This Is Where You Need To Eat In 2023

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The last year marked a turning point for the Bay Area restaurant industry.

She first experimented with Damansara as a pop-up, serving thousands of bowls of laksa noodle soup—a Southeast Asian specialty made with potato, rice or tapioca—from her one-bedroom apartment.

This diminutive Japantown spot specializes in buta no kakuni, a stewed pork belly with soy-cured tamago. The restaurant’s chef cooks the pork for hours to conjure deep umami flavors, which makes for a fitting pairing to the selection of craft sake on tap.

Marco Senghor provided a Mission District hub for Senegalese cuisine and Afrobeats events for two decades before a legal battle over his immigration status forced the closure of his restaurant.

The charismatic chef has become Instagram famous for his stylized kitchen reels, which show off Frankenstein-esque delicacies like the “phozilla” and the “messiest banh mi ever.”

There are many family-run restaurants in SF and several Michelin-starred gems, but there aren’t a lot of local spots that check both of those boxes.

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This Is Where You Need To Eat In 2023

The last year marked a turning point for the Bay Area restaurant industry.