The Chron’s not trying to force people to buy the paper this year.
I’m not sure I take issue with any of the places I’m familiar with except Tosca, but there are a lot I haven’t and probably won’t try.
Eater’s list of places added:
- Belga
- Bix
- Cala
- Californios
- Commis
- Del Popolo
- Little Gem
- Lord Stanley
- Ninebark
- Octavia
- Old Bus Tavern
- Omakase
- Petit Crenn
- Rasa
- Shed Cafe
- Trestle
- Village Sake
- Volta
- Z and Y
and dropped:
- AQ
- Bar Terra
- Barbacco (rolled into Perbacco )
- Bocadillos
- Boot and Shoe Service (actually dropped)
- Bouchon
- Cafe at Chez Panisse (rolled into Chez Panisse)
- Central Kitchen
- The Dock at Linden Street
- Gialina
- Hopscotch
- Monsieur Benjamin
- Molina
- Maven
- Nojo
- Nido
- Piccino
- Scopa
- Sante
certainly agree with dropping Bouchon. Surprised at Scopa being dropped.
Bauer hasn’t had anything bad to say about Scopa. Presumably some of the places he dropped were just arbitrary choices to make room for new places that aren’t necessarily any better.
Blog post today on the places he dropped:
AQ: arbitrarily cut to keep the number of fixed-price restaurants down
Bocadillos: food very good but didn’t have “that extra spark”
Bouchon: felt like food was being “prepared by rote”
Central Kitchen: “service bordered on annoying, prices didn’t seem justified”
Dock at Linden Street: “menu was simplified and pared down”
Farmshop: “food slightly disappointed”
Gialina: “pizza unevenly cooked”
Greens: “underwhelmed … lost its edge”
Hopscotch: “flavors didn’t come together”
Maven: “less inspired”
Molina: new chef changed “the dynamics”
Monsieur Benjamin: food was underseasoned (or overseasoned? badly written)
Nido: “lacked finesse”
Nojo: sold, concept changed
Piccino: “hasn’t quite kept up with the competition”
Picco: new chef hadn’t had time to settle in
Sante: “nothing negative to say … shut my eyes and deleted”
Scopa: "menu didn’t have the same soulful character
Trick Bar: “decided it was more relevant as a bar”
Seems like AQ and Sante really got screwed by his arbitrary insistence on pretending that there are only 100 restaurants on the list.
http://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com/blog/2016/05/16/my-reasons-for-removing-19-restaurants-from-the-top-100/