in July, and Puerto Rican restaurant La Perla moved from Oakland to Castro Valley in February. Slice House by Tony Gemignani also opened in late 2024.
BEST OF SFGATE…