Menlo Park's Dinner Map Now Runs Down Oak Grove Avenue

"It's funny because we were the first one, and now we are the last one." That's Humberto Galeano, bar director at Burma Food Group, talking to The Almanac this June. His company opened Burma Love as the first restaurant at Springline in July 2023. On June 11, 2026, it opened Alisios Mexican Cocina in the same development, and that filled the last open restaurant space there.

This year's three biggest downtown restaurant arrivals were Causwells in April, Shiok! Singapore Kitchen in the spring, and Alisios in June. All three have Oak Grove Avenue addresses. Over the same months, Menlo Park's City Council was rewriting the rules for Santa Cruz Avenue because so many storefronts there sat empty. If you're deciding where to have dinner this fall, it helps to know why the new places opened where they did.

How Springline filled its last restaurant space

The Alisios space was supposed to belong to someone else. It was first planned for Mírame, but that deal was terminated. About five months later, Presidio Bay Ventures, which owns Springline, approached Burma Food Group and asked whether it would open a Mexican restaurant there.

Founder Desmond Tan told The Almanac the team knew how a Burmese restaurant group opening a Mexican restaurant might look, so they studied Mexican food and history before committing. He hired executive chef Carlos Villegas, who grew up in Tijuana. Villegas built a menu around Oaxaca and Baja flavors, and many of the recipes come from his family. The birria is his grandmother's recipe, and the salsa macha is his mother's. Prices on the opening menu included smoked oysters served on an edible squid-ink shell at $19.75 for three, and duck breast with black mole at $41.75.

When one owner controls a whole block of restaurant space, an empty storefront doesn't have to wait for someone to find it. The owner can pick the cuisine the block is missing and go looking for an operator. The same thing happened at Springline's other change this year. Causwells began service on April 2 at 550 Oak Grove Avenue, in the space Canteen used to occupy. Chef-owner Adam Rosenblum and co-owner Elmer Mejicanos brought their San Francisco bistro down the Peninsula with a substantially reworked menu. Eater SF's preview listed the burger, fried chicken, prime rib and weekend brunch.

Springline's July 2026 directory lists nine food and drink tenants:

• Alisios Mexican Cocina: contemporary Mexican food and a full bar, opened June 11, 2026
• Causwells: American bistro food and cocktails, opened April 2, 2026
• Burma Love: tea leaf salad, curries, platha and mohinga, open since July 2023
• Barebottle Brewing Company: its own beers, natural wines, nonalcoholic drinks and empanadas, open since July 2023
• Andytown Coffee Roasters: coffee, pastries and Irish soda bread
• Proper Food: grab-and-go breakfasts, salads, soups and wraps
• Robin: omakase with no printed menu, plus sake, Japanese whisky and wine
• Che Fico Parco Menlo: Italian taverna food, including handmade pasta, naturally fermented pizza and gelato
• Bubbelah: fast-casual food from the Jewish diaspora, including mezze, soups, breads and falafel, in the space il Mercato di Che Fico used to occupy

That's nine kitchens in one development, from coffee in the morning to omakase at night.

The restaurant that came back to the same street

Shiok! Singapore Kitchen moved to Oak Grove Avenue for a different reason. Co-owner Dennis Lim's family ran the restaurant at 1137 Chestnut Street starting in 1999. When that building sold, the new owner required Shiok! and the other tenants, Gerry's Cakes among them, to leave by January 1, 2025. Lim told The Almanac he drove up and down the Peninsula looking for space. While he searched, the restaurant ran as takeout and delivery only, out of a ghost kitchen in Redwood City.

The restaurant has since reopened at 625 Oak Grove Avenue, the former Lotus Restaurant space, with the same kitchen staff and several returning servers. After the move, the family renovated much of the space themselves. His brother-in-law did the carpentry, his sister did the gardening, and his wife helped build the seating. Customers also volunteered time and donated items for the new dining room. Lim calls Singaporean cooking "the original fusion cuisine," with Chinese, Indian, Malay, Indonesian, Thai and European influences on the menu.

Shiok! isn't part of Springline, but the two are only a short walk apart. That puts Singaporean, Burmese, Mexican, Italian, Japanese and American bistro food all within a few minutes of each other on the same street.

What Santa Cruz Avenue is working with

Santa Cruz Avenue has run under different rules. The city's El Camino Real/Downtown Specific Plan, adopted in 2012, kept ground-floor uses on the avenue narrow on purpose, to protect a retail streetscape. City officials and property owners have said for years that downtown has a retail vacancy problem, with large storefronts empty and rents higher than many retailers can pay. At the June 23 council meeting, Councilmember Drew Combs said: "The specific plan has been almost a complete failure as it relates to actually revitalizing Santa Cruz Avenue."

The council unanimously approved a scaled-back package that took effect right away.

1. Salons, spas and similar personal-service businesses can now open on the ground floor without a conditional use permit. Before, they were generally limited to upper floors.
2. Gyms, arcades and other small-scale recreation businesses, which used to be prohibited, can now apply for use permits, each reviewed by the Planning Commission.
3. Banks can seek permits but are capped at 30,000 square feet on the street in total, and existing ones already take up about 28,000.
4. Big retail spaces can put limited office use in their back portions, subject to approval and community benefit fees.

The request came from Windy Hill Ventures, which owns and recently renovated 870 Santa Cruz Avenue. It had argued that the old rules made big, expensive spaces hard to lease. The Almanac's report didn't name any incoming tenants. Springline can approach an operator and offer a space. On Santa Cruz Avenue, the city has widened what each property owner is allowed to lease to, and filling the storefronts is still up to those owners one at a time.

The avenue still has a draw. Yeobo, Darling, at 827 Santa Cruz Avenue, was added to the Michelin Guide on March 25, 2026. The city is also rebuilding the 600 Block Public Plaza. The city's plans for the finished plaza include landscaping, shade canopies and space for performances, and new public seating opened on May 31. According to the city's July 14, 2026 work plan update, the furniture is in, the full build-out is still in design, and consultant proposals were expected in late July. The update gives no completion date.

The fall calendar follows the restaurants

Springline also runs its own events, and they take place at the development, not on the avenue. Its Oktoberfest ran September 18 and 19 at Springline Plaza, with German beer, music, food vendors and games. The upcoming public dates:

• October 23: Barks & Boos, Halloween Edition, a free event at the Glade Dog Park with music, food, drinks, a pet costume contest and pet vendors. Barebottle is listed as a beverage vendor.
• December 5: Springline's 5th Annual Holiday Celebration, which is open to the public.

The October 29 Halloween party on the same calendar is for Springline residents only. We didn't find any fall 2026 events listed for the 600 Block Public Plaza.

Elsewhere in town, the news this year was closings

Away from downtown, 2026 has mostly brought goodbyes. Dashi Japanese Restaurant, near Willow Road and Hamilton Avenue, was reported to be closing for good on July 3 after its landlord ended the lease, finishing a 26-year run. At 3535 Alameda de las Pulgas, Lutticken's After 5 served its last meal on August 29, and Lutticken's Deli was scheduled to close September 30. The family told The Almanac it hadn't decided what comes next for the space. The After 5 manager and an investor have both said they're interested in taking it over.

One new food business started this year without any storefront. Since March, Willows resident Vanya Weng has run Kirana Bakehouse, a home-based microbakery that bakes sourdough to order and delivers in Menlo Park, Palo Alto and Atherton.

Restaurant hours and menus change quickly, so check a place's current schedule before you go. For dinner this week, though, Menlo Park's newest restaurants are clustered along Oak Grove Avenue from El Camino Real to the 600 block, from Barebottle's taproom to Shiok!'s new dining room.

When the streets around you change this quickly, it can also change what your own home is worth. Vicki Ferrando follows what's opening, closing and getting rezoned across Menlo Park, and can show you how it affects your property. Request your complimentary market valuation.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.