Tag: Fine Dining

Sons & Daughters: The 50 Best, 2 Michelin Restaurant That Keeps Getting Better 16 Years In

by  on  in San Francisco Bay Area, Top Tastes

It has been quite a year for Sons & Daughters already. In these initial months of 2026, they’ve garnered a rare spot in the second annual North America’s 50 Best Restaurants awards, a returning two Michelin stars and a James Beard finalist nomination for Best Chef California for Harrison Cheney. In November 2025, S&D moved from its tiny original space — now housing already-Michelin-starred modern Filipino Restaurant Naides — to San Francisco’s Mission District in the gorgeous, wood-walled space that was home to Michelin-starred Osito… Read more →

Upping the Filipino Game Sustainably & Artfully: Restaurant Naides is One to Watch

by  on  in San Francisco Bay Area

Restaurant Naides bread and chicken gizzard liver mousse course. Photo by Virginia Miller. Filipino fine dining is on the rise but is still far from mainstream. Chicago’s Michelin-starred, James Beard-winning Kasama and husband-wife chefs, Tim Flores and Genie Kwon, elevated the cuisine of the Philippines, playing with it in inspired ways (my review). As has chef Francis Ang in San… Read more →

10 SF Restaurants Remaining (Quietly) Great

by  on  in San Francisco Bay Area

Reviewed in this article:
—Modern Indian Creativity from Veggies to Meat: Tiya
—At Five Years Ernest Remains One of SF’s Unsung Greats
—Two Michelin Magic: Saison
—Delicately Playful Dessert Tasting Menu: Nisei
—The U.S.’ Great Modern Guamanian Restaurant: Prubechu
—North African/Tunisian Treasure Turns 10: Barcha
—91-Year-Old Pizza & Pasta Legend: Tommaso’s
—Two Michelin Heights at 8-Year-Old Birdsong
—Asian Rooftop Delights: Good Good Culture Club
—Upscale Thai Offers a Steal of a Lunch: Hed11 Read more →

Michelin-Star Chefs Transcend in My Top 2 New Restaurants of the Year: Wolfsbane & Lore

by  on  in San Francisco Bay Area, The Latest

Wolfsbane snacks/amuse bouche. Photo by Virginia Miller. These two new tasting menu restaurants are already playing for keeps, the kind of places that would fit right in on 50 Best or Michelin lists. They also are my number one and number two new restaurants of 2025, respectively. My full top 12 restaurants and bars here. Wolfsbane Is Immediately Firing On… Read more →

A Tiny Chinese Restaurant Like No Other… And Impossible to Get Into: Fù Huì Huá

by  on  in San Francisco Bay Area, The Latest

Fu Hui Hua tangyuan. Photo by Virginia Miller. Along with Eater and the SF Chronicle, I’d rather not name eight-to-nine-seat restaurant Fù Huì Huá as the best of the year because it’s already impossible to get in. But it is one of the best anywhere… and there is no Chinese restaurant like it on the continent. Thus, it’s on my… Read more →

A New Era for 3 San Francisco Fine Dining Greats: Atelier Crenn, Californios, Merchant Roots

by  on  in Top Tastes

These 3 restaurants boast everything from The World’s 50 Best Restaurants status to Michelin stars, but what they’ve evolved to is bold flavors & unexpected fun:

—3 Michelin, World’s 50 Best Great Reimagined at 14: Atelier Crenn
—The Only 2 Michelin Mexican Restaurant in N. America Turns 10: Californios
—Of Eggs & Broken Things: Humpty Dumpty Experience at Merchant Roots

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Enclos: a new era for Sonoma dining

by  on  in Around the Bay

Healdsburg has long been the favored Sonoma town square, packed with charm, shops and great food. Over the 24 years I’ve been visiting, it has grown into a destination for world travelers and foodies since SingleThread opened in 2016. Earning one, then two, and eventually three Michelin stars, Healdsburg has attracted upscale resorts, hotel remodels, pricey condos and a chic reputation.

Alternately, Sonoma’s larger town square has remained steady, even old-school, the past 24 years I’ve visited. With Enclos opening December 5, 2024, in a cozy Victorian cottage a half block off the square, the town is set to change: Read more →