WALNUT CREEK, CA — Three new restaurants opened at Broadway Plaza this year. All three are worth a visit. Only one is worth crossing town for.
Broadway Plaza hasn’t always been a dining destination. For years it was shopping first, food second — a place you grabbed a bite between Nordstrom and Apple. That changed fast. True Food Kitchen, Original Joe’s, and Cholita Linda opened within months of each other, and suddenly the outdoor mall had a restaurant row that could hold its own against downtown Walnut Creek’s dining scene.
They couldn’t be more different. One serves a $48 veal parmesan under chandeliers. Another sells $4 fish tacos at a counter. The third is built around an anti-inflammatory food philosophy and somehow makes it taste good anyway. Here’s what to expect at each.
Cholita Linda — The One Worth Crossing Town For
| Location | Broadway Plaza, Walnut Creek · Website · Google Maps |
| Cuisine | Latin American street food, scratch-made |
| Range | $8–$18 (entrées) |
| Vibe | Loud, bright, counter-service, genuinely fast |
Cholita Linda does one thing and does it beautifully: handmade Latin American food, from scratch, at a price that doesn’t make you flinch. The fish tacos come on soft corn tortillas with fresh salsa, crema, and pickled onions — bright, clean, and exactly what you want on a warm Walnut Creek afternoon. The Cubano sandwich gets pressed hot until the pork leaks juice into the bread. You’ll need extra napkins. It’s the best sandwich at Broadway Plaza, and it isn’t close.
The dining room is loud and bright, the line moves fast, and the staff seems genuinely happy to be there. That’s rarer than it should be. At $8–$18 for a meal made with real care, this is the kind of place you can eat at twice a week without your wallet complaining — and plenty of locals do.
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Original Joe’s — Martini First, Questions Later
| Location | Broadway Plaza, Walnut Creek · Website · Google Maps |
| Cuisine | Classic Italian-American, steakhouse |
| Range | $18–$48 (entrées) |
| Vibe | White tablecloths, tuxedoed servers, bar that hums by 5:30 |
Original Joe’s has been a Bay Area institution since 1937, when Croatian immigrant Tony Rodin opened a 14-stool counter on Taylor Street in San Francisco’s Tenderloin. Nearly 90 years later, the Walnut Creek location carries the tradition forward with white tablecloths, tuxedoed servers, and a bar that’s become a destination in its own right.
The menu reads like a time capsule: veal parmesan, chicken cacciatore, New York steaks, and the famous Joe’s spaghetti and meatballs. Nothing is deconstructed. Nothing is served on a slate board. Nobody calls anything “elevated.” It’s classic Italian-American food served in a room that feels like a special occasion even when it’s Tuesday.
The bar fills up by 5:30 on weeknights. If you want a seat, show up early or make peace with standing. The martinis are cold, the Manhattans are generous, and the bartenders have been doing this long enough that you don’t need to explain what “dry” means.
View the menu · Read Yelp reviews
True Food Kitchen — Health Food That Doesn’t Taste Like It
| Location | Broadway Plaza, Walnut Creek · Website · Google Maps |
| Cuisine | Seasonal, wellness-driven California fare |
| Range | $16–$36 (entrées) |
| Vibe | Bright, airy, best patio at Broadway Plaza |
True Food Kitchen was built around Dr. Andrew Weil’s anti-inflammatory food philosophy. That branding usually means one of two things: genuinely good food that happens to be healthy, or sad kale bowls that make you question your life choices. This is the first kind.
The butternut squash pizza with cranberries and goat cheese is the sleeper hit — sweet, savory, and impossible to replicate at home. The grass-fed burger with caramelized onion and white cheddar holds its own against dedicated burger joints. The seasonal cocktail program rotates quarterly with fresh-pressed juices and house-made shrubs, and here’s the thing: the non-alcoholic options are better than most bars’ alcoholic ones.
The patio stretches wide along the plaza and fills up on warm evenings. It’s easily the best outdoor dining at Broadway Plaza. On a Friday night with a cold drink and that pizza, you can almost forget you’re eating next to a mall.
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The Bottom Line
Cholita Linda — The weekly go-to. Best fish tacos at the Plaza, best Cubano in town. $8–$18.
Original Joe’s — Where you take your in-laws. Martini-first energy, 90 years of practice. $18–$48.
True Food Kitchen — Where you go when you want to feel good about what you ate without sacrificing what it tasted like. Also: that patio. $16–$36.
All three are within a two-minute walk of each other at Broadway Plaza. Park once, eat twice — tacos at Cholita Linda, a martini at Joe’s, dessert at True Food. That’s a better Saturday afternoon than most Bay Area cities can offer. More new restaurants to keep an eye on →
