san francisco restaurants
 

Has anyone been to the Mortons in Union Sq.? I know it is a chain restaurant,but I can get a 100 gift card there (pts that need to be used)to take on our spring trip. I am just wondering if it is a good Mortons?? Also, if anyone can give me two or three must go to restaurants in San Francisco. We are traveling with our daughters 11 and 12. They are well behaved kids. We like steak, italian, japanese, chinese, and might try fish. Dress up or casual. Thanks.I am also looking for a nice sunday brunch place. Anyone been to the Top of the Mark?

I've been to the Top of the Mark but just for cocktails, very nice if a bit old fashioned.

Morton's are usually very consistant so I'm sure your dinner there would be great.

THE restaurant right now in San Fran is Gary Danko. Of course Chez Panisse in Berkeley is the mother of all restaurants. I really liked Aqua when we were there in Sept.

Thank you for the quick reply. I know one of the restaurants you mentioned sounds french. What kind are the others?
I am thinking of the Top of the Mark for Easter Sunday brunch. We will be there for the holiday.

Scalas which is pratically across the street from Morton's is very good. It is one of my favorite restaurants and have taken granchildren that are in your childrens age group and they have been treated so well. Do make reservations.

In North Beach the MonaLisa is a fantastic restaurant too. Owned by a man from Italy and all the staff are from Italy. Only place my Italain born and raised SIL approves of. And children would be fine there.

Scala's is the type of restaurant you see both casual and a bit more dressy.
Mona Lisa is casual.

Have a fun trip!! P.S. Have never eaten at Morton's but I too have heard it is consistent and has good steaks.

Also Kuleto's is a good Italian restaurant which is fine to take children to. Again casual or dressy is fine. While I say casual I do not mean shorts of course.

And the Top of the Mark is beautiful.

Hi girlonthego,



Chez Panisse isn't french, it's owned by Alice Waters who is the chef who started the movement of using food from local growers, etc. Very well known, when you asked for the "must go" restaurants in SF this is the one that started the "foodie" movement.

Gary Danko is original cutting edge I guess you'd call it. And Aqua is geared towards upscale seafood and the like. It use to be owned by Michael Mina.

For Sunday brunch, consider having Dim Sum in Chinatown. There are several places that get good reviews on this forum--try a search--or you can check out chowhound.com, or perhaps some locals will help me out with a suggestion or two. But Dim Sum in Sf is not to be missed!

I also like Japantown for sushi--my fave is Isobune, which features a canal around the sushi bar upon which the chefs float little boats of sushi--the kids will love it, and the sushi is actually good. And Japantown is fun to stroll around and shop, too.

Enjoy your trip!

You should definitely take your daughters to dim sum for lunch one day if they haven't done that before. Yank Sing is a great dim sum place (go to yanksing.com for information). There are two locations in the financial district so it is not in the heart of Chinatown if that matters to you. I took my grandma and mom (from out of state) there last week and they loved it because it was a bit easier to get in and out of than some of the restaurants in Chinatown. Slanted Door is great Vietnamese food and is in the restored Ferry Building which is fun to visit and right on the water. All the places the other posters listed are great - albeit really expensive (esp. Acqua, Gary Danko, Chez Panisse). Not sure what your budget is but those three places can be be $60-$80+ per person without drinks. Chez Panisse also has a less expensive "Cafe" that is just as good IMO because you get to order a la carte from a menu. From an ocean view perspective, you might consider the following places - Beach Chalet or Cliff House but be warned the food is so-so. Have fun!

I work in the restaurant idustry in SF, so hopefully I can bestow a bit of knowledge based on what I know and what I like:

If you want Italian, get out of Union Square take the cable car over the hill to North Beach. F'ior D'Italia and North Beach Restaurant are two of the best, but there are at least 20 great restaurants in the neighborhood.

Steak is tougher, but Izzy's and Bob's always register as great. Don't forget the House of Prime Rib either.

For Japanese (well fusion, I guess) try Chaya Brasserie on the Embarcadero and mission. It is absolutely amazing.

For chinese, go to chinatown. Nuff said.

For fish, if Aqua's price tag is too high, venture up to Fisherman's Wharf and go to McCormick & Kuleto's or Alioto's. If you want a fun place for the kids, Bubba Gump's and the Rainforest Cafe are a treat.

Brunch is tough, because everyone's got it, but if you want my advice, get out of the ultra touristy areas and see some of the more endearing neighborhoods like North Beach, SoMa, Pacific Heights and the Haight. There are treasures to be found all over the place, you just have to be willing to look.

We are in SF for 6 nights. I am thinking of renting a car for one day. It seems renting a car at the airport and having it at the hotel is pricey parking. I plan to go to Chinatown, Fisherman's Wharf, Union SQ., Alcatraz, and a day trip somewhere (Sausalito, Monterey?) All suggestions are welcome. Should I rent a car for two days? We arrive on a Sat afternoon and leave on a FRi. Sunday is Easter and I thought the only place not closed up will be Chinatown.(Just a guess). thoughts and suggestions are welcome. Thanks.

one more thing- We are coming from the east coast. So the first night the kids will be a little tired I am sure. We will most likely be up earlier than our normal selves with the time diff of three hours.

A few brief suggestions: There are so many terrific restaurants in SF. I suggest checking out "San Francisco" magazine's yearly issue devoted to SF dining. Full of good recommendations in a variety of categories, from those rare dining experiences to the smaller, friendlier neigborhood establishments. If you will be renting a car, go north across the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin county to Muir Woods and Point Reyes for amazing natural beauty, Sausalito for charm. In SF, the public transportation system is pretty good, particularly to the tourist-popular areas, and parking is generally a big pain. And finally, visit the Exploratorium with the kids. It is an amazing hands-on scientific museum. The suggestion about dim sum is a good one, too. I have been to Yank Sing located in the old post office building just south of the foot of Market St. Not the least bit intimidating. With kids, you can sit in the big open lobby with its 3-story falling water fountain.

Another good resource for restaurant suggestions, besides Zagat, is the Top 100 Bay Area Restaurants put out each year by the SF Chronicle -

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl.../CM100MAIN.DTL

In North Beach, I happen to like Trattoria Contadina (www.trattoriacontadina.com) on the corner of Union and Mason. For brunch, there is Mama's right on Washington Square (also North Beach). Get there early as there are no reservations and a long wait.

You also don't have to go to North Beach for good Italian (although it is fun for the kids). Delfina is a great choice for Italian. It is in the Mission.

Scala's Bistro (others have already mentioned) is also a good and convenient choice (italian) if you are staying in Union Square. The food is consistently good and the portions are large.

For Japanese, it might be fun to go with the kids to Japantown just for the experience. THere are a lot of restaurants there to choose from.

Well, my first post got zapped, so I'm going to try and post in itsy-bitsy little pieces! :)

On dim sum: Agree with the Yank Sing recommendation.

If you have to have dim sum iin Chinatown, try the New Asia Garden on Pacific.

Try arriving before 11am and do NOT go on a weekend, too crowded.

Dim sum is usually between 10am and 2pm. If you arrive too early, you risk getting the last of yesterday's dim sum. If you arrive too late, you risk getting fewer and fewer choices.

If you arrive around noon, be prepared for a long wait.

Agree with driving across the Golden Gate Bridge. Try the Vista Point right after the bridge. Then Muir Woods would be a great stop. Lunch/dinner at the Spinnaker in Sausalito, great views and pretty good food!

South of SF: Point Lobos and the Monterey Bay Aquarium are great suggestions for grownups and kids. Stay the night in Monterey/Carmel - no parking fees!

Hawthorne Lane is excellent except for bad food, rude service and exorbitant prices. Other than that, it's really a treat, and I urge the owners to keep up the good work.

Okay not to sound stupid, but what is dim sum? I thought you were all talking about a specific chinese meal (Like chow mein). Is it like another word for brunch?
I think if we were going to eat chinese, we would like to do it in Chinatown. I would think that would be the most interesting and best place to eat it? What is Japantown? Is North Beach in the city limits?(take a cab to dinner there?) We are staying on Nob Hill. We are using hotel reward pts for our stay. If we rent a car, it will be a day trip only. Do you recommend Sausalito or Monterey? Can I take a boat to Sausalito(like a ferry?)Than I could rent the car to go to Monterey. Is Monterey close enough for a day trip?
Thanks.

Hi, girlonthego!

Not stupid at all! We all are ignorant about one travel thing or another - which is why we come to forums like Fodors! :)

Glad you asked: dim sum is usually a "lunch" thing. It is somewhat like "tapas". Have you ever had tapas?

Tasty bite-size morsels come in small servings of three or four on one small plate or in one small steamer basket. The dishes are usually pushed around on carts and you simply point to what you want. At the end, the total number of dishes are counted and you pay a total.

(to be continued)

Most of the dim sum served in the States is Cantonese in origin, so expect a lot of seafood dishes - shrimp is the most popular.

When you are first seated and you will immmediately be asked "what kind of tea?" or the waiter will simply look at you with an inquiring gaze and not say anything. Just say "crysanthemum flower tea" - this is a tea that is made from dried crysanthemum flowers and has no caffeine - therefore safe for children.

(There is a whole lore about which teas goes with dim sum, I'll not discuss that here).

TBC

Each table has a tally sheet. As you order one dish, the lady will stamp your tally sheet.

The dishes come in small, medium, and large sizes. Each size has a different price. Make sure you check out what each size dish costs.

Before you ask for the final bill, it is a good idea to check the tally sheet and have a general idea of how many of each size plate you have ordered. Cheating is almost nonexistent, but someone could miscount the tally sheet.

TBC

You can also order soft drinks for your children and ask for regular tea for yourselves. Usually black tea is taken with dim sum, altho no one will jump up and down if you order green tea. :) Just don't order milk. It'll throw the waiters into a panic - lo!

You can also order regular dishes, which generally would be a big plate of noodles or fried rice. Order any "off cart" items from the waiter. Also order soft drinks from the waiter.

The ladies pushing the carts are responsible only for the carts and not for anything else, so they can't get you tea, soft drinks, an extra fork, another napkin, etc.

By the way, you are welcome to ask for forks. It'll make eating the food much easier.

TBC

If you've never had dim sum, I highly recommend that you eat it while you're here. SF has many excellent dim sum places, many of which have been mentioned in previous posts. When you eat dim sum, you'll see some things that are the usual appetizers found in chinese restaurants - pot stickers (aka dumplings at many places back east), egg rolls, etc. In addition, there are many other really tasty (much better than potstickers and egg rolls!) items. Just note that if you are a vegetarian, dim sum might not be a good choice (lots of shrimp and some pork dishes). Also, it is not usually served after 3pm.

NOrth beach is a neighborhood in SF, down the hill from Nob Hill. YOu could get there by cable car, cab, or walk. Japantown is a neighborhood also. There is a mall there which has the bulk of the restaurants and shops. It is near Post and Webster streets. It is close to Fillmore street which has nice shops and other restaurants. You can easily get there by public transportation.

You can take the ferry to sausalito and a drive to monterey might take about 2 hours one way.

Dishes from the carts:

By all means, try the barbecue pork buns

Then, if you or your family are not allergic to shellfish, order the HAGOW ("ha - gow" gow is pronounced like "how"). This will come in steamer baskets and you have to tell the lady "hagow" and she'll indicate whether she has them or not.

Another thing to order is the green vegetable, the Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce. You will need a vegetable to offset all the meat and seafood dishes.

Other than these, there will be anywhere from 50 to 100 different kinds of dishes to choose from.

Boy! You are making me hungry! Have a great trip! :)

Hi easyT!
Tell me where we can eat dim sum
in SF on Christmas Eve or Day or New
Years Day.
We're thinking about a "road trip"
:))
R5

Dim Sum sounds like fun! So, the best place is Yank Sing? I will definitely try that. I read on a SF news website there is a tea place in chinatown (where they just serve tea)? Any good?
How about some favorites? Favorite italian in North beach? (my husband loves veal parmigiana and it is not very good anywhere in our country town of VA.) Best view of water or city restaurant? Best Japanese-where they have the tableside cooking?
I think I have best dim sum as the Yank sing? We are not the most daring of eaters. We tend to eat more basic foods. I still think we would all like the dim sum.(We like pork, beef and chicken dishes and my husband is more of the fish person.)Thanks for all of the great replies!

Hi, R5!

Sooo good to finally meet up in Yountville! Still savoring the great memories!

(Got to do a quickie here! Half my posts have not been getting through!)

Holidays! Them be the worst times to go for dim sum! Crowded! Busy!

TBC

testing testing testing

Fifth time typing this!

Try Harbor Village in the Embarcadero

Or Mayflower out on Geary

The best is Koi Palace out in Daly City. On a holiday try to arrive by 9:30am, even then you may have an hour's wait.

In Oakland there is the Jade Villa, but not as good as the ones in SF and Daly City.

Go early! :)

Holy Cow! It's been really difficult answering your query, R5! You'd think I'm still drinking that "Bastardo"! :)

Oh easyT, Thank you!!!
Lots to choose from!
R5

There is a Benihana in Japantown where they cook in front of you. I think that's the only type of place like that in Japantown.

Good dim sum which is closest to your hotel would be Harbor Village (http://www.harborvillage.net/sf.html), Yank Sing (www.yanksing.com) which is also within walking distance of the Ferry Building, or places in Chinatown. One that comes to mind is City View on Commercial Street between Montgomery and Kearny Streets. All of the ones I listed are a bit nicer (i.e., have tablecloths) and more expensive (dim sum can be super cheap, so "expensive" in this case is relative). Expect to pay around $2.50 - $4.50 a plate at these places. The beauty of dim sum is that you can eat what looks interesting to you and skip the rest.

For good water views, Slanted Door in the Ferry Building is one of the most popular restaurants in SF (call way ahead for reservations. It's easier to get in at lunch) - www.slanteddoor.com. Greens in Fort Mason (www.greensrestaurant.com) has great views. It's vegetarian but you really don't miss the meat, it's that good. McCormick and Kuleto's is in Ghiradelli Square and has great water views but is very touristy. I can't speak to the quality of the food since it's been years since I ate there.

Japantown is a neighborhood in SF, and, like Chinatown, has a unique "flavor" that's worth experiencing while you're there. There is a Benihana; however, you should know that "tableside cooking" isn't exactly where it's at in Japanese food. No offense intended--if that's what you like, go for it. But as long as you're traveling, you might consider trying something like sushi, which may be harder to find where you live. It's served in small portions consisting of 2-6 small bites; so if you hate it, you can order some cooked food without investing a lot in the experiment. Have fun!

Here's another vote for dim sum at Yank Sing. Our kids (now 6 and 9) love going there any time we visit San Francisco.

Japantown is an interesting little area of San Francisco; we haven't eaten there, but I saw several sushi-type places that looked good.

There are good/great Italian places all over S.F., but the most fun neighborhood is North Beach. It seems that not everyone feels the Italian food there is "authentic," but we like walking the area, and being able to stop for gelato and/or coffee. We've been to the Rose Pistola several times, and feel it's good northern Italian cuisine.

Unless you live on a coast already, I'd probably skip steak and focus on seafood and other food that's known to be good in S.F., such as chinese!

Dear girlonthego,

Yank Sing is indeed a good place for a first-time dim sum experience. There's a branch close to where I work, and it's a popular place either to take clients or to get to-go lunches.

If you are staying near Union Square, try going to a place called Sanraku Four Seasons for sushi. It's on Sutter Street near Taylor. Not huge, not tiny, very friendly and authentic without being austere or snotty. You can get teriyaki chicken or tempura in addition to the sushi dishes. There are a lot of sushi bars in the area around Powell/O'Farell - they are a so-so lot, IMHO.

If in North Beach for dinner, do stop in one of the coffeehouses afterwards. The Trieste on Grant Avenue is a classic - it is VERY funky and low-key. Steps of Rome or the Puccini are a bit more "upscale". At the Trieste, I always order an "africano", which is like a latte but stronger on the coffee and served in a glass.

Have a good time - stay flexible and the fun will find you!

Another question about Japanese restaurants.We only have the type where you have table-side cooking by us. Is there a good japanese restaurant where you take off your shoes and sit on the floor? We are not sushi people, but we like the terryaki stuff.

Dear girl on the go,
Some Japanese restaurants do have a tatami-matted room where the diners sit unshod at low tables. You generally have to reserve ahead of time and there may be a minimum number of diners required to make the reservation. One caution - sitting at this kind of arrangement can be very tough on your back if you are used to the support of a chair.

I wasn't thinking about the back. That could be uncomfortable. I guess I will stick with standard chair fare. Thanks

dovima is correct. I do not like Japenese food but have been to a couple of Japenese restaurants.

I thought I would die before the meal was finished as my back ached so bad. And I do not have bach problems etc.
I would never try sitting on the floor again.

Do have a wonderful trip!

Hey R5~we'll be at Yank Sing on CHristmas Day probably around noonish. The rest of the Krewe will be heading to the movies but las I have to return to Berkeley to attend to the sick and the infirmed. You are most welcommed to join us if you so desire. It's quite an eclectic mix of folks.
I have heard, btw, Kong Tiang out on Geary (I think at 25th) is really good and Kikhead likes it better than Yank SIng(to my memory).