33 Best Restaurants in San Francisco, California

This two-Michelin-starred restaurant is one of the city's greatest dining destinations and might even deserve the very highest honor. The culinary team, led by executive chef Richard Lee, teases the deepest flavors from premium ingredients in a tasting menu that focuses on open-fire hearth cooking. (Saison was a leader of this trend at a gastronomic level over a decade ago.) The wine program and cocktails from the suave bar are as good as it gets in the city. Located in a brick-and-timber 19th-century building, this is definitely a special, high-wire-act dining experience.

This elegant restaurant caters to an older crowd who sink happily into its oversized faux-ostrich leather chairs. The tasting menu is equally refined, with ingredients often sourced from the restaurant's farm south of the city and charcuterie made in-house; celeriac velouté with brandied-chestnut mousseline and salmon with horseradish soubise reflect the contemporary Californian menu's elegant French leanings. Excellent, artistic desserts are some of the most spectacular ways to end a meal in the city. The adjacent takeaway counter serves cookies, a popular English-muffin burger, and coffee drinks.

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.