• We had a tip-off that Michael Bauer had been back up to Meadowood when he mentioned a favorite goat dish he’d recently eaten there. Then an early leak on his blog showed he was honoring chef Christopher Kostow with a four-star promotion. (He previously reviewed Meadowood to the tune of three and a half stars back in ‘08.) Update: The review is up, and Michael writes: “From start to finish, [Kostow] commands the kitchen, creating dishes you won’t find on any other menu.” [Chron]
• Following both a Michelin star and a middling review from Mr. Bauer back in the fall, Jonathan Kauffman concedes that Oakland’s Commis “isn’t a perfect restaurant, but it’s capable of food that approaches the sublime” and writes that chef James Syhabout is “preternaturally attuned to the harmonics of flavor.” [SF Weekly]
• Paul Reidinger offers up some mild praise for new Mission Turkish joint Tuba, saying that the space “isn’t laid out to accommodate a crush of patrons” but recommending the sigara boregi. [SFBG]
• And we mustn’t neglect to mention Bauer’s two-and-a-half star review on Sunday for Mission izakaya Nombe (which translates as “drunk guy on the street”), in which he admits “after a few sakes and lots of great food, we clearly understood the meaning of Nombe.” [Chron]
