San Francisco Restaurants, SOMA / Union Square
 

We're headed to San Francisco soon (yay!), staying at the Palace Hotel. If you have a restaurant recommendation, or two+, for that specific area I would love to hear from you. I am searching this site for info but have not yet found a post that addresses the SOMA area. We enjoy all food types, between the low to moderate high price range. Thank you in advance.

price range? Type of food? dressy, casual? would be helpful

Price range up to $75 pp; any type of food excluding fast-food--prefer non-chain establishments; casual to business casual. So far, I have reservations at Slanted Door and Fish & Farm. These are out of my search area but we have greater flexibility those two nights. Thank you.

Fifth Floor; One Market are 2 great ones.
http://www.fifthfloorrestaurant.com/

http://www.onemarket.com/

Not in the area, but Spruce was excellent! Worth the taxi ride
http://www.sprucesf.com/

Slanted Door & Fish and Farm are close enough to the Palace so I wouldn't worry about them.

[Are you going for Conference and want to stay by Moscone?]

My two favorites within walking distance of the Palace are:

Perbacco - uscale Italian - not a red sauce North Beach place. Very nice atmosphere & quite popular. Dined there two weeks ago for the third time.

Gitane - French - in an alley. You walk downstairs below street level, then upstairs to the restaurant. Seems like one of those places that was "hidden" during prohibition & you had to say "Joe sent me" to get in. However, there was a report in the SF Chronicle that the female chef was departing to go back to France, and another female chef was taking over & would offer pretty much the same menu. We've dined here 3 times

Note about Fish & Farm. We dined there not too long after it first opened, & though it was just OK. Main draw was that there is a cheap corkage fee if you brought a California wine. It is in the Tenderloin, so the area seems a little rugged. The restaurant interior is more rustic than Perbacco or Gitane. If you walk there, walk down Market to O'Farrell and then west on O'Farrell to Taylor - this will avoid the most dangerous part of the Tenderloin (0 block of Turk or Eddy - can't remember which). The Chronicle also reported (I think) an ownership & chef change recently at Fish & Farm. Try to search the "Scoop" section of the Chronicle at www.SFGate.com

Stu Dudley

Thank you both so much.

Stu, I particularly appreciate your insight as well as the walking advice to F&F, thank you. Will research that pick further.

Deb, you have it right, dh has a meeting at the Moscone. I made note of Spruce in your trip report. Now, please return to your birthday festivities! :-)

Some quintessential SOMA restaurants are Town Hall, Lulu's, and Salt House-contemporary American/California cuisine, interesting spaces, somewhat loud and boisterous, relaxed.

Thank you, SAB, those menus look great, especially Town Hall.

"somewhat loud and boisterous"? Town Hall is one of the loudest restaurants I've ever been in in my life.

sf7307--tolerance for the noise level at Town Hall seems to be somewhat related to age--the under 35 crowd don't seem to mind it too much, indeed they seem to eat it up. Since I don't know the age of the poster and her spouse, they also might enjoy the atmosphere.

Good point - and I'm well over 35! But seriously, my tolerance is not that low, but I wouldn't return to TH because of it.

If you like sushi be sure to go to Blowfish Sushi in SOMA.

Food is fabulous, probably the best sushi I have ever had -- living in Hawaii we have a lot of good places to choose from but Blow Fish is still my favorite when I am on the Mainland!

Environment is cool too.

Check them out at:
http://www.blowfishsushi.com/webform1.aspx

When I read "boisterous" used to describe Town Hall I actually smiled--it's a word I used in my NYC trip report to describe a restaurant we liked. If the food is good we won't mind...or will we?! (I am 47, dh 48). Thanks for the feedback--at least we know what to expect and will consider ourselves warned.

Jessica, thanks for the rec. The best sushi we've ever had was in Hawaii!

Boisterous - you will not be able to carry on a conversation with your dining partner.

Stu Dudley

That bad, eh? Yikes. The menus at Perbacco and Gitane look great--I was able to get a reservation on the 1st for Perbacco. Thank you, again, Stu!

It would be a walk or a streetcar or taxi ride away, but look at Boulevard near the Ferry Building. It's one of the two restaurants I'd go back to first (Slanted Door is the other)

Palace hotel has a beautiful restaurant, all mirrors and palm trees, great service, we all loved the food there. I think they have tea on weekends - do a search, if price is right, have a meal, if not, at least peek inside.

The Garden Court at the Palace serves breakfast, lunch, Sunday brunch and a Saturday afternoon tea (erroneously called high tea by many--OK my UK roots are showing!!!)--FYI the Garden Court was the carriage entrance to the Palace pre-1906 earthquake, after the quake and restoration it was transformed into the Garden Court and is quite impressive. Maxfield's in the Palace serves lunch and dinner--I have eaten businesses lunches there more times than I can remember--decent food, nothing out of the ordinary for the City, IMHO.

The SF Public Library City Guides does a free walking tour of Palace Hotel; it is good and worthwhile.

http://picasaweb.google.com/DebitNM/...nFrancisco2010

town hall is indeed loud. there are lots of large communal tables which add to the soundscape.
And I never found the food that great - it was a go-to resto for my former employers and i never got the appeal. Food is good but there are lots of other places w/ better food and better ambiance.

I also recommend Zuppa and Umbria in the SOMA area but it looks like you've got Italian covered.

If you like Mexican, Tropisueno, near the Yerba Buena Center , is a casual lunch spot but very nice, more formal dinner spot with mexico City style entrees and great service.