Flour + Water, San Francisco

Almost five years after opening, Chef Thomas McNaughton’s flagship restaurant still requires weeks to book a table. This Mission hotspot and four-time recipient of a James Beard Award has given rise to a mini-empire centered on Harrison and 20th Streets, including Central Kitchen and Salumeria, all equally obsessed with technique. Here, pastas rocket to ethereal heights owing to McNaughton’s prowess for foraging, but it’s the ever-morphing chef’s tasting menus that keep flour + water perennially hugging the top of the list of San Francisco’s most sought-after destination restaurants. Long-standing ties with nearly all of Northern California’s high-end purveyors – Monterey Fish, Full Belly Farm and Cowgirl Creamery, to name a few – showcase the best of what the Golden State’s terroir is capable of.