There is probably an editor over at the Chronicle who thinks that making the Top 100 a ranked list is controversial and fun, sparking conversation and argument. But it's actually just deeply misguided and insulting to chefs. Period.

The Chronicle's loved and hated Top 100 has just received its first annual update since it was revived last year by new critic MacKenzie Chung Fegan and Associate Critic Cesar Hernandez. And while they've corrected a couple of the obvious snubs from last year, the list continues to have two fundamental flaws: it's ranked rather than just alphabetized as it was under critics Michael Bauer and Soleil Ho, and it forces completely unjustifiable apples-to-oranges comparisons between Michelin-starred restaurants and sandwich shops.

It's not clear that Fegan was entirely on board with this methodology, but she tries to sell it in a recent video — shot while she was still pregnant and possibly not yet on her maternity leave. "We don't all eat in fine dining restaurants all the time," Fegan says, to justify the diversity of price points.

And in a similar video last year, she asked, "How do you rank a three-Michelin-star spot against a pizza place? A pizza place against a family-run Burmese restaurant?"

The answer is you don't. But Hernandez responded in that video, saying, "I think that there is both artistic merit in a torta from a panaderia and an amuse bouche or a canape from a fine dining restaurant."

The baseline requirements to qualify for the list last year, they said, was the place had to be open at least two days per week (!), and have some kind of seating, even if it was a food truck.

And here's Hernandez this year, discussing how the rankings are considered: "We appraised every restaurant on its own terms, which allowed us the freedom to compare a fine dining joint with, say, a deli — the former might deliver on technical refinement, while the latter might, beyond great sandwiches, meaningfully speak to its community."

Again, apples to oranges.

He was also explaining why one restaurant, Hilda & Jesse in North Beach, jumped 60 slots on the list, from #92 to #32, and the answer seems to be that he finally made it in for dinner and not just brunch. The restaurant offers a brief tasting menu at dinner, and he writes, "When so many luxe dining experiences can feel routine to the point of sterility, Hilda and Jesse proffers that the format should feel like nothing short of a party."

But take, for example, Lazy Bear, which has two Michelin stars, and "debuts" on this year's Top 100 at #100 — it actually appeared on the list under previous critics Michael Bauer in 2018, and Soleil Ho in 2019, but was snubbed last year and is therefore tagged as newly added.

If I had to guess, Lazy Bear fell in the category of expensive and established spot that neither Fegan nor Hernandez had made it to yet when last year's list went to press. The same goes for Ernest (#89) and Saison (#83), which were apparently left off the list last year for no other reason than the critics hadn't dined there, calling to question the integrity of that list, full stop.

And Lazy Bear suffers the indignity of being ranked several notches below an Oakland cofee shop (Alem's Coffee, #90, which serves Eritrean food); Patio Filipino (#96) in San Bruno, whose lumpia is pictured in plastic to-go containers; and Smish Smash, the smashburger stand at the IKEA-adjacent food hall. This is not to disrespect the skill behind those other restaurants' dishes or the deliciousness of those smashburgers (though I'd say they're just fine and not Top 100-worthy, personally). But the staff required, the expense of ingredients, the refinement of the cooking at Lazy Bear should be worth more than a rank at the very bottom of this fairly long list, no?

That feels about as arbitrary as putting Sandy's — the muffuletta sandwich specialist in the Haight, which I love! — at #23 on the list, considerably above the likes of two-Michelin-starred Enclos and Saison, and in the mix with Michelin three-star restaurants Quince (#18) and Benu (#17).

The comparisons aren't really fair to anyone, neither the casual, family-run spots nor the expensive fine-dining spots. And while Michelin may serve as the trusted arbiter for the latter category, they make mistakes and arbitrary snubs as well, and the Chronicle should serve as the local corrective for that. Still missing from the Top 100 are ambitious tasting menu spots like Nightbird and Anomaly that Michelin has ignored. And some other obvious snubs include Foreign Cinema, Commis, Anchor Oyster Bar, SPQR, Pearl 6101, Frances, and Octavia.

The French Laundry remains snubbed, for reasons that are pretty clear, as does Chez Panisse, which fell out of favor under Ho's tenure.

This year's number one is Four Kings, the trendiest Chinatown spot of the last 18 months, which the critics say has only improved in the last year, moving it up the list from #2.

Congrats to The Progress rising to #2 this year, and Jules debuting at #12 — and sorry to Zuni Cafe that they arbitrarily moved you from #10 to #33 without explanation. None of this really makes sense, but for those who made the cut, it should be a boost for business.

[Chronicle top 100 Restaurants]

Previously: French Laundry, Saison, Chez Panisse All Snubbed on Chronicle's New Top 100

Oakland has come out on top in Condé Nast Traveler's latest Readers' Choice Awards ranking of the best US food cities, but San Francisco comes in at number five.

Condé Nast Traveler has just released the 2025 winners of its annual Readers' Choice Awards for travel destinations, hotels, airlines, and more. And in the ranking of destination food cities in the US, Oakland has come in at number one this year.

This may be in no small part to the great diversity of cuisines available in the city, and the sheer number of restaurants — by our estimate, with around 1,500 restaurants, there is one restaurant for every 293 residents in Oakland. And the past year has also seen plenty of buzz around elevated soul food spot Burdell — which was named Food & Wine's Restaurant of the Year in 2024 — and the newly Michelin-starred Sun Moon Studio, which the Chronicle named its favorite restaurant of last year. The city has another Michelin star over at 15-year-old Commis on Piedmont Avenue. (But, ahem, SF has 26 Michelin-starred restaurants, three of them with three stars apiece.)

The magazine also called out the "out-of-the-box pizzas" at Pizzaiolo, and the editors write, "Fruitvale, named after the fruit orchards that dominated this part of town in the mid-19th century, is packed with taco trucks that serve some of the best birria in the country."

Oakland, no doubt, punches above its weight for a city of 440,000 people. And Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee put out a proud statement about the Condé Nast Traveler list, saying, "Oakland has always known what the rest of the country is now discovering — our food is world-class. From North Oakland to East Oakland, West Oakland to the hills, our food scene reflects the diversity, creativity, and resilience that makes our city special."

Lee added, "This recognition celebrates the small business owners and entrepreneurs in every neighborhood who bring our communities together around great food. I'm proud of everyone who makes Oakland's food scene extraordinary."

Condé Nast Traveler says that this year's Readers' Choice Awards are based on more than more than 757,000 votes cast in dozens of categories.

Now, San Franciscans may beg to differ about being ranked fifth on this list, but we nevertheless come out well above New York, Seattle, and Boston — and Los Angeles didn't even make the top 15.

The SF blurb doesn't really scratch the surface of the city's cuisine, or mention any of our 26 Michelin-starred spots. But, the editors write, the city has "one of the highest ratios of mom-and-pop spots to chain restaurants," and "San Francisco is fueled by Pacific seafood, California farmland, and nearby Napa and Sonoma wine regions."

The full list with blurbs is paywalled, but we have the ranking below, which puts New Orleans, Milwaukee, and Chicago in the #2, 3, and 4 slots between Oakland and SF.

1. Oakland
2. New Orleans
3. Milwaukee
4. Chicago
5. San Francisco
6. Lexington, Kentucky
7. Columbus, Ohio
8. Santa Fe
9. New York City
10. San Diego
11. Seattle
12. Boston
13. Honolulu
14. Las Vegas
15. Charleston

Top image: The bar at Burdell, courtesy of the restaurant.

Some controversial cuts were going to be inevitable when the Chronicle's two main food critics set about reviving the Top 100 restaurants list this year. But, call me crazy, just-OK taco shops do not belong in the top 20 when over a dozen Michelin-starred spots are getting snubbed completely.

The top 50 of the Top 100 is now out, and yes, there are some surprises.

Maybe the problem was trying to do a ranked list, which actually feels less useful given that apples and oranges are being compared more often than not. And there's going to be a lot of "Wait, what did they rank higher than Benu?"

In the interest of transparency, critics MacKenzie Chung Fegan and Cesar Hernandez tried to explain their ranking methodology in a Q&A they published last week, but it honestly doesn't explain the arbitrariness of how they chose to rank the quality of the tacos at Oakland's Tacos Oscar (#11) — which are good, don't get me wrong, but maybe not even that stellar? — well ahead of all the Bay Area's one-, two-, and three-star restaurants according to Michelin, except two (#9 SingleThread, and #6 The Progress). It feels like they were trying to be deliberately contrarian about the Michelin pantheon, and also Michael Bauer's tastes, which is fine but also transparent in its contrariness.

"The Bay Area has a long history of culinary titans, many of which were propped up by Chronicle, but I hope this list helps create new ones," Hernandez says in the Q&A. Reading between the lines there, does that mean that the likes of Thomas Keller, Nancy Oakes, and Alice Waters were merely "propped up by the Chronicle"?

I'm not saying that the French Laundry, Boulevard, and Chez Panisse are still restaurants in their prime and keeping things fresh every night. But in creating a guide to the region's best restaurants, should all of them be ignored in favor of the new? Did these two critics even go to all three of these restaurants recently, given budgets and time constraints?

Most of the Michelin two-starred restaurants in the region were left off the list, including Saison, Birdsong, Lazy Bear, Acquerello, and Commis — and again, did they really make it to all of them to judge?

The critics also say in their intro, "There are other lists that will tell you which restaurants are the fanciest or the buzziest, but is that really how we eat?" And then they proceed to rank the two currently buzziest Bay Area restaurants, in terms of the national press, in the #1 and #2 spots: Burdell and Four Kings.

Yes, some of the wrongs of the Michelin inspectors are righted here, like vaulting Rich Table to the top 5 three years after the Michelin Guide callously decided the restaurant needed to lose a star, mid-pandemic. But other deserving restaurants that have been snubbed by Michelin remain snubbed by the Chronicle on this list, like Pearl 1601, SPQR, Ernest, Routier, Frances, and Octavia. All of those should have been in Top 100 contention, surely.

Sure, the list is always going to reflect the particular tastes of the critics themselves, but was the wisdom or fairness of making all these snubs in favor of a deli in Oakland (OK's Deli, #32), and a taco truck in Hayward (Tacos Mama Cuca, #23) really thoroughly debated? I'm sure both are good, but are they substantially better to be ranked higher than Flour + Water (#39) and Mister Jiu's (#66)?

Don't even get me started on the fact that La Taqueria made the cut but Taqueria Cancun did not.

The full list, thanks to a Redditor, is gridded out below. And the full, interactive list with capsule reviews is behind the Chronicle's paywall.

San Francisco always has been a drinking town, and 2024 brought a collection of cool new watering holes in which to wet one's whistle — and one where you can also get your dance on.

While some folks may be trying out healthier lifestyles or opting for lower-ABV imbibing these days, neighborhood bars are and always will be essential "third spaces" for gathering and unwinding. And around the city we saw some great new spots debut in 2024, five of them with food that's as good as the drinks. Check out our top picks of the year below.

Bar 49
Taking over a corner spot in the Castro that has been long cursed with high turnover, Hi Tops alum Colm O'Brien appears to have staying power with Bar 49. The bar-with-food debuted this summer as a wine and beer bar, but it will shortly become a full cocktail bar, with a liquor license that is days or weeks from coming through. The beer and wine selection is thoughtful and on-trend, and the food — especially the beer-battered fried fish, either in slider form or as fish and chips — is solid. This flatiron-shaped space at Market and 16th, once the longtime home of Bagdad Cafe and it's been a dozen things since, has begged for something like this to come along for years, giving the neighborhood another watering hole but with a mature adult vibe.
2295 Market Street

The Bar at Prelude
Tucked in to the gorgeously designed space at Prelude, in the renovated hotel The Jay next to Embarcadero Center, is an equally well designed and cozy cocktail spot that is destined to become a downtown oasis. Bar Director Franco Bilbaeno, who was previously part of the opening team at Angler, has created a cool list of house cocktails that places a selection of zero-proof drinks front and center (don't miss the  Sugar Cane, which is a decent approximation of agricole rhum). In a nod to the restaurant's Southern bent, Bilbaeno has featured a Sazerac and a Vieux Carre, and under the House Imagination section, he's got some whimsical creations, like the Shortstack (pancake-washed Old Forester Rye, Park VSOP, pecan, maple, and absinthe), and the Ramos gin fizz-inspired Magnolia Fizz, with gin, roasted banana, citrus, dairy, egg white, and soda.
333 Battery Street

Saison Cellar & Wine Bar
Sommelier Mark Bright's beautiful, Burgundy-inspired wine bar offshoot of his restaurant Saison, down the street on Townsend, is both a great date spot and has become a clubhouse of sorts for wine lovers in the neighborhood (an actual membership "cellar" is also a couple doors down). The glass and bottle lists run the gamut from very affordable Alsatian whites to baller flights of big-name Bordeaux grand crus and Burgundies. "Affordable luxury" is the aim here, and the food menu even includes an ode to Michael Mina with his signature caviar "parfait."
234 Townsend Street

The Halfway Club
Early this year, industry veterans Ethan Terry and Greg Quinn (Annabelle’s Bar and Bistro, The Alembic) debuted The Halfway Club at the egde of Crocker-Amazon, in the former Broken Record space on Geneva Avenue. It's now the coolest of neighborhood haunts, with some 70s-inspired decor and craveable bar snacks (mmm, toasted ravioli and Cincinatti chili fries), with a name that harkens back to the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge, when construction workers who fell from the bridge but were saved by safety nets became part of an informal group called the Half Way to Hell Club. Also transcending its dive appeal: some very good drinks, including, for the winter months, mulled sangria.
1166 Geneva Avenue

Lilah
Low-ABV and no-ABV cocktails are having a moment, and Lilah — the new offshoot of Causwells in the adjacent space in the Presidio movie theater on Chestnut Street — is meeting that moment with style. Bar manager Elmer Mejicanos has crafted a menu that's both inventive and cheeky, utilizing the latest in low-ABV spirits and quality ingredients to craft cocktails that would fit in on any regular-ABV menu. And for anyone who loves a slushy or shaved ice dessert, there's a whole section of the menu devoted to kakagori drinks — basically shaved ice with booze on top, but these are well balanced and unique, and never sickly sweet. There's also a great menu of Asian-inspired snacks from Causwells chef Adam Rosenblum, including some yummy spiced lime-leaf peanuts and a traditional pork and pate banh mi.
2336 Chestnut Street

Zhuzh
It feels like forever since a new dance bar opened in San Francisco, and Zhuzh scratches that itch in a part of town that could use a break from bro-tastic watering holes. Zhuzh debuted earlier this year off of Polk Street on California, and it's quickly become a go-to spot for those nights when you don't want a quiet cocktail but you don't want to be in a big club either. A selection of tap cocktails make for quick pours when the bar's packed, and inspired by little neighborhood spots in Europe, there will often be a DJ spinning in back, whether it's a Thursday night or a Sunday afternoon. Add to all that it's a laid back, mixed crowd where straights and queers party together (Sundays feature a drag party called Too Gay to Function), and that's as it should be in modern SF.
1548 California Street

Related: The 10 Best New Restaurants In San Francisco of 2024

This was, on a whole, a quiet year for San Francisco restaurants, both in terms of openings, and, if you talk to many restaurant owners, in terms of people actually going out to eat. If the city's usually vibrant dining scene was lacking in the vibrancy department, it was largely because San Franciscans themselves have continued retreating to their meal kits and DoorDash, and forcing some restaurateurs into existential crisis mode.

Still, many of us were still going out to eat, and a few buzz-worthy spots had locals doing their usual line-standing or jockeying for tables online. And, as cost sensitivity has become the central concern for both restaurants and people dining out, we saw some high-profile chefs opting for casual or counter-service concepts, cutting down on their staffing needs.

And since the pandemic, we have continued to see creativity thrive and ambition take root at a number of new spots around town.

Below are SFist's picks for the best new restaurants of the year.

Best New Restaurant Overall: Prelude
Once in a long while, a restaurant comes along that feels as if it's the product of years of notebook ideas, dreams, dish iterations, and a personal point of view. Chef Celtin Hendrickson-Jones stepped into his own kitchen as executive chef in 2024 with Prelude, with the backing of Omakase Restaurant Group and a handsome, den-like dining room and open kitchen by AvroKO Design, and it arrives as just that sort of fully realized place. The menu takes its cues from Southern cooking, with each component thoughtfully layered on the next. Take one dish of smoked catfish dumplings, like barely firm gnocchi with an umami-rich, crayfish etouffee gravy; or a humble fried chicken wing stuffed with dirty rice — a boldly casual choice for a high-end tasting menu, but it works. A multi-hour, eight-course meal needs to have a sense of humor, in addition to a point of you, to keep one guessing and entertained, and Prelude pulls this off in spades. I look forward to seeing what spring and summer look like at this place. (PS: This gorgeous restaurant in the newly renovated The Jay hotel next to Embarcadero Center also has the coziest, coolest new bar oasis in all of downtown.)
333 Battery Street

Best New Vibe: Four Kings
It's both the best thing to happen in Chinatown in a long while, and the most buzzed-about new restaurant of the year — in a year when SF could use a bright spot like this on the national radar. Chefs Franky Ho and Mike Long, who met while working in the kitchen at the Michelin-starred Mister Jiu's nearby (and Ho grew up in the neighborhood), brought a new and youthful vibe to their cozy izakaya-inspired spot on Commercial Street. The soundtrack is 90s Cantopop, the food comes very fast and pairs well with sake and beer, and the flavors are all punchy and delicious. But it's the ideas behind the dishes, like ma po spaghetti, escargot in XO sauce, and Hong Kong black pepper steak with au poivre sauce, that are the most exciting part. And even if you're not a squab fan, do not sleep on the low-key star of the show, the beautifully spiced, marinated fried squab.
710 Commercial Street

Best New Restaurant Masquerading as a Wine Bar: Bar Jabroni
One-time Top Chef contestant chef Robert Hernandez (Season 19, Houston) debuted this restaurant in the Lower Haight this year, adding to that neighborhood's new status as the one most punching above its weight for food. Since opening in March, the menu has already shifted with the seasons and added new delights. The whipped feta appetizer has stayed consistent, and makes for a perfect snack with wine. But any of Hernandez's intricate salads or well conceived, balanced entrees — like the lovely duck ragu pappardelle with salsa verde pictured above — will convince you that this is a place for food first, wine second. The wine selection, nonetheless, is forever interesting, ranging from the funky and natural to the refined, and includes glasses and bottles from around the globe.
698 Haight Street

AB Steak
Chef Akira Back, who's been around the planet with his food but is only now bestowing it on San Francisco, has brought newfound style and elegance to the Korean steakhouse, and to Union Square itself, with AB Steak. The restaurant had a quiet opening this fall, in a massive former nightclub space at 124 Ellis Street. The tables have their own mini-grills, like a Korean steakhouse, and you can order Korean soups like chadol dwen jang jjigae (fermented soybean stew with Wagyu beef), but the similarities end there. There is a Wagyu carpaccio pizza that shouldn't be missed, but the crux of this place lies in the luxury cuts of meat, like Australian Wagyu beef tongue, and 45-day dry-aged ribeye that you can order for your barbecue platters. And, it should be mentioned, the banchan are on point.
124 Ellis Street

Hamburger Project
Some of the best new additions to our dining scene are the simplest. And after gifting us with Handroll Project two years ago, Ju Ni chef Geoffrey Lee brings us this new smashburger outpost on Divisadero that is as simple as they come. The menu consists of three burger options — a classic smashburger with American cheese, an "Oklahoma" version with griddled sweet onions and Peppadew peppers, and a "Wisconsin" version with American cheese, sauteed onions, and whipped butter. Each can be ordered as a single or a double, they're all excellently flavorful and gooey — and the prices, basically unheard of in 2024, start at $6.89. There are also fries, loaded or plain. And because this is 2024 and we have Instagram, there is a $35 caviar add-on, as if that were necessary, but hey, why not if that's your thing?
808 Divisadero Street

Hed11
I've written previously about restaurateur Billie Wannajaro's ambitious Thai tasting menu spot in Japantown, which opened earlier this year. It followed shortly after the debut of Wannajaro's more casual Hed Very Thai in the FiDi, and it features the seasonally inspired cooking of Chef Piriya “Saint” Boonprasan, who previously worked at the Michelin-starred Saawaan in Bangkok. The prix fixe menu ($185) features 11 dishes, served generally in about five courses, with one course I experienced being a khao gaeng course, or "curry over rice," featuring one bowl of several different rices and an array of small dishes to be eaten with it. The food is at turns delicate and thought-provoking and mind-blowingly spicy, but in that delectable, slow-burn way of some Thai cooking. And the wine selections are terrific and well-paired with the food, with a mix of natural and traditional wines.
1800 Sutter Street, inside the Kimpton Hotel Enzo

Little Original Joe's - Marina
The Marina got its long-awaited outpost of the Original Joe's empire this year, and it's a big, bustling, good-time place that's meant to remind us what fun going to eat can be. The restaurant was immediately filled after its late-May debut with gatherings of friends, birthday dinners, and couples on dates, and the vibe is decidedly not mellow. Little Original Joe's features pizza, unlike the original Original Joe's, including the revelation that is the fresh-tomato-and-burrata-topped bruschetta pizza pictured above. There are fun starters like zucchini fries and garlic-parmesan knots. And the menu also features highlights from the Original Joe's repertoire, like chicken parm with prosciutto and vodka sauce (or traditional marinara, your choice), and meat ravioli. And for cocktail lovers, this place has a fine selection of house signatures, and as at the other Joe's restaurants, classic Martinis and Manhattans are properly made, and well chilled.
2301 Chestnut Street

Minnie Bell's Soul Movement
Chef Fernay McPherson brought her ode to grandmotherly Southern cooking to her home neighborhood The Fillmore this year, after several years at the Emeryville Public Market, and we can only hope she stays a long, long while. What the serviceable dining room and bar lack in frills, the kitchen makes up for in excellent, rosemary-scented fried chicken, mac and cheese, house pickles, and cornbread. And locals have already caught on to specials like fried catfish (on Fridays), gumbo, and braised oxtails. Hot sauce fans should not miss out on the house-made hot sauce, which comes with a $3 upcharge but is well worth it.
1375 Fillmore Street

Tartine Pizza
The post-pandemic pivot for Tartine Manufactory lands on this list because it is essentially a new restaurant, after the space went dark in the evenings for four years following the short run of its initial, Cal-Mediterranean iteration under chef Sam Goinsalvos. The new evening menu is focused around sourdough pizza with delicious toppings that put new twists on classic combinations — a white pie leans on the flavors of cacio e pepe pasta, for instance, and the pineapple pizza features a black-garlic tomato sauce and pepperoni. While the pizza is divine, what makes this place shine is the overall vibe, in that lovely, high-ceilinged, industrial space, the cocktails, and starter options like seasonal salads, some terrific meatballs, and some truly amazing black garlic bread topped with caciocavallo and fontal cheeses.
595 Alabama Street

Taste of Old Street
One of the most under-the-radar openings of this year was Taste of Old Street, which arrived in the Richmond back around last new year's. I paid a visit in January and especially loved the Taiwanese beef-stuffed pancake. But this small, humble spot is a gem for its entire Chinese street-food-focused menu, featuring Chengdu-style barbecue skewers ($5-$6) and slow-braised meat soups. There is also a section devoted to $3-$4 skewers that come with Old Chengdu Spicy Pot — a hot pot of spicy broth that, if you like spice, you may want to order spicier, as the owner has been lowering the spice level to cater to more American palates. Just know that the secret is out about this place, it only has a handful of tables, and you need to get there early or wait your turn. (They take limited reservations by phone.)
5336 Geary Boulevard

Honorable mention (because it was a reopening): Merchant Roots
I've raved before about Chef Ryan Shelton and his team and the sheer artistry and theater that's being created nightly at Merchant Roots. But the move this year into much, much bigger digs in SoMa marks a rebirth for this restaurant, which is arguably the most original in concept of any other in San Francisco. The new space will let Shelton his deputies, including talented Chef de Cuisine Christopher King, push the dining experience further into new and whimsical realms — they already converted a small alcove into a recreated "Bubble Room" from an early Willy Wonka-themed menu, in which a machine dispenses edible strawberry-flavored bubbles that you are meant to catch with your mouth. The current winter menu theme is "Humpty Dumpty," featuring eggs and other "broken" things.

Top image: Little Original Joe's/Facebook

It's become a bona fide thing to host a holiday-themed pop-up or "experience" in your bar for the month of December, and that is happening once again at a bunch of spots around San Francisco and beyond.

Whether you feel the need to put on a Christmas light necklace and antlers and go a-wassailing with friends, or you're just a fan of a well crafted toddy, 'tis the season for garlands and kitsch and festive drinks to drown our election sorrows.

These six bars and pop-ups around town offer the most optimal holiday-themed libations and cheer for your money.

The 3rd Annual Causwells Holiday Experience
Over in the Marina, there are a couple of holiday-themed things going on (see Mistletoe, below), but the most interesting drinks in this year's holiday-themed array can probably be found at Causwells. Bar manager Elmer Mejicanos has gone wild with some original Xmas-season creations both here and at the newer, next-door, low-ABV sister spot Lilah — if you're looking to be less tipsy or start slow, don't miss the spiced Old Fashioned at Lilah, or one of the showy kakagori (shaved ice) drinks. In addition to the full menu of Causwells classic drinks and the stellar food menu, the holiday experience menu features two frozen cocktails — I recommend the Elvis Christmas, featuring whiskey, banana, peanut, oloroso sherry, and oat milk — and there's a great tarragon and cranberry-infused Mistletoe Negroni. Also recommended, both for the flavors and the 'gram, The Grinch, which features Cenote blanco tequila, Liquor 43, fig leaf, kiwi, and pandan, and a printed rice-paper image of the Grinch himself, seen above.
2346 Chestnut Street, open daily until 9 or 10 pm

Miracle @ PCH
Maybe the first bar in town to go all-in for Xmas was Pacific Cocktail Haven, which gave itself over to the Miracle pop-up in December 2017 and never looked back. Miracle is now an international phenomenon, with its own merch and a cocktail menu that is standardized across its 120+ locations (including more in the Bay Area), so if specific San Francisco quirk is what you're after, this may not be the place. If, however, you want a brandy drink in a barrel-shaped mug that says "Fa-La-La-La-La" on it that you can purchase and take home, this is your spot. Do note there's a $10 cover, and they take reservations for groups of 6 or more via Tock.
550 Sutter Street, Mon-Sat 3 pm to midnight through December

Mistletoe (multiple locations)
Another multi-location pop-up is happening in three spots around the city this year, and that is Mistletoe, which has taken over The Summer Place on Nob Hill, Wizards & Wands on Lombard, as well as a spot a couple doors up from Miracle at 580 Sutter Street. The space at Wizards & Wands is the largest, next-door to country bar Westwood, and the menu features an Espresso Martini variation, as well as a rum-spiked hot cocoa called the Apres Ski.
801 Bush Street, 580 Sutter Street, 2030 Lombard Street

Sippin' Santa @ Kona's Street Market
Sippin' Santa is the tropical-themed off-shoot of Miracle, and also now happens across dozens of locations around California and the country — including one up at the Flamingo resort in Santa Rosa. Kona's, which is co-owned by PCH founder Kevin Diedrich, gets covered in Christmas lights and other kitsch, and the menu, created by Jeff “Beachbum” Berry, leans heavily toward Tiki drinks, with a spiced White Russian variation called Holiday on Ice, and a Sugar Plum Mai Tai. Like at Miracle, there's a $10 cover.
32 3rd Street, Tues-Thurs 4pm to 10pm, Friday 4pm to 11pm, and Saturday 6pm to 11pm

Winter Wonderland at the Vault Garden
It's the third year of this holiday pop-up at the Vault Garden, with a menu of festive drinks served both cold and hot. This year's menu features a Cognac and rum milk punch of sorts, with persimmon, pineapple, allspice, citrus, and gingersnap-washed milk whey, called Beautiful Sight; and there's a warm drink with chocolate liqueur, Green chartreuse, cinnamon, brown sugar and oat milk, called Happy Tonight. This place has the added bonus of a full, all-day food menu, so you could make lunch or dinner of it, with a solid burger and some Dungeness crab dip.
555 California Street, Monday to Friday 11:30 am to 9 pm

Victorian Holidays @ Elixir
One of the OG cocktail spots in the Mission District, Elixir, serves up some unique holiday-time finds, including aged egg nog — which gets aged in glass for a year before coming out each December. You can also get the regular house nog mixed with the spirit of your choice, and there's a Hot Butt Rum, featuring Elixir's signature Hot Buttered Rum batter, which includes vanilla ice cream, butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, vanilla and cardamom.
3200 16th Street at Guerrero; Mon & Tues 4pm - 10pm; Wed  4pm-12am; Thurs, & Fri 4pm-2am; Sat 12pm-2am; Sun 2pm-10pm

Tis the season, regardless of what you celebrate, to hunker down in a cozy place and warm yourself with a drink — which sometimes has the added benefit of numbing you to the increasingly cruel world outside.

With that in mind, we bring you an updated list of our five top cozy cocktail spots wherein to have a drink on a cold and rainy night in San Francisco, the likes of which we look to be having for at least a few more days.

These also double as great first-date spots in the winter, too, at least during non-busy hours.

Left Door
This one-year-old, very adult cocktail spot on the second floor above the historic Bus Stop Saloon in Cow Hollow is as cozy as they come, with velvet furniture, a fireplace, and some high-end (and pricey) bites you can order to go with your high-end cocktails. The secret is out on this place, so day-of reservations can sometimes be tough to snag, but it doesn't book up too far in advance so make sure to check — otherwise they do take walk-ins if they have room.
1905 Union Street

The Linden Room
Tucked off an alley (Linden Street) in Hayes Valley, Nightbird's attached cocktail bar, the Linden Room, is one of the tiniest bars in the city. If there are more than 10 people inside, it's basically too full, but the stellar, culinary cocktails and cozy vibes are perfect for the rainy season. The brief house-cocktail menu changes with the seasons and you pretty much can't go wrong picking from it, but the bar staff will also gladly make you whatever you're in the mood for. Perfect as a date spot, but be warned, you'd better scout it out for seats first as it fills up quick, and there's barely anyplace to stand.
292 Linden Street

Bar April Jean
North Beach's newest cocktail spot, Bar April Jean, usually has vinyl records spinning on a turntable and has 1970s fern-bar vibes. While the front windows are nice to have swung open on warm days, on cold days the place takes on a cozy, den-like quality, and makes for a great and pleasant oasis amid the sometimes chaotic neighborhood.
1371 Grant Avenue

Last Call
This bar, which still has an old-timey CD jukebox instead of one of those infernal internet jukeboxes, also boasts one of the only fireplaces in the Castro. It's one of those mid-century circular ones suspended from the ceiling, it's a gas model, and it's tucked way in the back of this small, ski-lodge-esque space with a barrel-vault, wood-paneled ceiling. This always cozy spot, with bench seating on one wall, has a majority gay clientele but can also be sort of mixed some nights, and the cocktails are top-notch. An added bonus: There's often some odd or campy older movie playing on the tiny TV screens over the bar.
3988 18th Street

White Cap
Sunset and Richmond dwellers know the importance of a cozy spot wherein to escape the wind and fog at all times of year. And White Cap, which is co-owned by longtime local bar star — and cocktail-ice guru — Carlos Yturria, certainly qualifies. The bar room glows like a golden beacon on chilly nights, and the small gas fireplace is a constant draw. Don't miss the lightly briny White Cap Martini, featuring seaweed vermouth, and do note that they're open seven nights a week.
3608 Taraval Street

Stoa, the one-year-old cocktail bar with food in the Lower Haight from the team behind Nopalito, just landed on a national list of the best new cocktail bars in the country.

Punch Magazine, a cocktail publication for booze nerds and aficionados, just unveiled their 2024 list of the best new bars — a brief list of just five, spanning the entire country.

"It's 2024, and the bar world is not immune from the algorithmic flattening of culture that has shaped so much of our modern world," the Punch editors write. "While the past few years have seen a steady rise in cocktail quality across the board, there's been a palpable rise in sameness occurring in lockstep."

While trends come and go, Punch seeks to honor cocktail spots that more idiosyncratic, bars, they say, "that can tap into the tastes and techniques of the moment and make them [their] own."

In addition to honoring Bar Contra in New York, Miami's Viceversa, and a pair of Midwest newcomers, Public Parking in Madison and Cobra in Columbus, Punch bestows high praise on Stoa, calling it "an altar to quiet minimalism."

They praise bar manager Yanni Kehagiaras, who previously managed the bars at Nopalito and Liholiho Yacht Club, who created a menu of classics and twists on classics where all cocktails "clock in at four ingredients or fewer." This means that Kehagiaras relies "on his studied expertise and deep understanding of his backbar to find perfect balance.

"The fewer the elements, the better," Kehagiaras says.

The editors especially call out the Hedge Maza (a personal favorite), a subtle but delicious riff on a Martini with St. George Spirits Terroir gin, green Chartreuse, and Dolin Blanc vermouth. The recipe is here.

Stoa - 701 Haight Street at Pierce - Open Monday to Saturday at 4 pm

Photo: SFist

To some, 2023 seemed like a down and dismal year to be a San Franciscan, with not much happening that you could count as positive, and the national media seeming to decide — for the umpteenth time — that SF is really "over." But the restaurant scene saw some vibrant, resurgent energy this year, despite all that.

There were a few trends that perhaps pointed both to our post-pandemic cravings and the economics of a restaurant world that is currently pretty gunshy about untested concepts. Italian still seems to be SF's go-to number-one — and that can be said of New York's scene too, where some of the most sought-after tables in recent years are at places like Carbone, Torrisi, and Via Carota. Established restaurateurs here banked on tried-and-true Italian menus with some unique flourishes, and some outstanding results (see below, Mattina, Barberio Osteria, La Connessa, Corzetti, The Rustic).

A city that has long been a destination for all manner of Asian food continues to deliver on unique, high-end, and regionally focused menus that are barely available anywhere else in the U.S. (see below, Prik Hom, Copra, Blue Whale). And San Francisco remains one of the best cities in the country for fine dining, with the reopening of Quince last month, and new Michelin-worthy and/or starred contenders just open in the last year like the A-team of Aphotic, Anomaly, and 7 Adams.

See our picks for the best new additions of the year below.

Best New Fine Dining: Anomaly
Anomaly opened in mid-January 2023, having grown out of a pop-up, and until recently chef Mike Lanham's intimate Lower Pac Heights tasting menu adventure had flown below my radar. The dining room may feel like you're stepping into an 80s time capsule of nouvelle cuisine austerity, but Lanham's food is all about fun and surprise, and full of thoughtful, original, sensual pleasures. Take his "Soup + Ice" course on the recent "Sweater Weather" menu — a dish of creamy, warm fennel soup served over nitrogen-frozen lemon-dill butter that creates a theatrical, stage-fog flourish as it's served, and is delicious to boot. Or the custard of lime, yam, and Hokkaido uni that beautifully marries flavors of the sea, summer, and fall. Tasting menus may be less fashionable these days, but chefs with Lanham's wit and talent can still win you over with plate-by-plate storytelling that leaves you with taste memories that linger for weeks.
2600 Sutter Street, reserve here

Most Delicious Overall: Dalida
The historic, tucked-away Presidio space that was home to The Commissary in the last decade deserved to be brought alive and made into a destination again. And after an unfortunate false start with Noosh a couple years back, married chefs Laura and Sayat Ozyilmaz have finally landed here, which is a worthy stage for their terrific food and buzzy ambiance. While I could recommend the insanely good Octopus & Sujuk — a dish of thinly sliced octopus served with olive-caper dressing and sujuk, a spicy dried pork sausage — or the must-have housemade pita with Middle Eastern dips (dubbed Breaking Bread, on the menu), I have the sense that you can't go wrong no matter what direction your meal takes here. Dalida is a love letter to the melting pot of cuisines that transcends the borders between Europe, the Middle East and Asia — as the Ozyilmazes says, "It's a little Turkish, a little Greek, Armenian, Jewish, Arabic and Persian." And the unique, Eastern European-leaning wine list by wine director Ruth Frey and internationally inspired cocktail list by bar director Evan Williams only add delights and nuances to the experience.
101 Montgomery Street (the Presidio one), reserve here

Best New Prix Fixe Deal: 7 Adams
The husband-and-wife team of David Fisher and Serena Chow Fisher got plenty of buzz from their first SF restaurant, Marlena, earning a Michelin star and accolades for their reasonably priced prix fixe menus. In the spring of 2023 they closed their restaurant over a business disagreement and partnered with Hi Neighbor Restaurant Group to open 7 Adams, which has style components in common with Marlena, and similarly offers five courses of very high-end food for $87 per person. The cozy dining room in Japantown is sleek and handsome, and savory dishes from Fisher like a recent slow-braised pork shoulder with chicken jus are complemented by delicate, ultra-flavorful pastas like tagliatelle with lamb ragu and shaved matsutake mushrooms. Desserts from Chow Fisher are also masterful and Michelin-worthy, and if you get a chance to sample the Buffalo-born Fisher's Buffalo-style quail roulade, don't miss it.
1963 Sutter Street, reserve here

Best New Casual Italian: Mattina
Fans of chef-owner Matthew Accarrino's food at SPQR had to know that his around-the-corner, more casual project Mattina was going to be a winner. And being a Michelin-star chef with consistently high standards, "casual" just means that there aren't tableside truffles being shaved and the plating on the entrees is rustic and not quite so tweezer-y. The salads are seasonal and hearty. The pastas are things of beauty, and just as hand-made and richly textured as those being served at SPQR — like duck-filled ravioli with roasted grapes and balsamic brown butter. There are also delicious, satisfying biscuit sandwiches being served here in the morning. And I'm going to say something potentially controversial: Mattina is serving, hands down, the best meatballs currently in the city. I said it.
2232 Bush Street, reserve here

The Rest of the Best

Aphotic
Former Quince chef Peter Hemsley is performing nightly feats of highly skilled, passionate seafood cookery at his new, already Michelin-one-star Aphotic. Not unlike Saison in its early incarnations, the courses at Aphotic are a succession of mostly Northern California flavors centered around the ocean and coast, with forays into Europe and Japan in the preparations — like a dish of Monterey abalone with swordfish bacon and dashi; or a prawn risotto with uni. The effect is both refined and personal, showing us the voice of a new executive chef with plenty of years on the line dishing up others' Michelin-starred visions. And the stunner dishes just keep coming.
816 Folsom Street, reserve here

Barberio Osteria
The new Mission District offshoot of Nob Hill's AltoVino, Barberio Osteria, is a welcome addition to the Valencia corridor, and is making excellent use of the former Locanda kitchen and dining room to serve up equally crave-worthy Italian flavors. The regional lens here is more Northern Italian, with several dishes and wines highlighting a region not often seen on menus in SF: South Tyrol. The region is on the Alpine border with Austria and features many Germanic influences, highlighted in dishes like canederli — dumplings made with bread, cheese, and speck, that are a cross between a meatball and a dumpling. Barberio Osteria also serves excellent versions of pasta dishes from other parts of Italy, including paccheri (large rigatoni) with a puttanesca-esque ragu, and pappardelle with a rich, divine, 10-hour veal Bolognese sauce.
557 Valencia Street, reserve here

Blue Whale
One of the more unexpected surprises of the year, Blue Whale debuted this fall in Cow Hollow, bringing the sophisticated palate of chef Ho Chee Boon (Empress By Boon) to a new audience. The restaurant features stylish indoor and outdoor spaces, and an eclectic pan-Asian menu that mashes up cuisines in the best of all possible ways. Early hits include XO roasted duck with noodles, and Thai-style fried chicken with papaya salad. There are also some dim sum items from Boon's repertoire, like pork and truffle xiao long bao, and there's a prettily plated chocolate cremeux gateau for dessert that has been widely documented on Instagram.
2033 Union Street, reserve here

La Connessa
La Connessa made one of the splashiest restaurant debuts this fall, opening in a new residential complex in Potrero alongside two sister businesses — a burger spot called Louie's Original, and a doughnut shop called Magic Donuts. It's a new restaurant from the well-proven team at Bacchus Management Group (Spruce, Selby's, Village Pub), with a highly polished menu from chef Freedom Rains (A Mano). It's one of two new restaurants (see below) serving focaccia di recco — an indulgent cheese-stuffed, cracker-thin flatbread that is not like the focaccia you know — so that seems to be trending. And across the board La Connessa is delivering a class-A experience, from the design to service to cocktails and wine to the Italian menu, with Rains's lovely pastas and damn fine, succulent ribeye tagliata being the stars of the show.
1695 Mariposa Street, reserve here

Corzetti
This year's happiest addition to Union Square dining is Corzetti, from Adriano Paganini's Back of the House Restaurant Group. The hip interior evokes 1960s Italy, while chef Tali Missirlian (Tailor's Son) is serving up coastal Italian delights like handkerchief pasta tossed in Genovese pesto, and penne al gamberi (shrimp). There's also a take on the Genovese stew ciuppin that inspired San Francisco's cioppino, and Missirlian is also turning out fine pizzas and focaccia di recco — which one has to order topped with mortadella, and it could be dinner by itself. Also not to be missed, former Lolinda bar manager Nora Furst's savory-leaning cocktail list, and possibly the most inventive cocktail of the year: the Pizza Spritz.
398 Geary Street, reserve here

Copra
The old bank building at Post and Fillmore has finally come alive again, and the new tenants are outdoing the old when it comes to ambiance and high-end Indian cuisine. Former Campton Place chef Srijith Gopinathan is spinning wonders at Copra with the flavors of Southern India, with must-try dishes like the the Jaffna curry leaf-rubbed, slow-cooked octopus; and varuval spice-crusted hamachi collar. Even the simple starter dish of house chutneys with pappadoms is its own tour of deep and spicy flavors. What puts Copra over the top, though, is Schoos Design's Lisa Gill's transporting, tropical design of the interior, and the overall experience from restaurateur Ayesha Thapar — who was already wowing Peninsula diners at her and Gopinathan's other restaurant Ettan in Palo Alto, before this project took shape.
1700 Fillmore Street, reserve here

The Rustic
A space at the edge of the Castro that was the longtime home of Chow has been the home of a couple failed concepts in the intervening years and has sat dark for far too long. But finally a winning Cal-Italian concept has taken hold, and will hopefully stay awhile, with food and wine that are far more impressive than the name implies. The Rustic has some of the usual pizza and pasta offerings you might expect, but each has thoughtful touches that raise the bar on what a neighborhood trattoria should be. Take the orecchietti Bolognese, with its genius addition of horseradish cream, or the gremolata that brightens up a rich braised lamb shank. Albanian-Turkish owner Ali "Zoti" Turap, an alum of Chez Panisse's front-of-house brings plenty of personality to both the wine list — he's a certified sommelier — and the restaurant floor, which he also manages. The Castro has needed something like The Rustic for years, and here's to seeing people fill the place up again like they used to at Chow.
215 Church Street, reserve here

Prik Hom
With a quiet opening in early 2023, the Richmond's Prik Hom has quickly gained notoriety and a packed reservation book, thanks in part to its inclusion on this New York Times list in September. Previously Michelin-starred Bangkok chef Jim Suwanpanya, who emigrated from Thailand, seems destined to earn another star here in SF, with this tiny restaurant he opened with the help of sister Tanya. Good luck trying to get a table (they take a few walk-ins each night, for two-tops especially), but if you do, you can't miss the mushroom larb, or the sumptuous seafood curries. And everyone must have the coconut ice cream, which comes topped with candied palm seeds, rice crisps, and is enhanced by the smoke from a traditional Thai incense candle.
3226 Geary Boulevard, reserve here

It's officially hot cocktail and mulled wine season, and we have a quick guide to eight of the best examples that SF bars and restaurants have to offer.

You can always find a classic Irish Coffee down at The Buena Vista Cafe, but across the city this holiday season — and in the dead of January — you'll find plenty of other, very delicious warm and wintry beverages to help take the edge off your seasonal stress.

Eight of our favorites, below.

Hot Buttered Cider at The Beehive
The Beehive is an all-around cozy spot for wintertime drinks, and this winter, if you haven't already, you ought to try their Hot Buttered Cider, now on the seasonal menu for the fourth consecutive year. It's a terrific twist on a Hot Buttered Rum, and combination of brandy, house apple cider, and apple butter.
842 Valencia Street

Wassail at Alembic
I'm not sure that there is another bar in town this season making wassail, so if you want to try a version, head to the upper Haight for Alembic's mix of red wine, cherry brandy, rhubarbaro, bay laurel, orange, honey, and winter spices.
1725 Haight Street

Aged Eggnog at Elixir
One of the Mission's finest cocktail spots, and the second-oldest bar in the city, Elixir, always offers up some delicious holiday cocktail treats. (The holiday menu goes live Friday, December 1.) They make house fresh eggnog every year that you can have with the spirit of your choice mixed in, but the special thing here is the aged eggnog — mixed a year in advance with Ferrand Ambre Cognac and Plantation Original dark rum, and aged in glass. It's served on ice, and it might sound crazy or gross, but it's bomb.
3200 16th Street at Guerrero

Over the River and Through the Woods at The Vault Garden
The Vault Garden is one of a number of SF bars ringing in the holidays with a special, highly Instagrammable themed pop-up, called Winter Wonderland. This year's edition features two hot cocktails, either of which can be served booze-free or boozy. One is the Over the River and Through the Woods — a mix of hot spiced cider, ginger, pear, rosemary, and lemon, which is perfect with a shot of bourbon, rum, or brandy. And you can have it served in a kitschy Santa mug.
555 California Street

Hot Brown Buttered Coffee at The Snug
A delicious and unique mashup of the Irish Coffee and Hot Buttered Rum, The Snug's Hot Brown Buttered Coffee features bourbon, house chestnut liqueur, and salted amaro cream.
2301 Fillmore Street

Hot Toddy at Casements
In addition to a terrific Irish Coffee made with Andytown Roasters coffee, you can find a proper, flavorful hot toddy at Casements in the Mission, featuring Lost Irish whiskey, allspice, cinnamon, clove, star anise, nutmeg, honey, and lemon. Enjoy it in the cozy bar or by a heatlamp on the huge back patio.
2351 Mission Street

Jingle Balls Nog at Miracle @ PCH
The uber-popular, no-reservations, holiday cocktail pop-up at Pacific Cocktail Haven is in its seventh year. And back on the menu you'll find the Jingle Balls Nog, which features Cognac, cream sherry, almond milk, cream, egg, vanilla, and nutmeg. If you're in the mood for something warm, though, they've got mulled wine and a great Hot Buttered Rum as well. You should note, though: Miracle, the pop-up, comes with a $10 cover charge.
550 Sutter Street

Chartreuse Cappuccino at The Morris and Maison Nico
As Chartreuse lovers surely know by now, the herb-y delicious green stuff has been extra-hard to find this year because of rising global demand and the stubbornness of the Carthusian monks who make it, who don't want to increase production. But Paul Einbund, all around beverage guru and owner of The Morris and Maison Nico, has his own deep supply. And on both menus is a Chartreuse cappuccino, a delicious wintry beverage that was recently included in the book But First, Coffee... — and you can make your own if you can find any Chartreuse with this recipe.
2501 Mariposa Street and 710 Montgomery Street

Previously: 12 Best Bars With Fireplaces or Fire Pits In S.F. (And One In Berkeley)

The great burrito wars of San Francisco may never come to any satisfying conclusion. But in a town as blessed as ours is with burrito riches, we probably shouldn't complain and just enjoy that everyone has their passionate preferences.

It's been a couple of years since SFist has surveyed the city's burrito scene. And while many of the players and the tortilla-rolled delights remain largely the same, things have not stayed completely static. A couple favorites, like the Castro's Tacorgasmico and NoPa's Green Chile Kitchen, are gone now, and there a couple of newcomers to the scene.

The Chronicle has hired a new full-time restaurant critic, MacKenzie Chung Fegan, to replace the erstwhile critic Soleil Ho. (That was in June, but Fegan's byline has not yet appeared and it looks like she had a baby in August.) In the meantime, associate critic Cesar Hernandez has been filling in, and this week he offered up his ranked list of his top five burritos in the city.

Hernandez said he surveyed all the existing lists online, and "many of those rankings don’t hold the same weight they once did." And somehow, BIZARRELY, he finds no top-five-level love for Taqueria Cancun, which has consistently been SFist's fave over the years, particularly for the al pastor.

Hernandez casts his votes for El Farolito (#5), saying "Carne asada is the move here," and "In spite of the gamut of ingredients, each component plays off of each other well without distracting from the asada"; Chuy's Fiestas (#4), where he likes the rice-less, "massive, crispy flattop burrito"; tortilla specialists La Palma Mexicatessen (#3); and La Espiga de Oro (#2), which has also long been an SFist fave, and where he recommends the chicharron.

For Hernandez's new #1, he crowns relative newcomer La Vaca Birria, which opened a couple years back in the former Pig & Pie/Discolandia space on 24th Street. Hernandez praises the delicious homemade tortillas made with rendered beef tallow, as well as the char-roasted salsas, and the rich, flavorful birria — which the restaurant also uses to make popular quesabirria tacos. And he recommends the grilled cheese burrito as being "the taqueria’s more memorable take on the Mission burrito," because it has a "thick cheese skirt that corrects the cold cheese issue of many other burritos."

SFist sampled the work of La Vaca Birria, and it is a very tasty and satisfying birria burrito. The meat is delicious, as is the tortilla. The onions are nicely, finely diced, and the charred jalapeno salsa is indeed a winning addition.

Is it the city's best, and does it rival, say, a super al pastor from Cancun, or a dorado-style carne asada from La Taqueria? That is surely up to personal preference. And does everyone remember when the Five Thirty Eight did a burrito bracket in 2014 and La Taq beat out every other burrito in the nation?? We balked at that at the time, but the place continues to have many ardent fans.

Previously: The 15 Best Burrito Spots In SF

La Vaca Birria - 2962 24th Street, San Francisco - Available for takeout or on Uber Eats

It was time again for the Chronicle to update their bizarrely unhelpful Top 25 Restaurants list for Fall 2023, and it remains like a less informative version of the Eater 38, but with 13 fewer restaurants, representing a region which deserves far better coverage.

Say what you will about Michael Bauer's Top 100 — it wasn't especially diverse, he did not go to the South Bay or East Bay very much if he didn't have to — it at least gave a broad and somewhat comprehensive picture of the Bay Area's top spots for fine dining and high-end casual dining. That picture doesn't really exist anymore from any local critic, and the Chronicle has instead opted for publishing dozens of individual lists of pizza places, Indian places, sandwich places, you name it, with regular updates being made to a Top 25 Restaurants list that makes little sense as a Top 25.

The list is still credited in part to former critic Soleil Ho, and to current associate restaurant critic Cesar Hernandez, and it attempts to be broadly diverse in both cuisine and geography without giving a newcomer any sense of the depth and breadth of the great food available to them around the Bay.

The latest update includes a number of spots from the last iteration, including favories of Ho's like Animo and Noodle In a Haystack. Among stalwarts, Delfina keeps its spot. After recently reviewing them both, Hernandez adds Azalina's in the Tenderloin and Dalida in the Presidio to the mix, but great spots like Saison and Anchovy Bar got sacrificed to keep the list to 25. Why?

Also, there's no room here for longtime favorites like Zuni, Rich Table, Anchor Oyster Bar, or Frances. And the list of snubs among the Michelin-starred elite is long. Goodbye to Benu, SingleThread, Californios, and all the rest. Terrific restaurants that have debuted in the last couple of years that could use some Chronicle attention, like Ernest and Routier, also don't get any love here.

In their place we get a sandwich truck in Napa (Joella's Deli), a humble slice shop in Oakland (Mama's Boy), and a well-loved Middle Eastern restaurant in San Bruno. I'm sure all of these places are worth trying, but if the point were to create a list, like the Top 100, that reflected the best of the region, I'm not sure all of these would make the cut.

The paper would say that this list isn't meant to be comprehensive, just like the Eater 38 isn't — it's a "where to eat now" overview. But how does it make sense when our city's paper of record produces a "Top 25 Restaurants" that isn't meant to reflect the paper's opinion of what the top 25 restaurant in the region are?

Sure, I get it, that list was a bear to produce and update each year. Bauer used to complain that 100 was an arbitrary cutoff and even he hated knocking off great restaurants to make room for newer ones.

But there is still a desire for lists that tell people, comprehensively, where they should go and where they should be spending their hard-earned dining dollars. And San Francisco's restaurant scene especially could use the boost that such a list would provide — not a list like this one that's meant to cover the whole Bay Area but only gives SF a measly 9 slots.

Perhaps under incoming critic MacKenzie Chung Fegan, a Bay Area native, things will improve. We can hope.

Previously: Chronicle Launches a Bizarre 'Top 25' That Will Be Updated Quarterly, Kind of Like the Eater 38

Photo: Matt Jones

The New York Times has updated its nationwide Restaurant List for 2023, and two new San Francisco restaurants have been added, replacing two that were on the list last year.

It's the third year for this somewhat inscrutable selection of restaurants across the country, chosen by New York Times food editors, which is neither a best-new-restaurants list nor a particularly helpful or comprehensive list of great spots. It's billed as "The 50 places in the United States that we're most excited about right now," and about half of them are new. Also, it bears no resemblence to the 2021 list, or the 2022 list, so it's not like the Eater 38 where it's being updated incrementally — it's just going to be a new 50 every year I guess.

The 2021 list featured three SF restaurants, only one of them new. There was Anchovy Bar, the State Bird Provisions spinoff which opened during the pandemic, and then there were Mister Jiu's and Nari, highlighting high-end Chinese and Thai cuisine respectively.

The SF selections for last year were both new: upscale Filipino restaurant Abacá, and Corey Lee's Korean barbecue spot San Ho Won.

And for the 2023, SF again gets two slots, which go to the two-year-old, much-buzzed-about ramen tasting menu restaurant Noodle in a Haystack, which grew out of a pop-up; and Prik Hom, the new Thai spot from previously Michelin-starred chef Jim Suwanpanya. Both restaurants are tiny, and both are out on Geary Boulevard in the Richmond District.

Just as the Chronicle did previously, the Times homes in on the dessert course at Prik Hom, a scoop of young coconut ice cream that is "perfumed by one of two dozen traditional candles that Mr. Suwanpanya brought back from Thailand."

And of Noodle in a Haystack — which also landed on Bon Appetit's Best New Restaurants list last week — the Times writes, "Such a globally recognizable dish [as ramen] shouldn’t hold many surprises at this point, but if you find yourself here, the ramen will leave you delightfully gobsmacked."

While Noodle in a Haystack has gotten plenty of attention in its first year as a brick-and-mortar restaurant, including a place on former critic Soleil Ho's list of Top Splurge Restaurants, Prik Hom has mostly flown under the radar — though it did get a mention in the new Michelin Guide.

Other California honorees on the Times list include three Los Angeles spots — Quarter Sheets, Perilla L.A., and Yess.

Noodle in a Haystack - 4601 Geary Blvd. - Reservations for November to be released October 8 at 9 p.m. on Tock.

Prik Hom - 3226 Geary Blvd. - Reservations here.

Top image: Mussels at Prik Hom, via Instagram

The classic, unfussy, neighborhood French bistro is a bit of a dying breed, especially in San Francisco, where restaurant rents keep going up and, with them, the price of a basic weeknight meal.

But there are several stalwarts here that have been serving up soupe a l'oignon and steak frites to grateful neighbors for decades, as well as a couple of newer additions that are, nonetheless, sticking to classic simplicity and offering up a reasonable formule (prix fixe) that won't break the bank.

L'Ardoise
Named for the classic slate chalkboard used by Parisian bistros to write their daily menus, this Duboce Triangle hideaway is well loved by its neighborhood and has been for decades. Chef Thierry Clement turns out consistently great bistro fare, and this is one of the go-to places in the city for coq au vin, duck confit, and a perfect steak frites. Also, don't sleep on the pommes de terre landaises — fried potato coins — or the escargots en Gueusaille, which are served in crispy potato cups and topped with a bright green parsley-garlic butter. It's not always easy to get in, despite this place being well established and off the radar for many — but it's a great, cozy destination now with some extra outdoor seating.
151 Noe Street, reservations here

Café Jacqueline
After fears arose in the early pandemic that tiny North Beach soufflé restaurant Café Jacqueline (est. 1979) might be gone for good — with its then-83-year-old chef owner hospitalized at one point with a non-COVID infection — we were heartened to learn from Tablehopper in October 2021 that the place had reopened for business. There is no place else in the city to have some divine French onion soup, a lobster soufflé to share, and a dessert soufflé after that, like chef Jacqueline Margulis's heavenly lemon or chocolate soufflé. And while we pray she will be, Margulis may not be in the kitchen whipping up her egg-y creations forever, and this place is a must-try for all non-vegan San Franciscans.
1454 Grant Avenue — call 415-981-5565 for reservations, there is no website

Chapeau!
In business since 1996 at Clement and 15th, chef Philippe Gardelle's ode to French bistro fare is still going strong after 27 years, serving up delicious cassoulet, bouillabaisse, and his signature salmon tartare dish with gravlax and roe — called "Salmon Trio" on the menu. This Richmond District favorite has plenty of ardent, loyal fans, but it's also not impossible to get in with a last-minute reservation or walk-in. Also, don't miss out on the perfect filet mignon, and and one of the more perfect creme brulees in town.
126 Clement Street - reservations here

Côte Ouest Bistro
Taking over the former, beloved Baker Street Bistro two years ago, partners Laurent Monchicourt and Martin Sarraih took over and updated the menu, focusing more on Sarraih's native Basque country — the chef was born in Béarn, a small town and the namesake of bearnaise sauce that's a stone's throw from Biarritz and San Sebastian. The menu at this very popular Marina District spot includes bistro classics like duck confit and steak frites, as well as surprises like a vegetarian "tarte tatin Provencale" with roasted tomatoes and burrata.
2953 Baker Street - reservations here

Routier
Acclaimed chefs John Paul Carmona and Belinda Leong introduced this gorgeous spot in Pacific Heights during the pandemic, and situated on the busy Divisadero corridor, it's an ode to roadside bistros in French, daily formule and all. The interior is both airy and warm, giving off the sense that it's been there far longer than its three years, and the menu is perfect in many ways — a concise, seasonally driven selection of elevated bistro fare that consistently surprises. A recent dish of braised lamb shoulder, perfectly molded and plated, showed off Carmona's fine-dining chops, and the place regularly features three or more house-made terrines and pates for a snack at the bar. Also, the marble bar is lovely, and feels like a Parisian getaway all on its own — a great place for an early evening cocktail, glass of wine, or a full meal.
2801 California Street - reservations here

Top image: The chicken liver mousse at Routier.

Fast on the heels of Bon Appetit's 50 Best New Restaurants list, we have another national best-of that picked out two SF restaurants that Bon Appetit's editors passed over.

Listicles and restaurant openings are slowly returning to pre-pandemic levels of frequency, though this has, for obvious reasons, not been the greatest 12 to 18 months in which to debut a new restaurant.

As we noted last week, Bon Appetit appears to want to be more inclusive and show a broader scope with its annual Restaurants Issue, forgoing its longstanding tradition of crowning 10 best new restaurants, formerly known as The Hot 10, and instead recognizing 50 recent openings around the country. This broadening of scope is a boon for second-tier cities and places that haven't had high-profile restaurant scenes, however it didn't prove to garner much love for the Bay Area, which had generally been able to count on one or two slots on the Hot 10.

Enter the New York Times, which did not previously have a tradition of covering restaurant openings in all 50 states. They installed Tejal Rao as their first California restaurant critic in 2018, and she has not done a ton of reviews in recent months — though she did write a rave for San Ho Won, the new Mission District Korean restaurant from acclaimed Benu chef Corey Lee, back in July.

This week we get the Times' take on the country's best new eateries — technically, they're not all new, and they called the list The Restaurant List 2022, with the subhed "50 places in America we're most excited about right now." They honor some pretty longstanding favorites in several cities — like Neptune Oyster in Boston, which opened in 2004, and Brennan's in New Orleans, which dates back to 1946 but reopened under chef Ryan Hacker in 2014.

But for California, the picks are pretty fresh, like Here's Looking at You, which just opened in January in Los Angeles.

In the Bay Area, the Times' critics call out Little Saint in Healdsburg, the new vegan and cocktail-centric spot from the SingleThread team; as well as San Ho Won, which is too good to have been snubbed by Bon Appetit, and they should know better.

"A hulking charcoal grill is at the heart of Jeong-In Hwang and Corey Lee’s Korean barbecue restaurant, which turns out dark, glossy pieces of thickly cut galbi, beef tongue and fatty rib-eye cap that are gently smoky and impossibly juicy," Rao writes. "Unlike many Korean barbecue restaurants, it’s not a communal cooking experience, but that means you can relax and leave the grilling to the restaurant’s virtuosic cooks."

Also, the Times gives props to Abacá, the Filipino restaurant inside a Fisherman's Wharf hotel that chef Francis Ang and his wife Dian opened last summer.

"In a soaring, sunlit dining room framed with hanging plants, Francis and Dian Ang and the team behind the Filipino pop-up Pinoy Heritage make every dinner feel like a party, complete with pancit and lumpia, habit-forming barbecue sticks of beef tongue and homemade longanisa, and a series of platitos that change in step with Northern California’s seasonal seafood and produce," Rao writes.

And for the brave-hearted, or those already enamored with the troubling delicacy, Rao points to the "secret" menu that includes balut — you can click on that to find out what it is, or not.

It's unfortunate that all the terrific new SF restaurants that have managed to make debuts this past year — including Ernest, Sorella, Osito / Liliana, Routier, Nisei, and Automat — aren't getting this national recognition. But you should check them out anyway.