When I first put this together late last year, I swear it had 100 restaurants on it. But let me backtrack a little.

The Chronicle’s annual Top 100 Restaurants list, of which this is the 25th edition, was actually ready for publication in March, and we were so excited as we prepared to share it. But as the Bay Area retreated into itself to battle the spread of COVID-19, the restaurant industry experienced an acute compaction and transformation into a lighter, more ad hoc version of itself. The Top 100 as it was quickly became irrelevant.

These days, we’re not toasting with strangers across shared tables, like one might have at Lazy Bear’s often raucous communal table. And we’re certainly not sitting at counters, so close to cooks and chefs that we could almost reach out and grab their apron strings, like we could at cozy places like Yamo and Swan Oyster Depot. Six months into the pandemic, those of us who love restaurants and fine food have instead become experts at scheduling curbside takeout, replating boxed salads onto actual dishes and patiently following chefs’ directions for at-home meal kits. We’re taking whatever restaurants can offer and, as evidenced by the long lines for Lazy Bear’s newer menu, doing it with enthusiasm.

To that end, we’ve rethought and revamped the Top 100 to be less about full-service dining and more about what each restaurant or pop-up on the list has been up to since March, whether it’s delivery or outdoor tables.

You can see all the restaurants on the list here. There, the description of each restaurant has been updated to reflect what new services it has on offer and what safety measures it has integrated. (A small number of the restaurants have begun to reintroduce indoor dining at reduced capacities, and others may follow once their respective counties allow it.)

Also online you can find specific lists of exceptional restaurants to help organize your takeout whims and predilections, such as those offering Italian food, Mexican dishes, Chinese food and beautiful outdoor seating, with more lists to come.

Finally, you might notice that “Top 100” is a misnomer this year. Rather than rushing to replace restaurants that have closed, either temporarily or permanently, since March, we decided to trim the list of those places. If anything, it’s an honest reminder of what we have lost — and what we stand to lose — to the financial and social impacts of COVID-19. (Read about the dozen closed restaurants of the Top 100 list here.)

Presenting the list shy of its usual round number will, we hope, impart the sentiment that no restaurant is truly replaceable. Each is a repository of hopes, human ingenuity and immense labor; each is an example of those beautiful “third places,” between work and home, that we all yearn for as our public spaces wither; each has brought us immeasurable amounts of joy, happily full bellies and new friends.

With those sentiments in mind — and out of a sense of hope that the food world to come can honor and even surpass what it was in February 2020 — here is a small sampling of the Top 88 restaurants in the Bay Area, chosen to represent the different ways that restaurants have changed during the pandemic. View the full list of 88 restaurants here.

Belotti

5403 College Ave., Oakland

Get your fill of fresh, comforting pastas and amaro drinks at this cozy, classically Italian hideaway in Rockridge.

Current status: Before the pandemic, Belotti was one of the toughest tables to score in the East Bay; now, its new outdoor seating is in similarly high demand. Pasta power couple Joyce and Michele Belotti have been offering their pastas — the sublime meat-stuffed agnolotti bathed in velvety beef reduction, the plush tortelli stuffed with polenta — for takeout and limited delivery through retail business Belotti Bottega, although nothing comes close to eating it fresh out of the kitchen. Belotti fans already know that the Bottega (4001B Piedmont Ave., Oakland) is also a great source for ready-to-cook pastas, Italian wines and even flours that you can use to make your own noodles from scratch. You can also substantially upgrade your meal prep situation with the shop’s 20-serving, luscious lasagne alla Bolognese, available hot or flash-frozen.

Credit cards accepted • Full bar

Options: Takeout, delivery and outdoor dining

510-788-7890 or www.belottirb.com

Daeho Kalbijjim & Beef Soup

1620 Post St., San Francisco

Come for the sweet-and-salty Korean short rib stew, which you can also get with a topping of torched cheese.

Current status: Family-run Daeho is open for takeout, though that may not be much of a solace for fans of the beef palace’s bubbling stews and a la minute barbecue. The Japantown restaurant is known for its monster portions of sweet, sticky and succulent galbijjim, a pile of short rib meat braised in soy sauce, ginger, sugar and savory aromatics. Diners can customize the dish’s heat level and add chewy rice cakes, noodles, tender root vegetables and a brilliant topping of shredded white cheese. One of the highlights of eating here — that you might have seen on Instagram — was watching servers torch the cheese table side. Though that’s not happening now, you can still order the cheesy topping and ignite it at home with the butane torch gathering dust in your cabinet.

• Credit cards accepted • Beer and wine

Options: Takeout and delivery

415-563-1388

Hina Yakitori

808 Divisadero St., San Francisco

Yakitori gets the omakase treatment at Tommy Cleary’s ode to the lowly chicken skewer.

Current status: Hina Yakitori’s 12-seat counter in NoPa is on hold until the pandemic is over, but chef Cleary and a small crew have been making their refined yakitori for attractive bento boxes meant for delivery. Called Torima, the concept has grown from just yakitori to six varieties of bento, from A5 Wagyu beef to a vegetarian variety pack. The basic yakitori box is the closest representation of what Hina used to serve, with five skewers (tsukune, momo, teba, negima, a vegetable) and ground chicken soboro packed in a box over perfectly cooked koshihikari rice. It’s not as elegant as a tasting menu but it works for now.

• Credit cards accepted • Beer and wine

Options: Delivery

415-817-1944 or www.hinasf.com

Horn BBQ

2534 Mandela Parkway, Oakland

It’s not uncommon to wait three hours or more in line for this roaming barbecue pop-up that will soon be a full-scale restaurant.

Current status: Matt Horn, the man behind the barbecue, hasn’t been putting on his blockbuster pop-up for a few months, but his highly anticipated brick-and-mortar restaurant opened on Sept. 26. The dry-rubbed, Central Texas-style beef brisket that brings all the barbecue boys to the yard will be a main attraction in the new space, though we can also look forward to the Horn team’s takes on ribs, Louisiana-style boudin, lamb and oxtails. The pitmaster started a production company to capture the lead-up to opening on film, and has been juggling a plethora of other projects: beef tallow soaps, branded cookware and spice rubs.

• Credit cards accepted • Beer and wine

Options: Takeout and outdoor dining

www.hornbarbecue.com

Lazy Bear

3416 19th St., San Francisco

Often imitated and rarely surpassed, Lazy Bear's approach to hyper-seasonal, campfire-scented cuisine is always a thrilling experience.

Current status: In lieu of the massive communal table dinners for which the restaurant is known, the Mission District fine dining restaurant’s pivot to takeout has proved to be incredibly popular. It has regularly garnered long lines for its casual menu of sandwiches (think grilled cheeses, banh mi and Reubens), breakfast biscuits, cocktails and meal kits. A jar of the restaurant’s rich cultured butter, one of the highlights of its tasting menu, can also be yours for $20.

• Credit cards accepted • Full bar

Options: Takeout

415-874-9921 or www.lazybearsf.com

Los Carnalitos La Mejor Comida Chilanga

30200 Industrial Parkway SW, Hayward

At this family-run antojeria, an outstanding menu of Mexico City’s street food is made from scratch daily.

Current status: Some of the finest and most unique Mexican food in the region, featuring fresh masa and specialty ingredients like huitlacoche and squash flowers, can be found at this humble taqueria run by two brothers — carnalitos — Luis and Alfredo Santos. For a heavier option, go for the deep-fried gorditas stuffed with bits of grilled pork belly, salsa, crumbly queso fresco, cilantro, onions and lettuce. The quesadillas, stuffed with melted Oaxacan cheese, tomatillo salsa, queso fresco and generous fillings like braised and shredded chicken tinga, are also a major and rewarding commitment. Lately, most customers take their huaraches, quesadillas and tortas to go; it’s always fun to eat tacos on your car hood outside the restaurant, though the view of the surrounding strip mall isn’t spectacular. Los Carnalitos’ truck has also continued to serve Redwood City. Check its Facebook page for updates on where the truck will be.

• Credit cards accepted • Beer and wine

Options: Takeout, delivery and outdoor dining

510-324-8125

The Restaurant at Meadowood

900 Meadowood Lane, St. Helena

Tucked away in this Wine Country resort is a phenomenal tasting menu destination.

Current status: Anyone who is skeptical that food can be art should dine at the Restaurant at Meadowood, one of Napa Valley’s best fine dining houses. Its menu is centered on the humble boons of the vegetable garden. You may encounter a Caesar salad built from cover crops; clam escabeche with tiny, impossibly green sprigs of broccoli; or slow-aged kiwis presented as if they were 24-karat gold nuggets. One benefit to the restaurant’s location on a resort is that there’s plenty of attractive green space so all the tables have moved outside. The kitchen tours and chef’s counter meals are no longer part of the experience here, though outdoor dining has been in full swing since early July. Executive chef Christopher Kostow has been feeling downright optimistic: Jacqueline Dasha took over as the chef de cuisine last year, and the current menu is all her.

• Credit cards accepted • Full bar

Options: Outdoor and indoor dining

707-967-1205 or www.therestaurantatmeadowood.com

Quince

470 Pacific Ave., San Francisco

This farm-centered fine dining restaurant is now making that connection more literal with open-air farm dinners.

Current status: When many fine dining restaurants have struggled to find their footing in a world without dining rooms and intimate table service, Quince shifted its operation out of its Jackson Square dining room. The restaurant plans to offer $350 four-hour lunch events through October at McEvoy Ranch in Petaluma and Fresh Run Farm in Bolinas, where diners sit in transparent greenhouses in the fields. In the wide open space of a farm, diners and staff eat and work at a safe distance from each other; another benefit to a farm meal is that the connections between purveyor and food can be made even clearer. At Fresh Run Farm events, for example, you’ll be able to go on a farm tour before the meal and harvest squash that the chefs will cook for you later. Diners can take home some farm tools used during the meal as improvised plates, along with packets of seeds to grow at home.

• Credit cards accepted • Full bar

Options: Outdoor dining

415-775-8500 or www.quincerestaurant.com

Range Life

2160 Railroad Ave., Livermore

Outerlands and Tartine alums bring accessible New American fare to Livermore.

Current status: Range Life’s buttermilk fried chicken and beer special, offered Monday nights, is so good for mental health; thankfully, the restaurant has been continuing with this tradition during the pandemic. Crisp chicken, incredibly sweet Brentwood corn and dirty rice are just the solution for the “What day is it again?” blues. Also recommended are the restaurant’s cool selection of shirts and sweaters, which you can wear to show off your Livermore pride.

• Credit cards accepted • Full bar

Options: Takeout and delivery

925-583-5370 or www.rangelifelivermore.com

Red’s Java House

Pier 30, San Francisco

You’ll find the best views in the city, and an excellent burger on sourdough, at this historical landmark on the bay.

Current status: It’s easy to forget the world’s troubles when you’re sitting in front of the San Francisco Bay with a burger and a plate of french fries. Since 1955, through earthquakes and fires and all else, that’s been Red’s Java House’s service to humanity. Consistency has been the key to Red’s reign as a San Francisco institution: Its burgers all come with griddled onions, mustard and pickles on sourdough rolls with just a bit too much bread. (And no lettuce or tomato, ever.) That’s why this place, perpetually resistant to the urge to keep up with the brioche buns and Wagyu grinds of the rest of the scene, feels like a time capsule. The only major change to the ambience? The parking lot has turned into a COVID-19 testing site, making it a true 2020-style one-stop shop. Now open for outdoor dining and takeout.

• Credit cards accepted • Beer

Options: Takeout and outdoor dining

415-777-5626 or www.redsjavahouse.com

More Top Restaurants:

Top Italian Restaurants

Top Outdoor Dining

Top Mexican Restaurants

Top East Bay Restaurants

Top Chinese Restaurants