SF Indian Restaurant Week Opens for Diwali After Día de los Muertos

The Diwali edition of San Francisco's Indian Restaurant Week is running for two weeks from Nov. 1 through Nov. 14, 2026, uniting six immigrant-helmed kitchens for special holiday tasting menus starting at $75 and $85, according to 48 Hills food writer Tamara Palmer.

Six San Francisco Chefs Curate Regional Diwali Tasting Menus

Organized by Ranjan Dey, chef and owner of New Delhi Restaurant, in partnership with Consul General of India Satish Sivan and the Consulate General of India in San Francisco, the biannual invitation-only showcase held its preview gathering at Taj Campton Place on September 24 and returns in the spring for Holi. Drawing from culinary traditions across India's 28 states and 5,000 years of heritage, the six participating chefs are:

• Ashish Tiwari (ROOH)
• Srijith Gopinath (Copra)
• Pujan Sarkar (Tiya)
• Shibiraj Saha (Amber India)
• Ranjan Dey (New Delhi Restaurant)
• Thomas George (Bombay Brasserie)

Thousands Gather in Oakland and San Jose for Día de los Muertos

Across the Bay, NBC Bay Area reported that tens of thousands of residents filled Oakland's Fruitvale neighborhood on Sunday for one of the city's largest free Día de los Muertos festivals. Carrying the 2026 theme "La Lucha Continúa: Aquí Estamos Y No Nos Vamos" ("the struggle continues: we are here and we're not leaving"), the Fruitvale celebration featured traditional ofrendas (altars), live music, Latin American artisans, and a low-rider showcase. In the South Bay, San Jose's Children's Discovery Museum hosted its own Día de los Muertos celebration—supported by a City of San Jose Cultural Affairs grant—with traditional Aztec dancing, calacas giant skeleton puppet processions, craft stations, and a stop at "Lupe," the museum's 14,000-year-old mammoth specimen.

Marking the wider turn toward the winter holiday calendar as Halloween ended at 12 a.m. on Nov. 1, NBC Bay Area also noted that Grammy winner Mariah Carey—who has sold more than 200 million albums and topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 22 cumulative weeks with her 1994 hit "All I Want For Christmas Is You"—released her annual midnight video, performing her 1990s alt-rock song "Hermit" (written under the name Chick) at a New York City club before hitting her signature whistle-register "it's time" announcement.