Everyone's had to do the dreaded parent intro dinner at one point or another and The Gate's Michael Bauer put up his list of suggestions of where to go. On Mike's list, we've got Cafe Majestic, Rubicon and Perbacco among others. Personally, we liked the suggestions of commenters more: Cassis, Zuni Cafe (pictured at left) and Rivoli for East Bay'ers. Commenter Neil posted up his two cents on Bauer's blog and wrote up his detailed......

The bay area Michelin Guide 2008 is out, and there’s not much changed from last year: the French Laundry is the only place with 3 stars (the most) in the wider bay area. Aqua and Michael Mina are the only 2 stars in the city. Those Michelin guys are so stingy with stars, Chez Panisse’s Alice Waters still clutches her lonely one. Jean-Luc Naret, the director of the Michelin guide, was handing out press copie......

You know how sometimes we point out when an out-of-town publication takes an outside-in look at our fair city? We've pointed to such pieces in the L.A. Times and the Economist even recently. Well, our lovely sister site, LAist, did much the same, criticizing San Francisco Chronicle Food Maestro Michael Bauer's recent take on the L.A. Food scene. ...

Roasted Chioggia beets with nectarine juices & marjoram. We gobble the various food sections up each Wednesday. Here is our short and sweet favorite nibbles from today's offerings. SF Chronicle: Michael Bauer eats and examines the L.A. dining scene. We're shocked, shocked! to find out that many folks there feel they are and deserve celebrity treatment and ample ego stroking from restaurant staff. The Vegetable Harvest cookbook by Patricia Wells gets a look, which was......

The Chron ran an article on Sunday that we really, really wanted to write some commentary on after reading it. "Food bloggers dish up plates of spicy criticism"; subhead "Formerly formal discipline of reviewing becomes a free-for-all for online amateurs." We really wanted to say something because, well, we think it's a huge load of crap, and somebody, aside from one of the injured parties, has to call bullsh**. For crying out loud, they upset our beloved Tablehopper. They took her quote out of context. How dare you, sirs. How dare you?...

The new Michelin was stingy with stars for San Francisco: no 3 stars restaurants (the only one in the wider bay area being the French Laundry in Napa), two 2 stars (Aqua and Michael Mina), and a 12 one stars (Fleur de Lys, La Folie, the Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton, Rubicon, Bushi-Tei, Quince, Range, Acquerello, Masa's, Gary Danko, Boulevard, Fifth Floor). Alice Waters got only one tiny puny star for her Chez Panisse in......

SFist Mary gives us the tasty carne asada filling to the Chron's grand tour of burrito joints in town! News flash: Chronicle's Bill Addison eats lots of tacos and burritos as "research." Today's San Francisco Chronicle Food section has updated takes on the Bay Area's taqueria scene. As usual, we're interested in what they have to say, and no, it's not just because we used to be a slave in their test kitchen when we......

We have so far stayed out of the debate about the fancy, high-end restaurants in the city, except for the occasional snide remark. Snark is cheap: We just make cynical jokes when Michael Bauer decides which places are worthy of his attention or not, or when chef Daniel Patterson complains about the lack of culinary imagination of the leading restaurants. We sat on the sideline too long, and it's time to toss our hat in......

Check out that cute logo: the Assocation of Food Journalists just handed out its awards this past weekend, so we would like to congratulate all our San Francisco winners: Bonnie Wach, the excellent contributor of the San Francisco Weekly, which thus gets a step ahead in the hotly contested weekly of the week competition. Who ever said the Weekly food critics were underperforming? Awards also went to Julie Kaufmann, of the Merc, for best food section, and to the Chron’s Miriam Morgan, Linda Murphy, Carol Ness, Michael Bauer, Craig Lee for best food section, best photography, best feature writing, best news reporting, etc. The Chron sure racked them awards. Congratulations to all of them....

We've always been of the opinion that people who do an excess of reviews (movie critics, people employed as food critics, etc) often lack perspective and, therefore, the ability to make their judgments relevant to the common reader. Your Trimethyldioxypurist? Well, we'll admit, we're a full-blown caffeine addict. We need it to function. We may be coming at it from a different place than some of you....

Sam Breach of Becks & Posh bravely opened up a copy of 7x7 magazine (San Francisco's answer to society mag New York Magazine) only to find her own name in it! Of course, 7x7 doesn't have any of their content on-line (for shame). From Sam's report, the article looks at the influence of online critics versus Chronicle bigwig Michael Bauer in terms of chef's opinions. Sam was nice enough to not only copy out......