[SF Bay Area] Michael Bauer's Top 100 Restaurants 2018

Regional Dining Discussions SF Bay Area, NorCal, Tahoe
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You might hit a paywall on the website…

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I haven’t been, but Dumpling Time in the Top 100? There surely must be other dumpling candidates as worthy, no?

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I haven’t been either.

Known chef, SF location, eye candy dishes, and short menu inencumbered by fool’s gold dishes make it an appealing choice for readers.

Does anyone think HK Lounge 2 is better than Dragon Beaux?

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I don’t know if hkl2 is better. They both do dimsum, but HKL2 serves banquet Cantonese dishes at night, while DB is only hot pot and dim sum. So they are different.

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How does he define top? Coi with 3 stars not on the list?

Eater highlighted the disagreement between the Chronicle food writing staff and Bauer on the topic of whether a restaurant whose owner is accused of sexual harassment should be on the list. Must be rather discouraging to take a stand and then overruled by the boss.

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Bauer has already written a full column on why he did not include Coi this time, and his reasons seemed sound:

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Daniel Patterson of Coi pushes back:

While no reason has been given for Foreign Cinema’s displacement (or any of the other restaurants not on the list), Bauer sought to rationalize his choice with an entire three- (originally published as four-) star review to why he kept Coi off the list. Mostly the decision was about whether new executive chef Erik Anderson was cooking the “nuanced California cuisine” that Bauer expects to see at Coi. But, according to chef/owner Daniel Patterson, it’s about more.

The chef took to Twitter Sunday evening in a twitter thread that questioned the longtime critic’s motives for removing Coi from the list, and for failing to include women and people of color on the list. See the thread below.

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For racism or other reasons, Patterson is wise (though conflict of interested) to call out Bauer for promoting Souvla and not Reems. Reem Assil deservedly is a James Beard semi finalist, and is broadening Bay Area cuisine far more than Souvla, whose Greek yogurt dessert is more notable than any of their savory dishes.

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I think the problem is how Bauer defines Top 100. He didn’t spell out any specific criteria in the intro, other than that the food is good. That leads to a Michelin Star type of list where most of everything is expensive and mostly Californian, French, Italian.

Now if he defines top 100 as good food, great value, advancing the culinary scene, creativity, etc. then it will be a more diverse list.

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