Bay Area restaurants make Yelp's Top 100
Yelp is out with its Top 100 Places to Eat in 2024 list, an annual crowd-sourced rating of restaurants — including pizzerias, delis, ramen shops, pancake houses, taquerias and barbecue joints — that diners visited in 2023, rated highly and hope to return to this year.
California, with 18 on the list, received more nods than any other state. Five Southern California restaurants cracked the top 10, and five Bay Area restaurants made the list.
To create the Top 100, Yelp solicits nominations from reviewers on its website and sends that information through its data science team. Next, the company says, the list of candidate restaurants is narrowed down “with the expertise of our community managers and Trend Expert to curate a list as quirky, interesting and unique as the Yelp Community itself.”
Ranking No. 1 nationally is Tumerico, a Tucson, Arizona, restaurant that serves plant-based versions of classic Mexican tamales, chilaquiles, enchiladas, barbacoa and more.
Tops among Bay Area favorites at No. 23 is Mazra, a family-owned, all-halal Mediterranean restaurant in San Bruno that first made the list in 2021 for its woodfire-grilled specialties. Yelpers, who posted more than 1,700 five-star reviews, raved about the “phenomenal, fall-off-thebone tender” slow-roasted 6-Hour Lamb Shank, “fantastic” shawarma and “cooked-to-perfection” kebabs, the report said. (504 San Bruno Avenue West, San Bruno)
A second Mazra location, in Redwood City, is in the works and expected to open around March 1, coowner Saif Makableh told the Bay Area News Group.
Ocean Indian Cuisine in San Francisco's Richmond district, No. 29, serves a fusion menu of Indian, Nepalese and Himalayan dishes in a white-tablecloth setting nice enough for date night. According to the ranking, “The best-selling Everest Chicken Momo Special (Nepalese steamed dumplings filled with chicken and Himalayan spices) is `a must,' say Yelpers.” (6127 Geary Blvd., SF)
At No. 32 is Guiso Latin Fusion in Healdsburg, a 24-seat restaurant with a Salvadoran-Latin menu and a largely Sonoma County wine list. “This place is fabulous. The food was so inventive and so, so good,” said one Yelper who had the Paella Caribena, a Caribbean spin on Spanish paella. The Camarones Borrachos (wild prawns in a family recipe sauce) and Salvadoran sweet dinner rolls get high marks too.
The Shakespeare-themed