Source: sfgate.com

If you look at the year-end dining scorecard, 2001 wasn't a winner. Six restaurants reviewed this year either closed or changed concepts to stay afloat. In addition, Oritalia, Splendido and Cypress Club closed.

Midyear, when we started to realize the extent of the economic slump, restaurant openings in San Francisco came to a virtual standstill, and most of the action moved to surrounding areas.

Now things are heating up again. So many places have opened in the past couple of months it's been impossible to review them all. Early next year you can look forward to reviews of Charlie Palmer's Dry Creek Kitchen in Healdsburg, Michael Mina and George Morrone's Redwood Park in the Transamerica pyramid and Pat Kuleto and Todd Humphrie's Martini House in St. Helena.

Then there's Cetrella, a 154-seat restaurant in Half Moon Bay masterminded by Paul Shenkman of Pasta Moon; Aziza, by the duo that brought us Kasbah in San Rafael; and Cozmo's Corner Grill in the Marina, opened by Steven Levine of Cosmopolitan Cafe. Two well-known names are also coming to life again: There's a new Trader Vic's in Palo Alto, and Valhalla, Sally Stanford's old place of business, is being revived in Sausalito.

Although the restaurant business is still in recovery mode, you'd never know it from our top 10 list, which stacks up favorably to past years. Here are the best of the year, in alphabetical order. Unless noted, all accept reservations and credit cards and have full bars.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2001/12/30/PK65405.DTL&type=food