The Bauer 100
UPDATED: July 30, 2008
Yes, folks, time once again for that annual rite of spring, the publication of Michael Bauer’s Top 100 Bay Area Restaurants. Admit it, peeps, you too peruse the list, counting the number of included restaurants where you’ve eaten (35 for me, though not all in the past year). Those of you with too much time, way too much money and the French Laundry on your auto-dialer will be plotting how to hit them all within the next 26 fortnights.
I, of course, am destined to be grumpy.
Looking at the restaurants that fell off the list…
1. I’m outraged that La Taqueria got cut. MB gives no hint that La Taqueria slipped so this marks the triumph of the elitist snobs. In the end, food should be about taste. Presentation, technique and creativity are all secondary. Bauer’s perpetual inclusion of La Taqueria in his Top 100 gave me some faith that he got it. Now, that faith’s been shattered.
2. When Mackie and I lived on Russian Hill, Antica Trattoria was a favorite of mine. I’m sad to see it drop off the list. I’ll take MB at his word that the place slipped a bit. That makes me sad too. I hope they get their A game back.
3. Fleur de Lys missing the cut after The Bauer’s savage review in October is not at all surprising. I posted some thoughts on Hubert Keller separately.
4. Mackie and I diverge wildly on Maya. I enjoyed our meal there. Mackie barfed in the bushes as soon as we pulled into our driveway. Needless to say, we haven’t returned. (And no, smarty pants, it wasn’t because of my driving.)
5. I was underwhelmed during my two visits to Myth but mine was a minority opinion. Still, between chef changes and impending (but delayed) closure, it’s unsurprising that Myth didn’t make the cut.
6. MB yanked a full star from Tres Agaves in June and noted the decline in an update to his 2007 Top 100. The surprise is not that it was excluded this year but that it ever made the list in the first place. My visit informed me that Tres Agaves was average, at best.
7. When I saw Eater SF’s scoop on the Top 100 (props to Eater for posting the list before SF Gate), I was so surprised that the four-star Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton was absent that I e-mailed Eater asking if they were sure. They were and hit the nail on the head as to why – the uncertainty regarding Ron Siegel’s pending (or not) departure. Personally, I was rooting for a repeat of MB forgetting to including the DRRC, as he did in 2006.
Turning to what’s on the list…
1. Six of my Ten Most Overrated Restaurants, A16, Boulevard, Buckeye Roadhouse, Chez Panisse, La Folie and Incanto, made the list. Like I said, they’re overrated.
2. Amber India, Zarzuela and Chow are, IMO, also overrated, although not so much as to hit my Top Ten. Silks too but, to be fair, Christmas Dinner isn’t representative of normal meals.
3. Ditto O Chamé but I’m calling them out for nickel and dime-ing me by charging for iced tea refills. That’s OK if it’s cheap or you’re serving bottles. O Chamé wasn’t. C’mon guys, don’t PO your customers with petty charges.
4. COCO500 is my current favorite. Congrats and rock on.
5. I’ve had some wonderful, memorable meals at Gary Danko, Jai Yun, Jardiniere and Masa's. Glad to see them included.
6. I started to include Zuni Café in #5 but they deserve special mention because of one meal that Mackie and I had there. Beef tenderloin rolled in cracked black pepper served with mashed potatoes and sautéed spinach. Maybe 10 ingredients on the whole plate. Nowhere to hide if something wasn’t perfect. But everything was perfect. To me, this is the epitome of great cooking, not complex, creative meals with a ton of ingredients. (BTW, I found the recipe for the tenderloin with cracked pepper online. I've yet to make the $100+ investment needed to buy the meat. If anyone tries this recipe, please, please report your results.)
7. MB mentioned how easy it was to forget how good a place is, citing Bistro Aix as an example. Agree fully, although we diverge on Zarzuela, mentioned in the same blog post. Bistro Aix serves a variety of great dishes, including cured salmon with potato galette, duck leg confit, lamb steak and steak frites, but flies below the radar. If you get the Pizza Margherita, ask for fresh basil instead of the crappy pesto they normally use. Otherwise, they crank out some darn fine food. Parking a real issue.
8. I love the almost pun of Flora followed by Fonda. A Bauer commenter asked why Fonda made it and JoJo didn’t. Maybe this is why.
9. Someone, please, call or e-mail if the lamb riblets return to the menu at Nopa. Ditto the short ribs at Range. Thank you very much in advance.
10. That Bradley Ogden’s One Market makes the list is no surprise but I’m wondering what his Lark Creek Steak has to do to be included. Our best meal in a long time was at LCS.
11. I wish that Perbacco wasn’t in such an inconvenient (for me) location. I love salume and the one time I made it to Perbacco, it was outstanding.
12. I was very surprised to see Shanghai 1930 on the list because I’d never heard good things about their food. However, it seems that a chef change did wonders for them. Mackie and I ate at Shanghai 1930 a couple of times after I originally posted this item and confirmed that the place is now great. Review in my blogging queue.
13. After being called out by The Chron last year, Swan Oyster Depot’s cleanliness (90) is starting to match its food.
14.
15. What did you say about Town Hall? I can’t hear you over the din!
16. Eater SF sniffed out that Firefly made the cut when the news hit that Pescheria was closing. Nice detective work, guys. I’m glad because I love Firefly, although I rarely go because of the parking.
So, if I got to erase ten restaurants from the Bauer 100 (those listed in items 1, 2 and 3, above, excluding Silks for the stated reason), who would I put in their place?
1. La Taqueria – it’s an outrage it’s not on the list.
2. Lark Creek Steak, as noted in my comments on One Market.
3. El Raigon – no pure steakhouse made the Top 100, I want two.
4. We no longer go to Isa regularly because it’s far from where we live and it’s hard to park but the food is spectacular.
5. Tamerine – fantastic Vietnamese in Palo Alto.
6. Evvia – I’ve not been to Kokkari but its Palo Alto sibling is the bomb.
7. Masala, to counter the deletion of Amber India.
8. MB has been writing about pizza every Friday but only one pizzeria (I’m not counting Picco because I suspect that the main restaurant was largely responsible for its inclusion) in his Top 100??? Let's hear some love for the pies. I’m adding Gialina.
9. Alborz – Persian cooking is so good, how can it not be represented in the Top 100? Alborz is worthy, although some would argue for Maykadeh. This isn’t a plea for diversity or equal opportunity, it’s just the facts.
10. Balompie Café’s mother ship in the Mission – because Salvadoran cooking deserves the same respect as down and dirty Mexican.
Not including Fringale on the list causes me some heartburn but I haven’t been since the chef change so I can only hope it’s still as good as it was. (I've since visited Fringale — it's as great as ever.)
What say you? How did The Bauer do making his 2008 Top 100? Special credit to anyone who can figure out MB's 107 - 1 = 105 arithmetic.
A16 and Chez Panisse top 10 overrated restaurants? Are you nuts? Have you ever visited Southern Italy? A16's wine list alone...
Now Chez Panisse is different every time, but always clean, consistent and true to its local, simple food focus.
Maybe you have something against restaurants that serve pizza?
It is hard to take your criticism of Michael seriously when you post such off mark comments on top restaurants you find over rated. I have eaten at least 4 times in each of these places and always had a great meal.
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Nuts? No. Grumpy? Yes. Not to mention, with respect to these particular establishments, correct in my assessment and possessing the guts to call out the critics and lemmings who fawn over them (the restaurants, that is, not the critics).
I've never been south of Florence in Italy but don't see how that's relevant to my assessment of A16's food. I've eaten enough high quality food, including high quality Italian food, to know what sucks and what doesn't. I've visited A16 at least four times and experienced major suckage every time. No matter how great the wine list might be, it doesn't compensate for bad food.
As I stated regarding CPC, I have no quibble about the freshness of the ingredients or the quality of the preparation. It’s the naked arrogance that sets me off. And if the supposedly less formal café suffers from this disease, I dread to ponder the attitude in the main restaurant.
I have nothing against restaurants that serve pizza. To the contrary, I love pizza and restaurants that serve pizza as long as it's good pizza. I've sung the praises of COCO500, Little Star Pizza, Village Pizzeria and Za Pizza in these pages. In fact, in this very post, I bemoaned the lack of pizzerias in the Top 100 and suggest that Gialina should have been included!
As far as my comments being off the mark, how can you read my account of my dinner at CPC, an account that I assure you is 100% factually accurate, and conclude that I had anything but a lousy experience??? I'll grant you that my assessment of A16 is far more subjective but you'd think that, after at least four visits, I'd have found something to rave about it if was all that.
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P.S. Chez Panisse is not the Chez Panisse Cafe. Try eating in the main restaurant or at least take the time to refer to the right restaurant.
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Did you notice that, when Michael Bauer published his Top 100, he lumped the upstairs café and the downstairs restaurant into one entry (you need to scroll down a bit to find CP)? Ah, yes, I thought you'd missed that one. In the context of the Top 100, my reference to Chez Panisse was correct because he used that name to refer to both parts of the establishment. If you have an issue with them not being separate in his Top 100, take it up with MB.
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