The Chronicle's food critics have unveiled the bottom 50 of the revised-for-2025 Top 100 Restaurants, and it's an eclectic mix of mom-and-pop spots, bakeries, Michelin destinations, and pizza.

Let the criticism of the critics begin! Chronicle critics MacKenzie Chung Fegan and Cesar Hernandez have had the unenviable task of updating the big Bay Area-wide Top 100 list that Michael Bauer first christened in 1996. And they've made the task all the more onerous by deciding to rank these 100 restaurants and retail shops — because, in the mix for the first time, we have things like a bagel shop, a bakery, and some takeout-oriented pizza places too — rather than just list them alphabetically, as in the past.

And because they aren't sticking to the Bauer method of comparing like with like — he tended to eschew the small, the dive-y, or the specifically ethnic and only include "nicer" sit-down places, with the South Bay often getting short shrift — it makes for a little bit of chaos in a ranking, the order of which starts to feel all the more arbitrary. Michelin-starred, decidedly luxe Cyrus is ranked at #71, and it's sandwiched between a Korean spot, Kunjip, in Santa Clara (#70), and SF Chinatown stalwart Z&Y (#72). And the delicious but mostly takeout-focused Outta Sight Pizza sits at #68, and I'm not sure I could ever rationalize slotting Cyrus in three spots below Outta Sight.

"To us, a top restaurant might be a multicourse, fine dining bonanza from an internationally renowned chef or a bakery serving astonishing tortas trussed in plastic wrap to a line of construction workers," the critics write. "What they have in common is a commitment to doing whatever it is they do with excellence."

That is well and good but it's bound to make for a lot of sore losers among the fine dining set, when they see taquerias listed here in their stead. And, yes, La Taqueria, which Bauer warmed to in his later years, is also on the list at #59 — outranking Liholiho Yacht Club (#60), and the Michelin-starred Kin Khao (#61) and Mister Jiu's (#64).

House of Prime Rib falls into this bottom 50 at #87, and other stalwarts of the old guard that made the cut include Cindy Pawlcyn's Mustards Grill in Napa (#80), and Cotogna (#57).

And certainly some of the small, tucked-away, family-run operations on this Top 100 that have never received such high-profile accolades will benefit from the attention, like East Oakland's 3 Bottled Fish (which Hernandez reviewed last summer), ranked #54, and South Bay food truck Mariscos El Charco, which is ranked nearly 20 slots higher than Cyrus, at #52.

The top 50 of the Top 100 will be coming out next Monday night at an event that the Chronicle is hosting, and that will likely be when the real outcry from the industry begins. Will Chez Panisse or The French Laundry even make the cut? We shall see!

Previously: The SF Chronicle Is Reviving the Top 100 Restaurants List at Last

Top image: Photo courtesy of Cotogna