Michelin Just Recognized Five Bay Area Restaurants as Some of the Best Values in the State

Just ahead of the Michelin Guide California ceremony being held on Tuesday, July 18 in Oakland, the guide dropped its additions to the list of Bib Gourmand selections for California on Tuesday, July 11. The Bibs are meant to honor “best value for money” restaurants, or restaurants where one can order “a three-course meal at a reasonable price.” This year, five Bay Area restaurants were selected out of the 10 new Bib Gourmand additions in the state announced Tuesday: Bansang, Snail Bar, Bombera, Petiscos, and Maligne.

For the Bay Area Bib Gourmand additions, Michelin truly does its leg work of inspecting the state from north to south in all its gustatory delight. Most of the Bay Area restaurants in Tuesday’s announcement were previously named as new additions to the guide: San Francisco’s Bansang was announced as an addition to the California Michelin Guide in March 2023, followed by Oakland restaurants Snail Bar and Bombera, and San Jose’s Petiscos in May 2023. At the time of their original announcements, the restaurants weren’t given any designation and instead marked as merely “new” on the online guide, receiving their Bib Gourmand guide designation Tuesday.

One new addition, however, wasn’t made known in previous announcements to the guide this year: the inclusion of Monterey-area restaurant Maligne. The Seaside restaurant is led by chef Klaus Georis, who has worked at Atelier Crenn and In de Wulf in Belgium previously before opening this fine dining restaurant in 2022. In its announcement, Maligne is described as a “hip, easygoing Seaside gem” with “effortlessly hospitable” staff. The restaurant recently underwent a reboot of sorts in late March 2023, adding lunch, an oak-fired oven, and backyard seating, creating a more approachable bistro vibe, according to Edible Monterey Bay.