When the weather gets chilly, sure, you could just turn up the thermostat. But there’s something even better about tracking down a handheld, piping-hot packet of yum that’s even better at chasing those winter blues away.
It’s a global tradition – wrapping savory stews inside flaky, buttery carbs – so why not taste your way through the spices of the world via handheld snacks, whether they’re empanadas, pupusas or New Zealand-inspired mini-pies?
Here are our favorites in cities around the Bay, bakeshops and restaurants that make their own empanadas from scratch. (Did we miss your fave? Tell us about it via the submission form at the end of this article!)
Javi’s Cooking, Oakland
If ever there was a Bay Area Mint for empanadas, Javi’s Cooking is it: They crank out hundreds of fresh-baked empanadas daily, shiny with egg wash and stamped with the ingredient initials like big, gold coins.
Javier Sandes hails from Buenos Aires and does his city proud with expertly crafted empanadas that pair wonderfully with a zesty, grass-green chimichurri (available to purchase by the jar).
“Most places source the pastry dough,” he says. “We make our own dough, and it makes the empanadas stand out from the rest. We use butter in our pastry dough, whereas most other doughs are made with vegetable oil or shortening.”
Javi’s Cooking started with five varieties 14 years ago and now has more than two dozen, including halibut, sweet corn-bechamel, Impossible Foods substitutes and “La Bestia” – a real-meat mix of buffalo, elk, boar and Wagyu. The shop relies on local sources for its butcher-and-vegetable needs and uses organic, when possible, working with places like Ledesma Family Farm and C & L Produce.
Empanadas are the tip of the Argentinian iceberg on offer. There are Milanesa steak and sausage-pepper sandwiches, alfajores with housemade dulce de leche, Brazilian coffee, traditional mate, local beer and South American wine. Order at the counter and then step into the sun to consume it all in a cute street-side parklet.
The dish: The carne is an excellent rendition of the classic ($5.85), blending ground beef, red peppers, green olives and hard-boiled egg into a juicy, sweet-savory filling. The acelga ($5.85) is earthy and luscious with chard and ricotta, and the halibut ($6.85) is fresh and piquant with Kalamata olives ($6.85).
There is almost endless variety to pick from – dates/bacon/blue cheese, for example, Caprese salad, and ham and Fontina – plus dessert empanadas in flavors like strawberries and cream or dulce de leche with bananas and walnuts. Can’t decide? Try ordering a six-pack of randoms in a “surprise frozen pack” ($19).
Details: Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily at 3446 Market St., Oakland; javiscooking.com.
Comalito, Rewood City
Tucked into a cozy spot along North Fair Oaks, the new Comalito Salvadoran restaurant serves up nine kinds of pupusas — masa dough cakes with assorted fillings — alongside pastelitos made with achiote masa and filled with ground beef, carrots, potato and green beans.
North Fair Oaks, which has been dubbed Little Michoacan, because it’s home to so many immigrants from that Mexican state, has a few other newcomers to its culinary scene including Cheverepa Venezuelan Kitchen and its arepas, served from the Redwood City Eats ghost kitchen, and Mexican brunch-centric Eskina.
The dish: Molten cheese oozes out of Comalito’s pupusas like joyous lava as you tear into each bite. Six of the nine pupusa varieties ($4.50 each) are veggie-centric, including the bright and herby loroco pupusa, stuffed with cheese and the edible Central American flower bud known as loroco. The calabaza option, stuffed with cheese and zucchini, is also excellent.
Pair those with a glass of housemade horchata made with morro seeds, which give each sweet sip a warm, nutty flavor boost. You can’t go wrong with an order of crispy yucca fries, served with chipotle aioli.
Details: Open 4-8 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday-Sunday at 3143 Middlefield Road, Redwood City; comalitoco.wayline.co.
Best Artisan Empanadas, Campbell, and Big E Cafe, San Jose
The E in the Big E Cafe’s name stands for empanadas, espresso and Ernesto May, the proprietor. He’s been making empanadas for the last 20 years at this shop in San Jose’s Cambrian district and for the last four at the family’s Campbell eatery, Best Artisan Empanadas, with daughter Stephanie Solorio as his business partner.
But his expertise goes back to his teen years in Peru. “The recipe for the dough was passed on from my mother to me. And her mother had passed it on to her,” he says. He also learned a classic beef with olives and raisins recipe from her. “That’s the most authentic Peruvian one we have.”
May found inspiration for many of the other varieties from restaurant kitchens he cooked in years ago. The rich Chicken and Mushroom empanada, for example, is his riff on a recipe from the long-closed Fresco, a popular Palo Alto restaurant.
Savory empanadas are available a la carte ($7.65-$7.95) or as lunch with a large side salad or potatoes (about $13.75). Sweet empanadas ($4.10) include Peach-Blueberry, Apple-Cranberry and Raspberry Cream Cheese.
The restaurants also do a brisk business in espresso drinks, frappes and smoothies, with coffee beans sourced from the locally owned Tico Coffee Roasters.
The dish: Try the perfectly toasty Traditional Beef empanada, its filling dotted with piquant Kalamata olives and sweet raisins, with a side of chimichurri. A perfect pairing. Another hit is the Mediterranean, which features Italian squash, Greek olives, spinach, onions and three cheeses (Monterey jack, feta and ricotta).
About a week before the Super Bowl, the family’s clever pumpkin empanadas, decorated to look like footballs, will return to the menu.
Details: Both locations open at 6 a.m. on weekdays, 7 a.m. on weekends. The Campbell location (https://bae.cafe), at 533 E. Campbell Ave., stays open until 4 p.m. daily. The San Jose shop (https://mybige.com), 1683 Branham Lane, closes at 2 p.m. https://bae.cafe/
Sabores del Sur, Lafayette
Lockdown turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Guisell Osorio and her Chilean restaurant, Sabores del Sur. Osorio, whose business hails from La Cocina’s kitchen incubator program, had to simplify a menu that was more conducive to takeout orders and soon decided to focus entirely on making empanadas.
Now in her 27th year serving flaky, handmade pastries packed with South American flavors, Osorio is operating Sabores del Sur serves hundreds of empanadas per week — all to-go from her Lafayette kitchen. She does catering too — and if you’ve been to Outside Lands any time in the last 16 years, you may have spotted her empanada stand.
The dish: Let’s start with the size. No dainty better-eat-three empanadas here. One flaky, delicate but hearty empanada is a meal in one. The most popular is the Chilean steak ($8.35), which combines Chilean spices with diced beef, onions, hard boiled egg, raisins and black olives. The most flavorful of the bunch, she says, are the chicken empanadas ($7.95), which use her own Peruvian spice blend.
Psst, you can order alfajores ($3.25) here, too.
Details: Available for takeout orders only Thursday through Saturday. Order by 10 a.m. for pickup between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. at 271 Lafayette Circle in Lafayette; saboresdelsursf.com.
Sage Bakehouse Savory Pies, Montara
Just off of Highway 1 on the San Mateo County coast, this charming cafe was inspired by a New Zealand trip owner Nick Lee took with his soon-to-be fiancee — now, his wife. The couple discovered savory, gourmet mini-pies everywhere there, including in unexpected spots like gas stations.
Eager to bring that pie-forward focus back to the states, Lee started selling his pies at farmers markets in San Francisco, before opening his own brick-and-mortar outpost in the quiet coastal hamlet of Montara.
With more than 20 kinds of pie ($10 each) to choose from, the selection can be overwhelming. You could go classic, with a beef and potato or chicken pot pie selection, or try a global flavor such as a Hungarian Chicken Paprikash or mole chicken with black beans. Stuck? The bakery offers most pies as frozen, bake-at-home options and is running a buy-five, get-one promo. The sausage rolls ($7), available in spicy or mild flavors, are popular too.
The dish: The seasonal vegetable pie features a thick, flaky crust wrapped around butternut squash, white sweet potato, carrots, celery and caramelized onions soaked in an herbed white wine sauce.
Details: Open 7 a.m.-6 p.m. daily at 8455 Highway 1, Montara; sagebakehousesf.com.
Kuboba Spot, Berkeley
While they may not be the first thing one associates with food in the Philippines, empanadas are widely enjoyed there, having been brought over by the Spanish during colonial times. In turn, Filipino immigrants brought to the States their own style of empanadas – flaky and buttery, on the sweeter side and stuffed with chicken adobo, kaldereta (goat or beef stew) and other island-country favorites.
Kuboba Spot is a takeout-oriented operation near the UC Berkeley campus started by Seyna Smith and Sam Bernardino, healthcare workers who during the pandemic decided to pursue their dream and open a bakery. The “kubo” in the name refers to a type of stilt house common in the Philippines; here, according to Smith, it serves as a symbol of family and love.
You’ll find plenty of warmth at this bakeshop both in the friendly staffers and the empanadas, which sit in display cases like hot, little purses waiting to be taken home. The bakery also runs a brisk business serving milk teas, made with fresh dairy and flavored with winter melon, pandan, black sugar and “popping bobas” (try it, you might be pleasantly surprised).
The dish: All the empanadas boast brown and flaky crusts with a mild sweetness ($5.95 each). The pork-meatloaf embutido is a hearty bite with peas, raisins and hard-boiled egg. The longganisa omelet is an ode to breakfast with its garlicky, homemade pork sausage, and the chicken adobo is zesty and flavorful.
There are flavors, too, that we’re betting are geared toward local students, like pepperoni pizza and cheeseburger, and then dessert versions such as mango cheesecake. Except for that last one, everything benefits from a dip in the housemade chili oil.
Details: Open 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Wednesday-Friday and noon-6 p.m. Saturday-Sunday at 2618 Telegraph Ave., Berkeley; kubobaspot.com.
Casa Guzmania, San Jose
When professional musicians Cecilia Melendez and her husband, Rafael Vazquez, moved to California from Mexico City, they brought with them her French horn, his trombone — and a trove of family recipes. Together with her brother, Pedro, they opened Casa Guzmania, an empanada shop in downtown San Jose named in honor of the family matriarch.
They started with about 10 savory and sweet varieties and, in just a few years, the number has doubled. They divvy up the work in the kitchen. “I cook the cochinita, the mole, the tinga, and he cooks the beef, the chorizo, the spinach,” Melendez says.
Business is good when there are conventions at the nearby San Jose McEnery Convention Center. “Other times it’s quiet. But we are growing step by step,” she says. They have added a comedy night the first Wednesday of each month, providing exposure both for the shop and for local comics. The next one is scheduled for Feb. 5 from 6 to 8 p.m.
The dish: Guzmania’s Mole empanada — stuffed with moist chicken — is a must for fans of that complex sauce. Our new discovery was the Rajas vegetarian number, which combines strips of roasted poblano peppers and corn in a creamy, cheesy sauce. For dessert, the customers’ new favorite is the Guava with Cream Cheese, “made with real guava, not marmalade,” Melendez notes.
Details: Open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday at 350 S. Market St., San Jose; https://casaguzmania.square.site/
Back A Yard Caribbean Grill, Menlo Park, Campbell, San Jose
Jamaica natives Robert and Annetta Simpson have cooked up a mighty long menu for their Back A Yard restaurants: They and their kitchen teams make their signature Jamaican Jerk Chicken, Pork, Shrimp, Salmon and Tofu for platters, salads, sandwiches and wraps; numerous Oxtail and Curried Goat dishes; Barbecue Chicken, Spareribs and Hot Links; plus wings, soup, a special of the day, desserts and 10 side dishes, from cornbread to collard greens.
Whew. Why was it important to add Jamaican Patties to the offerings?
For both sentimental and business reasons, says Robert, who formulated the recipes. “Patties are a Jamaican staple; as a matter of fact, patties are considered to be the equivalent of (American) hamburgers.”
They’re convenient and easy to eat, he says, and are popular both with customers ordering catering from Back A Yard and with San Jose State students who frequent the San Carlos Street location.
The dish: Back A Yard makes three savory varieties, all delicious: beef, chicken and vegetable ($3.95 each). When it comes to spiciness, the veggie and ground beef ones are the two tamest of the trio. (Add some of the restaurant’s fiery, housemade mango-habanero sauce if you like them hotter.) The chicken one, however, has a kick.
Details: Locations in Menlo Park, Campbell and San Jose (two eat-in locations, one takeout only). Hours vary but most are open for lunch and dinner six nights a week; see https://backayard.net.
These bakeshops and restaurants all make their own empanadas from scratch, as opposed to ordering in ready-made pastries from a commercial kitchen. Did we miss your favorite spot? Tell us about it here:
[contact-form]