Bird & Buffalo

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Bird & Buffalo: Michelin-Recommended Thai in Oakland | Wattafork

Bird & Buffalo: A Taste of Isan in Oakland

On Oakland’s Telegraph Avenue, Bird & Buffalo brings the bold, herb-driven cooking of Thailand’s northeastern Isan region to the Bay Area. The restaurant has earned a Michelin recommendation for its focused menu of grilled meats, punchy salads, and deeply flavored curries—food that is direct, vivid, and built for sharing.

The menu reads like a greatest hits of Isan street food. The grill is the heart of the kitchen, turning out Gai Yang (half a chicken), pork spare ribs, and pork cheeks, each served with a cabbage slaw and your choice of three house-made sauces: a sweet chili vinaigrette, a spicy chili tamarind, or a tom yum aioli. Don’t skip the house-made roasted chili dip—available mild or “Pretty Darn Hot”—which the staff calls a favorite.

Larb, the classic Thai spicy salad, appears in several versions: tofu and mushroom, chicken, fried catfish, and grilled pork cheeks. Each is tossed with chili, shallots, cilantro, scallion, mint, roasted rice powder, and fresh lime, and served with lettuce wraps for scooping. The somtum (green papaya salad) comes in three styles—Thai, Lao (with salted crab and fish paste), and a Fully Loaded version with rice vermicelli and pork cracklins.

Among the noodle and curry options, the Kao Soi stands out: a coconut curry noodle soup topped with crisp fried noodles, served with a choice of tofu and vegetables, braised chicken, or braised beef. The Spicy Drunken Noodle, a fat rice noodle stir-fry with holy basil and green peppercorn, is another crowd-pleaser.

Bird & Buffalo also offers a Deluxe Set for two—a curated mix of somtum, larb, grilled meat, sticky rice, and dipping sauces—perfect for those who want to taste across the menu. And for lunch, the Thad P-sed Lunch Combo (11:30–2:00) packages four top dishes with rice, garlic green beans, and a petite treat.

The atmosphere is casual and welcoming, the kind of place where you can settle in for a leisurely meal with friends or grab a takeaway order for later. As the team says: Chai Yo! (Cheers.)