Michelin Guide: 6 NorCal Restaurants Earn Recognition

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — In the last year, Michelin added a total of six restaurants in Northern California to its esteemed Guide, a selection of world-class eateries worth going out of your way for.

Michelin's famous star ranking system identifies establishments that serve exceptional cuisine. This year, two Northern California restaurants earned two stars: Aubergine in Carmel-by-the-Sea and Sons & Daughters in San Francisco.

Three Northern California restaurants were honored with one Michelin star this year: Hilda and Jesse, Kiln and 7 Adams, all in San Francisco.

Michelin Guide Inspectors also added one Northern California restaurant to the Bib Gourmand list this year, Molti Amici in Healdsburg. The Bib Gourmand recognizes eateries for having great food at a great value. The category is often known as the personal favorites among Michelin Inspectors when dining in their own time.

"California continues to shine bright as we see the culinary scene evolve and highlight emerging talent and cuisines," said Gwendal Poullennec, the International Director of the Michelin Guides. "Our Inspectors continue to be impressed with this year’s selection and we toast and celebrate the excellent chef and restaurant teams being recognized."

Check out the complete list of Southern California restaurants added to the Michelin Guide in 2024 below, with excerpts from the guide:

New Two-Star Rated Restaurants

Aubergine (Carmel-by-the-Sea)

Cuisine: Contemporary/Californian

"Easygoing luxury and refinement strike a harmonious note within L’Auberge Carmel, where every element seems designed to delight. Chef Justin Cogley balances classic technique with a sleek, modern aesthetic, and his cooking captures a sense of place that feels wholly his own. Products of spectacular quality are prepared skillfully and painstakingly presented with an artistic eye, as in a surprising "cabbage" taco filled with shallot jam, Madeira-braised treviso, Kaluga queen caviar and cabbage chips. The hits keep coming, like the rice roulade with Dungeness crab
finished in a white dashi and butter sauce or the triple-seared dry-aged ribeye brushed in wagyu XO."

Sons & Daughters (San Francisco)

Cuisine: Contemporary

"A cleanly minimalist new Nordic style is clearer than ever in Chef Harrison Cheney‘s elegant tasting menu that deftly weaves together a variety of preserved fruits and vegetables, flawless seafood, and aged meats. Meals are off to an impressive start with the likes of a refreshing cured California trout dressed with a chilled fish bone broth drizzled with herbed oil. Rutabaga is transformed into thin, flat strands mimicking pasta and comes dressed with a creamy-textured smoked pork fat sauce. The applewood roasted quail features crisped-skin breast plated with a luscious jus and bouquet of Napa Valley greens, while the leg and thigh are glazed with fermented blueberry."

New One-Star Rated Restaurants

Hilda and Jesse (San Francisco)

Cuisine: American

"Offering what may well be the Bay Area’s most creative and ambitious take on brunch, this disarming passion project from co-owners Kristina Compton and Rachel Sillcocks gets its extra shine from the pair’s extensive fine dining experience—each also contributed a grandparent for the restaurant’s name. There is nothing precious or manicured about the cooking here. It is often bold and brash, a total riot of flavors mixed with stellar ingredients, and dishes are equal parts unexpected and undeniably satisfying. At dinner, find a rotating, seasonal multicourse menu with a few optional add-ons."

Kiln (San Francisco)

Cuisine: Contemporary

"Industry veterans Chef John Wesley and general manager Julianna Yang have combined their talents at Kiln, where the warehouse space is warmed by personable service and the kitchen delivers artful creations. The tasting menu leans Nordic, highlighting preservation techniques like curing, drying and fermentation in dishes whose simplicity is belied by intricate techniques and compelling flavor combinations. Opening snacks like a crispy curlicue of puffed beef tendon captures this ethos, while others, like a squab breast lacquered with burnt honey and served with a truffled jus, display a classical bent."

7 Adams (San Francisco)

Cuisine: Californian

"In this city, finding a five-course menu for under a hundred dollars is a tall order. Chefs Serena and David Fisher make it seem effortless, though, bringing their signature magic to this second act in a sleek new space. The cuisine keeps an unfussy Californian simplicity, featuring solid technique and thoughtful flavor combinations that allow quality seasonal ingredients to shine. Think carefully shaped caramelle pasta that pairs a filling of sweet and nutty kabocha squash with buttery chanterelles, or crisp-skinned black cod with sunchoke confit and a finely tuned shellfish broth. Desserts never fail to end the meal on a strong note, as in a perfectly tender, moist apple crumb cake dressed up with an orange bay leaf ice cream and satsuma granita."

New Bib Gourmand Picks

Molti Amici (Healdsburg)

Cuisine: Italian

"Wine country certainly has no shortage of this sort of casual Italian eatery, with a menu featuring the expected wood-fired pizzas and house-made pastas—but few of them manage to hit their mark quite so dead on as they do here. They may not be reinventing the wheel, but those pizzas are ideally blistered and feature simple but compelling toppings like squash blossom with fontina and balsamic, and the pastas, like a satisfying take on bucatini amatriciana topped with crunchy breadcrumbs, offer an ideally al dente chew. On one of Healdsburg’s not-infrequent balmy days, the enclosed patio, complete with bocce court, is indeed an excellent spot to gather with “many friends,” as suggested by the name."