Restaurants in the San Francisco area
 

in the past three months we have eaten in various venues, and these are the ones I recommend:

<b>Dragon Beaux</b>, 5700 Geary Blvd, corner of 21st Ave. http://dragonbeaux.com/

$247 with tip for four. Excellent service, excellent and plentiful food—we do not usually take home any food when eating at a restaurant, but we did at this one, including the two broths.

$32 per person for the meat hot pot, which came with three platters of meat.
$42 per person for the fish and seafood hot pot. The seafood is absolutely fresh. They ran out of crab and asked us if lobster would be OK (at no extra charge). The lobster cam cut in chunks but in the shell and still wriggling and the eyes moving. If I had to choose, I would opt for the fish/sea food hot pot.

The hot pot has a divider, so that one side can be meat (a soup bone broth) and the other side can be fish (using a chicken broth), but we did not differentiate and shared everything equally. There is an all you can eat menu, with a time limitation of 90 minutes.

Reservations are imperative. When we left at 8:30 p.m. on a Sunday, there was a line out the door.


<b>Bellota</b> 888 Brannan, in the Airbnb headquarters building. http://www.bellotasf.com/

Excellent food, $172 for two, but very noisy. Spanish themed restaurant. Our menu was Mar Y Montana Tower, Gilda Pincho, Cordero Media, Fabada Media, Churros + drinks. Reservations are necessary.

<b>Sir and Star</b> ($161 plus tip for two) Sir Francis Drake Blvd and CA 1 http://sirandstar.com/

A perfect way to end a day in the Point Reyes area. The menu is limited, so we find the prix fixe a better idea. The menu changes constantly, but here’s what we had: their signature <i>faux gras</i>, carrot soup, fish (amazing smoked salmon), duck, Strawberry rhubarb compote, Almond meringue plus wine. Reservations are essential.

<b>Minas Brazilian Restaurant</b>, 41 Franklin (Civic Center area) $69 for two including tip. http://www.minasbrazilianrestaurant.com/

Very good food, particularly the shrimp stew served in a squash. We had an early dinner before going to an event in that area.

You totally lucked out at Sir and Star. Can be great can be awful.

We have always had good meals there. It's one of my wife's favorite restaurants.

>>Bellota .....Excellent food, $172 for two, but very noisy<<

Yep - we were a party of four and could not hear each other. We even requested a "quiet area" to sit in. Too bad - the food was great, but we would not return unless there was only a party of one.

Stu Dudley

Stu,
Bellota is much quieter if going for lunch during the week, as we just did.

((Y))

I am adding three restaurants to the list:

<b>Millenium</b> in Oakland, close to the Rockridge BART station, is an excellent vegan restaurant, which I would recommend to anyone but those who feel that a restaurant meal must include some fish or meat products. http://www.millenniumrestaurant.com/location/ Given the distance from San Francisco, I would not go there without reservations.

<b>Trestle Restaurant</b> is located between the Financial District and North Beach, east of Chinatown. The food is good, the pricing appealing ($35 prix fix for a three course dinner), but it requires reservations, and I do not find it a destination restaurant for which I would make reservations. It would be ideal as a last minute choice when in the area, but that would mean a long wait. The $10 pasta Bolognese supplement we had that night was the best dish on the menu.

Its sister restaurant <b>Corridor</b>, http://corridorsf.com/ is well located for those wanting a meal before a concert or the opera. But like Trestle, it is noisy and its jazzed up comfort food is not worth a reservation. There are more interesting restaurants nearby, such as http://www.minasbrazilianrestaurant.com/ although there have been complaints about its service. Both Corridor and Trestle have excellent service.

In a nutshell: Trestle and Corridor have good food, very good to excellent service, both are noisy, especially Trestle.