The Eater Awards are a moment to reflect: They’re an occasion to think back on the best meals we had at new restaurants this year, the bites that made us dance a little in our seats, the drinks that made the tea at dinner even juicier. The Bay Area welcomed a brand new class of restaurants and bakeries to our shores, soothing (somewhat) the ache of heartbreaking restaurant closures that accompany each year.
San Francisco has had a busy 12 months of openings, as the city’s initiatives to fill vacant storefronts continued alongside grants that helped ease the pain of license fees and more. The Bay Area feels vibrant again, and these new spots glimmer with promise. This year’s exciting winners tell personal stories through their food with dishes that bring spark to any dining doldrum you’re in. These entrants capture the best of the year’s dining moments, and the best of what the Bay Area has to offer. Here are the 2026 Eater Award winners for San Francisco, and be sure to check out the full list of Eater Awards, presented by Capital One.
The bread course centers on the Filipino bread pandesal with a chicken sisig spread seen here. Ellen Mary Cronin/Eater SF
The adobo dish, with 14-day aged duck and soy jus spooned over top. Ellen Mary Cronin/Eater SF
Nonalcoholic pairing options made by Celine Wuu. Ellen Mary Cronin/Eater SF
Chef Patrick Gabon in the Restaurant Naides kitchen. Ellen Mary Cronin/Eater SF
In an unmarked space in San Francisco’s Nob Hill, chef Patrick Gabon and partner Celine Wuu quietly rewrote the playbook on fine dining with Restaurant Naides. Filipino food has not historically held a footing in the Bay Area’s higher-end echelons, but Naides’s dishes make a powerful claim that the cuisine deserves its place there. Gabon deploys the sour, salty, and sweet flavors of the Philippines with subtle tenacity: The saline funk of bagoong, or fermented salted shrimp, takes on new dimension in Gabon’s hands, where the condiment gets mellowed into a creamy sauce that acts as foil to tender slices of chayote, crisp duck cracklings, and the burst of caviar. His approach to the mouth-puckering sourness of sinigang invigorates the Philippines’ national dish by pouring dry-aged beef broth over meticulously sliced abalone and scallions. These plates manage to retain the soul of the food but in new forms; they don’t placate the audience, asking them instead to reconsider their fundamental notions of fine dining and how Filipino food presented in this way may upend them.
Wuu’s beverage program has become a force of its own. It’s not often that a nonalcoholic pairing manages to outshine a traditional wine program, but Wuu keenly matches the bold flavors of each dish. A drink mixing the flavors of green mango with rooibos and habanero cordial complements the salty punch of bagoong at one turn, while coconut water, osmanthus, and rose vinegar offer a gentle start with the opening snacks, composed of Gabon’s takes on lumpia, okoy, and puto. “As you age and you grow, you tend to go deeper in your roots: ‘How can I make something so traditional the best it can be?’” Wuu told me earlier this year. Naides has answered that question with every meal since.
Laura Ozyilmaz plates a ceviche Acapulqueño. Michelle Min/Eater SF
Chef of the Year: Laura Ozyilmaz, Maria Isabel
San Francisco diners became acquainted with powerhouse couple Laura and Sayat Ozyilmaz through their championing of Eastern Mediterranean cuisine at Dalida. That restaurant told the story of Sayat’s upbringing and influences in Istanbul, Turkey, opening in 2023 inside a historic building within the lush environs of the Presidio and earning critical acclaim for the duo’s cooking.
In the years since, diners came to know Laura outside of Dalida. She completed an impressive run on Top Chef in 2024, where viewers saw her deftly plant one foot in Mediterranean food and another in Mexican cuisine, showcasing her skill in both fields throughout the season. With the 2026 debut of the Ozyilmazes’ restaurant Maria Isabel, the food feels like an even fuller expression of Laura’s heritage and personal history.
Named after Laura’s sister (Maria) and her mother (Isabel), the restaurant steeps in Mexican matriarchy, highlighting female winemakers, ceramics made by Mexican producers, and indigenous Mexican ingredients. The menu channels Laura’s upbringing in Guerrero and her family’s Sinaloan roots, as recounted through mariscos and maiz, moles and salsa macha. The ceviche Acapulqueño reimagines the Fanta- and ketchup-laden version instead with marigold flowers and preserved Seville oranges dressing tender shrimp and raw scallop; petals — and three fried shrimp heads — adorn the top. Duck enmoladas showcase the power of mole negro against a seasonal mole (sometimes a peach manchamanteles, other times a rhubarb rendition, but always compelling). Chochoyotes, a lesser-seen dish in San Francisco, demonstrates the restaurant’s ability to apply masa in different ways — in this case, dumplings — while harnessing the earthy flavor of huitlacoche. Maria Isabel is both a conduit for diners to connect with complex Mexican flavors and a view into Laura’s vision of the Mexico of her past and future.
Clockwise from upper left: The chocolate chip and toffee cookie, black sesame and yuzu cookie, croissant, wagyu pastrami Reuben croissant, and the vanilla and passion fruit cube. Ellen Mary Cronin/Eater SF
Bowtie croissants and candy stripe fig croissant with duck prosciutto. Ellen Mary Cronin/Eater SF
Parachute Bakery’s signature chocolate entremet. Ellen Mary Cronin/Eater SF
San Francisco’s pastry game is stronger and more competitive than ever before, and Parachute Bakery steps to the forefront of a crowded field with a mix of patisserie standards and seasonal standouts. At his Ferry Building bakery, pastry chef Nasir Armar marries his fine dining training, honed at Michelin-starred Sorrel and Saison, with flavors that make everyone sit up and take notice (and snap a food photo or two for their socials).
The team’s exacting execution of layer after buttery layer is prominent in every curve of their lychee-laden bowtie croissant, and every corner of their cube croissant. They pay just as much attention to ingredients and fillings, combining the black sesame and yuzu in charcoal-colored, sesame-topped cookies, and pairing ripe seasonal fruit with laminated pastries. A summertime mango is sliced into a bulging mound atop a bed of vanilla tapioca pudding, with a croissant pastry shell as its base.
Vegetables and savory complements are given their own footing on the menu. Stalks of grilled asparagus shine in a baton-shaped croissant shell, with fennel jam, sheep’s milk ricotta, and ramp pesto alongside them; one brief, bordering-on-gimmicky croissant got piped with clam chowder, a reference to the soup in a bread bowl famously served on the city’s wharf. Even potato-laden samosas and bright tomato shakshuka get interpreted into pastry form. Parachute succeeds with its experimental vision, a hype well-earned that leaves fans clamoring for what they’ll come up with next.
The fried fish taco at Chicano Nuevo. Alexa Treviño
Dish of the Year: Baja fish taco at Chicano Nuevo
To know Chicano Nuevo is to know its fish taco, emblematic of the vision and love that chef Abraham Núñez and partner Courtney Fujita have for the humble dish. The duo first launched Chicano Nuevo as a pop-up, embarking on a 10-year journey to a permanent location. Along the way, at dive bars and restaurants, the beloved fish taco developed its own following, convincing customers of the promise of more treasures to come from this team — once they could get into a kitchen of their own.
Now in his own space, Núñez is meting out his full vision with a six-course ($95) tasting menu showcasing the Baja and Tijuana food from his youth in an ethereal white dining room. And here in Chicano Nuevo’s space on Mission Street, the star of the menu, the latest iteration of the fish taco, feels fully realized.
Núñez takes a moment to step out of the kitchen to give diners some background about the fried fish taco and its accompanying salmon and shrimp consomé, as he’s serving it. The broth, he explains, is traditionally given to customers as they wait in line for fish tacos in Baja, meant for sipping rather than dunking. The taco begins with a craggy, fried basa filet spanning the length of a blue corn tortilla, dressed in strips of shredded red cabbage, pickled red onions, and crema. It’s a transportive combo. When taking sips of broth between bites of taco, you may find yourself imagining the warm sun in Baja, just like Núñez describes it.
Beef and Guinness pie, with a side of bone marrow. Jesse Cudworth
The Scotch egg and Guinness. Dingles Public House
Dingles Public House inside the Inn at the Opera hotel. Dingles Public House
Dingles Public House eased into the San Francisco dining scene seamlessly upon its opening, a comforting restaurant with one goal in mind: to serve British classics in a proper British setting. The restaurant is decked out in dark British racing green walls with cushy maroon leather booths, a roaring fireplace, and knickknacks fit for a London pub. It all helps teleport diners straight to England as they step past the red curtains at the entrance.
Restaurant pros George and Anissa Dingle are responsible for the restaurant’s charm. The couple met while working at the now-closed French restaurant Monsieur Benjamin. Gloucestershire-born George minds the tight menu of British comfort food, while Anissa manages the wine and bar offerings. Think crisp-fried Scotch eggs with runny, golden yolks; hearty beef and Guinness pie with a bone marrow shooter and mash on the side; a thick, pub-style burger thumbing its nose at the smash burger trend, complete with chubby fries (err, chips). Wednesdays are for pastry-wrapped Wellingtons — or as the Dingles call it, Welly Wednesday — and Sundays are built for Sunday roast, featuring slices of roast beef and gravy on top. Diners can sip on cocktails like the 007, the restaurant’s Vesper equivalent, or a Sticky Bobby, which mixes sticky toffee with scotch and Benedictine, or get a pull of Guinness or Old Speckled Hen on draft. In the time from front door to dessert, the time melts away, and the pub food of Britain has become the relief San Franciscans seek after a day of work — or play.
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