Michael Bauer

Class Alert! How To Cook For Your Mother and More

One of the big San Francisco food blog stories of this week was how Hutong restaurant is returning back to its previous identity of Betelnut after just about a month, right after a negative review from Michael Bauer dropped. Chef Alex Ong from the restaurant formerly known as Hutong and soon to be r ... More >>

Poll Shows SFoodie Readers Want the Check Only After Dessert

​Earlier this week we asked our readers when they want the check in a restaurant. Are you insulted if it arrives before you're finished eating? Should the server wait until you ask for it, in the classical style? Or drop it anytime? It turns out that SFoodie readers, by a large majority, want ... More >>

When Do You Want the Check? Take Our Poll

​One of our favorite courtesies performed by Chronicle restaurant critic Michael Bauer is that he listens to entitled suburbanites whine about service. This morning featured a great installment in this ongoing series: A reader writes Bauer to complain that a Flour & Water server had the teme ... More >>

Shark's Fin Ban Makes It Through Assembly, Women Who Changed The Way We Cook

​Today's notes on national stories, local trends, random tastes, and other bycatch dredged up from the food media.1. Another Victory from the Shark's Fin Ban. SF Gate reported yesterday that the State Assembly just passed AB-376, which bans the sale and import of shark's fin across the state. The ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

The Joy of Arguing with Top 100 Lists

​Today's notes on national stories, local trends, random tastes, and other bycatch dredged up from the food media.​I tend to study critics' lists and guidebooks the way some people search for meaning in baseball stats ― I argue with the author in my head, rethink my own opinions, vow to visit ... More >>

Bay Wolf Staying Put, Hyde Away Blues BBQ Announces Itself

​The past 24 hours in gossip, innuendo, and cold hard facts about the San Francisco restaurant scene. Michael Bauer at the Chronicle reports that the 35-year-old Bay Wolf, which was reportedly considering an offer to buy the restaurant, is staying put. Owner Michael Wolf is instead starting up c ... More >>

Think the Chron's Critic Could Write About Food Trucks In His Home City?

Inside Scoop/SFGateAnd he could totally wear a blazer, like he did in Portland.​Our favorite morsel from the blogs. Wednesday, Inside Scoop's Michael Bauer whipped out three favorites from a tour of Portland food carts: ginger chicken from Nong's Khao Man Gai, the cutlet sandwich at The Peopl ... More >>

Ever Pretended to Be a Restaurant Critic's Relative to Get Better Service?

Justin S./YelpSaying you're our BFF won't move you through the Farolito line any faster.​We read Chronicle food critic Michael Bauer's harrowing blog post about desperate diners masquerading as his relatives in order to curry special treatment at restaurants. There was the story about the "two ... More >>

Don't Ask Michael Bauer Where to Eat Mexican. Ask Us

John BirdsallAntojito sampler at Haltun in the Mission.​On his blog this morning at Inside Scoop, Chronicle critic Michael Bauer misses the Tex-Mex combination plates he devoured in his Dallas days ― and bemoans the fact he can't find a good Mexican place in the Bay Area ― which seems tant ... More >>

Reports on the Death of Fusion Are Greatly Exaggerated: A Response to Michael Bauer

Jen SiskaNamu's gamja fries: Fusion, dude. Pure fusion.​My first response on reading Michael Bauer's post today, "What happened to fusion cuisine?" was a pleasant, if slightly embarrassed, sigh of nostalgia, the kind that escapes when you're rustling through a drawer and come across an old prom ph ... More >>

Inside Scoop Bitch-Slaps Michael Bauer

Eater SFNamu's Dennis Lee, whose hotness Eater SF once trumpeted.​Our favorite morsel from the blogs. Ever seen Whatever, Martha? That's the show on Fine Living Network that shows Martha Stewart's daughter Alexis and friend Jennifer Koppelman Hutt watching old clips from mom's show and keepin ... More >>

What's Your Most Unforgettable Meal?

asterisktom/FlickrA plate of chicken with rice and beans in Dangriga, Belize.​Our favorite morsel from the blogs. Indelible chicken: At Between Meals, Michael Bauer digs way down in the memory bag to pull out a trio of indelible meals: two at Fredy Girardet in Switzerland, one at the French L ... More >>

Doggy Bag: Goodbye to Fillmore's Invisible Giant

Bonita Sarita/FlickrMiddione's place had seen better days.​Our favorite morsel from the blogs. At Between Meals, Michael Bauer pens a sweet farewell to Carlo Middione, whose Vivande Porta Via at 2125 Fillmore (at California) was sort of the Delfina of its day, lately growing all but invisible ... More >>

Bay Links: Snow, Meth, & Code Pink

​So, it snowed in the Bay Area today. That happened. [NYT Bay Area]A great interview with "All Over Coffee" artist Paul Madonna. Hint: There is a Magnum P.I. painting in your future. [The Rumpus]Do you live West of Twin Peaks? Do you like meth? You're in the right place! [SFAppeal]The reviewer is ... More >>

Doggy Bag: Six Months Later, the Chronicle Discovers the Nonstaurant

Joyce Croft/FlickrOops, missed one: Little Skillet.​Our favorite morsel from the blogs. Late to dinner: Who better to comment on what's happening across the broad sweep of local dining than Chron critic Michael Bauer? But today on his blog Between Meals, Bauer writes like a man who doesn't ge ... More >>

Doggy Bag: Tweeting His Fingers to the Bone

mountaineer/FlickrIt's not all foie gras and Neapolitan thin crust.​Our favorite morsel from the blogs. Too much fun: Chronicle food czar Michael Bauer reflects on restaurant reviewers' new reality, after all the tweeting and Facebook friending and blogging the Internets have given rise to. F ... More >>

Guys Make the World's Biggest Meatball, Then Give It to Homeless People to Eat

Guinness World RecordsUm. Why?​Michael Bauer isn't the only one with a meatball obsession. Congrats to Nonni's Italian Eatery of Concord, N.H., for making the world's biggest specimen last weekend -- it weighed a whopping 222.5 pounds. SFoodie cannot stop looking at the picture of that huge sp ... More >>

Doggy Bag: Seriously -- Forget About It, Man

​Our favorite morsel from the blogs. Power ranger: You know how it is: You're out having a drink, your work buddies have all gone, and the guy who normally sits two cubes away -- the guy you barely know -- starts telling you about his breakup. Like, really telling you, until you sense enough ... More >>

Doggy Bag: Today's Odds and Ends

​Our favorite morsel from the food blogs. Rock the vote: Yesterday we questioned Sara Deseran's ear-tweaking of Chron critic Michael Bauer for not, well, controlling his man better. To recap: Mrs. Bauer -- aka Michael Murphy -- posted what 7x7's Deseran blasted as an indiscreet tweet about a ... More >>

Doggy Bag: Today's Odds and Ends

​Our favorite morsel from the food blogs. Hey, over here!: We weren't the only ones to go all WTF after Michael Bauer answered a reader's query to Between Meals about how much to tip on a multi-hundred-dollar bottle of wine. Today Bauer turns to a reader's complaint - a gentle whine, really - ... More >>

Doggy Bag: Today's Odds and Ends

​Our favorite morsel from the food blogs. Pressing question: Believe us, we know the sucky reality of a career in journo, when the walls are everywhere collapsing like a playhouse fashioned out of newspaper. And we don't wish extinction on anyone -- honest. But today, Michael Bauer's Between ... More >>

Doggy Bag: Today's Odds and Ends

​Our favorite morsel from the food blogs. Everybody just chill the eff out: At Bay Area Bites yesterday, Stuart Leavenworth struggled to parse Michael Bauer's recent star-stripping of Oakland's Oliveto. Now, the last thing we want to do is insert ourselves into the spaghetti fight between the ... More >>

City Shakedown: Five Decadent Slurps in San Francisco

Michael Bauer/sfgate.comGavin Newsom's Green Tea Milkshake, as recreated by the Chronicle food staff.​We mentioned last month that Mayor Gavin Newsom was asked to create a milkshake for the "Got Milk?" campaign, and came back with a green tea and chocolate concoction. Michael Bauer and the Chronic ... More >>

Doggy Bag: Today's Odds and Ends

​Our favorite morsels from the food blogs and beyond. The gritty truth: Hot Food Porn goes all Mike Rowe today, cataloging the kitchen jobs nobody who wants to clock out with a shred of self-respect (and reasonably clean fingernails) should have to perform. Highlights (in Porn's words): De-tu ... More >>

Doggy Bag: Today's Odds and Ends

Our favorite morsels from the food blogs and beyond. Um, my mother with a pair of scissors?: Food Gal plays Dr. Freud, offering up the foodie equivalent of a Rorschach test in a wide-pixel photo of glistening piquillo peppers. Queries Food Gal: What do these peppers look like to you? (She reckons t ... More >>

The Doggie Bag: Today's Odds and Ends

Our favorite morsels from the food blogs and beyond. Doubting Thomas: At Civil Eats, East Bay eco-chef Aaron French is kinda pissed at Thomas Keller for his de facto diss of the strict constructionist view of local foods. If you can get Maine lobster delivered to your back door within a day, should ... More >>

Michael Bauer Watch: A Load of Tripe

If a restaurant doesn't have a wine list or cocktails, fuggedaboutit.

Cream Colored Ponies and Crisp Apple Streudels

How To Talk To Socialists About Four Star Dining

Michael Bauer Defends His (And Michael Mina's) Honor

With A Dash Of Contrition, Michael Bauer Defends Food Criticism

With A Dash Of Contrition, Michael Bauer Defends Food Criticism

Bauer Accused of Going Too Easy on Fleur De Lys; Readers Call for Blood

Bauer Accused of Going Too Easy on Fleur De Lys; Readers Call for Blood

Nob Hill's Fleur de Lys Loses A Star: Bauer Lays The Hurt On

Nob Hill's Fleur de Lys Loses A Star: Bauer Lays The Hurt On

Bauer Lays The Smackdown On "Rude and Inconsiderate" Diners

Bauer Lays The Smackdown On "Rude and Inconsiderate" Diners

Zagat Survey 2008: Bay Area Restaurants, Now With Shittier Service!

Zagat Survey 2008: Bay Area Restaurants, Now With Shittier Service!

Where's The Love? Michael Bauer Screws It Up For All Of Us So-Called Food Writers

Where's The Love? Michael Bauer Screws It Up For All Of Us So-Called Food Writers

Winners and Losers

How an S.F. food critic sent a chill through the room at a national awards ceremony

Mixed Blessing

Andalu

Side Dish

Foot Docs and Fêtes

Side Dish

Sixteen Candles; Segundi Piatti; 'n Cream; Tout Sweet; Last Call

Side Dish

Bauerware; Profit Margins; Bing, Bing, Bing

Slap Shots

French Evolution

France meets California in Cow Hollow's Cassis Bistro