Sharp restriction theory and the finite field extension problem have both received much attention in the last two decades, but so far they have not intersected. In this talk, we discuss our first results on sharp restriction theory on finite fields. Even though our methods for dealing with paraboloids and cones borrow some inspiration from their euclidean counterparts, new phenomena arise which are related to the underlying arithmetic and discrete structures. The talk is based on recent joint work with Cristian González-Riquelme (https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.16647)