MacKenzie Chung Fegan

1 month ago | sfchronicle.com | Cesar Hernandez |César Hernández |MacKenzie Chung Fegan

As a restaurant critic, seeing a burger on a menu poses a dilemma. On the one hand: I want it. On the other, it’s often not the best representation of what a restaurant has to offer. Burgers are often, if not a loss leader, an inexpensive concession to diners’ wallets, a menu item that chefs love to hate. For our 2025 update of the top burgers in the Bay Area, we’ve included several restaurants where, concessions though they may be, the burgers are both ambitious and wildly successful.

1 month ago | sfchronicle.com | MacKenzie Chung Fegan

An exterior view of the French Laundry photographed in Yountville, Calif. on Saturday, Dec. 9, 2017. Stephen Lam / Special to The Chronicle/Special to The ChronicleYesterday, I published an account of my visit to the French Laundry, truly a night to remember. I hope that you’ll read it, but the tl;dr is that, after I was spotted, Thomas Keller called me outside and said he wasn’t comfortable having me in his restaurant.

1 month ago | sfchronicle.com | MacKenzie Chung Fegan

Thomas Keller is fidgeting on the bench next to mine in the empty courtyard of the French Laundry. There’s a slight quaver in the chef’s voice, and he tells me he is nervous. This is not something he is accustomed to doing, he says — asking a critic to leave. He’s sure I’m a nice person, he tells me, but he doesn’t know my intentions, and he doesn’t want me in his restaurant. I had pulled into Yountville 45 minutes earlier to visit the favorite child in the Keller family of restaurants.

1 month ago | sfchronicle.com | MacKenzie Chung Fegan

Lily Luu and Anthony Toy (right) eat dinner at the restaurant at Kukje Supermarket in Daly City. The Korean market operates a sit-down restaurant for delicious soups and stews in addition to selling a wide selection of groceries and prepared foods. Laura Morton/Special to The ChronicleAn employee places markdown stickers on qualifying prepared meals in a customer’s cart at Kukje Supermarket.

1 month ago | sfchronicle.com | MacKenzie Chung Fegan

A coronet of spiny lobster in delicate pastry, one of several small bites that opens a meal at Enclos in Sonoma. Santiago Mejia/The ChronicleWool tapestries on the wall add texture and absorb sound. Santiago Mejia/The ChronicleOver a year ago, my colleague Jess Lander gave readers a preview of Enclos, a fine dining restaurant in Sonoma owned by Stone Edge Farm Vineyards & Winery. “Can this winery bring a Michelin star to Sonoma?” she teased.