37 Best Restaurants in The Waterfront, San Francisco

The 2024 opening of this standout hip-yet-refined concept, attached to the Jay Hotel, is a key figure in changing the narrative that downtown's restaurant scene is fading. Chef Celtin Hendrickson-Jones carefully ties together culinary influences from the South with California (not Southern California—think Mississippi River meets the SF Bay). The entire menu is wonderfully put together and full off signature dishes, like smoked catfish dumplings, the city's best grits, and a shockingly great orange creamsicle and ambrosia salad for dessert.

For a real cup of joe without any sense of pretension, join the savvy construction workers, Giants fans, and young suits at the Embarcadero's seven-decade-old waterfront classic, where the coffee typically follows a double cheeseburger on sourdough and a cold beer, and the gorgeous view of the East Bay is priceless.

Locations and owners have changed more than once since this old-timer started as a coffee stand in 1849, but the crowds keep coming. Snag one of the private booths or sit at the timeless bar and sample seafood—always the name of the game here—such as Dungeness crab Louie or local sand dabs (a type of flounder).

With coffee, sandwiches, and salads by day, and superb drinks at night, this spot right by the California Street cable car terminus is a charming place to visit. Its sunlight-filled atmosphere is refreshingly low-key for FiDi—the rare downtown establishment that feels like a true neighborhood gathering place.

Originally a pandemic pivot for outdoor dining, this "Garden" concept (really a tented patio on part of the spacious plaza of one of SF's tallest skyscrapers) is fortunately a permanent fixture featuring excellent seasonal California cuisine and a few elevated comfort classics that help lift this destination into the upper tier of downtown dining options. And the garden's indoor sibling, the Vault Steakhouse, is well worth a visit for excellent steaks and martinis.

The award for San Francisco's most visually prominent menu board goes to the one that is as wide as the immaculate open kitchen at the casual-chic wine-centric sibling of Cotogna and Quince. Verjus is one of the city's best examples of either a wine bar with excellent food or a hip, energetic bistro with a strong list of minimal intervention wines—it doesn't really matter which it's framed as. Either way, it's always a festive vibe in the dimly lit, loud space, and the France-meets-California plates are consistently satisfying.

Come for seafood with a view: sky-high aquariums dominate the dining room, and the bay is just beyond, but the food should be an equally notable attraction. Every fin and shell of the sea, from the oak-grilled octopus to the black cod caught in the ocean right outside of San Francisco, is sustainably sourced. Speaking of that view, no restaurant has a more prime vantage point of the Bay Bridge than this one, though the full dining-with-a-view experience is more enjoyable on the patio or in the spacious front dining room than in the rather dim rear dining area.  For a special occasion steakhouse with a view, head to Waterbar's next-door sibling, EPIC Steak.