Chinatown tops SF restaurant chat
Chinatown restaurants dominated the San Francisco Chronicle’s recent list of the Bay Area’s top eateries, pushing both fine dining and mom‑and‑pop spots into the local conversation. (kcra.com) And while that local pride bubbles up, SingleThread — a Northern California restaurant brand — opened its first international outpost, SoNoMa by SingleThread, inside Capella Kyoto, underscoring how Bay Area culinary names are extending their reach globally. (elitetraveler.com)
San Francisco’s restaurant conversation shifted hard toward Chinatown this week when the San Francisco Chronicle updated its Top 100 on April 6, 2026, and put Four Kings at No. 1 after relaunching the list only last year after a five-year hiatus. (sfchronicle.com) The Chronicle’s critics said about a quarter of the 2026 list is new, which turned this year’s ranking into more than a victory lap for old fine-dining names. They framed the list as everything from “scrappy sandwich shops” to “once-in-a-lifetime splurges,” which helps explain why Chinatown’s mix of banquet rooms, noodle shops, and newer chef-driven spots landed so visibly. (sfchronicle.com) That matters in San Francisco because Chinatown has long been treated by tourists like a postcard and by locals like a quick dim sum stop, even though the neighborhood has one of the region’s deepest restaurant benches. The Chronicle’s own Chinatown dining guide calls it a place of “old school and new wave” institutions, which is exactly the blend that now fits how critics are building prestige lists. (sfchronicle.com) Four Kings sits right in that new lane: a Chinatown restaurant serving Cantonese food with global touches, run by Mike Long and Franky Ho, two chefs who previously worked at Mister Jiu’s. The rise of one Chinatown restaurant is tied to another here, because Mister Jiu’s helped prove that a high-ambition Chinese restaurant in the neighborhood could draw the kind of attention once reserved for tasting-menu temples west of Grant Avenue. (msn.com, sfchronicle.com, sfchronicle.com) The local backdrop is bigger than one ranking. In early April, a nonprofit bought the Empress of China building at 838 Grant Avenue with plans to turn the landmark into part of a cultural campus, which means Chinatown’s food identity is being reinforced at the same moment its architecture and public story are being revived. (nbcbayarea.com, asamnews.com) While Chinatown was pulling Bay Area attention inward, one Northern California restaurant name was moving outward. Capella Hotel Group said Capella Kyoto opened on March 22, 2026, and its signature restaurant is SoNoMa by SingleThread, the first international version of the three-Michelin-starred SingleThread from Healdsburg. (capellahotels.com, guide.michelin.com) SingleThread built its reputation in Sonoma County with Kyle and Katina Connaughton’s farm, inn, and restaurant model, and the Michelin Guide says the Healdsburg restaurant still holds three stars. Michelin also notes that the restaurant’s style has long been shaped by Japan, including kaiseki influence and techniques like donabe clay-pot cooking, so Kyoto is not a random export market. (guide.michelin.com, singlethreadfarms.com) The Kyoto version is small on purpose: Capella says SoNoMa has a 12-seat counter and a 20-seat lounge bar, for 32 seats total, and is led by Chef Keita Tominaga. The menu uses Kyoto and Kansai agriculture with selected Northern California ingredients, which makes the restaurant less like a branch office and more like a two-way bridge between regions that already share seasonal, ingredient-first cooking. (capellahotels.com) Put together, the two stories show Bay Area food prestige moving in both directions at once. Chinatown restaurants are getting treated less like neighborhood specialists and more like central players in the region’s main restaurant canon, while a Sonoma County luxury brand is now confident enough to plant its first overseas flag in Kyoto. (sfchronicle.com, capellahotels.com)
