Oakland restaurants are gearing up to welcome in the Bay Area, with the city's Restaurant Week, kicking off on Mar. 14. Oakland Restaurant Week will last through Mar. 24 and this year more than 150 restaurants and food trucks are listed as participating.
Restaurants tell NBC Bay Area they are excited to serve both longtime customers and newcomers during this ten-day event.
At A16 in Oakland's Rockridge neighborhood, staff are preparing for the city's restaurant week. A16 serves Naples-style pizza and foods of Southern Italy, its Rockridge location has been open for more than ten years.
Conner Davis with A16 explained that for Restaurant Week this year, "we’re doing a deal where you can get a pizza, a salad, and a cannoli for $45."
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Many restaurants are offering special dishes and deals during this week, which will be updated on the Oakland Restaurant Week website.
"For people that haven’t been here before, it’s a great time to try us out and potentially make us one of your regular spots," Davis said.
"I think Oakland is really diverse, and so, you [have] people with a lot of different backgrounds, and that brings a lot of different types of restaurants, and it's really cool to be a part of this diverse culinary community," he continued.
People looking to take part in Oakland Restaurant Week will have a range of options, featuring cuisines from all over the world. The participating restaurants range from casual to fine dining, from food trucks to Michelin-rated restaurants.
The Swahili Spot restaurant on Peralta Street in West Oakland will participate in Restaurant Week for the first time this year.
Owner Priscilla Mkenda, whose family is from Tanzania and Uganda, described her restaurant as serving East African cuisine. She serves curry bowls, chicken, beef, fried fish, sauteed greens, samosas, and African doughnuts called "mandazi."
"I am trying to bring like a home feeling food, for people who are missing that at home, I want them to find that here in the Bay Area," Mkenda said.
Mkenda said her business started as a pop-up around Lake Merritt, then eventually grew to a food truck, and in the past year, she has finally opened a brick-and-mortar kitchen.
"I said, let me participate in the Oakland Restaurant Week so people can get to know me more and I can share in this multicultural wealth that the Bay Area offers," she explained.
"As small as it is, I know I make good tasty food," Mkenda said with a smile.
