Tell your friends, parents, crushes and foes that the Chronicle’s Top 100 is back. Live now are restaurants ranked Nos. 51-100. Stay tuned for the top 50, which we’ll unveil next Monday night.
How did we tackle such a gargantuan undertaking, sorting through thousands of restaurants across the Bay Area and not just winnowing them to 100, but ranking them all?
Well, for one, we started working on it right after last year’s list debuted. MacKenzie Chung Fegan and I, the critics tasked with this endeavor, used our existing list as a foundation. We absorbed your feedback, especially your recommendations — MacKenzie already liked Ernest but gave it another look after readers voiced their support.
As a reminder: All eligible candidates must include seating, and restaurants must be open at least twice a week. Every spot gets at least one visit from either of us, sometimes together, but often separately to expand our reach. Any kind of restaurant could potentially be a Top 100 restaurant — tasting menu, wine bar, hot dog stand — but it must stand out among its peers: A place might shine for its excellence of hospitality, while another may speak to mastery over a specific dish.
This year, we were able to better trace each other’s steps, which made ranking slightly easier — or, in some cases, harder, if our experiences differed. We assigned levels of priority to restaurants we wanted each other to visit for additional perspective: MacKenzie made the pilgrimage out to El Molino Central in Sonoma, for instance, and I went to Patio Filipino, where the music of sizzling sisig fills the dining room. We agreed that both deserved spots on the list. It’s worth repeating that the Chronicle paid for all of our meals, and we made reservations under aliases.
We built the list one by one until we reached the final tally of 100. This year there were 25 newcomers, a few of which have been on previous, pre-pandemic Top 100s, such as Japanese izakaya Ippuku in Berkeley and forest-themed Lazy Bear in San Francisco. Nineteen of the new-to-this-list spots were revealed today, including firestarter Keeku da Dhaba in Fremont and fancy Italian joint Via Aurelia in the city. Of the new additions, half of the restaurants opened last year, such as San Francisco smashburger wunderkind Smish Smash.
To make room for the new guard, in total, we trimmed a quarter of the list. Some cuts were informed by closures: (hopefully) temporary ones, such as food truck Tacos Mama Cuca, as well as sadly more permanent ones, like Mingala in Newark.
We ranked the guide over multiple sessions, which involved locking ourselves in a conference room with Post-It notes, a pot of coffee and, on at least one occasion, lunch from Peña’s Bakery (No. 63) in Oakland.
We’re always looking to expand the regional scope of the list, so I drove further than the previous year. I’m happy in particular to report that I added a spot in the outer recesses of the East Bay: Spicy Joi in Concord, which stands out in a competitive field with its daring cooking that leans into the hot, sour and funk-forward attributes of Lao cuisine. That kind of drive is exactly what we’re looking for in a Top 100 restaurant.
We hope this guide will help you decide where to celebrate your next milestone, make the most out of your next night out or just really enjoy your sandwich.
I’d love to hear your feedback. Email me at cesar.hernandez@sfchronicle.com.