Should The New York Times be The Bay Area Times? After declaring that the region has some of the country’s best Mexican cuisine, the paper is back with “The Restaurant List 2026,” elevating two Bay Area eateries as destination-level dining spots.
“A restaurant can be a place like any other — tables, chairs, staff, food. But a great restaurant is a place like no other,” declares the Times, which put 16 writers on the case of finding the 50 top dining rooms in the U.S.
In San Francisco, Restaurant Naides impressed the critics with its modern Filipino cuisine like fermented shrimp with duck cracklings and sinigang, a “delightfully sour soup.” And Alice Waters must be beaming, because making the list was her recent offspring, Bar Panisse, where chef Amelia Telc’s creativity and “reverence for ingredients and rustic cooking” are “very much in tune with the way we eat right now.”
If you haven’t heard of Bar Panisse, patrons swear it’s worth a visit for the butter beans alone. Here are all of the Times’ picks for California, in no particular order, plus those for Oregon and Washington.
The New York Times’ 2026 best restaurants for California, Oregon and Washington
1 Bar Panisse, Berkeley
2 Restaurant Naides, San Francisco
3 Yerord Mas Bakery and Deli, Glendale, California
4 Komal, Los Angeles
5 Jacaranda, Los Angeles
Nate Bertucio serves customers at Bar Panisse on Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley on Feb. 23, 2026. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
6 Mesa Agricola, Escondido, California
7 Hayward, Carlton, Oregon
8 OK Chicken and Khao Soi, Portland, Oregon
9 Passage, Langley, Washington
10 Hama Hama Oyster Saloon, Lilliwaup, Washington
Source: The New York Times