Located in a beautiful brick building in Menlo Park, directly across the street from the Caltrain station, Iberia offers a menu full of authentic Spanish dishes as well as a separate tapas menu. You can eat in their dining room, or in the tapas bar that has leather couches, a fireplace, and an outdoor patio. The paella runs $29.75 per order making it some of the priciest I’ve found in the Bay, but it’s worth the high price. It’s topped with fresh squid, mussels, clams and shrimp, as well as chicken and beef. The rice is flavorful, but unfortunately it doesn’t have much of the tasty socarrat bottom. It takes about 30 minutes to prepare, and you have to order at least two servings, making one pan cost over $70 without tax or tip.

Paella from Cascal Restaurant in Mountain View. Photo courtesy of Cascal.

Cascal
Address: [Map]
400 Castro St, Mountain View, CA 94041
Ph: 650-940-9500
Hours: Mon.-Sun. 11:30AM-11PM
Facebook: Cascal Restaurant

Castro Street in downtown Mountain View is lined with restaurants featuring cuisines from around the world. Cascal adds its own latin-fusion to the mix, offering a selection of traditional Spanish dishes and tapas, and others that are more Cuban or Mexican influenced. Their house paella ($23-$44) is my favorite. It features spanish chorizo, and has a strong smoked-paprika flavor. They offer a seafood paella ($24-46), a vegetarian ($12.50-19.50), and a rustic paella ($23-$44) that comes with lamb, chorizo, chicken, and artichokes.

Esperpento and Picaro

These two Spanish restaurants in the Mission are owned by Luis Muela Palomar. Their menus differ only slightly, but they offer a great deal on their paella. If you go to Picaro or Esperpento on a Monday night, and you buy pan of paella for two, four or six people, you will also get free sangria and a free dessert to share. The two-person plate of paella costs $24 and comes with either seafood, or a mixture of seafood and chicken. The seafood and rice in both Picaro and Esperpento's paella weren't as flavorful as ingredients in the other paellas I tried, but I was surprised to see and taste some crunchy socarrat on the sides and bottom of the pan. Also, the prices at these two restaurants are some of the most affordable around the Bay. There are a few other San Francisco restaurants that offer paella on their menus like Alegrias in the Marina, Coqueta in the Ferry Building, Zarzuela in Russian Hill, and B44 in the Financial District.

The mixed paella at Esperpento. Photo: Angela Johnston

Esperpento
Address: [Map]
295 22nd St, San Francisco, CA 94110
Ph: 415-282-8867
Hours: Mon.-Fri. 11:00AM-3PM; 5:00PM-11PM; Sat. 12PM-11PM; Sun. 12PM-10PM
Facebook: Esperpento

The paella at Picaro. Photo: Angela Johnston

Picaro
Address: [Map]
3120 16th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
Ph: 415-431-4089
Hours: Sun.-Thur. 11:30PM-10PM; Fri.-Sat. 11:30PM-11PM
Facebook: Picaro Tapas Restaurant

Duende’s Paella Carne with pork belly and rosemary. Photo: Angela Johnston

Duende
Address: [Map]
486 19th Street, Oakland, CA 94612
Ph: 510-893-0174
Hours: Sun., Mon., Wed, Thurs., 5:30PM-9:30PM; Fri.-Sat. 5:30PM-11PM
Facebook: Duende

Duende’s paellas are more unique and expensive than others in the Bay Area, but they still stay true to tradition, while experimenting with new toppings and flavors. The Paella Carne ($40-76) has pork belly, chorizo picante, manilla clams, and rosemary, and was gone almost as soon as the waiter placed it down on our table. The rosemary flavor didn’t compete with the saffron and paprika spices, the pork belly was crispy juicy, and the paella had a sweet and crispy soccarat on the bottom. You can also order Paella De Verduras ($36-$68), vegetarian paella, with farm eggs, broccoli rabe, asparagus, and heirloom tomatoes, and Arroz Negros ($40-76) with rock fish, tomatoes, allioli, and squid ink. Another dish prepared similarly to paella called Fideua, is also worth a try at Duende ($40-76). Fideua is a traditional Catalan dish made with small bits of pasta noodle browned with a small amount of liquid in a paella pan. It’s almost like a cross between paella and risotto, and Duende’s take on the dish has duck breast, grapes, olives, and kale. The restaurant also has a small bodega on one side of the building, and if you’re lucky a live jazz band may be playing. Reservations may be necessary. You can also get your paella fix in the East Bay at Venga Paella in Jack London Square.

Duende’s Fideua with duck breast and grapes. Photo: Angela Johnston

Recipe: Homemade Paella

Paella isn’t too difficult to make at home, as long as you have access to a large 13-15 inch pan or oven-proof skillet. It’s best to make it on the barbeque.

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