After seven years of general disrespect and snubbing by the local paper of record, the SF Chronicle, Chez Panisse and its new next-door offshoot Bar Panisse get some sincere praise and quiet reverence from the New York Times.

Chez Panisse, despite its icon status and legion of loyal, local fans, has been something of a punching bag for the San Francisco Chronicle in the post-Michael Bauer era. Not long after Bauer's departure, as part of their opening act as next-generation critic, Soleil Ho wrote a fairly scathing review of Chez Panisse in February 2019, calling it "stale" and essentially telling people not to bother going there anymore if they're looking for interesting food.

And this was made all the more dramatic because Bauer had consistently lauded the Berkeley destination as one of his four-star restaurants, giving it the Chronicle's highest rating year after year alongside the likes of Benu, the French Laundry (which the Chronicle has also now relegated to has-been status), and Quince.

Now, with the New York Times spending more effort in surveying the national dining scene, California-based Co-Chief Critic Tejal Rao paid several visits to Chez Panisse, along with the upstairs cafe and the new Bar Panisse. And Rao says, without hesitation, "Chez Panisse is still devoted to pristine seasonal ingredients from small farms and to preparing them like a romantic home cook from another century."

And, she concludes, "Chez Panisse might have forever changed the way we think and talk about food, but it also seems less interested in its own mythology than the ordinary, unglamorous work of being a good restaurant. That’s not revolutionary, but it’s still rare."

In the comments sections she also adds, "The restaurant’s status is near mythological and Alice Waters is a celebrity, but it often felt like the restaurant didn’t care so much about all that and just wanted to get on with the business of being a neighborhood restaurant. It took me by surprise!" And, she writes, "I think it’s easy for people who think of it as a famous destination to forget that, in many ways, it’s more of a reliable, comfortable place for locals and regulars."

Rao praises the "calm, self-possessed, [and] attentive service," and describes an "excellent dish of pork, roasted on a spit then sliced very thinly, with cherries and fried herbs, with a splash of pan sauce." She also roundly praises the work of pastry chefs Carrie Lewis and Eriko Yahiro, calling it "consistently a joy." She mentions an "oversized profiterole" dessert with summer fruit and several sorbets, saying it was "a reminder of how the most banal classics can bring so much pleasure when they’re made with care and superlative ingredients."

Of Bar Panisse, Rao praises the more laid back but no less "Chez" work of chef Amelia Telč. (And, to be fair, Chronicle critic Cesar Hernandez did sing Telč's praises in a March review of Bar Panisse, while getting in a dig at the next-door motership saying his visits there "have never felt exhilarating.")

Rao notes that Bar Panisse's dishes are simpler and less technically ambitious, but this "bring the food closer to the kind of provincial French cooking that Chez Panisse once idealized." She praises unfussy dishes of creamy butter beans, and of Gulf shrimp with "carapaces so delicate that you can eat them shell and all." She also says the green salad and gougères are a must.

All told, Rao gives Chez Panisse and Bar Panisse two stars apiece — with the New York Times operating on a four-star scale, with two meaning "very good" — and naming them both "Critic's Pick."

This will go far with the tourist set booking their Bay Area plans, and I won't be shocked if Bar Panisse sneaks on to the Chronicle's spuriously curated Top 100 next year, even if they hold firm to snubbing Chez itself.

Previously: Bar Panisse, the New Cocktail Spot Next to Chez Panisse, Opens This Week