In one of the most fellating pieces of food writing we've come across in eons — "Restaurants," writes editor-in-chief Adam Rapoport, "more than movies or music or literature — are this generation's arbiters of taste," while simultaneously bending the laws of reason and hyperbole — Bon Appétit revealed the county's top 20 most influential restaurants. Some of them, which will come as no surprise, are located here in the Bay Area.
NYC-based Momofuku nabs the top spot. The Restaurant at Meadowood lands in the #2 spot, with Manresa, Mission Chinese Food, and Swan Oyster Depot coming in at #5, #9 and #20, respectively.
The list in its entirety:
1. Momofuku
2. The Restaurant at Meadowood
3. Husk
4. Alinea
5. Manresa
6. Roberta's
7. Eleven Madison Park
8. Pok Pok
9. Mission Chinese Food
10. Uchi/Uchiko
11. Animal
12. Avec
13. Le Bernardin
14. Cochon
15. The Walrus and the Carpenter
16. Shake Shack
17. Franklin Barbecue
18. Balthazar
19. Primo
20. Swan Oyster Depot
Sure, some iconic restaurants are missing from the list. Editor Andrew Knowlton says that those famous places, like Cafe Zuni or philosophy-based Chez Panisse, have — get this — "graduated to another level and inhabit a higher plane." And with that, we're going to stuff our face with a couple of Hot Pockets and a caramel Frappuccino out of frustration. God bless you, Bon Appétit, but sometimes brattiness is the only sane response. Good lord.
That said, the list is a nice interactive piece that's worth your time.
