Top image: Adega on Alum Rock Avenue in San José’s Little Portugal. Photo: GualdimG / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Adega sits at 1614 Alum Rock Ave., between 33rd and 34th streets in San José’s Little Portugal. It holds an unusual place in the city’s dining history: it won San José’s first Michelin star, lost the star, won it back, closed, and then reopened.
What the menu says
Adega serves dinner Wednesday through Sunday starting at 5 p.m., according to its website. Its private-dining page, checked Nov. 1, lists a tasting menu at $125 per person, and the menus page also describes a shorter menu.
The posted policies include a 5% surcharge the restaurant says goes to a living wage for staff, and a corkage fee of $99 per bottle with a limit of three bottles. Private dining requires $500 per party plus a 20% service charge. The wine list has more than 500 Portuguese wines, the restaurant says. Adega says it cannot offer a vegan menu or accommodate severe allergies.
Who’s behind it
Adega is owned by Carlos and Fernanda Carreira. The kitchen is run by chef David Costa and pastry chef Jessica Carreira, who met at Eleven, a restaurant in Lisbon, according to Eater SF. The family also runs Petiscos, which holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, and Pastelaria Adega.
What the critics have said
Adega opened in December 2015 and earned a Michelin star in October 2016, the first for a San José restaurant, according to its history and Eater SF. It kept the star for 2017, lost it in 2018 and regained it in 2021. The restaurant closed in December 2023, when the space became Petiscos 2, and Adega reopened on Nov. 15, 2024.
Writing for Haute Living in September 2025, Fran Miller described the room as “airy and modern” and noted the all-Portuguese wine list. The San Jose Blog, in a July 2026 roundup of Bay Area Michelin restaurants, reported that Adega is not on the 2026 starred list while Petiscos still holds its Bib Gourmand. The Chronicle could not independently confirm Adega’s current Michelin status because the guide’s site was not reachable.
The record
Santa Clara County’s DineOut inspection portal could not be reached when this column was prepared. The Chronicle will add Adega’s latest inspection record once it can be retrieved.
The long view
Adega’s path says something about East San José. A family restaurant in a working-class Portuguese neighborhood put the city on the fine-dining map, then had to reorganize and reopen in a market where labor costs show up on the bill as a separate surcharge. For a city that is often compared unfavorably with San Francisco on dining, Adega remains an example of what an independent family restaurant can achieve.
The Reported Table is built from published menus, public records and other critics’ published reviews. The Chronicle does not award stars and our reporters do not claim tastings. Restaurants may send corrections to editor@southbaychronicle.com.
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