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RECORD Recommends: San Francisco Restaurants
Beyond its architectural and cultural character, San Francisco is a restaurant city. From comfort food to vanguard creations, the range of styles and traditions found in its kitchens add up to some of the best dining in the world, and each member of our panel naturally has strong opinions about where visitors should eat.
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Variations on California Cuisine—with its simple, usually locally and sustainably sourced ingredients—pop up all over the city in places that range from fine dining to corner bistros. Some that our group of locals suggest sampling are the Universal Café in the Mission, the Blue Bottle Café off Mint Plaza, COCO500 for a la plancha-style Spanish fare, Momo’s on the SoMa waterfront for comfort food, NOPA on Divisadero Street, and the Zuni Café, a standard-bearer of modern California cooking.
Surrounded by water on three sides, San Francisco has a taste for seafood. The Tadich Grill [(415) 391-1849] in the Financial District is an 1849 institution. Other recommended seafood destinations include Kokkari at Jackson and Front Streets, Sens at Embarcadero Center, Foreign Cinema on Mission and 21st Streets, which also screens films, Hog Island Oyster Bar in the Ferry Building, and The Ramp on Terry Francois Street on the water—get a table outside if the weather cooperates.
San Francisco also has some of the best Asian-inspired cuisine on the continent, and our panel submitted a wide range places to find it. In the Ferry Building the ever-crowded Slanted Door serves upscale Vietnamese food, while Eos Restaurant and Wine Bar in Cole Valley serves Asian fusion. Ton Kiang in the Richmond district comes recommended for its excellent dim sum, and for extremely fresh fish, our panel named Domo Sushi in the Hayes Valley neighborhood. For classic Chinese food, check out the R & G Lounge at Kearney Street and Commercial.
For the finest in other culinary classes, head to Le Taqueria [(415) 285-7117] on Mission and 25th Streets, a taco joint deemed the best in the city by our panel; Dynamo Doughnuts, also touted as the best of its kind; Café Jacqueline [(415) 981-5565] on Grant Avenue and Union Street for soufflés; The Front Porch in the Mission for San Francisco style soul food; and Rosamunde [(415) 437-6851] on Haight Street and Fillmore for gourmet sausages.
Finally, Mark Harbick informs us “the restaurants on Valencia Street are a lab for new chefs. They keep changing and are rarely a disappointment. Any hotel concierge should know what is hot right now.”
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