Top Hatters Kitchen and Bar

Great food. Great service. Great place. The menu is creative and beautiful you plated. The ambience of the patio is engaging.

PHENOMENAL!!! I have been wanting to try this place since I saw it featured on "Check Please, Bay Area". I kept talking myself out of it because of pricing and the possibility it was not going to be worth it. But came here for my son's father's birthday and I am so happy we did! Everything we ordered was amazing.

We started with drinks (calamansi tea lager and my son's father got some kind of beer lol). Interesting lager, but not really a beer/lager drinker. I got it mainly because of the calamansi. Appetizer: savory donuts! Yum! It was amazing. The dough was so light and I was expecting a heaviness from the bacon, but it was perfect. I practically inhaled my portion. With a healthy layer of pecorino yes! Mains: I got the pork belly with wild rice and he got the oxtail with grits. Yum! I never had pork belly severed like that before. Semi caramelized and moist pork belly and the rice was okay. Loved the smashed cucumbers. Definitely getting those again, delicious! Now the oxtail and grits! OMG! AMAZING! That dish would be my final meal. I already love oxtail, but the pièce de résistance was the grits! They were so good, the best I ever had. I literally had to restrain myself from licking the bowl clean. Though without shame scraped the insides of the bowl. Dessert: lemon ricotta zeppole with all 3 sauces. YUM! I think the same base dough for the savory donuts, but with lemon ricotta. The matcha cardamon sauce is a must! I almost did not get it because I'm not a big fan of matcha. But the man next to us was like get them all. Thank you sir because it was my favorite of the 3. I love the earl grey dark chocolate one as well. The rhubarb sauce was my least favorite of the sauces. Still yummy, but I wanted to drink the matcha sauce.

Such an amazing food experience! Very clean and modern space. Definitely do not judge a book by it's cover. The area and parking do not match the sophistication of this place. Street parking, but we found parking in the front. Indoor and outdoor seating. All the ordering is done by QR code, but everything comes out really fast. Definitely worth every penny and more. I will be coming back to try new dishes and my new favorites.

there's a really nice vibe to this place, very bright and calming.
vegetable dishes were amazing and super fresh, we went for appetizers and light bites. they were tasty- recommend the Vietnamese coffee!
I got a side of grits and they were super weird when i asked for salt, it was for grits, the grits were plain af, i felt a bit shamed for asking for salt.
other than that, food was yummy, vibes were good. come prepared to spend a pretty penny when getting main dishes.

The food and the experience was disappointing given all the good reviews. I was expecting a little better experience.

I really didn't like the QR ordering system since there's less interaction with the staff and took a lot more time for us to decide until we got to speak with someone.

I really liked the fruit salad with a yogurt base and chili salt. This was unique, light and salty. The tartine was also very good.

We didn't really care for anything else though. The quality of ingredients used were all low costs items made into visually appealing dishes. The rice cakes and Chinese sausages is what we ate when we were in college and couldn't afford a good meal or when were lazy and just throw some Chinese sausage into the rice cooker with the rice.

However, I do see the appeal for westerners who hasn't ate like this and they could find it appealing. I would sum it up as finding what you can get your hands on mixing them up together to make visually appealing dishes.

Made reservations to Top Hatters for my sister's 43rd birthday about a week in advance. I found them through the Michelin app and was surprised to see that it was pretty close to home. My sisters a self proclaimed food critic so I really wanted her to have a nice birthday meal where she'll enjoy everything. From previous others' reviews and photos this place looked like a solid choice. It was all of our first time dining here.

So getting to the restaurant, It's a hidden gem within the really cute neighborhood of the Estudillo Estates community. The place is at the edge of a residential area and corner of a road parallel the freeway. Parking might be tough just fyi but we got lucky right away. I like that the place is low key and inconspicuous from the outside. It is pretty small inside and the outdoor seating is on the smaller side too, but it has a cozy feel.

The service is great. I honestly really liked the convenience of placing my order through the QR code, I think, via the toast app. We kept our tab open and we just kept adding more and more food and kept adding on drinks as we went along not needing to hail a waiter or waitress every single time was neat.

The food and drinks yumm. We ordered several of the citrus soda and lavender lemonade.

The menu as intended is to be shared so we wanted to try a bit of everything.

We ordered 3x oysters for the oyster eaters lol,
Galangal skewers, savory ricotta donuts, oxtail and grits, meat platter, rockfish, and pork belly with peasant rice.

Our favorite dish unanimously (6 of us diners) was the oxtail and grits. The grits we're sooo creamy and buttery and smooth and the oxtail was tender and fall off the bone.

My personal favorite was the galangal skewer. Very moist and tender. The ricotta balls were also very unique, crunchy and hot in the center.

The meat platter was just okay for me. It was not too dissimilar from what you can get at many other Vietnamese restaurants. And the lemon grass chicken was meh as well. I think you can skip out on this.

We all also were neutral about the pork belly. The fat on the pork belly was kinda like "jelly" but the pork meat itself of the bacon slice was overcooked. The sauce had a very small hint of a Filipino adoboish taste, which is made some sweetness + soy + vinegar.

The rockfish was good. Had a little bit on char and burnt garlic and caper topping. The inside of the fish was very moist and tender. And a good portion to share.

OVERALL, a unique and flavorful and tasty dining experience. The service was great , love the ambiance and would love to come back again!

A hidden gem in a quieter part of town and parking could be hard during prime time. Nice to experience a Michelin star restaurant in the east bay.

We made resy via Opentable for Father's Day weekend dinner - surprisingly on a Saturday, it wasn't too busy.

Started with savory donuts, tissue bread, oxtail with grits - was hoping that the oxtail was more tender, mussels with curry was pretty good, peasant rice was a highlight and they only have it on the menu on weekends. Drinks were refreshing and dessert was fine - like a crunchy mochi.

Yay for the food, boo for the service. 3.5 stars.

Came here on a Friday evening with my husband and in-laws; we had a reservation, which was good because the restaurant was totally full. When we walked in, there was a lone woman standing at the front of the house waiting to be seated. Then we came in, and then another party behind us. We were all standing around awkwardly for a while before someone finally walked up to take the woman to her table. No one ever greeted us, there was just the one waiter taking parties one at a time to their tables. He was nice enough, but the strange start to the meal set the tone for how the rest of the night would go.

We were seated in a corner of the patio and it took a really long time for our waitress to finally come around. She was very nice, a bit odd, and apologized for the wait. My mother-in-law doesn't have a QR-compatible phone, so she asked if she could have a physical menu, which seemed to present a bit of a challenge for the waitress before she finally found one to bring over. She also had to take the drink menu from a nearby table and give it to us.

On a side note, the whole "order via QR code" trend is so tired. Restaurants, if you're going to insist on doing this, please have some amount of physical menus ready for people who either don't have smart phones or would simply prefer to look at a paper menu.

My husband was interested in the Viet egg custard coffee, but wanted to know the difference between the two amaros on offer. The waitress said she would check with the bar; it took three separate asks for her to finally ask the bar, and when she came back with an answer (near the end of dinner when we were ready to order dessert) she provided next to no info on the difference between the two.

Nearly everything we ordered was phenomenal. The tissue bread was an unusual but delicious dish. My husband loved his mussels with fried sweet potatoes in a green curry. I was surprised by how thick the cuts of pork belly were in the pork belly and peasant rice plate that I ordered, and I loved the rice so much I got an extra order of it. The pork was also fork tender and the purselane served with the dish was a delicious, unusual green that I instantly fell in love with. My mother-in-law liked her oxtail but felt the accompanying grits were a bit runny (they definitely looked runny). To drink, I got the iced Vietnamese coffee and a pot of their white tea, both of which were very nice. I would order my entire meal again, appetizer, main, and drinks. While the lemon ricotta zeppole and fried sesame mochi were great, they weren't the best desserts I've ever had and I wouldn't feel like I *had* to order them if I were to eat here again.

My first impression of Top Hatters wasn't terrible but wasn't what I'd consider any restaurant's best showing. It was clear they were understaffed for the evening, which is saying a lot given this isn't a big restaurant. But the handful of people they had working were stretched thin, causing big stretches of time where guests sat with no one coming around. The lack of any greeting at the front of the house and standing around waiting to check in felt strange, and a general air of elitism permeated this otherwise very beautiful space. The numerous poor reviews centered around poor service are, unfortunately, justified. That's too bad given how delicious and lovingly plated the food was.

I'd like to come here again to get more of that pork belly and peasant rice, but know to adjust my expectations accordingly regarding service.

Fun restaurant with cute ambiance. A good selection of food, portions is mediocre. Nice presentation. You order on the app, the server will bring you your drinks and food, other than that not much they are doing. I don't feel much interaction with the server. Cute hangout place for dinner or after work gathering.

The food was worth the money and more. This is what all restaurants should strive for. For drinks we ordered the watermelon limeade and Vietnamese coffee. Both were perfect. Honestly this restaurant was freaking awesome. Service was super friendly. And the ambiance/design fit the food being served. We also took my 7 year old son who is an extremely picky eater. He loved the pork belly, savory doughnuts and stole my watermelon limeade. Top Hatters definitely does not CAP lmao!!!

What a refreshing little oasis! Love the plant forward ambiance at Top Hatters! I found myself snapping photos of the plants to find out how I too can give my home this garden feel. Absolutely enjoyed the vibes of this place.

The food and drinks we ordered were just as pleasing! We had a variety of appetizers as our weekday lunch, washed down with colorful mock tails.

I'd love to come back when the sun goes down or on the weekend for some true libations.