One year after Bon Appétit declared that “San Francisco restaurant culture is in a bad place,” the popular food magazine has signaled that Bay Area restaurants are thriving again.
On its newly announced list of the 20 best new restaurants in 2024, Bon Appétit featured two from the Bay Area.
Four Kings in San Francisco and Popoca in Oakland made the list, which highlighted new restaurants that opened between March of 2023 and March 2024.
After six months touring the country for the best new spots, Bon Appétit restaurant editor — and Oakland native — Elazar Sontag chose the Bay Area restaurants just one year after writing that the region “just isn’t conducive to innovation right now.”
Bon Appétit’s selections:
Four Kings, San Francisco
Chefs Franky Ho and Mike Long opened their unique restaurant last March and proclaimed on their website that Four Kings provides “flavors of Hong Kong hangin’ on ya taste buds, ‘90s Cantopop bangin’ on ya eardrums.”
Serving small plates meant to be consumed with plenty of drinks, Four Kings has put together a spicy menu that has Bon Appétit claiming, “this is the cooking of two chefs who know how to really let loose and hope you will too.”
Even the menu is artistic, with colorful cartoons highlighting different sections of small bites, grilled and fried foods, rice and noodles, high balls, sake, shochu, wine and beer.
Popcorn chicken ($14), mapo spaghetti ($21) and escargot with milkbread ($24) are a few of the dishes you can get at the buzzing restaurant, which offers a few tables for reservations and open bar seating for walk-ins.
Details: Four Kings is open from 6 to 11 p.m. Thursday through Monday at 710 Commercial St. in San Francisco’s Chinatown; www.itsfourkings.com.
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Popoca, Oakland
Popoca started in 2020 as a pandemic pop-up at the Classic Cars West Beer Garden in Oakland’s Uptown Arts District.
It was an instant success, with a Bay Area News Group restaurant review noting that Popoca “is a love letter to Salguero’s Salvadoran culture, with handmade, wood-fired pupusas stuffed with top-notch ingredients as the stars.”
After opening its brick-and-mortar location last August, Popoca has continued to impress with cheesy, smoky pupusas that highlight chef Anthon Salguero’s Salvadorean roots.
Bon Appétit’s editor wrote that Salguero’s pupusas ($9) are “mesmerizing.”
The menu has expanded to include such dishes as pollo en chicha ($37), chicken glazed in fermented pineapple sauce, and chancho con yuca ($45), grilled pork chop with achiote and yuca sancochada.
Details: Opens at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday at 906 Washington St. in Oakland; www.popocaoakland.com.
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