In advance of releasing the full 2011 Bay Area Michelin Guide next week, the French tire and restaurant authority released their Bib Gourmand picks for this year — their now annual selection of restaurants considered by inspectors to be a good value, with a full two-course meal including wine for $40 or less. It’s especially helpful for San Franciscans if you’re trying to figure out a cheap-ish place to eat in, say, Petaluma (Cucina Paradiso), or Danville (Coa). This year’s local list is 74 restaurants long, with a total of 29 newcomers including Sons & Daughters, eVe, Hibiscus, Starbelly, Chapeau!, SPQR, and Café Des Amis. Among those dropped from last year’s list: Bar Tartine, Farina, and Duskie Estes’s Zazu. See the full list below.
As Michelin reminds us, via their release (in case you dared doubt their authority), “Refined over the course of more than 100 years Michelin’s Inspectors work tirelessly throughout the year to analyze restaurants in a given city, regularly eating two or more meals per day, every day, always under the cloak of anonymity.”
This year’s Bib Gourmand selections:
(* denotes new selection for 2011)
A16
BarBersQ (Napa)
Bay Wolf (Oakland)
Bellanico (Oakland)
Betelnut
Bistro Aix*
Bistro Jeanty* (Yountville)
Bistro 29* (Santa Rosa)
Bottega* (Napa)
Brown Sugar Kitchen
Burma Superstar
Café des Amis*
Café Gibraltar (El Granada)
Camino (Oakland)
C Casa* (Napa)
Chapeau! *
Chevalier (Lafayette)
Chu* (Oakland)
Coa* (Danville)
Colibrí
Cook (St. Helena)
Corso (Berkeley)
Crouching Tiger (Redwood City)
Cucina Paradiso
Delarosa*
Delfina
Domo*
Dosa
eVe*
FIVE
flour + water
Gather*
Hachi Ju Hachi* (Saratoga)
Henry’s Hunan
Hibiscus* (Oakland)
Hong Kong Flower Lounge (Millbrae)
Incanto
Insalata’s (San Anselmo)
Kabab & Curry’s* (Santa Clara)
The Kitchen (Sacramento)
K & L Bistro (Sebastopol)
Kokkari Estiatorio
La Costanera* (Half Moon Bay)
Laurus* (Danville)
Le Charm
Mamacita
Marinitas (San Anselmo)
Market (St. Helena)
Monti’s Rotisserie (Santa Rosa)
Nopa
Oenotri* (Napa)
Perbacco
Picán (Oakland)
Risibisi (Petaluma)
Rivoli* (Berkeley)
Sakae (Burlingame)
Santi* (Geyserville)
Sauce
The Slanted Door
Slow Club
Sociale
Sons & Daughters*
SPQR*
Starbelly*
Sumika* (Los Altos)
Sushi Ran*
Tavern at Lark Creek (Larkspur)
Thai House* (Danville)
the girl & the fig
Troya*
Vanessa’s Bistro
Willi’s Wine Bar (Santa Rosa)
Wood Tavern* (Oakland)
Earlier: Chris Cosentino Thinks He Caught the Michelin Inspector [Grub Street]
Nearing the End of His Tour of Duty, Local Michelin Inspector Compliments SPQR, Sociale [Grub Street]
BREAKING: Local Michelin Inspector Is Ugly [Grub Street]
Michelin Adds 18 Bib Gourmand Picks to SF Guide [Grub Street - ‘09]
