There seems to be no more love for Horn Barbecue at the Chronicle, just a few years after the paper — and multiple national publications — crowned it one of the best restaurants in the Bay Area.

The Chronicle updated its list of the best barbecue spots around the Bay on Tuesday, making space for two locations of Fikscue (the original in Alameda and the new one at the Chase Center), and two locations of Pig in a Pickle (Corte Madera and Emeryville). But conspicuously absent from the list is Horn Barbecue, chef Matt Horn's much celebrated restaurant that originated in West Oakland, but now has locations in downtown Oakland, Lafayette, and Elk Grove.

This snub comes a year after a Chronicle investigation into a series of wage-theft lawsuits at the restaurant, in which former employees were suing Horn over what they said was unfair compensation, and a couple of other pending suits against the restaurant, including one from its meat supplier in 2022.

And in 2023, Associate Critic Cesar Hernandez also wrote a fairly scathing review of Horn's offshoot venture in Old Oakland, Matty's Old Fashioned, calling the upscale diner concept excessive and "dripping with an exhausting masculine energy."

But back in 2021, former Chronicle critic Soleil Ho raved about Horn's food, and later that year he landed on Food & Wine's prestigious Best New Chefs list. Horn Barbecue remains on Michelin's Bib Gourmand list this year, something that the restaurant celebrated in an Instagram post calling it a "momentous gesture of acknowledgment."

Matty's Old Fashioned quietly closed last year, and its location on 8th Street in Old Oakland is now Horn Barbecue's only Oakland location, after Horn decided not to rebuild in West Oakland following a November 2023 fire.

The Oakland location currently has three and a half stars on Yelp and a string of recent negative reviews — several of which complain about extremely slow service, and seeing a constant stream of DoorDash delivery people going in and out.

Horn Barbecue meanwhile has been in expansion mode, opening in Lafayette last year, and in Elk Grove in April. A Fresno location is also in the works.