Check, Please! Bay Area Launches Brand-New Restaurant Guide

Calling all avid Check, Please! fans: Have you been looking for a way to peruse all the restaurants featured on Check, Please! Bay Area, from our earliest seasons until now? Today, we’re proud to launch the first iteration of the KQED Bay Area Restaurant Guide, your go-to resource for exploring (or rediscovering) the places we’ve visited over the course of our 18-year history. From Sonoma to San Jose, Berkeley to Brentwood and beyond, we’ve highlighted hundreds of can’t-miss restaurants for you; whether you’re looking for a cozy neighborhood spot close to home or a dining destination on the journey to your next adventure, we’ve got you covered with the places that have been recommended by everyday eaters just like you.
Our award-winning public television series launched in 2005 with a simple premise: to create a platform for local diners – not professional restaurant critics – to share their favorite Bay Area restaurants. Guided by host Leslie Sbrocco, hundreds of Bay Area locals have led conversations championing, celebrating and even critiquing the region’s best-loved dining spots. For the first time, you can see all these locations in one handy tool – including the restaurants that have closed over the years.
This robust new tool is designed with you in mind: We’ve heard from you about what makes our show valuable, and our hope is that, with this map, we have distilled all the need-to-know information in one easy-to-use guide.

To use the map, simply visit our website where you can browse all the entries (sorted alphabetically) or click on a fork on the map. Each fork represents one restaurant we’ve featured; from here, you can view the location, cuisine, contact information, and even the dishes we reviewed on the show. Want a more in-depth assessment? You can watch the restaurant segment right from this page, including the restaurant feature and discussion with guests! If you have your heart set on a specific type of cuisine in a designated region, you can use our dropdown menus to filter entries, making finding your next favorite eatery a breeze! (Please note: The map only displays a finite number of restaurants at a time, so if you don’t see any forks in your selected location, you can scroll to the bottom to see more!)
This map tool is a labor of love, but it’s only the first step in our efforts to make Check, Please! Bay Area a more accessible, interactive experience – and we need your help! We’re asking you, our dedicated and loyal audience, to be the first people to try out this guide, and send us your feedback. If you encounter challenges, spot an error, or have suggestions for how we can improve this tool, please reach out to our team at food@kqed.org.

Meanwhile, we’re back this week with another brand-new episode, our second of season 18. Three guests join Leslie at KQED’s San Francisco studio to chat about the unmissable meals at TIPS Roadside in Kenwood, Café Colucci in Oakland, and Routier in San Francisco’s Lower Pacific Heights. Want to know where we’re heading next? Visit our website for all the information on our new season!
Don’t see your favorite restaurant in our guide or in what’s to come? Applications for Check, Please! Bay Area are open, so if you have a favorite spot in the Bay (or even in the Monterey Bay region), fill out this form and tell us all about your most-shared local dining destination for a chance to be featured on an upcoming episode.

Prefer to watch online? Stream Check, Please! Bay Area episodes whenever and wherever you want on our website or with the PBS App, with new episodes premiering at the same time as on TV! In addition to full shows and the exciting new restaurant guide, our website is home to behind-the-scenes content, wine notes from expert Leslie Sbrocco, and our beloved segment “Cecilia Tries It.” Follow reporter Cecilia Phillips as she chronicles off-the-beaten-path food finds, from farmers markets to food halls and everything in between, and look out for even more Cecilia Tries It, coming later this year to KQED 9!

None of this would be possible without the support of our amazing sponsors! Thank you to Oakland International Airport, IRG, Sutter Health, Oceania Cruises, Fog Harbor Fish House at Pier 39, and Graham’s Port for their continued support of Check, Please! Bay Area