TOP 9 BAY AREA RESTAURANTS

Best San Francisco Bay Area Restaurants Food Reviews

by: GraceAnn Walden

* I know, I know everyone ALWAYS has a Top Ten.

Isn’t that amazing? There are never a top eight or

top eleven. Well, in my world, there are not always

ten best. Here they are in no particular order.

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Yoshi's Jazz House & Restaurant

1330 Fillmore St
San Francisco
(415) 655-5600

Overview: It took awhile to be built, but the wait was worth it, both
for the food by Chef Sho and the shows you can enjoy after dinner.
Designed by the architects...> more

Cuisine: Modern Japanese

Don’t Miss: the chawan mushi with lobster, uni and foie gras, both the
maguro and hamachi sampler, miso-marinated pork prime rib

Prices: appetizers $8-18; entrees $18-28

 

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Perbacco

230 California St., near Sansome St.
San Francisco
(415) 955-0663

Overview: This is not your father’s trattoria. The style is more like a
modern restaurant in Italy, with a sophisticated look that matches the
food...> more

Cuisine: Northern Italian

Don’t miss: Again the salumi, the pastas, the duck breast and the lamb shank.

Prices: Appetizer $8-10; entrees $20-29

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Enrico’s Sidewalk Café

504 Broadway
San Francisco
(415) 982-6223
 

Overview: I have been going to Enrico’s since the late Enrico Banducci
owned it. It was the first sidewalk café in San Francisco. In the early
seventies...> more

 

Cuisine: Contemporary cuisine with a Mediterranean bent.

Don’t miss: The oysters, duck liver pate with cranberry, pear and Gorgonzola pizza

Prices: Appetizers $8-13; pizzas $11-14 and entrees $19-23
 

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Spruce

3640 Sacramento St. near Spruce.
San Francisco
(415)931-5100

Overview: This was the long-awaited restaurant of the year. Since
opening, Chef Mark Sullivan has been rewarded with filled seats every
night...> more

Cuisine: Contemporary with Italian and French touches

Don’t miss: the cured sardines, Heirloom tomato gazpacho (in season),
duck fat fries, and the broiled lobster with gnocchi.

Prices: Appetizers $9-18; entrees $22-36

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Café Majestic

1500 Sutter St. (at Gough)
in the Hotel Majestic
San Francisco
(415) 441-1280
 

Overview: Fortunately, Chef Ian Begg is in a hotel. Unfortunately,
that means a lot of people won’t find him. This restaurant is like
restaurants used to be...> more

Cuisine: Contemporary cuisine.

Don’t Miss: The layered Dungeness crab salad or the mushroom soup with
puff pastry top; honey ice cream.

Prices: Appetizers $7-14; entrees $17-29
 

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Gator’s Neo Soul Food Café

129 S. B St.
San Mateo
(650) 685-8100

Overview: I’ve been knowing Glenn “Gator” Thompson since he opened a
hole in the wall in Noe Valley several years ago. Since then he’s had
surgery, lost the weight of a ten-year-old and opened the most stylish
soul food café in the nine counties...> more

Cuisine: Neo soul food

Don’t miss: The fried chicken, the greens, the cornbread with
honey-butter

Prices: Appetizers $8-13; entrees $18-24

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Gigi

1005 Brown Ave. near Mt. Diablo Ave.
Lafayete
(925) 962-0882

Overview: Earlier this year, Chef Jeffrey Amber had gone from being
corporate chef for the Chow restaurant group to snapping up the former
Kaffe Barbara cheek by jowl to Bo's Barbeque in Lafayette. Doing much
of the design...> more

Cuisine: Contemporary cuisine

Don’t miss: Lobster carbonara, pear salad with ricotta salata, tomato
gruyere soup

Prices: Appetizers $8-12; entrees $18-25

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Plumed Horse

14555 Big Basin Way
Saratoga
(408) 867-4711

Overview: Like San Francisco’s Spruce, the Plumed Horse was the most
anticipated opening. In the old days, Saratoga had two fancy schmancy
restaurants: the Mouton Noir and the Plumed Horse. Both formal - both
very French...> more

Cuisine: Contemporary cuisine

Don’t miss: Surf and Turf: red abalone with pork belly, squab and pork shoulder

Prices: Appetizers $14-25; entrees $32-37

 

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Trevese

115 N. Santa Cruz Ave., at Grays Lane,
Los Gatos
(408) 354-5551
 

Overview: I tried Mike Miller’s Trevese because I was drawn to the
historic building. I returned because in the middle of the summer
Miller had the, ah, guts, to serve suckling pig...> more

 

Cuisine: Contemporary cuisine

Don’t miss: The suckling pig, the soft shell crab, coulotte of beef in Port

Prices: Appetizers $12-22; entrees $18-38
 

 

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Graceann Walden has written seven restaurant guidebooks, authored "86 Recipes SF", a cookbook, and is recognized by chefs and restaurateurs as the former San Francisco Chronicle restaurant columnist. In addition to her published reviews, she is a regularly featured KGO Radio personality offering restaurant tips and picks. Walden shares her joy and knowledge of cuisine through popular food-history tours of North Beach and great destinations around the globe.