Where in the East Bay do you live? I'm currently in Santa Cruz but thinking of relocating. I haven't spent any time in East Bay, but the view from the 680 is that it's essentially the same as South Bay. I hadn't considered looking there.
But things are always distorted when you view from the highway.
Anything north of berkeley and you run into the same suburbia that exists in the south bay with your applebees and big box stores. Emeryville is like that too, but the North Oakland/Berkeley area is really nice and downtown Oakland is getting better and better.
I just moved to the north west corner of oakland (what realtors like to cal NOBE) and it's a really nice place to live. Close to ashby/macarthur bart, temescal, and the "suburbia" crap in emeryville that can be handy to have close at by even if I don't want to spend any time there.
If you are thinking of buying the competition is stiff. Took my wife and I 7 months and 6 offers to land a place. We love SF, but the cost of rent and not having an outdoor space made the east bay very attractive. I love it.
In Oakland, I'd some nice parts of Lake Merrit, Chinatown and Temescal. Rockridge is nice, if thoroughly yuppified. Richmond's Marina Bay and El Cerrito are both thoroughly nice and BART-adjacent, if a bit too suburban and removed.
Alameda is a fabulously-kept secret. The ferry commute is splendid and with the exception of a rough area on the west side, it's like walking around Mayberry. Shopping isn't terrible.
If you're like me and don't care for a bar-crawl nightlife and would prefer to stay in and read (and own a car, though this isn't as important), you'll love Alameda. Don't tell anybody how good it is to live in Alameda, though, they'll all move here.
Speaking of ferry commutes, I wish there were way more ferries doing service from all points in the East and South bay to/from the peninsula. If they did, it might be feasible to do a bike commute from the East bay to more parts of the peninsula.
I <3 Alameda and wish I could afford to move there.
Lucky 13 + Scolari's is Alameda's Toronado + Rosamund's (though the beer selection isn't up to par)
Ark (on Park St) is one of my favorite Chinese restaurants in the bay area: hand-pulled noodles, braised egg tofu, and good green onion pancakes.
Park St feels somewhat like a "small down" downtown, similar to San Luis Obispo's but without all the college bars.
There are lots of beautiful Victorian-style houses, and there are some good school districts. Much of the island is on bad liquefaction zones, but there are nice parts that aren't.
But things are always distorted when you view from the highway.