Dschoening

Just got back from a lovely time in San Francisco (Feb 25 - Mar 2); even though the weather wasn't great, we had an excellent time.

We're a fifty-ish married couple, there on business + a little vacation time. Stayed in a beautiful suite at the Palace (special deal on website) and was especially impressed with room service there: food was good, reasonably priced for room service, and dependable delivery. Staff good, special requests noted and taken care of, bottled water replaced every day, no extra charge. Only criticisms: no coffee maker in suite (but you can get one, no charge, if you just ask at the desk); daily charge for high speed internet connect.

Lots of new restaurants in SOMA - Azie was good Asian-French food, Red Herring wonderful seafood and pretty reasonable for the area (near Embarcadero). Town Hall, very new and trendy, was just ok and VERY noisy; slow service - duck was good, though. Also ate at the famous Farallon in Union Square, and worth every penny in food, service, and decor. And B44 on Belden was very good Spanish tapas - just really noisy - try the incredibly good calamari. Had a reasonable and delicious lunch at Scala's Bistro on Powell. Had a delicious but NOT so reasonable dim sum lunch at Yank Sing 2 on Stevenson right near the Palace. It was expensive but perfect dim sum.

Museum of Modern Art was a treat, both the art and the building, especially the creative top floor.

I felt safe walking everywhere, day and evening - Union Square, the new popular parts of SOMA; and the street people were not as bad as in Seattle and Vancouver when I was there last Sept.

Margie

Nice report - Thanks for sharing!

Jed

Seconded

Dreamer2

Stupid Question of the Week:
I am researching San Fran for an upcoming visit, and keep seeing "SOMA." So what DOES it stand for? And if I'm bidding through Priceline, would it fall under "Union Square and Embarcadero Area?" Thanks in advance for the clarification.

Dan

SOMA is South of Market, just as SOHO is South of Houston in New York.

Dreamer2

Aaaaahhhh! Thank you, Dan!
Now, Market Street would be in the Union Square neighborhood?

Dan

I just looked at Priceline's San Francisco map. Yes, most of the "SoMa" area as well as Market Street would fall into what Priceline calls "Union Square and Embarcadero." It's a pretty big area with some wide ranges of neighborhoods, so I'd recommend bidding 4 star and up. You don't want "Civic Center Area" either.

KathyM

Re: bidding on Priceline. From what I've been reading it would be a good thing to try for a 4* in "Union Square and Embarcadero", then if rejected, follow up with a bit more $ and include for a 4* in "Civic Center Area" (since there aren't any 4*'s there....