camila iligaray

AMAZING FOOD AMAZING SERVICE🤩🤩 This place should have 5 starts SO GOOD. Definitely recommend eating here for brunch🤤🤤 We got the flight beignets, the chicken thighs and biscuits, side of garlic spinach, chicken gumbo, fries (AMAZING for plain fries), and side of gravy.

Dennis Harrigan

The Oakland food scene is alive and well. This is one of those must visit spots in city with ever growing culinary scene. Brenda’s is a great mix of Cajun and country flavors in one place. Everything from breakfast to dinner is done with taste bud enhancing fair. Our group tried a great mix of Brunch, and no one left unfulfilled. Standard country breakfast of bacon and eggs was good, the home made jam took it that extra step to outstanding. The Grillades and grits was a Cajun hit. The beef was fork tender and the creole gravey was a perfect blend of sweet and savory. Add the perfectly cooked grits and a cream biscuit and I was back in Louisiana having breakfast in the French Quarter. The Hush Puppies were soft on the inside with a perfect crunch. Our group had a variety of entree’s and are included in the attached photos By the way. If you eat here and don’t leave with powdered sugar on your shirt and lap, you missed the best beignets in the city. We will be back, I’ve heard the Seafood Gumbo is the best west N’Orilns 😋

+6

Ben Gilbarg

Absolutely amazing. Bananas foster’s French toast was an incredible treat, with the homemade whipped cream and sauce, just delectable. We got the succotash veggie omelette that was also really good. And then beignets to go! The wife and I just loved it.

Colleen Low

Came here on a 'Tuesday at 9 am. Our female waiter was so nice! The chicken was moist with a wonderful exterior crunch! The biscuits are to die for - a buttery moist perfectly dense and flaky interior, and the crust was perfectly browned. The jambalaya is flavored perfectly with no one ingredient overpowering the dish. It also has ample, well seasoned chicken and the rice is not soggy nor mushy. It was beautiful? The eggs and ham Benedict was lovely which was over a biscuit and the poached eggs were perfect. The hollandaise sauce was absolutely yummy and the right consistency :) The cappuccino was a joy cause I was still flying from the caffeine for some time! Oh, the jam spread that came with the biscuits was delicious too.

Shawn dunn

I absolutely loved this place and their food. I ordered the shrimp and spicy grits, and they tasted just like the ones that I ordered when I was in New Orleans. My family also ordered some Po'boys that had sausage, and another ordered the vegan items. They were all so delicious. I highly recommend this place if you're in the Oakland area. It was super good. 👌

The shrimp and grits are very tasty! The cornbread and gravy are both fantastic. Thick but not too thick, lots of flavor. The fried chicken is very crispy. I would avoid the tofu sloppy Joe next time. Also the spinach is a little too salty. Overall good experience and I like that they have small sized sides so we can try many different things.shrimp

Annette Terry

Service was great food was good, we had Shrimp Po boys and red beans and rice. The food was ok a little greasy, they give you a decent amount of shrimp compared to a lot of places. Once I added a little hot sauce to the red beans and rice I would definitely order it again. Loved the service made us feel very welcomed and checked on us often.

Darlene Gray

I've only dined in once service was not good at all. Server was very rude. He kept going outside to smoke. And I had a problem with that, since he was handling our plates, and he was very rude. When I asked him to wear gloves, so I didn't want to go back. Because after that, we didn't get any additional service. No, one checked in on us. We're sitting there not being offered refills on our drink, wanting to take food to go or even pay for our food. We were ignored for more than 30 minutes. But since then, I just decided to do DoorDash or pick up to go. To avoid any frustrations

D P

Let me start with the positives. The gumbo was good, the fried oysters were prepared perfectly. Now the bad, the beignets were completely wrong and tasted like the oil they were fried in. I've been to Louisiana dozens of times and have had beignets every time. These were not beignets, they were dense and heavy. The biggest disappointment was they were a buy one get one free. I threw them out.

How this place has got really good ratings is beyond me, good service, nice people but this food is overrated and way too expensive. 160 for 3 of us gumbo was average not much flavour,the one meat and three side was okay the sausage,beans and rice had little to no flavour,zero seasoning on the sausage or rice super plain, chicken gumbo as a side was bland barely any taste to it. Catfish was cooked well liked the batter but same thing dull, collard greens were also flavourless and the broth or water they was in was also flavour less . The mac and cheese is definitely not homemade, tastes exactly like the Costco one wouldn’t be surprised if it was. Overall good hospitality but bland food, anyone who thinks it’s amazing needs to go out of state or America and eat some nice food not worth the hype expensive and dull. None of my family even finished half the plate so disappointing plus for three of us it was nearly 200 dollars 160 and 20 percent tip. Go to a cheap fried chicken restaurant save yourself some money.

Raul Anthony (Xxenial Hair Studio)

I had a few doctors appointments at Kaiser in Oakland this morning on Wednesday, December 10. I had about two hours in between appointments and I was looking forward to checking out. Brenda‘s just down the street from Kaiser. I walked in was not greeted until one of the counter staff told me That the host/server would be with me shortly. It wasn’t that crowded. There is plenty of seating for one I noticed he was serving at a table that was right by the entrance and he was talking on one of the clients phone with someone apparently they knew each other so he was on that phone conversation with his back to the door For good six minutes. When he finally ended that phone call the counter person said you have One waiting for dine in. He looked at me. He put his menus away and walked to go get someone some water. He never acknowledged me. He never said I’ll be right with you. He completely ignored me. I was willing to tip at 30 or 40% like I always do so instead of putting up with that I cross the street and walked down to Mama‘s Royal Café always great service good classic breakfast foods and fresh hot food. I’ve been to Brenda‘s in San Francisco many many times.The food is always delicious. The service is on point every time. maybe the one in Oakland needs a little retraining on Customer Service.

Christina Nguyen

When first stepping in, the host told us they think 2 parties were in front of us but were unsure because the battery for their iPad seating system just died. Then after standing around idly while they were fumbling to set up the patio covers for the outside seating with just the host setting it up, we were told that we would be texted shortly when it was our turn. Did not receive a text, but we ended up going back inside to wait since it was raining and since they saw us there, they verbally told us they can seat us. They sat us at the very edge of the outside seating patio and my boyfriend could feel the rain coming down on him. We had to scooch the table in ourselves to get him out of the rain. When it was time to order our food or pay for the check, the waiting staff was going back and forth because of pressing wrong things or whatever other reason. Getting to the point of when our food came out, I was pretty excited because it looked delicious, but the looks were deceiving. The fried chicken had a very nice crunch but was lacking in flavor and tasted like flour and oil. The fried catfish and grits were also lacking in flavor which was said to come with spicy tomato bacon gravy. The gravy was not spicy and was actually sweet, a bit too sweet. The grits did not have much flavor until paired with the melted cheese on top. The fried catfish was soggy because it was smothered in the tomato sauce. I also overheard another table which had gotten there before us which had not been able to order by the time we were already paying for the bill. Overall, I wanted to enjoy it but it was very hard to due to the food lacking in flavor and the very disorganized service (it also wasn’t that busy).

This is sad to do!!! I really enjoy the food here at Brenda’s. I have been going here for years and love everyone that works here I have been able to meet Brenda herself. It is an all around great experience…… up until a new manager was hired. We came in at 740pm and ordered. Note the restaurant doesn’t close until 9 at this time before the new hour change. And 830 pm comes and the manager comes up and tells us that they can’t close the registers until we pay. Note we just got our food less than 10 min before she came over. And continued to stare at us until, I was so uncomfortable we just paid and left. Leaving our food behind. It was such a disappointment in service. I’m sorry Brenda but while she still works there we will not return. I hope all the best.

Tip P

Sorry I should've known better for the poor service. The guy had attitude, then he sent another guy with dirty nails to serve me my chocolate. He actually went somewhere else trying to find me. I knew better, but a friend recommended. SO I rode it out, but didnt even finish food, 3rd sign.Soon as I left. I took a long nap, woke up sick and threw up all my food in my stomach all day. I filled two small bags up with vomit. I was sick all day. Never again. First and last time visiting this place. When I get a bad vibe, I know to leave. Smdh. Sick on the highest nasty meal I ever experience. Just wow!!!