Christmas Day Dinner
 

We are having a small family reunion in the SF area for Christmas . I have rented a house in Alameda where my sons significant other lives. I understand that chinese is the thing on Christmas Day and we are up for that or something else in SF , Alameda, Oakland ( how far is Berkeley) . Have looked on two reservations sites and not very much is there. Am I too early or do chinese places not use those types of aps? Rather than be too late, I am doing research now. The
only thing that is off the table are set menu places as my party have diverse appetites.

First - Chinese is a thing during Christmas because generally only Chinese restaurants are open during Christmas.

Second - Chinese restaurants in the Bay Area match up many American cultures that they will actually close for Christmas.

You really have to extend your search.

Sure. I believe I said I was open to anything good except places with a set menu.

East Ocean in Alameda is open. Well-regarded Chinese restaurant. I've never been. Plugging in a res for 6 on X-mas, it shows availability.


Berkeley isn't far at all.

I tried to do a search myself
 

Finding places actually in Alameda is a bit more tricky than I thought. Open table doesn’t show anything except the restaurant mentioned above. You might just google restaurants Alameda and check them one by one for Christmas. And again Berkeley isn’t that far and would probably have more options. Or if you’d rather eat at home there are certainly delivery service is open on Christmas, or markets where you could purchase your Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve and heat it up the next day. We’ve often done that if we are in town

The city of SF has dozens of reservations on open table. Just checked. Considering my own extended family because I don’t want to host at home.

Call. Any place you want in on, call. Do not rely on OpenTable to be accurate for Christmas, especially 2 months in advance.

In San Francisco, R&G Lounge on Kearny street should be open. You can reserve a banquet table and select assorted dishes to be served. Also, Koi Palace in South San Francisco is pretty good and should be open too and allow for preselection of dishes for a banquet.

Those are the two I'd probably choose, and have excellent experiences in both of them.

Chinatown in Oakland is a lot closer than SF or Berkeley and will have many options

Bay Fung Tong in uptown Oakland is a popular family style Chinese restaurant, you'll have to call.

Third - It's not that difficult to figure out how far Berkeley is from Alameda