Michelin honors 20 East Bay restaurants with Bib Gourmand awards

Jake Weiss and Oscar Michel of Tacos Oscar, an Oakland restaurant added to Michelin’s 2021 guide to California as a place that serves “exceptionally good food at moderate prices.” Credit: Alix Wall

Michelin, the French restaurant guide company that also makes tires admired by certain Nosh readers, put its dining listings on hold last year, as the pandemic disrupted restaurants around the world. Its first new guide to California since 2019 dropped today, and while it gave generous attention to East Bay venues, only one restaurant in the region was recognized with its highest honor, the Michelin star rating.

As in the 2019 guide, Oakland’s Commis is the only restaurant in the entire East Bay to have a star ranking — it has two stars (out of a possible three) for chef/owner James Syhabout’s $189 per person, eight course tasting menu of (per Michelin) “measured and well-conceived dishes.” (Before you ask, Chez Panisse hasn’t had a Michelin star since 2010.)

However, the East Bay cleaned up in the guide’s Bib Gourmand honors, which the company characterizes as “a just-as-esteemed rating that recognizes friendly establishments that serve exceptionally good food at moderate prices.”Moderate, in this case, is defined as “a three-course meal with starter, main course and dessert” for under $40 per person. Last week, Michelin announced that it had added nine East Bay restaurants to this year’s Bib Gourmand list.

When added to the guide’s list of restaurants that retained their Bib from last year, that brings the East Bay’s Bib list to a pleasantly round 20, an increase of six from its last outing. You can find the list of all of this year’s Bib Gourmand picks in the East Bay below. On the Michelin website, you can find the statewide list of 2021 Bibs and the company’s full 2021 guide to California restaurants.