SF Restaurant for dining solo?
 

Hi, I'll be in SF next month to meet up with friends and will have the night I arrive to myself. Any restaurant recs for a woman dining alone. Looking for American, French, Italian or seafood. Other cuisines are amply covered during the rest of our stay. Not too worried about price, just looking for venues which wouldn't look oddly at a single diner.

Thanks

Uhhh, look oddly at a single diner?

I guess I've never really cared what other diners or restaurant staff have thought about my dining status whether I'm alone or with friends. :-)

Anyway I like Boulevard. That was the first time I sat at a bar that looked on the kitchen. It was fascinating to watch the whole process of timing the different dishes to plate up at the same instant.

Ah! A woman dining alone, that would be me. I like to eat at the bar at:
Citizen Cake
Hayes Street Grill
...Anyplace in the San Francisco Ferry Building....
maybe Kuleto's

non bar seating options are:
Jeanne d'Arc (in the Cornell Hotel)
Ti Couz (They have a bar but it's not comfy enough)

Gawd, my head hurts. There are many, many choices and they're all spinning in my memory!

One of the "high" chairs in the bar at Scalas would be perfect, and the food is good too.

My favorite is Zuni Cafe. Boulevard at the bar is really fun. Ferry building is so fun and busy that you will probably not be alone for long - if you want! Seriously - great idea. I can't think of many SF restaurants where you would feel awkward alone - some are just better than others for people watching.

I travel alone and dine alone almost constantly. Waitstaff treat me very nicely because I look as if I do this all the time (I guess!)

Established place to dine solo comfortably: One Market (corner of Market and Steuart, near Ferry Building). Great care paid to seasonal availability of ingredients, suave but not stuffy ambiance, vegetarian entrees so good they appeal to omnivores and carnivores too.

New place to check out: CoCo 500, corner of 4th and Brannan (South of Market). Really new and trying hard, this restaurant replaces Bizou, which held the location for years. Good Euro-fusion cuisine, intelligent but not huge wine list. Loved the atmosphere - very upbeat.

Out in the neighborhoods: The wine bar at Eos, corner of Carl and Cole in the Cole Valley district. More intimate than the Eos restaurant itself. I've had many a meal sitting at their bar, whether it was just an appetizer and wine or a full three courses.

And of course, any good sushi bar would welcome you as a single diner.

The only thing I hate about dining alone, and not only in SF, is the question: just one? "No, THE one and only!" - my habitual answer.

I do not allow them to make me feel like a 2nd class citizen just because I am alone this time.

It never bothers me that they ask "one this evening?" or "just one?" I don't look at it as being made to feel like a second class citizen. They're checking to make sure my date/spouse/friend/whatever isn't parking the car.

I think I'd like it less if they always assumed it was for two. The waiter would have to take away the second unneeded menu wondering why the host sat me like a party for two. Or I'd be seated at a table set for two when a table for one might be set up.

A wonderful thing about dining alone is I rarely need a reservation. Even crowded places on Saturday evenings often have a seat at the bar where I can order an appetizer and a drink. Many places will even serve the full menu at the bar.

I like the restaurants on Belden Place. B44 is one favorite. 'google' Belden Place and you'll find a website. It's a cool alleyway situation in the financial district with a number of fantastic choices and definitely all ones I'd feel fine dining solo.

I've seen solo diners at Washingtion Sq Bar and Grill. Heck...I've <b>been</b> a solo diner at the &quot;WashBag&quot;! Nice little window seat. Excellent for people watching. Oh..and it's a good restaurant with a nice wine list.

A small hole in the wall place where we've also see solos is The Original US Restaurant in NoBeach. Inexpensive and another window seat place to watch the world go by and sip some Italian wine.

Melissa...If you would ever get to SF when Mrs Kal and I are available you'd never dine (or drink) alone!!! &gt;:D&lt;

I forgot about Belden Lane! Yes, I love going to the bar at Plouf. Everything that Bruno the bartender recommends is great!

Funny how Mels would know the b'tender's name....:-&quot;

Oh...and I forgot. If you like wine, the Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant in the Ferry Bldg will let you buy food at one of the other fine places in the FB and bring it in and order their wine.
Indoors and no Bay view but a very good wine selection and you brought in your own grub.

We've been to the SF Fish Co a few doors down or brought in our own cheese plate from the Cowgirl Creamery and the people at the Wine Merchant are happy to set you up. Tip accordingly of course.
www.fpwm.com/wine_bar/index.html

Hi Elle, you have received a lot of wonderful suggestions regarding solo dining in SF! I just wanted to say that there are so many singles in SF that dining on ones own is not considered strange or unusual. Besides all the single residents in SF so many people come to SF on business. In fact I have had family members that have been in SF on business and have been very irritated that they felt &quot;pressured&quot; to join business associaties when they actually wanted to go off on their own and chose a restaurant of their choice.
Enjoy, and let us know how your visit was.

Town Hall Restaurant on Fremont Street (again, South of Market) is very, very popular for all the right reasons, and its management has a spiffy idea for solo diners. Anyone dining by themselves is asked to sit at a communal table - and sometimes couples, too, if they don't have a reservation and the place is busy. I've seen this done in Europe (esp. Amsterdam) and it works beautifully.

Food is good at Town Hall - house cured gravlax AND house-made pumpernickel on an appetizer when I went last year - it was fab.

Sorry but count me in as a solo diner who absolutely HATES the communal table concept. I will happily order &amp; tip generously to be granted a table by myself... the same respect as any couple eating together gets (apologizing for the rant but it's a pet peeve of mine).

Haven't heard of &quot;communal tables&quot; since gotten out from Russia. Do they practice it here too? Wow!

Communal tables, did not know about that either. Only time I have seen it was years ago when SF had Basque restaurants that had communal tables. That was fun. Food and wine was good too!

No, thanks, I have enough &quot;fun&quot; at family tables!

Actually, the &quot;communal&quot; tables I've sat at did not require a lot of interaction unless desired. I had one of the best meals of my life at de Bolhoed (the Bowler Hat)in A'dam sitting at their large table, listening to conversations around me while consuming my meal. At that particular restaurant, during busy times, they seated everyone who did not have a reservation at the &quot;big&quot; table. But I agree that forced conversations with strangers can be tedious sometimes.

Funny note about de Bolhoed, a vegetarian restaurant: They had an ancient kitty cat who acted as the official greeter to everyone coming in. You'd look in the window and see him bounding about. So energetic at his age, and the irony was .... he was the resident carnivore!

Faina, LOL!!! See the great thing at the Basque restaurants was that there were no relatives!!! Happy weekend to you.