There’s certainly no shortage of excellent food to be found in San Francisco and the Bay Area — but there’s plenty worth skipping, too. Luckily for you, Eater editors dine out several times a week (or more) and we’re happy to share the standout dishes we encounter as we go.
The butter beans with leeks and salsa macha. Paolo Bicchieri
Beans sure are little divas these days. Brothy beans courtesy Alison Roman, Rancho Gordo well-sourced beans, beany this that and the other thanks to the New York Times. What the Side A team does to a sort of big cup of butter beans is all I need from here on out. It’s $16 and layered in depth, but non-figuratively layered in spigarello and salsa macha, too. It’s a simple side (available as a complement to the halibut entree, too). When I ate these beans on a sunny Friday just a few days into 2026, I was just shocked. Not that the food was good: Side A is a triumphant “wine bar” with 1) phenomenal vinyl that really spins and 2) super food, namely the garbage salad absolutely barraged with quartered egg and knots of porky belly. No, I was shocked because the simplicity of the firm beans with that little crunch and spice from the salsa was as triumphant as everything else at Side A. And the well-wilted greens fit right into the hat-trick side: These are no mere cup of frijoles, thanks to the long, leafy broccoli and kale-ish spears. Each bite of the large, hearty side provides a pleasant hit of salt, oil, chew, and crisp. It’s in the lineage of that auld California seasonal fare energy we’ve all come to know and love. By the bottom of the cup, I’d reserved the sauce for myself, letting my dining compatriots know they were to kick rocks, as I poured it over my side of squash. If you think about it, the beans made a little diva out of me, too. — Paolo Bicchieri, audience editor, Northern California/Pacific Northwest
Side A, 2814 19th Street, San Francisco, is open 4 p.m. to 10 p.m, Monday through Thursday and Sunday, and 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Autumn and Ashes pizza at Outta Sight
The life-saving gluten-free pizza in question. Paolo Bicchieri
When you can get a pizza with brown butter leeks mingling between a few cheeses, you must. Outta Sight is a popular enough pizza parlor to effectively blast DoorDash to smithereens on December 31. That fateful New Year’s Eve, I, too, wanted pizza. Crazy, I know! When it comes to gluten-free crust, Eric Ehler and co.’s operation is cutting-edge. Sure, I had to put my order in more than 24 hours in advance, a somewhat arcane component to ordering the wheat-free option. Yes, I knew somebody in the shop that drizzly calendar-burning night. And yes, I waited there with angry delivery drivers attempting to game the system for the better part of an hour. It was worth it. This seasonal pizza was subtle and mellow — fontina cheese adding a pleasant complexity to the usual cheesy goods. The honeynut squash is elevated by a maple lime vinaigrette. Plus, it was huge, and I ate the large-and-in-charge squares for at least a week. Another cataclysmic The Bear-style ticket system meltdown notwithstanding, treat the celiac-addled homie in your life to Outta Sight. Whenever I feel powerless, I do something for somebody else; that’s a Grandma Floy kernel of wisdom from my early diagnosis days, cavorting around Dogtown. There’s lots to feel powerless about in just the first month of 2026. So spread the good word: Outta Sight Pizza is that girl, the torch-carrier bearing intellectual comforting pies for all forthcoming dystopic days in the Bay. — PB
Outta Sight Chinatown, 643 Clay Street, San Francisco, is open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday.
Mentaiko pasta at Iyasare
It’s mentaiko spaghetti or bust, for this editor. Dianne de Guzman
Alright, it appears I have a mentaiko pasta problem. Well, not a problem, per se, just a hyperfixation that won’t let me resist the siren call of this dish. And so it was that I was at Iysare, and despite its lengthy, delicious menu of Japanese favorites like sendai miso ramen or sake and ikura don, it’s the mentaiko pasta that won out. And with that order, I was rewarded: lovely al dente spaghetti, tossed in a cod roe sauce that burst with umami and a bit of welcome heat. It’s the savory flavors that lure me, an oceanic sauce that captures my attention every time. Iysare’s version comes lightly spiced, and the addition of sliced shiso leaves and kaiware gives it a nice vegetal flavor that breaks up the sauce. Add in gentle pops of salmon roe, and the dish is on another level that only reaffirms my personal wish for more mentaiko pasta wherever I go. — Dianne de Guzman, regional editor, Northern California/Pacific Northwest
Iyasare, 1830 Fourth Street, Berkeley, is open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. for lunch, and Monday through Thursday from 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. for dinner.
Sweet potato tempura at RT Bistro
This sweet potato dish was a trick and a treat for the senses. Dianne de Guzman
There are plenty of reasons to book a reservation of RT Bistro in Hayes Valley. Helmed by chefs Sarah and Evan Rich of Rich Table, they’re already well known for their prowess in the kitchen, and their latest restaurant only reaffirms their place in the city’s vibrant dining scene. On a table full of hitters — among them an excellent duck entree, dried porcini doughnuts with kaluga caviar, and roasted cauliflower — it was the sweet potato tempura that really stood out. It was nothing we were expecting; the sight of the dish would spark nostalgia for anyone with a soft spot for honey walnut shrimp. Of course, in the hands of the Riches, the flavors followed, as the exterior of the tempura’d bites came covered in a saffron aioli and candied walnuts. In a bit of a trompe l’oeil situation, I would reach for a bite and my brain wanted to register it as shrimp, but instead it was sweet potato, and that didn’t bother me one bit. Instead, it was a revelation to taste a tender bite of potato against a craggy fried exterior that really sparked a thought of, ‘Why hasn’t this been done before?’ Maybe it has, but it was at least my first time, and worth an order, among many, many other things. It’s a tough reservation, but the Riches have another neighborhood hit on their hands worth visiting. — DDG
RT Bistro, 205 Oak Street, San Francisco, is open daily at 5 p.m. with a final seating at 10 p.m.