The tasting menu format has gone in and out of fashion at different times in our recent food culture, but it is very much alive and well around San Francisco in 2025. Restaurants where your only option is a single, often fairly expensive fixed-price tasting menu remain somewhat prevalent around the Bay Area, where there are plenty of well-off people who seek out such experiences for more than just special occasions.
As part of the New York Times' food section's initiative to become more national in its scope, we have a full rave review of the Michelin three-starred Atelier Crenn, and fresh accolades for Verjus and Oakland's Sun Moon Studio. Also, the Food & Wine Best New Chefs list has dropped, and it includes an Oakland chef. Call it part of the "boom loop" actually, please don't but San Francisco and the Bay Area are inching back into the national food conversation after several years in which we've been largely ignored.