SF Bay Area Survey: Diners Say They Prefer Italian (But Do They)?

Guylas (aka goulash) with whipped bone marrow courtesy of Bar Tartine

By Meesha Halm

For all the gripes (locally and nationally) that San Francisco restaurant menus suffer from too much alikeness, surveyors in our just-released 2013 San Francisco Bay Area Restaurants Guide disagree. When asked about the current state of the local dining scene, respondents rated our “culinary diversity” 27 out of a scale of 30. Sure, they still name Italian, French and American as their favorite cuisines, but when you dig deeper into the results, diners did reward kitchens that were cranking out less hegemonic fare.


In fact, this year, two Greek restaurants – Kokkari and Evvia – manage to break it onto the Top 10 Food list. Another case in point: Bar Tartine’s Food score has gone up since jettisoning its Cal-Med menu for Nick Balla’s more daring Eastern European offerings (goulash anyone?) Elsewhere, Japanese-owned Izakaya Yuzuki and Kappa Gomi, which bucked the trend of gringo-run izakayas, did really well in our survey for their authentic eats while the Korean mom-and-pop shop To Hyang drew high food scores (and the attention of Anthony Bourdain) for its scratch home-style Seoul food. And thanks to the unlikely popularity of Berkeley’s Ippuku, people are lining up on the sidewalk to eat chicken tartare.

The trend towards culinary diversification shows no sign of stopping. In the last few months, we’ve seen the opening of the city’s first-ever Swedish restaurant Pläj, the pan-Asian Namu Gaji and Burmese Rangoon Ruby, as well as a rise of high-end Mexican restaurants and tequilerias such as Copita, Comal, La Condesa and Rosa Mexicano.

What do you think – is the Bay Area dining scene getting more interesting to you? Be sure to let us know your thoughts in the comments, or via Google+ and Twitter using the hashtag #ZagatSF2013.