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SF Chronicle Removes Restaurants Run by Accused Sexual Harassers From Top 100 List

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The Chronicle’s new critic has completely overhauled the list for 2019

Spread of dishes at Nyum Bai
Dishes at Nyum Bai
Albert Law

Since taking over critic duties for SF’s paper of record, Soleil Ho has made her policies — including those addressing chefs accused of sexual harassment — clear. This year, the new critic applied her very different criteria to the Bay Area’s deep bench of restaurants to create an almost entirely new version of the paper’s Top 100 Restaurants.

A breakdown of what’s changed between 2019 (Soleil Ho’s first Top 100) and 2018 (Michael Bauer’s last):

What is a top restaurant?

Ho lays it out: “At a bare minimum, a top restaurant has to have great food. But it’s also a restaurant that must have some shimmering, extra quality to it that makes it memorable, the stuff that makes restaurants neighborhood centerpieces and anchors for people. A Top 100 restaurant may be a place that’s worth making a special trip out via train, car or plane, or it may be one that folks would want to walk to with their families every week. It has that magnetic ‘something else’ — star power and charisma.”

No chefs that have been accused of sexual harassment

After years of inclusion, Bottega and Coqueta, Ho removed restaurants owned by chef Michael Chiarello. (Chiarello was accused by former employees of sexual harassment and wage theft in 2016; the case was settled out of court.) Bauer included both of them and Tosca Cafe in the 2018 list. Tosca Cafe was co-owned by restaurateur Ken Friedman, also accused of sexual harassment, at the time of publication.

According to Ho, “The Top 100 should be a list that recognizes great experiences not just for diners but for staff as well, so restaurants with thoughtful leadership, above-and-beyond worker benefits and wage parity were specifically sought out.”

New to the fold

There’s an impressive crop of restaurants that have joined the ranks this year, including Eater SF’S 2018 Restaurant of the Year, Nyum Bai (run by Eater Young Gun Nite Yun (‘18)). Several are included on Eater SF’s list of hot and new restaurants (Beit Rima, Bini’s Kitchen), and many who’ve spent significant time on the heatmap (Soba Ichi, FOB Kitchen, Angler). This year is such a departure from last year’s list that there’s no point in calling them out: Go check it out here.

Pop-ups made the cut

The Bay Area has a high number of excellent pop-ups, wherein under-funded chefs or newly-founded partnerships test the waters by temporarily serving their food in an atypical setup. The only downside: They’re not always open, or even in the same place. This year Okkon, a very excellent okonomiyaki pop-up primarily operates in the East Bay (and sometimes at Rintaro), and Pinoy Heritage, chef Francis Ang’s modern take on Filipino food (and Eater SF’s pop-up of the year for 2018) both made it onto the list.

The old guard is out (kinda)

Ho removed frequent Top 100-ers like Gary Danko, Kokkari, and all of the Big Night Restaurant Group restaurants (Marlowe, Park Tavern, Leo’s Oyster Bar) and Mina Group restaurants (Pabu, International Smoke). La Folie, which received a mostly positive review in February, was also removed.

Less surprising: Alice Waters’ iconic Chez Panisse is off following a February review in which Ho said “Chez Panisse has pushed the culinary conversation in this country forward, but then seems to have stood still since then.”

It’s mostly SF and the East Bay

Over his three decades as critic, Bauer had time to explore the North and South Bay’s dining scenes — 2018’s Top 100 included Napa restaurants like Acacia House, Miminashi, Ad Hoc, Oenotri, and South Bay restaurants like Manresa. This year’s furthest flung restaurants are Single Thread (Healdsburg), Madcap (San Anselmo), El Molino Central (Sonoma), Charter Oak and The Restaurant at Meadowood (Saint Helena), Kyain Kyain (Fremont), and Maum (Palo Alto). Ho says logistics of budgets and a San Francisco-based critic have limited the scope, but that the outer reaches aren’t off the table (“Someone should put me up in their house in San Jose for a month and I’ll get right on it.”)

Where are all the Michelin stars?

The Top 100 has typically included at least an entire constellation’s worth of Michelin stars, which was always a predictable part of Bauer’s decision making process. This year, some of the included restaurants still boast stars, but are generally in the minority. According to Ho, she and the Chron’s food and wine team pitted the $200 and up tasting menus against one another and chose the best out of the group. “We know the food is good at these restaurants; but at these prices, we want more,” she wrote.

Notable high-ranking inclusions are Acquarello, Atelier Crenn, the French Laundry, the Restaurant at Meadowood, and Benu. Quince, Manresa, and Saison are absent.


It’s a new day at the Chronicle and a very new take on its seminal ranking. It’s also worth noting that this year the entire Food and Wine team participated in the Olympic-sized task of eating through the Bay Area, including wine critic Esther Mobley, giving a variety of perspectives on food, wine, and more. Check out the result of their efforts here.

Tosca Cafe

242 Columbus Avenue, , CA 94133 (415) 986-9651 Visit Website

Rintaro

82 14th Street, , CA 94103 (415) 589-7022 Visit Website

FOB Kitchen

5179 Telegraph Avenue, , CA 94609 (510) 817-4169 Visit Website

Atelier Crenn

3127 Fillmore Street, , CA 94123 (415) 440-0460 Visit Website

PABU

101 California St, San Francisco, CA 94111

Gary Danko

800 North Point Street, , CA 94109 (415) 749-2060 Visit Website

International Smoke

301 Mission Street, , CA 94105 (415) 722-2138 Visit Website

Nyum Bai

3340 East 12th Street, , CA 94601 (510) 500-3338 Visit Website

Manresa

320 Village Lane, , CA 95030 (408) 354-4330 Visit Website

Coqueta

Pier 5 The Embarcadero, , CA 94111 (415) 704-8866 Visit Website

Soba Ichi

2311A Magnolia Street, , CA 94607 (510) 465-1969 Visit Website

Marlowe

500 Brannan Street, , CA 94107 (415) 777-1413 Visit Website

Madcap

198 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, , CA 94960 (415) 453-9898 Visit Website

Chez Panisse

1517 Shattuck Avenue, , CA 94709 (510) 548-5525 Visit Website

Baumé

201 California Avenue, , CA 94306 (650) 328-8899 Visit Website

Angler

8500 Beverly Boulevard, , CA 90048 (424) 332-4082 Visit Website

Beit Rima

86 Carl Street, , CA 94117 (415) 566-1274 Visit Website

Quince

470 Pacific Avenue, , CA 94133 (415) 775-8500 Visit Website

Park Tavern

1652 Stockton Street, , CA 94133 (415) 989-7300 Visit Website

Benu

22 Hawthorne Street, , CA 94105 (415) 685-4860 Visit Website

La Folie

2316 Polk Street, , CA 94109 (415) 776-5577 Visit Website

The French Laundry

6640 Washington Street, , CA 94599 (707) 944-2380 Visit Website

Saison

178 Townsend Street, , CA 94107 (415) 828-7990 Visit Website