It is early evening in the middle of the week, and downtown Redwood City is bustling. Whether someone is craving coffee and bagels, a weekend brunch, a gourmet Italian dinner, or an evening with friends, Redwood City offers it all.
With a population of about 80,000, the city has become a major culinary destination on the peninsula, attracting restaurant owners and patrons. Crowds fill densely packed restaurants late into the night.
Starting as a temporary measure during the COVID-19 pandemic, Redwood City permanently closed a portion of Broadway Street to vehicular traffic in January 2024. This area alone has seen several highly anticipated restaurant openings recently. But it wasn’t always this vibrant.
City leaders and local businesses have made downtown Redwood City a growing culinary destination. One such person is Amanda Anthony, an economic development manager for Redwood City, who helped create dining and downtown guides to promote restaurants.
“The work done by the planning division helped make Redwood City an attractive place for businesses downtown. This provided a steady daytime customer base for all of these restaurants,” Anthony said.
According to Anthony, 29 restaurants opened downtown between 2021 and 2024 — 14 in 2024 alone — with three more expected to open soon.
Anthony has also been working with the Downtown Business Group to plan events that bring more visitors to the area and to highlight business stories in the city’s economic development newsletter.
“With all the new housing downtown, it keeps the area busy and interesting after all of those office workers leave,” Anthony said.
Mazra, a restaurant famous for its authentic Levantine cuisine that opened last year, is in the running for the much-coveted 2025 James Beard Award for best chef in California.
Jordan Makableh, co-owner of Mazra, explained the restaurant’s decision to locate to Redwood City.
“Locating Mazra in Redwood City was a natural choice for us. It’s a diverse, growing community that allows us to reach different parts of the Bay while staying connected to our roots,” Makableh said.
Mazra was largely destroyed by a kitchen fire in June 2024 but was able to bounce back.
“Customer interaction is huge for us. We’re not just serving food; we’re building relationships. The fire really showed us how strong that bond is. Seeing the community rally around us was incredible,” Makableh said.
Margaret Hoogerbeets, a longtime resident of Redwood City and a local realtor, credits the city council for its foresight and investments.
“In 2011, the city adopted the Downtown Precise Plan to guide the area’s revitalization. At the time, the economy was recovering from the Great Recession, making it a perfect moment for Redwood City to implement a blueprint for its future,” Hoogerbeets said.
The successful execution of this vision by the Redwood City Council over the last two decades helped achieve Redwood City’s urbanization goals.
Hoogerbeets says Redwood City’s central location on the peninsula — bordering Menlo Park, Palo Alto, and San Carlos, where residential and commercial rents are high — is important.
“Redwood City offers relatively more affordable rents while still attracting customers from these affluent areas. It has become an appealing spot for new restaurants,” Hoogerbeets said.
The thriving restaurants that breathe new life into downtown Redwood City further validate the efforts of Anthony and various city departments to plan, deliver, and continue executing their vision of a bustling, vibrant, and fun downtown.
“My job is to build a supportive environment and the infrastructure to make these businesses successful, and I’m working hard at that,” Anthony said.
