Wolfsbane snacks/amuse bouche. Photo by Virginia Miller. It’s that time of year again: sifting through the hundreds of new SF Bay Area restaurants and bars I visited this year, among hundreds more internationally and across the U.S. Here are the newcomers that stand out most, opened between November 2024 and December 2025. The previous year’s top openings are here, notably… Read more →
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 →
Flour+Water crudo. Photos by Virginia Miller.. With a little under 40,000 Italian population in San Francisco alone, we’re home to one of the stronger Italian demographics in California. Our rich Italian immigrant history since the 1800s (no surprise) has left a permanent mark on our food and drink, from our wine regions and grape varieties, to Italian-immigrant-created local dishes like… Read more →
SPQR corn panna cotta. Photo by Virginia Miller. With a little under 40,000 Italian population in San Francisco alone, we’re home to one of the stronger Italian demographics in California. Our rich Italian immigrant history since the 1800s (no surprise) has left a permanent mark on our food and drink, from our wine regions and grape varieties, to Italian-immigrant-created local… Read more →
Shuggie’s front dining room. Photo by Virginia Miller. Truthfully, San Francisco never stopped being fun, but these four restaurants are next-level. Two are brand new, one is recently remodeled and reborn, the other opened January 2025. All are whimsical, even funky, sometimes brazenly colorful and daringly flavorful. Chicken Fried Palace. Photo by Virginia Miller. If Waffle House Were Gourmet: Chicken… Read more →
Eos & Nyx mezze/dips. Photo by Virginia Miller. For 24 years, I’ve been exploring and writing about the Bay Area’s Peninsula — including but not minimized to the moniker Silicon Valley. San Mateo County can suffer from suburban malaise and mediocrity when it comes to restaurant standards, especially compared to the dense, world-class glories of nearby San Francisco. But this… Read more →
Happy Crane firecracker shrimp, my favorite dish. Photo by Virginia Miller. Dining at The Happy Crane just one month after it opened on August 8, 2025, it was packed on a weeknight, already booked weeks-ahead. The intimate restaurant glowed, though minimalist, centered by the bar, with glass walls framing a colorful Hayes Valley alley mural outside. What is clear immediately… Read more →
Nopa Fish’s killer seafood chowder. Photo by Virginia Miller. Chef Laurence Jossel and Holly Rhodes’ Nopa is an SF institution since 2006, still packed nightly, a tough seat to snag. It has remained quality, from food to wine and cocktails, for almost 20 years. So there was no question Nopa Fish, which opened June 17, 2025, would be a priority… Read more →
Five are new-er, two are celebrating two or twenty years, from killer Laotian food or Italian comfort to Tatarstan Russian food. These seven are worth visiting. Last month’s standouts here. As always, I’ve personally vetted and visited each: Mattina canederli. Photo by Virginia Miller. Cal-Italian, All-Day Neighborhood Joys: Mattina, Pacific HeightsSince 2007, SPQR is one of the nation’s great pasta… Read more →
Four Seasons Napa Valley view from lobby deck. Photo by Virginia Miller. North Block scallops. Photo by Virginia Miller. Napa’s gifts to the world are many, not the least of which is changing wine forever by being the first to put New World wine on the map in the Judgement of Paris in 1976. Writing about idyllic Napa nearly two… Read more →