The prior messages here lead me to believe that 'Aqua' or 'Farallon' would be a good choice for seafood in SF (we've only got 2 nights). Which, in y'alls opinion, would be the better bet?

Oh... and between 'Ristorante Milano', 'Acquerello', and 'Delfina' for Italian... which would you prefer?

Thanks in advance for any help and advice!

Glenn

I love Farallon, the food is great plus it's got a great art deco Under the Sea feel in a great location.

Both Aqua & Farallon have great and unique food (if you can afford them!). Farallon is more fun for a visit, I think.

Delfina is excellent, but I haven't been to the other places. Delfina is in the Mission which is going from barrio to hip but is still in transition. A bit away from downtown but worth the effort.

Moonstone1 -- IMO Farallon is a very good choice. Also consider Tadich Grill, a little less expensive and a restaurant which gives you a feel of old San Francisco.

I may be the only person in the world who didn't like Aqua, but I didn't. I thought the food was uninspiring and so did everyone at our table...6 or 8 people. The service was also very slow.

What about Hayes Street Grill for seafood? You can't go wrong there.

I vote for Delfina for Italian.

Farallon rocks! How could anyone not love Aqua (except for the prices). Hayes Street is good also. And although I know many people squirm at the idea of Fisherman's Wharf, Scoma's really is excellent!

Acquerello is outstanding. My favorite!
Have fun.

Thank you all for the nice replies... I appreciate it!

I had already made a reservation at Farallon, but I was having second thoughts. I'm going to leave it as is and go with it. Sounds really nice.

I'm still undecided on Italian and will have to look a little more, but I think I have some good candidates. We're staying in the Nob Hill area, and we're ardent hikers and prefer walking(weather permitting!) so distance is no problem, but I've read some negative comments about Delfina's environs.

Lastly -- to impose one more time <g> -- we'll be arriving at Nob Hill around lunctime and would like to find a relaxing place for lunch... not in the hotel but maybe within a mile or so... maybe leaning towards Chinese.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Our experience at Scoma's was not good at all. Unimpressive seafood for very high prices. We ate at First Crush in near Union Square and loved it. It is not marketed as a "seafood" place, but that's what we ate and it was great. Good service, live music, great food.

FOr Chinese, do DIM SUM in the Union Sq area-- the restaurant is YANK SING and they are right around the corner from the Sheraton Palace....

For seafood, AQUA, Hayes St Grill, and Tadich Grill..

For a funky family style dinner- LU LU's- has a great bar scene also..Food is GREAT!

Another possible Italian would be Pan e Vino which I think is in your neighborhood given that you are walkers. While I like Delfina, I think there is a huge difference between that an some of the other places you have mentioned. I find it pretty informal.
I will say some of the food tasted like that I had in Tuscany and was quite good. The neighborhood is ok but you will need to take a cab so don't worry.Even if you will have a car in SF, take a cab! I have eaten at Milano but would not say it ranks among the tops. Acquerello is on my list of places to try. I might also suggest you look into Cafe Macaroni . It is small but quite authentic. It is in North Beach. I am not a big fan of Aqua but do think a visit to Farallon is worth it. You might try the Tadich(Financial District) for lunch. I am always ready for another bowl of mussels at Plouf in the Financial District. You can walk there fairly easily fron Nob Hill given that you are "hikers". If you think better of walking on the way back give yourselves the experience of the Powell Street cable car.

A funny story about the locale of Delfina. We had a car in SF, but generally prefer to take a bus. When I made a reservation at Delfina I asked about the bus. The man was very strong saying DO NOT TAKE A BUS. He said it wasn't a real good neighborhood and we'd have to walk two blocks to get to the restaurant. Well, we took a bus anyway!! We didn't think the neighborhood seemed so bad, but the funniest thing was we were looking all the way for parking places -- and didn't see any, but we did see cars circling the blocks and looking for places to park (typical San Francisco). What's more we saw cars in front of Delfina letting people off and trying to go find places. We asked them about parking and they said, "oh you just need to park on the street". Clearly if we drove we'd probably have had to park even further from the restaurant than the bus stop!!!

By the way our dinner at Delfina was on 9/11/2001. It was a very somber atmosphere and there were a lot of no-shows (both staff and guests) so it was quiet. Our food was very good, but I have no reason to put the place at the top of my dining list for San Francisco.

I One of the difficulties I find in recommending restaurants as an SF resident, is that I like many others, don't go to the well known destination restaurants that frequently. We may go to check out new place after it has opened, but with so many choices, we may not go more than once a year if that. I would also choose Farallon over Aqua if I wanted an expensive destination seafood restaurant. As much as I love Delfina's, I would probably choose Acquerello. Very different dining experiences, Delfina's is very casual, Acquerello more formal.

Thanks again for all the recommendations and advice!

I believe we're going to try Tadich's for lunch the first day and probably Acquerello for dinner that night. Dinner the 2nd day will be Farallon. Still contemplating lunch for day 2... might depend on where we end-up in our explorations of the city.

With all these great places to choose from, we're talking about cutting short our 4 days traveling north to 3 and spending another day in the city.

What a dilemma!