I grew up in San Francisco, and family have lived there since the early 70s. I’ve watched it’s food scene for a lot of decades, from the early days of the food movement and Alice Waters’ innovative farm-to-table restaurant, to its explosion into the diverse food scene its offered for years. The food in SF is rooted as much in the region’s history and traditions as it is it’s artisanal purveyors and local farms.
I spent a month there and had the opportunity to try several places, both old favorites and new adventures.
Zuni is worthwhile just because it’s a good cross between fairly fine dining and very SF. The roasted chicken is famous and it’s been around for decades (I first had it back in the 90s). what I’m talking about is a whole bird cooked to snappy-crisp-skinned, juicy perfection in the restaurant’s wood-fired oven, served atop a currant-studded bread salad plump with drippings and brightened with a bitter-fresh scattering of greens and vinaigrette. It takes an hour to prepare, so you’ll have ample time to sample their Coast oysters and a truly perfect Caesar Salad.
Foreign Cinema is experientially fun fine dining. They play old movies (I saw A League of Their Own) without sound on the wall and you sit in a covered-ish outdoor space. I was a guest, so I can’t speak to the value of the meal, but everything I tried was perfectly cooked. The menu changes regularly, but I give them extra high marks for offering (my favorite) PNW oysters. Truly, it was good, but I don’t know that I would go back if I were paying on my own.
A particularly specific SF meal is the Mission Style Burrito. I grew up on El Faro, which was literally just down the street from where we lived for awhile, but they’ve fallen on hard times. (Note: the one located in SoMa claiming to be the first, isn’t. My link, above, goes to the place I’m talking about.) Everyone raves about El Farolito (24th and Mission), and with good reason. The Mission burrito is a legend unto itself, a flour tortilla, loaded with rice, beans, meat of choice, salsas, guac and sour cream, wrapped tightly and encased in a sheath of foil. I’m told that if you don’t want rice in your burrito, try La Taqueria (order it “dorado” for an extra crisp-up on the griddle post-roll).
Dim Sum is a food I love, and I had the pleasure of enjoying it several times during my stay. There’s nothing like a dim sum feast on a Sunday, alongside multi-generational families stretching the brunch hour deep into the afternoon. Hong Kong Lounge has classic offerings, like pork buns and shu mai, and basically everything is available for takeaway, so no one will know just how many buns you ate in one sitting. Just down the street is Dragon Beaux, which a lot of places are recommending, but I felt the quality wasn’t as good as the prices. They do *fancy* dim sum, which I think is high appeal to the young and restless, but (again) the quality wasn’t up to the hype. I also recommend Good Luck Dim Sum, it was as good as Hong Kong Lounge, but only for takeaway. The place is *tiny* and the lines are very long.
Turkish-based Lokma is a fairly recent (2018) welcome offering in the Outer Richmond that is open all day. Their delicious spreads — muammara, baba ganoush, and tzatziki — arrive on warm pita and are perfectly seasoned. Their burger, a combination of beef and lamb, is juicy and delicious. I also recommend their chicken sandwich, which is a grilled thigh.
Crustacean or Thanh Long (they are sibling restaurants) for Garlic Noodles and lovely roasted crab with butter and herbs. No need to dip the crab in extra butter, it comes that way, rich and savory! I also loved the fried calamari with salt & pepper alongside a spicy mayonnaise sauce.
Pacific Cafe offers sustainably caught seafood in a neighborhood joint, beloved by locals. With a whole crab — sauteed with garlic and coming with bread and a salad — running about $38, it’s also a massive bargain for such high quality food.
Double Rainbow Ice Cream started in the Castro in 1976, producing some of the best ice cream in America. (I don’t just think that — they’ve won a ton of awards.) After a struggle to keep their place open in the Castro, they’ve recently returned with yummy offerings. (There are several stores around SF and in California, they are franchises.)
b.patisserie is amazing. I ordered a latte and one of their famous kouign amman pastries (pronounced: queen aman), which was buttery and crispy and utterly perfect. One of the best pastries I’ve had outside of Paris.
Tastebuds is a “soul food inspired” cafe offering massive portions at very good prices. Milkshakes and smoothies, fried chicken waffles and burgers, hearty scrambles and shrimp and grits . . . everything is perfectly prepared. Seriously, the fried chicken and waffles are a dream, with chicken served perfectly crackly on the outside, and buttermilk waffles offered up with butter and syrup like a dream. My dining companion had the green salad with steak and it was HUGE, easily enough for two meals. The steak was tender and perfectly medium-rare.
Total Tourist but Worth It
The Irish Coffee at the Buena Vista Cafe, for example, is a modern marvel of coffee, fresh cream and Irish whisky. It’s well worth a visit to watch the skilled bartenders seamlessly batch and craft a line of coffees with choreographic precision, made better by the fact that the just-sweet-enough (and just-spiked-enough) drinks are in fact, delicious. There’s no better cure for a damp winter (or summer’s day).
All of the beef at Harris Steakhouse. In a city seemingly committed to vegetable dishes, one of the best, and most beloved restaurants in the city has a never-changing menu and centers around beef. Really, really, good beef. One of the best Filet Mignon steaks I’ve ever eaten was here, more than 30 years ago; it was just as delicious on my recent trip. That level of consistency is worth celebrating.
