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San Francisco food suggestions?
You were all so helpful with the LA portion of my trip that I'm back for San Francisco ideas:)
I love good food, and I'm willing to try almost anything! I'd welcome both inexpensive suggestions and splurge suggestions. Are there any unique SF establishments you'd recommend? I love any kind of fresh seafood, including sushi. I like italian, and pasta in general. I love farm to table type places and although I gravitate towards meat, I also like great vegetarian places. I like both modern and old fashioned restaurants. I can't get good southwestern food or southern food where I live for the most part, so either would be a treat. Brunch is definitely my favorite meal, so any breakfast suggestions would be welcome, especially if you know of any terrific bakeries. I can take or leave alcohol, but I do love excellent craft cocktails, so I'd like a few suggestions for restaurant that have an expansive and creative cocktail menu. Unless there are any really exceptional pizza or burger places, you can leave those off- that's comfort food for me, and if I feel like it, I'll probably find it by myself. Staying at Ft Mason Hostel (fishermans wharf) if that helps at all. Thanks! |
Be sure to visit the Ferry Building. Lots of shops and restaurant options there.
My two favorites are inside the building and nearby - Slanted Door - http://www.slanteddoor.com/ Boulevard - https://www.boulevardrestaurant.com/ |
If afternoon tea is of interest, I loved Lovejoy's Tea Room -
http://www.lovejoystearoom.com/ http://www.lovejoystearoom.com/Menu/menu.html It's out on the J Church line and going there and back is a nice way to see more of the city, including going past Delores Park (even if you don't get out) http://www.lovejoystearoom.com/About/aboutus.html http://www.sfmta.com/getting-around/...stops/j-church |
Afternoon tea is definitely of interest, it's like you read my mind! And slanted door looks amazing, thanks!
Also of interest: I am definitely an espresso snob, so any great coffee shops can be included. Especially any near fishermans wharf, as I need that first dose early... |
I'd suggest you sign up for the website "eaterSF".
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This is a great tea room:
http://www.samovartea.com/locations/castro/ Quintessential San Francisco: http://www.tadichgrill.com/ Their Chicken and Warm Bread Salad is renown: http://www.zunicafe.com/ Brunch - http://www.foreigncinema.com/ Punch Drunk Brunch [ we ate there while it was a pop up] http://www.thrillist.com/bars/san-fr...reat-cocktails |
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For all-around excellent food, including seafood, head to One Market, right across from the Ferry Building.
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Tartine Bakery in the Mission district is always popular, justifiably so. http://www.tartinebakery.com/
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There are great free city walks all over the city. If you head out to Lovejoy's consider taking the Noe Valley tour. Fascinating. You meet at the Carnegie library and see a part of the city that most tourists don't see.
http://www.sfcityguides.org/desc.html?tour=55 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_library Also, the tour of the Ferry Building. http://www.sfcityguides.org/desc.html?tour=25 There's virtually no walking on that tour, but you get access to the upstairs - formally main floor - with the gorgeous mosaics, skylights, etc. You get to see the floor where passengers got on and off ships when the Ferry Building was the busiest port in the country. One of my favorite city walks of all. There are many more, including a tour of Fisherman's Wharf. If you head out to the Mission, etc. for recommendations above, consider tying in that meal with a City Walks tour. HIGHLY recommend. |
We liked NOPA (580 Divisadero) a lot. Here's what we had:
Smoked Trout Salad ($15) Baked Beans ($10) Flatbread ($18) more like a pizza Linguica ($16) Pork Headcheese ($18) Tart for dessert ($9) 3 glasses of wine ($37) $162, tip included. These were the small plates, although the head cheese plate had a large variety of meats. Large plates (prices in the upper 20s) are very generous, from what we saw, as are the side dishes. We did not leave hungry. The restaurant is noisy and is frequented by a younger crowd--there were four persons who appeared to be over the age of 40. |
If you don't mind meatless, Greens is a standby favorite of many, and it's right near Fort Mason hostel:
http://www.greensrestaurant.com/ It ain't cheap, but there are great views. For a snack, a take-away bowl of clam chowder outside at Fisherman's Wharf is practically a must-do for tourists. We really enjoyed the 2-hr sunset cruise with the Red & White Fleet. The food is much more than you'd expect, since they term it "appetizers", but it's really a full meal buffet: http://www.redandwhite.com/bay-cruis...sunset-cruise/ There's a 20% off coupon available here: http://www.smartsave.com/red-and-white-fleet The coupon makes it $46.40 per adult. Reservations required. It isn't cheap, but it's a very enjoyable cruise with good food and one complimentary drink from the cash bar. |
Michael: I'm won over by the smoked trout salad! But it all sounds fantastic:)
Also, in general- everyone, please let me know if restaurants/activities you recommend require advance reservations or more likely to be enjoyable on weekends vs weekdays. Starrs- the list of tours is dizzying. I definitely want to do one of the chinatown tours. Of the others- have you been on any that you preferred over others or consider can't misses, I have about 3 1/2 days in sf, and want to make the most of it. So far: I plan to do a bike tour of the neighborhoods, visit Alcatraz, explore chinatown. Go to britex fabrics and city lights bookstore. Go to at least 1 museum- not sure what yet, but leaning towards Academy of Sciences or legion of honor or asian Art. Any suggestions? Thanks! |
mm, I topped Stu Dudley's list and description thread.
http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...mendations.cfm He's our SF expert/treasure and a source of so much information. His wife is one of the volunteer guides (for the Victorian homes tour I think). Check out that thread for more information. |
When are you going to be in San Francisco? Check the De Young, Legion of Honor, and Asian Art Museum for current special exhibits.
You can go to the De Young and Legion of Honor on the same ticket (both closed Mondays). http://deyoung.famsf.org/ Even if you don't go to the De Young for its exhibits, if you are in the area (say, at the Academy of Sciences) be sure to stop in to the museum and take the elevator up to the 9th floor viewing tower--great view! (Free--no museum ticket required) The Asian Art Museum is wonderful if you have any interest in Asian art at all--the collection is vast and comprehensive (also closed Mondays). There's a nice special exhibit currently on there showcasing the Floating World in Japanese ukiyo-e prints. http://www.asianart.org/ My favorite City Guides tours of the 10 I've been on have been the Castro, Haight Ashbury, Mission murals, and Victorian San Francisco tours. But all have been interesting and worthwhile. Choose one that fits your interests and goes on a day/time you want to go. They usually last a couple of hours. |
We enjoyed the Golden Gate Bridge and Japanese Garden City Walks. They're a wonderful resource.
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We've been to 1300 on Fillmore's Sunday Gospel Brunch several times and love it.
http://www.1300fillmore.com/menus/gospel_brunch.pdf The regular dinners there are also very good...love wandering around the Fillmore Distr. A few doors down on Fillmore is Dosa's. http://www.dosasf.com/fillmore_home.htm We've been there several times and had a mini GTG there a few years ago. Excellent. We ate at the remodeled Fog City Diner 2x over the past few mos and both times it was very good. http://fogcitysf.com/ We hit Hard Water a few mos ago for dinner and had a good time. Would have preferred a table vs the high bar stools decor. Owned by people who own Slanted Door. http://hardwaterbar.com/ The Andouille sausage gumbo was some of the best I've had outside the Fr Qtr in NOLA...and the Hardwater Fried chicken Fave hole in the wall for breakfast is Pat's Cafe in No Beach/Fish Wharf area. http://patscafesf.com/ Down in the Designer Distr is Skool. We've eaten there several times and have had 2 GTGs there, one for Sunday brunch. Outstanding Bloody Marys and some innovative cocktails! http://skoolsf.com/ Love Epic Roadhouse especially if you can get a "view" table. The upstairs Quiver Bar is also a nice place for a great nosh (cheeseburger!) and view. http://www.epicroasthouse.com/#paramount |
Just remembered M.Y China in The Dome at SF Centre Shopping Ctr. A Martin Yan resto.
I had about an hour to kill yesterday waiting for my Amtrak bus to pick me up in front of the place after an outstanding SF GTG. http://tastemychina.com/san-francisco/home/275 Went in and had a Buddha Beer to kill some time. We ate there last year. Goooood. The food smelled sooooo good and it's always fun watching the guy toss his noodles. =-O |
Well, well, look what the cat dragged in! Hey, Kal!
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:)) Alohaaaaaa you beautiful woman!
And I also forgot to mention (geez....am I turning into....nahhhhh) we've done 3 "Food Tours" by GraceAnn Walden and loved all 3 of them. We've turned several of our friends onto her and they have gone several times too. We have done the Pizza Tour, North Beach Tour and Nob Hill Tour. She also does Chinatown, Chinatown at Night and The Mission. Good history of the tour area, people and buildings and you'll wind up stuffed and possibly a bit snockered. But it's not free...she charges maybe $40-$50 a person. Worth it IMHO....especially when someone "gets her Jersey up". LOL She <b>finally</b> had a hip replacement so she's not as cranky...darn! she turned us on to such places as Tony's Pizza Napoletana, Liguria Bakery, XOX Truffles, O'Reilly's and a few other restos. |
Reservations are needed for NOPA
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My current favorite in SF is Nico. French. Only 1 menu and you can either have 3 or 5 courses from the day's selections. The 5 course is a much better "deal". It's way out on Sacramento in the antiques/designer/shopping area - you'll probably need a cab to take you there & back. We've dined there twice. It recently received a very nice review & high rating from the SF Chronicle restaurant reviewer - so reservations may be difficult to get.
http://nicosf.com/ Stu Dudley |
Just ate at <b>Sous Beurre</b> on 24th St. within two storefronts of Potrero.
Here's what we ate, all shared, with the listed prices: Mixed Green Salad (excellent vinaigrette) $9 Asparagus dish (copious) $23 Grilled salmon-trout for two $48 Angel Cake with blood orange sauce $8 one bottle of Savoie white wine $36 Total $124 Total credit card bill: $124. Aside from being excellent food, and plentiful – the salmon was a 10 in. whole fish – I appreciate the fact that listed prices include all taxes and tips. The restaurant has been open for three weeks, and it was full on a Tuesday night. The quibbles: main dishes have vegetables mainly as decoration. Bread is extra. The restaurant was between seasons so we could not get their fixed price menu – which would have been more expensive, but with presumably more dishes. |
@Stu: Nico sounds wonderful. We always go to L'Ardoise in Duboce Triangle (so close to where we usually stay in the Castro!) when we're up in the City, and it's always very good, but this will go on our list for our next visit. It looks to be about 15 minutes by cab up in Pacific Heights from Castro & Market-- does that sound right?
@Marvelous: You could get hundreds of suggestions for "special" dining in San Francisco, and they'd all be different and all great. It's a foodie town. Having said that, I will gently suggest that although the sushi and Japanese cuisine up in SF is great, you'll actually find even better options of that cuisine in the greater LA area. As far as Chinese, it's a bit of a toss-up in my eyes; LA's scene is famously vibrant and vast and "happening"-- but hey, in SF you not only have Chinatown, you have Yank Sing for dim sum, which is an institution for good reason. The food is just good. Yank Sing: Proudly feeding the San Francisco brunch crowd into food comas since 1958. North Beach Italian-- well, you can't swing a guanciale without hitting a North Beach eatery serving up tasty Italian food. Just get up there and follow your nose. You're just going to love it up there, and you won't starve. Take my word for it. And they have pretty good museums up there as well (CA Academy of Sciences and de Young are well worth the time). Now you're making me wish we could go there next weekend...!! :( |
>>15 minutes by cab up in Pacific Heights from Castro & Market-- does that sound right?<<
Yep I've looked over the menu many times at l'Ardoise, and have never decided to go there becacuse the menu items have always seemed quite "ordinary" to me. Nothing new or original, or something I can't/won't do at home. Just the opposite at Nico. Stu Dudley |
Tadich Grill--the seafood cioppino-yumm!
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Rjw: thanks, I was wondering if I should go for sushi in la instead. Lol- I'm not so much worried about starving as I am using all my money on food. Following my nose tends to cause me trouble that way! Thanks for the north beach suggestion- I looked the area up and now I'm drooling a little! I'm not sure if I'm more excited about the dim sum or the italian!
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@Stu: Agreed. I think of l'Ardoise as a "comfort-food" type of place. Since I'm typically up in SF on vacation and won't have access to a kitchen, I like shaking up our menu choices-- some more adventurous, others more familiar. Sure, I can make coq au vin at home, but sometimes I just want some. Preferably within walking distance.... But Nice is on our "Must Try" short list.
Hey, Foreign Cinema still gets a lot of hype-- is it truly any good? We're tempted to finally give it a shot on our next trip up, but.... @marv: The food scene in SF is fantastic and exciting. It's also operating at a higher "aspirational" level than the scene in the LA area. What I mean is: The high-end eateries in SF are seriously good, with a clientèle that "gets" what they're doing, and they want to achieve a position in the lofty heights of professional cooking where they can get Michelin stars, James Beard awards, etc. In LA, there are a handful of high-end restaurants with those high aspirations. But I'd say that most high-end restaurants in LA aspire to have a Kardashian post a selfie with a picture of their chopped salad and/or pitch a fit over Paris Hilton being allowed in while they're dining (heavily covered by TMZ and <b>In Style</b>). Food is secondary in those places. The most exciting, most satisfying and most delicious food in LA is served in lower-tier establishments. You also get certain ethnic cuisines served at a higher level of accomplishment in parts of LA: certain Chinese regional cuisines, Japanese (in general), Korean, Thai, Cambodian, Vietnamese (well, the Slanted Door in SF is still incredible), Indian, and Mexican. There is also some seriously good food being made in the casual eateries of SF, so I'm not slamming them at all. But LA doesn't have more than a couple of restaurants that <i>might</i> get Michelin stars-- and it doesn't seem to matter to must of us. As far as Italian vs. dim sum-- get excited about both. You may want to lose a few pounds before you head out here. Not because you need a "beach body", but because you will probably gain a few pounds. Happily, in SF you can walk places and work your meals off. In LA you'll need to make time to do the power walking...! |
" Go to britex fabrics "
and check out Mendel's in the Haight (1556 Haight Street), THE best fabric shop (and art/craft store and hardware store :-) http://www.mendels.com/home.php http://www.yelp.com/biz/mendels-san-francisco |
Stu- concerning Nico's menu: what is the difference between between 5 course and 5 course pairing? It can't be drinks with only a 10 dollar difference.
And would a cab or driving and parking be a better choice? I'll have a car, but it looks like in most cases parking fees make it more practical not to drive. Thanks! |
I totally forgot about my one Guilty Pleasure in SF, a restaurant I enjoy unabashedly and openly despite its location in (horrors!) Fisherman's Wharf:
Scoma's. The scene is-- what? Maybe 60s San Francisco Pierside Seafood Joint. I picture a roomful of Smart Set folks in three-piece suits and Pucci shifts, everyone smoking and sipping on rusty nails and (very dry) martinis while the whole broiled lobsters and heaping bowls of cioppino come flying out of the kitchen, served by the very same waiters who are working there today. Service is attentive, you're right on the water, and best of all, the food is actually quite good and honest (nothing pretentious). It's also the first restaurant my husband and I went to for a meal together in SF, so I hold it near and dear in my heart. Hipsters probably go to Scoma's ironically. I don't. It's simply good, and that's enough for me. The fact that it's stumbling distance to Ghirardelli Square is absolutely unrelated, although I do fulfill my serious chocolate jones by visiting there. Before and after meals. I may need help.... |
Rjw- lol, with that image in my head, I will have to check it out now. Although I was determined to steer clear of ghirardellis:) I may have a problem too...
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@Marv: I'm a big proponent of not driving in SF, so I would spring for a cab. If we were actually in the City right now, we might be also looking at bus routes to and from the place (bus and rail are typically how we get around in the City when we go there), but cab or Uber won't be too expensive, so....
LA-- totally different situation, too big, too spread-out. I drive places. Unless I know I will be drinking a lot, in which case I will figure out either (a) transport to and from the place or (b) some way to while away time while I sober up. I drive a lot every day, so this is a much less-attractive way to spend my leisure time now (it doesn't help that I'm 50 and I'm getting too old to spend my life driving to the latest Scene-and-Be-Seen place up in WeHo or Hollywood). |
We just got back from some "city adventures" this morning. Actually, I had to take my wife into the City for the City Guides tour she leads - and we drove from Castro & Market to a block from Nico. Twelve minutes.
Very easy parking (and free) a Nico - but you'll likely park 1-2 blocks west of the restaurant on Sacramento. Nice tree-lined street with some exclusive shops along Sacramento - and a theater. menu: -3 courses $45 if you want wine paring - add $35 - 5 courses $55 if you want wine paring - add $45 Every time we've dined there, we (and friends with us) have always wondered "why wouldn't anyone order the 5 course menu?" Stu Dudley |
@Stu: That is a very reasonable price for 5 courses and wine pairings. Especially when you have an imaginative sommelier. Nico is sounding better and better!
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That does sound amazing! Think that goes on my list:) would you recommend reservations for Nico?
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Also- any really excellent food trucks or fish stands you'd recommend? I love places like that or counter service places for lunch, since I rarely drink at lunch anyway.
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>>would you recommend reservations for Nico?<<
Of course!!!!! It was recently reviewed by our SF Chron food critic & got very favorable reviews. They take reservations 6 weeks in advance. I plan to make reservations for my Birthday dinner at 12:10 am exactly 6 weeks before my birthday. Six weeks from today, they already have some "limitations" on times available. Stu Dudley |
That last link wasn't very informative.
There are so many good ideas for restaurants here, and I'll add one that I think is different and delicious. It's vegan Mexican, in the Mission, and has a great reputation. It's communal seating which worked for my party of 6 with a reservation. Gracias Madre: http://gracias-madre.com/ I'm a vegetarian, so really appreciate having all the choices. |
Yeah...I figured he was advertising or something so I didn't respond.
Thanks for the the rec!! Not much decent vegan/veg where I live so that's always a treat! |
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