The Top 100 Places to Eat and Drink Near Stanly Ranch
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Rank 1. La Toque
Contemporary
Ken Frank's kitchen in the Westin shows off technically precise seasonal cooking—roasted lamb with aligot potatoes, dry-aged duck with za'atar cherry—in an elegant dining room with an open kitchen view. The tasting menu is pricey and portions modest, but the wine list and celebratory atmosphere justify the splurge.
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Rank 2. Kenzo
Kaiseki Japanese
A serene 25-seat counter in downtown Napa where chef Kenzo Tsujimoto composes kaiseki with seasonal precision—steamed scallop dumplings in aged dashi, seared A5 Wagyu with burdock root miso—each course unhurried and deliberate. The room, spare and minimal, invites you to watch the kitchen work while Napa wines and sake arrive in measured pours.
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Rank 3. Naysayers Coffee Roasters
Coffee Shop
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Rank 4. Winston's Cafe & Bakery
Filipino-American
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Rank 6. Stateline Road Smokehouse
Kansas City Barbecue
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Rank 7. Compline Restaurant and Wine Shop
Californian
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Rank 8. ZuZu
Spanish-Inspired
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Rank 9. Croccante Pizza
Detroit-Style
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Rank 10. Loveski
Jewish
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Rank 12. Chispa
Latin American
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Rank 14. Mothers Tacos
Mexico City-Style
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Rank 16. The French Laundry
French
Thomas Keller's Yountville kitchen applies classical French precision to impeccable ingredients in a dining room engineered down to the counter height. A progression might unfold from salmon tartare in a delicate cornet through butter-poached lobster and herb-roasted lamb to a chocolate gâteau finale. This is restaurant craft at its most exacting.
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Rank 17. Bistro Don Giovanni
Italian
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Rank 19. Enclos
Contemporary New American
Inside a Victorian mansion near Sonoma Plaza, chef Brian Limoges charts a restless course through global flavors and local ingredients, turning a spiny lobster tartare into a crisp croustade or folding chowder's essence into clam chawanmushi. The grilling is assured, the sauces shimmer with intent, and the staff glides through each course with genuine warmth—a tasting menu that refuses to settle.
- Michelin Guide 2 Stars
- Wine Enthusiast 2025 · Top 50 New Restaurants
- San Francisco Chronicle 2026 · #84 · Top 100 Restaurants in the Bay Area
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Rank 20. Michael Warring
Contemporary
A narrow counter in Vallejo where Chef Warring, trained in Napa's fine dining, works seasonal ingredients with precision and restraint. Ocean trout crudo sits beside seared ribeye—each plate a small argument for technique as clarity rather than flourish.
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Rank 21. Valley
Wine Bar
A come-as-you-are wine bar on Sonoma Plaza where organic and biodynamic bottles share equal billing with a tiny, seasonal menu that moves without pretense. Albacore crudo with blood orange, cauliflower in black bean sauce, olive oil cake with citrus marmalade—each plate suggests a kitchen that finds plenty of flavor in restraint.
- Wine Enthusiast 2023 · Forward 50 Restaurants
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: California · Emma Lipp and Stephanie Reagor
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
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Rank 22. Layla
Mediterranean
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Rank 24. Santé
French
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Rank 26. El Molino Central
Regional Mexican
A cramped counter-service setup feeds into a kitchen you walk through to reach the patio, where strangers become co-conspirators debating the day's specials. Red mole tamales, pozole verde, and beer-battered fish tacos arrive with the seasonal precision of someone who understands their ingredients. The noise, the color, the shuffle—it's all part of the ritual.
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- Los Angeles Times 2025 · The 101 Best Restaurants in California
- San Francisco Chronicle 2026 · #93 · Top 100 Restaurants in the Bay Area
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Rank 27. Auberge du Soleil
Californian New American
Robert Curry tends the legacy of Napa's foundational restaurant with cooking that distills California's abundance: scallops in green garlic, squid ink linguine crowned with uni. The tasting menu unfolds at the diner's pace, each course confident enough to stand alone, yet the view of vineyards below reminds you that setting and sustenance here are one thing.
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Rank 28. Mustards Grill
American
Cindy Pawlcyn's roadhouse draws crowds for seasonal cooking anchored in its own gardens—grilled fish, vivid salads, a pork sandwich that justifies the line. The lemon-lime tart arrives ridiculously tall, and the wine list rewards patient browsing.
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Los Angeles Times 2025 · The 101 Best Restaurants in California
- San Francisco Chronicle 2026 · #77 · Top 100 Restaurants in the Bay Area
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Rank 29. ad hoc + addendum
American
A bright wood-paneled room under a blue awning where Thomas Keller cooks the way he might at home: vibrant salads of green asparagus and beets, buttermilk fried chicken that tastes deceptively simple, dishes served family style with the care of someone who has thought about every detail. Worth the inevitable wait.
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Rank 30. Press
Contemporary New American
Just off Highway 29, Press occupies a grand dining room of warm wood and fireplace light, where the cooking speaks in a language of restraint. Charcoal-grilled lobster, ricotta gnudi crowned with tableside consommé, and wagyu rib cap arrive with the clarity of a kitchen that trusts its ingredients. The wine program, rooted in Napa, anchors an experience built for lingering.
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- Food & Wine 2023 · Mushroom Gnudi · Best Dishes Our Editors Ate This Year
- Wine Enthusiast The Wine Restaurant Hall of Fame
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Rank 31. The Restaurant at Auberge du Soleil
Californian French
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Rank 32. Glen Ellen Star
Californian New American
A cottage kitchen built around a wood-burning oven turns out inventive Californian cooking that belies its quaint appearance. Chef Ari Weiswasser builds a lean menu around biodynamic produce from nearby farms—charred vegetables with truffle-chili cashew crunch, whole roasted branzino, brick chicken—and finishes with house-made ice creams in unexpected flavors. Serious food, casually presented.
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: California · Ari Weiswasser
- San Francisco Chronicle Top Sonoma County Restaurants
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Rank 33. Ciccio
Italian
Ciccio trades Yountville's polished newness for a wood-beamed 1916 grocery store where country curtains and a front porch transport you backward. Wood-fired pizzas emerge blistered and tangy, topped with crispy cabbage and pancetta; house-made pasta like chitarra with 'nduja and clams competes for attention, as does a substantial pork chop Milanese that rewards sharing.
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Rank 34. Bouchon Bakery
French Bakery
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Rank 35. Table Culture Provisions
French-inflected New American
Chef-owners Saint Louis and Vargas run a ten-table tasting room where seasonally minded Californian cooking meets French technique, as in a flaky squab pithivier. Warm service and composed desserts like chestnut Mont Blanc complete the picture of understated, approachable elegance.
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- San Francisco Chronicle 2026 · #75 · Top 100 Restaurants in the Bay Area
- San Francisco Chronicle Top Sonoma County Restaurants
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Rank 36. Charlie’s
Global
- Esquire 2024 · The Best New Restaurants in America
- The New York Times 2025 · Campfire Pie · The 14 Best Restaurant Desserts We Ate Across the U.S.
- Wine Enthusiast 2025 · Top 50 New Restaurants
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Rank 37. Spread Kitchen
Lebanese-Inspired
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Rank 38. Masa's
Sushi
Chef Takatoshi Toshi works the counter at this spare sushi shop in downtown Novato, breaking down whole fish while chatting with neighbors across the worn wood. Lunch brings affordable chirashi bowls and nigiri sets; the evening omakase reveals nigiri tastings, albacore rolls, and kinmedai smoked over cherry wood. A neighborhood place that feels like one, unhurried and unpretentious.
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Rank 39. The Charter Oak
California New American
A soaring dining room built around a massive hearth sets the stage for Christopher Kostow's California cooking, where produce from the restaurant's own farm appears in simple preparations—vegetables with fermented soy, chicken with preserved lemon, a cheeseburger—all bearing the mark of live fire. The aged beef tartare with ember mayo suggests a chef working at the height of his powers.
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- San Francisco Chronicle 2026 · #86 · Top 100 Restaurants in the Bay Area
- San Francisco Chronicle Top Napa Valley Restaurants
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Rank 40. Bouchon Bistro
French
Red velvet and marble conjure a Parisian bistro transplanted to Wine Country, where Thomas Keller executes the canon without apology: bacon-studded Lyonnaise salad, steak frites, mussels in white wine, profiteroles with chocolate. The adjacent bakery runs its own urgent line.
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Rank 41. North Block
New American
The dining room opens onto a hushed terrace where wine country light filters through, setting the mood for unhurried eating. Mussels arrive glossy with chardonnay butter; wood-fired pizzas emerge blistered and patient; tagliatelle bolognese carries the weight of proper technique. A caramel budino laced with Macallan provides the kind of finish that justifies the journey.
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Rank 42. Bistro Jeanty
French
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Rank 43. Stockhome
Scandinavian
A husband-and-wife team transplants Stockholm's flavors to Petaluma with quietly confident cooking: pickled herring, substantial meatballs, house-made sodas. The menu honors both Swedish tradition and local ingredients—dill shrimp salad brightened with avocado, giant pancakes crowned in farm berries—while making room for the Middle Eastern dishes that shaped the city they left behind.
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Rank 44. The Bagel Mill
NY-Style
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Rank 46. Pearl
Eastern Mediterranean
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- San Francisco Chronicle 2026 · #60 · Top 100 Restaurants in the Bay Area
- San Francisco Chronicle Top Marin County Restaurants
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Rank 48. Street Social
Comfort Food
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Rank 49. Violetto
Italian/French
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Rank 50. Farmstead
Barbecue
A farmhouse with a smoking pit in the yard and country music inside, owned by Long Meadow Ranch and serving its own beef, produce, and honey in straightforward preparations—pulled pork and ribs alongside grilled artichokes with gribiche. The cathedral ceiling and terrace offer escape from typical Napa formality, though the dining room can run loud and convivial.
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Rank 52. Madcap
Contemporary
Chef Ron Siegel's upscale dining room in San Anselmo trades pretension for precision across a prix fixe of small, carefully composed plates. A quenelle of tuna tartare yields to crisp rice; charred octopus sits over fermented pimentos; trout arrives skin-on with a tableside dashi pour. The cooking is restrained and Japanese-inflected, where each element earns its place.
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- San Francisco Chronicle 2025 · #36 · Top 100 Restaurants in the Bay Area
- San Francisco Chronicle Top Marin County Restaurants
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Rank 56. Carnitas Poblanas El Canelo
Puebla-Style
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Rank 57. Pupuseria Blankita
Salvadoran
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Rank 58. Insalata's
Mediterranean
Lemon-yellow walls and paintings of abundance frame a Marin restaurant honoring its namesake founder through Mediterranean-inflected cooking. Watercress potato-leek soup arrives velvety and vivid; grilled lamb skewers rest on crisp salads with cumin yogurt. A casual kitchen turns out boxed lunches and house-baked bread with the same care as its dining room.
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Rank 59. Village Sake
Japanese
Village Sake brings Tokyo's cramped-table energy to Fairfax with takoyaki, okonomiyaki, and silky hamachi tataki that taste like they were made to be eaten standing up. The live-edge counter and Japanese staff set the scene; the shima aji nigiri seals the argument.
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Rank 63. Los Moles
Mexican
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Rank 64. Sol Food
Puerto Rican
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Rank 65. New Dumpling
Chinese
Dumplings arrive from an open kitchen at this cheerful shop where the chalkboard menu pivots between traditional fillings and offbeat pairs—sweet corn and chicken, scrambled egg and tomato—each parcel a complete meal. The peanut salad crackles with celery and carrots, but it is the dumplings themselves, bursting and abundant, that justify the trip and spare your wallet.
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Rank 66. Juanita & Maude
Seasonal New American
Scott Eastman's debut in downtown Albany mixes sculptural charm and craft cocktails with a deliberately unfussy communal spirit, the room itself as welcoming as the seasonal cooking. Veal Bolognese carries the weight of his Corso years, while summer squash and halibut sing without pretension, trailing into creamy banana custard that tastes like restraint finally rewarded.
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Rank 69. Pig in a Pickle
Barbecue
Damon Stainbrook's suburban barbecue counter takes sourcing seriously—each humanely raised cut traced on a chalkboard—and executes with equal conviction: pulled pork that dissolves on the tongue, brisket after eighteen hours of smoke, ribs with a precise dry rub. Even the mac-and-cheese arrives tended rather than tossed aside, its richness balanced by bite. Worth the drive.
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- 50 Top Pizza 2025 · #50 · 50 Top Pizza USA
- San Francisco Chronicle 2025 · #13 · Top 100 Restaurants in the Bay Area
- San Francisco Chronicle Top Berkeley Restaurants
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Rank 71. China Village
Sichuan Chinese
A bright, modernized dining room with contemporary art and a sleek bar sets the stage for incendiary Sichuan cooking. The dry-fried chicken arrives crackling with chilies and numbing peppercorns; the five-spice pork shoulder, a house specialty, sits fork-tender in fiery chili oil alongside bok choy and scallions. A casual neighborhood favorite that takes its heat seriously.
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Rank 72. Benchmark Pizzeria
Neo-Neopolitan
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Rank 74. Guesthouse
Contemporary New American
Chef Jared Rogers brings polished Marin sensibilities to his Kentfield neighborhood spot, where grilled king salmon and flourless chocolate cake arrive in a barn-turned-luxury-lodge setting. Soft leather booths, jewel-toned wallpaper, and tropical cocktails complete the cavernous, convivial retreat.
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Rank 75. Ippuku
Japanese
Low wooden tables and extensive sake selection conjure a Tokyo izakaya in downtown Berkeley. Yakitori emerges from the binchotan with smoky char—thighs, necks, hearts, gizzards—while Dungeness crab korokke and caramelized yaki-imo arrive golden and crisp. A discreet entrance rewards those who find it.
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- San Francisco Chronicle 2026 · #91 · Top 100 Restaurants in the Bay Area
- San Francisco Chronicle Top Berkeley Restaurants
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Rank 76. Chez Panisse
Californian New American
The open kitchen and wood-burning oven anchor a dining room where the four-course menu shifts daily, its dishes tethered entirely to what the Bay Area's markets offer that season. Waters' foundational principle—that ingredient purity and timing matter more than technique—remains the throughline, whether you're eating spring peas or August figs.
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Rank 77. Auro
Californian New American
Auro unfolds within the Four Seasons' Wine Country compound, where floor-to-ceiling windows frame both the open kitchen and surrounding vineyards. The cooking mines California's gardens and Mexico's spice lexicon with equal conviction—wagyu arrives with mole, sea bream with aguachile—while hospitality and light conspire to make the meal feel inevitable rather than merely expensive.
- AAA Five Diamonds
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service · Derek Stevenson
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Rank 80. Manakish Oven & Grill
Mediterranean
- San Francisco Chronicle Top Walnut Creek Restaurants
- San Francisco Chronicle Top East Bay Restaurants
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Rank 81. Great China
Chinese
Great China appeals equally to students, families, and style-conscious diners with refined ingredients and generous portions at modest prices. The tea-smoked duck and mung bean noodle platters shine; arrive early or expect a wait.
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- San Francisco Chronicle Top East Bay Restaurants
- San Francisco Chronicle Top Berkeley Restaurants
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Rank 82. Tanzie's
Thai
- The New York Times 2025 · Khanom Krok · The Best Restaurant Dishes We Ate Across the U.S.
- Eater Restaurant Where We'd Want to Be Regulars
- Los Angeles Times 2025 · The 101 Best Restaurants in California
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Rank 83. Hella Bagels
NY-Style
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Rank 84. Pâtisserie Rotha
French
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Rank 86. Picco
Italian
A hilltop dining room with exposed brick and soaring ceilings sets the stage for Bruce Hill's Italian cooking rooted in Marin's produce: duck tortelli studded with fresh turnips, risotto made to order, kale salad brightened with Meyer lemon yogurt. The service moves with practiced grace, the atmosphere warm without pretense, a place where locals and visitors alike feel equally at home.
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Rank 87. Vik's Chaat
Indian
A spare Berkeley canteen where chaat and tandoori chicken share counter space with a grocery market, each bite carrying authentic char and spice. Lunch specials offer serious value; the kitchen closes early, so arrive hungry and on time.
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- San Francisco Chronicle 2026 · #62 · Top 100 Restaurants in the Bay Area
- San Francisco Chronicle Top Berkeley Restaurants
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Rank 88. La Marcha Tapas Bar
Spanish
The team behind Ñora Cocina Española brings paella and tapas to a lively San Pablo Avenue room where head-on garlic shrimp and salt cod croquettes arrive alongside inventive rice dishes like pork-heavy "tres cerditos." Groups congregate around sizable pans while solo diners work the L-shaped bar, each finding their angle on Spanish food executed with clear technical skill and generosity.
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Rank 89. The Cultured Pickle Shop
Asian-Inspired
- San Francisco Chronicle 2026 · #59 · Top 100 Restaurants in the Bay Area
- San Francisco Chronicle Top East Bay Restaurants
- San Francisco Chronicle Top Berkeley Restaurants
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Rank 90. Burmatown
Burmese
A bright-orange bungalow in Corte Madera serves authentic Burmese cooking that sidesteps fusion platitudes. Tea leaf salad arrives nutty and crunchy; potato samosas and egg noodles with barbecued pork and fried garlic sustain across seasons. Local families pack the tables nightly, tended by warm staff—the laid-back charm rewards a pilgrimage north.
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Rank 92. Comal
Mexican
Comal's open kitchen showcases wood-fired tortillas and bold Mexican cooking built on pristine ingredients, anchored by smoky rock cod tacos with avocado aioli. An excellent cocktail program and extensive agave selection keep the industrial-chic Berkeley dining room perpetually packed.
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Rank 93. FAVA
New American
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Rank 95. Solbar
Californian New American
Solbar occupies a serene pocket of the Solage resort, where wine-country ease meets precise cooking rooted in local farms. A tomato tart arrives topped with airy parmesan mousse; diver scallops swim in manila clam broth with quiet authority. The patio, the service, the flourless cake with Meyer lemon curd—everything whispers rather than shouts.
- AAA Four Diamonds
- World Culinary Awards 2025 · Nominee · North America's Best Fine Dining Hotel Restaurant
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
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Rank 96. El Mono
Peruvian
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Rank 98. Grégoire
French
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Rank 99. Fish & Bird Sousaku Izakaya
Japanese
Chef Asuka Uchida's modern izakaya dispenses skewers, karaage, and sando with equal precision from a sleek blue storefront. Green bean fritters dusted with sansho and silken tofu ginger showcase technique that extends across every corner of the menu.
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- San Francisco Chronicle Top Berkeley Restaurants
- Esquire 2021 · #38 · The Best New Restaurants in America
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