San Francisco Restaurants
We’ve compiled the best of the best in San Francisco - browse our top choices for Restaurants during your stay.
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We’ve compiled the best of the best in San Francisco - browse our top choices for Restaurants during your stay.
The search for the best, flakiest croissant in San Francisco ends at this tiny French bakery off Clement Street. Other popular items include an assortment of scones, cookies, and kouign-amann (a Breton pastry); coffee and tea complete your treat. Lines may be long but move fast and are well worth the wait.
This white, high-ceilinged space offers what some claim are the best croissants—not only outside France, but in the world. You simply can't go wrong with anything on the menu. Try for the almond croissant or anything with berries, and enjoy it in-store or to go. The original location thrives in the Inner Richmond (397 Arguello Blvd.).
Folks line up on weekends for the amazing breakfast sandwiches here: fluffy eggs, thick bacon, pepper jack, avocado, and lemon-garlic aioli on a melt-in-your-mouth buttermilk biscuit. Made-to-order beignets are another favorite. Lunch options include chicken curry salad sandwiches, BLTs, and a seasonal soup of the day. Browse the bakery's selection of used books from local favorite Green Apple while you wait, and if you can't get a spot among the limited sidewalk seating, the beach is close by. A second location in the Outer Richmond (3619 Balboa St.) has the same crowd and delectable menu, but parking is much easier here.
Unpretentious yet undeniably chic, this neighborhood beach shack is famous for its simple, fresh seafood. The menu changes daily depending on the day's catch, so join hungry surfers and locals as they gobble up tacos, burritos, or fish-and-chips; wash your choice down with beer or wine. Come early and expect a wait for the long communal table or the coveted wooden stools along the counter.
Some of San Francisco's most exquisite French pastries are baked daily at this serene, cheery shop. On the savory side, most choices tend to be some form of pâté-filled pastry and are presented with all the artistry of haute cuisine; sweets are split between croissant-type items and proper dessert treats. Lunch seekers will be satisfied by the tiny selection of quiche, salads, and sandwiches.
The whip-quick, no-nonsense, food-smart staff behind the counter at this take-out delicatessen have been serving up the most delicious, and quite possibly the biggest, sandwiches in town since 1896. Grab a number, revel in the time warp that Sinatra in the background provides, marvel at the Italian-style cured meats, and let the artists build you an unforgettable combo; then head to Washington Square Park for a picnic. The family-run shop is helmed by the fourth generation; its current torch holder is Italian-Filipino Nicholas Mastrelli, one of the Piedmont-hailing original owner's great-grandsons. Nick takes great pride in upholding his family's legacy and creating community with regulars.
The stunning interior design of Sightglass's three San Francisco cafés demands several photographs on each visit, but quickly all eyes settle on the pitch-perfect shots of espresso and cups of robust coffee from beans roasted at their airy, bi-level SoMa café and roastery. This is the heart of their operation and a must-visit for any coffee lover. Pour-over coffees are their specialty, but they'll also make a perfect latte to jump-start your morning.
Chad Robertson is America’s first modern cult baker, and this tiny Mission District outpost (along with the larger Tartine Manufactory on the eastern side of the neighborhood) is where you'll find his famed loaves of tangy country bread and beloved pastries like croissants and morning buns. You'll also find near-constant lines out the door; they're longest in the morning when locals (and plenty of tourists) need a pastry punch to start the day, and later in the afternoon when the famed loaves emerge freshly baked.
Hardly just a plan B for those who didn't score a table at its sibling, Lazy Bear, this excellent cocktail bar and creative small-plates restaurant by the same people offers intriguing combinations and endless conversation starters in a cool modern setting. Menu standouts include California halibut ceviche and fried hen-of-the-woods mushrooms. Don't-miss drinks on the cocktail side include the signature "In the Pines, Under the Palms," a smooth sipper of toasted coconut rye, Terroir gin, and vermouth, garnished with a small redwood sprout.
A neighborhood cornerstone like surfing and frigid sunsets, this charming Outer Sunset roastery and café serves house-baked Irish soda bread, scones, and, of course, coffee drinks. A particular favorite is the Snowy Plover: espresso, simple syrup, sparkling water, and house-made whipped cream. Look for another Outer Sunset outpost (3629 Taraval St.) and one along Ocean Beach in the Outer Richmond (800 Great Hwy.).
Lemongrass and softly sizzling chilies perfume this modest neighborhood favorite, opened by Cambodian refugees in the late 1980s. The menu includes an array of curries, salads of squid or cold noodles with ground fish, and lightly curried fish mousse cooked in a banana leaf basket. Vegetarians will be happy to discover plenty of selections. Service is friendly though sometimes languid, so don't stop here when you're in a hurry.
A Bay Area worker-owned cooperative, this bakery lures passersby with liberal slogans and baked goodies displayed in its large storefront window. The menu changes daily, offering different types of bread, sweet treats like scones, and pizza. Plop down $28 for a whole thin-crust pizza and enjoy it in the sidewalk parklet for a perfect beginning (or end) to a Golden Gate Park excursion.
At this sleek Presidio Heights daytime café, the wellness-centric menu manages to be so delicious that guests often don't notice how virtuous the dishes are. Bread for the open-faced sandwiches is gluten-free and baked in-house; several items are vegetarian and/or vegan; and even the pappardelle is made of zucchini ribbons instead of wheat. The white-tiled and white-painted interior looks more like a luxury Beverly Hills boutique than an eatery.
Your search for the perfect kouign-amann (a traditional glazed, butter-enriched Breton pastry made of croissant dough) ends in this buzzy café from baking wizard Belinda Leong.
The Noe Valley location of this family-friendly California burger chain offers a cozy indoor-outdoor dining area, the latter really a patio encased in glass windows for watching foot traffic along 24th Street. The ample menu is loaded with fancier versions of diner classics—think the Gastropub burger, with a fried egg and a pretzel bun, or the Maui Waui, with a teriyaki glaze and grilled pineapple. There are a variety of vegetarian burgers, tossed salads, and, of course, every kind of fry.
Robin's-egg-blue banquettes and metal chairs in different colors add to the cheer at this sunny spot. Drop in for hearty local coffee and excellent breakfast and lunch sandwiches, including those on the popular cragel, a combination of a croissant and a bagel.
Chef-owner Bini Pradhan's Nepalese restaurant introduced many city diners to the wonderful dishes of her home country. Pradhan started in San Francisco with the wonderful La Cocina kitchen incubator program (a nonprofit that helps women, immigrants, and people of color) and years later is the region's leading voice for Himalayan cooking. Meat eaters and vegetarians alike love the combination meals for lunch in an area of SoMa that doesn't have too many other tempting dining options.
Hidden away on a side street by Patricia's Green is this modest kiosk where the organic beans are ground for each cup and the espresso is automatically ristretto—a short shot. While Blue Bottle is now a global juggernaut (the blue, boutique equivalent of the green mermaid chain, as locals like to say), Linden Street was the first brick-and-mortar shop, and it's still a San Francisco coffee lover's favorite.
Oakland-born Blue Bottle Coffee can now be found all over the Bay Area, on the East Coast, and even in Japan. However, this Mint Plaza coffee shop inside a 1912 building (fun fact: it appeared in The Maltese Falcon) remains its spiritual flagship for coffee geeks eager to gawk at the glitzy brewing equipment for sale, then enjoy perfect espresso pulls, powerful Oji cold brew, and meticulously made drip coffee from the eye-popping Japanese siphon bar.
This legendary 24-hour doughnut shop has been a neighborhood anchor since the 1960s. The homemade doughnuts, whether an apple fritter or classic raised maple, are always excellent, at 10 am or 10 pm. If you're particularly ambitious and hungry, give "Bob's Challenge" a go; if you eat one truly giant doughnut in three minutes, you get a T-shirt and induction in Bob's Hall of Fame.
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