SFGate’s top 100 Bay Area Restaurants list came out this month and the only restaurant to be listed in Walnut Creek is Va de Vi. Lafayette garnered none. In fact Va de Vi was the only restaurant listed in all of Contra Costa county. What about Ottavio in downtown Walnut Creek? Or Pizza Antica in Lafayette? What Walnut Creek/Lafayette restaurants should have been included?
When people wrote in to complain about lack of Walnut Creek and east bay restaurants, this is what the critic, Michael Bauer had to say:
The simple answer is that the restaurants are better in San Francisco and Napa Valley.
…I realize that it often boils down to location, and people will accept a slightly inferior experience to avoid the hassle of fighting the traffic, paying tolls, avoiding the homeless and everything else that goes with living in an urban center.
Not everyone agrees with some of the selections, but I don’t see how most people would argue that restaurants in Livermore, Berkeley or Mill Valley could compete with what’s in the city.
Is Bauer correct in his thinking here?