The 10 Restaurants That Defined Bay Area Dining This Year

It’s rare for food writers to get to revisit restaurants. There are only so many meals in a day (even with multiple lunches and dinners), and it’s almost impossible to keep up with the constant slew of new openings; but somehow, we’ve made our way to Burdell three times since it opened in September.

Each time we’ve been dazzled by Geoff Davis’s dizzyingly delicious takes on the soul food he grew up with: fried rabbit smothered in a leek and white pepper gravy, buttery Carolina Gold rice, and the meaty pork neck chop with peaches and a zingy mustard jus. Davis wants us to rethink everything we think we know about what soul is and what it can be. We’re already planning our next visit.

The road to restaurant ownership can be long and difficult. Anthony Salguero’s progressive Salvadoran spot Popoca started as a pop-up years ago in Oakland in 2019. From the moment we tasted his pupusas — made with imported heirloom corn, nixtamalized in house,  and prepared over the wood-fired grill — we knew he was one to keep an eye out for.

Four years later, after a pandemic and a Kickstarter and a location that fell through, he finally opened in Downtown Oakland. It was worth the wait. Yes, the pupusas returned, but there’s so much more, like salads topped with alguashte (an earthy crunchy Salvadoran pumpkin seed seasoning) and pollo an chichi, a thick and tangy glossy rich sauce that covers a smoked chicken. Popoca provides a study in Salvadoran fare, as well as persistence.

Who needs a plane ticket to Italy when you have Flour + Water right here in San Francisco?  After almost 15 years since it opened, the restaurant still hits hard. The pasta tasting menu in its current format specifically is the move: five creative bites plus five pastas and a dessert is the definition of heaven. But the real pro move is to add a pizza supplement to end your meal. You definitely don’t need it — you’ll be rolling home with leftovers — but you’ll be thankful you did.

An even bigger pro tip: Get the wine pairings — there are six different selections, and the pours are generous. At $65, this is perhaps the best value pairing in the city.

Yes, come to The Morris for dinner for the iconic smoked duck with root vegetables, which tastes even better during the fall and winter months. But also, it’s worth keeping an eye out on their special events, specifically the Legends Dinner Series. A recent dinner centered around white Burgundy, and featured more more out of reach and rare bottles in one sitting than we’ve ever had ever (and also caused  a two-day hangover …  #worthit).

They also do a weekly Saturday poulet-frites lunch featuring an all you can eat spread of cheeses and charcutes: terrines, rillettes, salamis and all, made in house by chef Gavin Schmidt. Slam some Chartreuse slushies and/or have sommelier-owner Paul Einbund and his team pair something special for you. What a treat.

If 20-plus courses over the course of three or so hours is your idea of a good time, then Kiln is the place for you. Opened earlier this year by chef John Wesley and Julianna Yang, who both met while at the Michelin-starred Sons & Daughters, this restaurant provides  a high-end fine dining experience that manages to still feel a bit casual, even with servers in suits and white tablecloths. The food is a little bit Japan meets new Nordic meets French in techniques, and the style and plating is ultra-minimal but big on complex, multi-layered flavors. The restaurant inherited a hearth, but it’s not just another live-fire cooking restaurant.

Call 415-982-9722 for more info.

As much as we love a long, fancy tasting menu, we enjoy tacos on the street just as much. And when it comes to the realm of tacos, it’s all about a specialization. Tacos El Charro does just that with their al pastor. The taco stand is a little bit hard to find — their hours vary, as does their location, but if you’re persistent and keep an eye out for a giant trompo on Mission Street at 18^th or 19^th Street on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights, you’ll be handsomely rewarded.

Taquero Juan Lazaro hails from Puebla, Mexico, the city where al pastor was said to originate, and thinly cuts orange-tinged pork shoulder meat sheets into tortillas warmed in its drippings. Top with salsa, squeeze with lime, and go to town on the city’s best al pastor. And good news: they’re now part of the La Cocina program, who is helping them formalize and grow their business.

There’s a lot to love about Dalida, the modern Mediterranean restaurant from the talented wife-and-husband duo Laura and Sayat Ozyilmaz. The menu is massive, and to tackle it all you’d have to revisit four times, at least. Good thing that this is a restaurant you’ll want to come back to again and again. The food combines California produce with ingredients and dishes found from foodways and cultures throughout the Eastern Mediterranean, Middle East and Levant: there are Persian and Jewish influences, there’s Lebanese meat pita “burgers” dipped in Palestinian hot sauce, there’s Greek souvlaki and Turkish ice cream for dessert. Everyone is celebrated, and everyone is encouraged to break bread together — a cliché perhaps, but a much welcome idea now more than ever.

Call 415-237-1999 for more info.

Here’s the thing about the eight-year-old Rintaro: It always is a benchmark for what we want to eat. Sylvan Mishima Brackett’s Japanese Californian is consistently delicious, and is the one place chefs point to the most when we ask them about their favorite meals.

Our favorite seat is at the counter closest to the yakitori station, where you watch the chefs expertly twist and turn skewers of charred chicken parts until cooked just so, taking in the flavorful smoke from the binchotan burning below. To best experience the restaurant, order some things from each section of the menu: Start with sashimi, which features local fish artfully assembled, almost too pretty to eat. A cold dressed dish features pristine produce; housemade tofu is a smart move, as is the fried chicken katsu stuffed with Cowgirl Creamery cheese. And you’d be remiss to miss the udon, housemade and cut daily. But really, it’s difficult to go wrong any way you go here.

No one puts Piglet & Co. in a box. Chef Chris Yang’s powerfully delicious and flavorful food is inspired by his Taiwanese upbringing, his travels, night markets across the world, and most importantly: whatever the hell he wants to cook and eat. Shrimp toast and honey walnut shrimp combine into one magical umami dish; mala BBQ pork ribs are smoked until tender and individually and colorfully decorated with crispy bits of round rice crackers, pickled red onions, and creamy koji mayo; chicken wings change often — it might be salt and vinegar one night, sticky and glazed Korean style another. This is food that can feel downright trippy and indulgent, in the best way.

San Franciscans were devastated when the beloved dim sum institution Hong Kong Lounge II burned down a few years ago in the Before Times; but fans were elated when four years later, proprietor Annie Ho reopened in SoMa as HK Lounge Bistro.

The new space is much smaller and intimate yet still features that same pale pink walls; there are the same Cantonese classics, but many dishes now feature an upgrade in ingredients, like the beef chowfun featuring prime beef ribeye cap or the truffle salt shrimp toast. The food hits hard,  and the restaurant even earned a recent spot on the Times’ list of best restaurants in San Francisco. Come with as many people as possible, and order as much from the menu as possible — the more the merrier here.