Los Moles Emeryville, Emeryville

Unlike many Mexican-food menus, the one at Los Moles—like the restaurant's name itself—puts a complex sauce front and center.

To make this house specialty, Chef Saldaña relies on family recipes, using everything from guajillo chilies to mangos and pumpkin seeds to make seven varieties of mole, which flavor grilled chicken breasts, enchiladas, and tiger prawns.

Even the drink menu gets a splash of mole, with bartenders mellowing the sauce's deep flavor with lime juice and agave nectar, or spicing it up with habanero and an IPA draft. Not all drinks are this unconventional, however; bartenders also make classic cocktails such as mojitos and house sangria, as well as seven styles of michelada.