{"id":436007,"date":"2026-08-18T06:10:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T06:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/436007\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T06:10:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T06:10:17","slug":"where-to-eat-in-san-francisco-by-noah-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/436007\/","title":{"rendered":"Where to eat in San Francisco – by Noah Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Moriawase at An<\/p>\n

There\u2019s actually a tradition of economics bloggers giving recommendations about where (and how) to eat out. Tyler Cowen wrote a whole book on the subject<\/a>, as well as various blog posts<\/a>, and maintains an Ethnic Dining Guide<\/a> on the web! I\u2019m not going to be that thorough or go that deep. But over the last year I\u2019ve gone to quite a few restaurants in San Francisco, so I thought I might share what I\u2019ve learned. <\/p>\n

In fact, this quest was born out of contrarianism. A lot of people say that the restaurant scene in San Francisco is mediocre, boring, or disappointing. The haters range from food critics<\/a> and New York chefs<\/a> to some SF residents themselves. I\u2019ve lived in this city for a decade now, and although the restaurant scene here isn\u2019t the best I\u2019ve found \u2014 NYC and LA are better, and Japanese cities just annihilate all competition \u2014 I\u2019ve always found plenty of good places to eat. When people portray SF as some sort of food desert, I\u2019m convinced it\u2019s a skill issue. <\/p>\n

So to be thorough, I set out to try all of the good restaurants in the entire city. That\u2019s a project that\u2019s bound to fail, of course \u2014 there are just too many, and quality can vary over time, and places are always opening and closing. But at this point I think I\u2019ve eaten at enough places to write a fairly authoritative guide to restaurants in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Writing about food is an inherently difficult thing to do, because taste doesn\u2019t easily translate into language. There are plenty of reasons for this, including:<\/p>\n

People don\u2019t biologically experience the same taste the same way. The most famous example is how some people taste cilantro like soap<\/a> due to a variation in one particular gene<\/a>. But there are lots of other examples<\/a>. When I try to describe the taste of a particular dish or ingredient, chances are that your physical experience of it will be different from what I experienced, and you\u2019ll be left scratching your head and wondering if I\u2019m an alien.<\/p>\n

Even if people did experience tastes the same way, people\u2019s preferences would probably differ radically on most things. Some of this is due to personal associations \u2014 conditioned taste aversion<\/a> is very much a thing, for example. There are probably lots of other reasons as well. It isn\u2019t just what we like and dislike, either \u2014 how much we like and dislike each combination of tastes can make the difference in whether we like a restaurant overall. <\/p>\n

Culinary experiences are not very uniform across the population, so we haven\u2019t been able to develop as much of a shared vocabulary to describe what we\u2019re tasting \u2014 if I\u2019ve eaten Sichuan pepper and you haven\u2019t, it\u2019s a little like trying to describe the color red to a blind person. And since most people have only eaten a small percentage of what there is to eat in the world, the region of overlapping experience across the entire population is small; thus, we simply don\u2019t have many words that refer to taste experiences that most people have had. <\/p>\n

To see how hard it is to describe food in words, try the following exercise. Pick five restaurants you like, and five you don\u2019t like, and mix them together in a list. Ask your favorite AI chatbot to pick five of these that you should go to, and five you should avoid, and ask it to explain why you\u2019d like and dislike them. Chances are you\u2019ll have no idea what it\u2019s talking about. AI can do the most advanced math on Earth, but describing taste in words is an exercise for which good training data simply doesn\u2019t exist. <\/p>\n

So when I say my restaurant guide is \u201cauthoritative\u201d, I don\u2019t mean I\u2019m an authority. I just mean I\u2019ve been to a lot of restaurants, and I know which ones I like and don\u2019t like, and I can describe why I like and dislike them in terms that make sense to me. But obviously this is all just me describing my subjective experience and hoping that it resonates with you. So when you go through this guide and find yourself nodding in vigorous agreement with some of the recommendations, and screwing up your face in confusion at others, well\u2026I warned you.<\/p>\n

Also, I\u2019m not well-versed in the art of food criticism, so I\u2019m not going to try very hard to describe the tastes I experienced at these restaurants. But I am pretty well-versed in the art of noticing patterns and thinking about explanations for things, and so this guide is going to focus less on the particulars of various dishes than on questions like \u201cWhy is SF\u2019s food scene not the best in the country?\u201d and \u201cWhat kinds of restaurants are generally good in SF?\u201d. <\/p>\n

As for my recommendations themselves, my criterion for ranking restaurants highly isn\u2019t just how good they are. It\u2019s what I call \u201cyums per dollar\u201d \u2014 basically, whether the culinary experience you got was worth the price you paid. So I\u2019m perfectly happy ranking a good taqueria up there with a Michelin-star place. <\/p>\n

Speaking of Michelin-star places, I\u2019ve decided not to include any places that are over $150 a person or so (before tax and tip). That\u2019s already quite expensive, and I don\u2019t want to be the kind of guy who recommends people to a bunch of restaurants they can\u2019t afford to go to. And quite frankly, I\u2019ve only been to one or two of those anyway. So, apologies to Benu, Quince, Californios, and the rest of those guys. <\/p>\n

Finally, I\u2019ve eaten at several hundred restaurants in SF, but that\u2019s only about 10% of the total. So if you have some recommendations for good ones I should try, feel free to drop them in the comments. And of course this post is just Part 1 in a series; Part 2 will have updated recommendations, cafes, bakeries, dessert places, and some restaurants from out of town. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Garbage salad at side a<\/p>\n

First, I thought I should address the big question: Why isn\u2019t San Francisco\u2019s food scene better than it is? I\u2019ve already gone on record saying that NYC and LA are better (though the difference isn\u2019t huge). Why?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s one obvious, overriding reason: city size. San Francisco is a city of 826,000 people; New York City has 8.58 million, while LA has 3.87 million. So if the number of restaurants is generally proportional to the number of people, then even if quality were equivalent, we\u2019d expect NYC to have more than ten times as many good restaurants as SF, and LA to have more than four times as many. <\/p>\n

This would lead very naturally to people thinking SF has a worse food scene than those much larger cities. The restaurants we go to are not a random sample; we try to pick the ones we\u2019ll like the most. So if you can find 10 times as many restaurants you like in NYC, you might end up thinking restaurants in NYC are better on average, even if they\u2019re not. (Also, larger populations mean NYC and LA have more partisans to stand up for their hometowns in online arguments.)<\/p>\n

The people who bash San Francisco restaurants are often quick to explain that there\u2019s plenty of great food in the rest of the Bay Area \u2014 in the East Bay (Oakland, Berkeley, etc.), the Peninsula (South SF, Daly City, Redwood City, Mountain View), and in the South Bay (Milpitas, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, San Jose). And this is very true. But keep in mind that the Bay Area has a total of nine million people<\/a> \u2014 a little bit more than New York City. I would gladly pit the entire SF Bay Area against all of NYC in terms of food.<\/p>\n

OK, but San Francisco is by far the densest part of the Bay Area, in terms of population per square mile. Why isn\u2019t it considered the center of the metro area\u2019s culinary scene, the way Manhattan is for NYC? Why do people tell you to go to the South Bay or the East Bay if you want to eat well? <\/p>\n

I think there are several reasons for this. The first is simply the insane rent. SF is one of the least affordable cities in the country<\/a>, thanks to the AI boom, the tech industry in general, draconian restrictions on housing development, the unique and excellent weather, and the fact that it\u2019s destined by geography to be the dense core of a major metro area. On top of that, San Francisco is one of the hardest places to start a small business, thanks to decades of <\/a>red tape<\/a> accumulated under supposedly \u201cprogressive\u201d governance. <\/p>\n

That means if you\u2019re going to start a restaurant in San Francisco, you are probably going to have to charge a lot of money to make up for all the money and time you had to spend. The exceptions are restaurateurs who own their own buildings, who have long-term legacy leases, or who have owners who rent to them for below market rates. This means that SF food tends to be a sort of double-peaked distribution, with $600-a-person places like Benu<\/a> and cheap banh mi places like L&G<\/a>, but not a lot of mid-price places. <\/p>\n

So if you\u2019re a penniless 22-year-old tech founder living in a bunk bed in a grungy group house, or if you\u2019re a 44-year-old tech founder who pocketed $80 million from selling his company to Amazon and now just \u201cinvests\u201d, you\u2019re more likely to be satisfied with the SF food scene. But if you\u2019re a 30-year-old who makes $200,000 working for a big tech company, there are going to be fewer of the kind of mid-priced options that you could afford but which would also give you a special night out.<\/p>\n

SF\u2019s stratospheric rent also probably exerts a more subtle corrosive influence on the food scene. The middle class has largely been priced out of the city<\/a>, leaving it to the rich and the rent-controlled. That has largely hollowed out the kind of middle-class ethnic communities that patronize the great ethnic food scenes of Los Angeles, as well as the bohemian hipsters and artists who seek out the most creative affordable eating options. <\/p>\n

Everybody knows about SF\u2019s rent problem, but I think one more factor that tends to fly under the radar is limited competition due to geographic immobility. New York has a great train system, making it pretty easy to get anywhere in the central city on foot. LA and all other American cities (including Oakland and San Jose) are driving towns, where you can often get very quickly from point to point. But San Francisco does not have a good intra-city train network (sorry, Muni!), nor is it car-friendly. You can Uber, but that gets expensive if you do it a lot. So in my experience, a lot of San Franciscans often end up just staying in their neighborhoods. <\/p>\n

When people stay in their neighborhoods, restaurants aren\u2019t competing with each other nearly as much; everyone just goes to their local spots. This reduces the incentive for restaurants to innovate, raise their quality, and differentiate themselves \u2014 there\u2019s just not as much chance to attract patrons from across town. Each restaurant instead just serves up its classic fare to the standard crowd of locals, and they have to accept whatever they\u2019re given. And when you ask people for recommendations, you just get their standard neighborhood spots (or a recitation of the Michelin Guide).<\/p>\n

So if you want to make San Francisco\u2019s food scene better, my suggestions would be:<\/p>\n

Build a lot more housing<\/p>\n

Make the Muni a lot faster and improve its coverage of the city<\/p>\n

Cut red tape and make it a lot easier to start a small business<\/p>\n

Allow and encourage multi-level retail<\/a><\/p>\n

But having said all that, I do think that San Francisco\u2019s restaurant scene is decently good despite all of these challenges. So here are some recommendations of places to go.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Brunch at Dalida<\/p>\n

There are good examples of practically every type of restaurant in San Francisco. But I\u2019ve noticed three distinct types that I think SF does particularly well. <\/p>\n

An izakaya is a type of Japanese restaurant, similar to a tapas bar. You typically order a variety of small plates and share them among a group of people, often while drinking. Traditionally, izakayas mostly served old Japanese standby dishes \u2014 karaage, basic yakitori and sushi, that sort of thing. But around the 1990s, a bunch of izakayas started getting more experimental and creative. The small-plate format allowed them to do this, because it let diners order one weird new thing among a bunch of old favorites. This trend accelerated as the Japanese government lowered trade barriers and allowed more cheap imports of foreign ingredients. By the 2010s, most of the best restaurants in Japan were izakayas rather than omakase, ramen, etc.<\/p>\n

San Francisco doesn\u2019t have many (well, really, any) of these new, upscale, creative izakayas. But it has a number of restaurants that basically do this same format with some other type of cuisine \u2014 Middle Eastern, or Mexican, etc. The small-plate format allows these restaurants to charge a little more \u2014 they\u2019ll usually run about $70 to $110 per person \u2014 but they compensate for this by giving diners enormous variety and experimenting with lots of new dishes.<\/p>\n

These places sometimes get described as \u201cfusion\u201d, but their dishes aren\u2019t mashups \u2014 instead, they start from a base of a specific type of cuisine and then play around with it, throwing in a couple of ingredients from other cuisines. In fact, one good way to identify good restaurants in the U.S. these days is to look for places that use one or two Japanese and Korean ingredients in dishes that aren\u2019t Japanese or Korean. <\/p>\n

By the way, one of my most important tips for eating out is: ALWAYS EAT FAMILY STYLE. That means share everything, unless you have someone with special dietary restrictions with you. Sharing everything means you get to try a lot more dishes, which is especially important at the kind of izakaya-style places I talk about in this section. It also means you get to constantly cleanse your palate \u2014 when you go back and forth between a bunch of different dishes, you keep recapturing some of the novelty of each dish every time you come back to it. Whereas if you just order your own thing and chow down on that one thing, you hit the law of diminishing utility. <\/p>\n

Anyway, here are some places I like that fit this description:<\/p>\n

Maria Isabel<\/a>: Officially a Mexican restaurant, but really they play around and mix in a bunch of different ingredients from a bunch of different cuisines. Every single thing I had here was excellent, and this might be the best new restaurant I\u2019ve discovered this year. The plates are small, so order a lot; it\u2019s only a little expensive. They also have a tasting menu, so technically they\u2019re also in the \u201chipster fine dining\u201d category. They\u2019re probably going to get a Michelin star and jack up their prices, so go soon.<\/p>\n

Prik Hom<\/a>: In terms of sheer deliciousness, this is my favorite Thai restaurant in a city with lots of good Thai restaurants (though it\u2019s more expensive than the close runner-up, Khao Tiew). The dishes are experimental riffs on standard Thai favorites, and the menu rotates frequently, but everything is delicious so don\u2019t worry you\u2019ll order the wrong thing. (Make sure to eat the ice cream at the end, though.) Prik Hom is a hidden gem for now \u2014 it\u2019s in a neighborhood without a lot of other restaurants, and you can often just walk in. <\/p>\n

Aziza<\/a>: Everyone knows about this place, and it\u2019s as good as they say. I\u2019d say it\u2019s tied with Dalida for my favorite Middle Eastern food in the city. But it\u2019s not traditional Middle Eastern \u2014 I had one of the best octopus dishes I\u2019ve ever eaten at Aziza, which is saying something because I lived in Japan. The menu rotates frequently, but you can always get the \u201ctrio of spreads\u201d to start. There\u2019s also a tasting menu, so this fits in the \u201chipster fine dining\u201d category too. <\/p>\n

Dalida<\/a>: The other great Middle Eastern izakaya I know in SF. This is Maria Isabel\u2019s sister restaurant (the chefs at the two places are spouses), and it\u2019s comparable in quality. Dalida is also one of those rare restaurants that\u2019s good for brunch and dinner, so try both (and if you go for brunch, sit outside). Dalida doesn\u2019t include as many ingredients from other cuisines as Aziza does, but everything is a little experimental and unusual anyway. There is also a tasting menu for dinner.<\/p>\n

Bansang<\/a>: I\u2019m kind of mad at Bansang, because it replaced what was by far my favorite Japanese izakaya in San Francisco, Izakaya Kou. But I forgive the owners, because they replaced Kou with one of the only really excellent Korean restaurants in San Francisco. Like the other \u201cpseudo-izakayas\u201d on this list, Bansang focuses on smallish plates with original twists on old Korean favorites (chimichurri in the galbi, etc.), and they frequently rotate their menu. <\/p>\n

Pearl 6101<\/a>: You don\u2019t see a lot of experimentation with Italian food, but Pearl is the best example of an \u201cItalian izakaya\u201d I\u2019ve been to in SF. They don\u2019t use as many Asian or Middle Eastern ingredients as some of the other restaurants on this list, but they\u2019ll sneak a little Vietnamese fish sauce into their halibut crudo. Everything is very well-executed.<\/p>\n

Horsefeather<\/a>: A restaurant disguised as a bar. This is one of the best-kept secrets in San Francisco, since most people think it\u2019s just a place to drink, but it actually has a very extensive food menu full of creative and excellent cuisine that\u2019s basically a mashup of French, Latin American, Korean, Japanese, and Italian. I had some of the best asparagus of my life here, and an unbelievable tres leches cake \u2014 both of which have now been taken off the menu, because it rotates frequently. A great place for large parties on short notice. Horsefeather is also co-owned by Hanson Li, one of SF\u2019s most creative and interesting restaurateurs. <\/p>\n

Fermentation Lab<\/a>: The single most underrated, unknown restaurant in this category. It\u2019s another restaurant disguised as a bar, like Horsefeather. Fermentation Lab is basically a Korean izakaya, serving creative Korean twists like makegeolli-braised pork belly in addition to standard bar bites like duck fat fries. Everything is delicious and original. I cannot stress how bad the marketing of this restaurant has been, relative to its quality \u2014 people ought to be snapping up reservations weeks in advance, but instead there are open seats and you can just walk in. People don\u2019t even seem to know it\u2019s Korean!<\/p>\n

Tiya<\/a>: An Indian izakaya with some Japanese influences. If you want to get wagyu stir-fried with asparagus, madras curry, and quinoa, or octopus curry with smoked tomato pachadi and kumquat, this is the place to get it. It\u2019s very experimental, so if your Indian friends are looking for a taste of home, consider taking them to Copra<\/a> instead. But Tiya has stuff you won\u2019t get anywhere else, and it\u2019s easily my favorite restaurant in the Marina. It\u2019s also open for brunch, and it has a tasting menu option for dinner, though I haven\u2019t tried either of those.<\/p>\n

Rich Table<\/a>: \u201cNew American\u201d is a term that sometimes describes overpriced faux-French places, and sometimes describes extremely creative izakaya-type places that blend traditional American fare with ingredients from Japan, Korea, and other countries in Asia. Rich Table is probably the best of these in the city, unless you count the Michelin-star places \u2014 and on \u201cyums per dollar\u201d, it beats most of those places hands down. In fact, Rich Table is probably the closest thing you can get in SF to a good modern\/experimental Japanese izakaya \u2014 the two cuisines are basically converging. It also has a tasting menu.<\/p>\n

Other great examples: <\/p>\n

Routier<\/a> (probably my favorite French restaurant in town, everything tastes interesting and a bit unusual, but almost always better than the standard version)<\/p>\n

Ernest<\/a> (another \u201cNew American\u201d place with lots of contributions from other cuisines, a bit like Rich Table; get the cheesecake)<\/p>\n

The Morris<\/a> (yet another great New American place, I recommend the crudite)<\/p>\n

Four Kings<\/a> (a Cantonese izakaya, everything very solid but could stand to be a little more experimental, I recommend the squab)<\/p>\n

Happy Crane<\/a> (another Cantonese izakaya, very new and experimental, still working out some kinks and can be hit or miss, but the hits are excellent)<\/p>\n

Jilli<\/a> (another Korean bar-style restaurant, the menu is much smaller than the others but everything is excellent and the flavors are extremely original; try the kimchi vodka rigatoni pasta with burrata)<\/p>\n

Red Window<\/a> (warning: order only the Spanish dishes, not the Italian ones!)<\/p>\n

Phonobar<\/a> (a vegan izakaya masquerading as a bar)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Asparagus at Bansang<\/p>\n

Most \u201cfine dining\u201d places in SF range from $200 to $600 per person, and come complete with Michelin stars and vigorous arguments over whether they\u2019re \u201cthe best meal I\u2019ve ever had\u201d or \u201ctotally overrated\u201d. But there are a few places you can go that offer a \u201cfine dining\u201d experience for a much more affordable price \u2014 usually around $90-$120 per person, but occasionally as low as $50. <\/p>\n

There is some overlap with the \u201cpseudo-izakaya\u201d category here, because many of those places offer tasting menus. Rich Table<\/a>, Maria Isabel<\/a>, Aziza<\/a>, Dalida<\/a>, Ernest<\/a>, and Happy Crane<\/a> all count as \u201chipster fine dining\u201d too. But here are a few others:<\/p>\n

Mijot\u00e9<\/a>: This might just be my favorite restaurant in the city. It\u2019s officially a French restaurant \u2014 the \u201cj\u201d is pronounced like a \u201cj\u201d, not like an \u201ch\u201d \u2014 but it has very heavy Japanese influences. That\u2019s probably because the chef, Kosuke Tada<\/a>, is a Japanese guy who worked in France for a long time. Everything at Mijote is excellent; it\u2019s only a prix fixe menu, and it changes frequently, but I\u2019ve never once been disappointed with anything. Kosuke is a virtuoso; one time he catered deli sandwiches for a random party I went to in Oakland, and they were some of the best sandwiches I\u2019ve ever had. And the price is very affordable as fine dining goes \u2014 just $84 per person. <\/p>\n

7 Adams<\/a>: This place does have one Michelin star (and richly deserves it), but it\u2019s significantly cheaper than a lot of other Michelin places while being every bit as good. It\u2019s \u201cNew American\u201d, with somewhat fewer Asian ingredients than Rich Table. <\/p>\n

Mr. Pollo<\/a>: Still among the best-kept secrets in SF, even though it\u2019s been around for many years. Two guys took over a space from a Colombian restaurant called Mr. Pollo, but kept the sign and the name. It\u2019s not Colombian food (they used to do arepas every night, but stopped); it\u2019s just whatever they feel like cooking this week. It\u2019s always good, and it\u2019s just $49 \u2014 maybe the best value for money in the entire city. Good luck getting a reservation, though.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Gazpacho at Mr. Pollo<\/p>\n

There are a number of cheap-ish restaurants that luckily manage to avoid the curse of SF\u2019s astronomical rent. Most of these have just been sitting in the same spot since the 80s or 90s, and haven\u2019t really updated their cuisines. However, there are some new ones that manage to open up, and some of these \u2014 through some mystical combination of skill, dedication, luck, or whatever \u2014 manage to be truly excellent. Here are a few examples:<\/p>\n

Sichuan Tasty Restaurant<\/a>: One of the most underrated restaurants in the city. I love Sichuan food, and though I tell myself I\u2019ve been to one<\/a> or two<\/a> places in Flushing that were better than Sichuan Tasty Restaurant, I can\u2019t quite remember if they really were better. Everything is delicious, the portions are huge, and somehow there are always seats open and you can just walk in. Remember to order everything with extra \u82b1\u6912.<\/p>\n

Mini Potstickers<\/a>: If you want great takeout dumplings in SF, this, in my opinion, is one of the two best places to get them. The boiled dumplings are as good as the nearby (and much more famous) Yuanbao Jiaozi, but Mini Potstickers has much more range \u2014 awesome mini fried dumplings (hence the name), and excellent jianbing. <\/p>\n

Fuwa Dumpling<\/a>: SF\u2019s other great takeout dumpling place, also with good variety. Probably the best takeout boiled dumplings I\u2019ve had in the city. <\/p>\n

Gusto Pinsa Romana<\/a>: Some restaurants have started aggressively marketing traditional Roman-style pizza as \u201cpinsa\u201d, and defined it as a whole new category of food. Well, more power to them. Of \u201cpinsa\u201d restaurants in SF, Pinsa Rossa is the most famous, but Gusto Pinsa Romana is \u2014 at least in my opinion \u2014 far and away the best. It\u2019s cheap, it\u2019s delicious, and it\u2019s good to eat in or DoorDash.<\/p>\n

Timur<\/a>: As of this writing, Timur Indian and Nepalese Cuisine has a perfect 5.0 rating on Google with 688 reviews. That\u2019s just incredible. It\u2019s well-deserved \u2014 this small, out-of-the-way, affordable little restaurant is the best Nepalese food in a city filled with great Nepalese places. I especially recommend the korma. <\/p>\n

Sherpa House<\/a>: This one just barely gets edged out by Timur for \u201cbest Nepalese in town\u201d, but honestly it\u2019s very very close. Also a perfect 5.0 on Google as of this writing, with 202 reviews.<\/p>\n

Bo&Beurre<\/a>: How would you like a huge, incredibly delicious banh mi sandwich in the middle of downtown San Francisco for only $6? Bo&Beurre is a little out-of-the-way Vietnamese place that will give you that sandwich. Somehow it\u2019s much less well known than Saigon Sandwich, which is less than a block away and has lines down the street, but which is definitely not as good. <\/p>\n

L&G<\/a>: The other amazing super-cheap banh mi place in SF\u2019s Little Saigon neighborhood is L&G \u2014 and it\u2019s right next to Bo&Beurre. Actually, the two places are somewhat different \u2014 Bo\u2019s sandwiches are drier and perfectly arranged, while L&G\u2019s are a greasy street-food sauce-bomb. Both are amazing, both have no lines, and I\u2019d recommend both over Saigon Sandwich. <\/p>\n

Oodle Yunnan Rice Noodle<\/a>: I am always looking for Chinese restaurants that are neither Cantonese, Sichuan, nor dumplings. This one fit the bill nicely. The food is delicious, the prices are affordable, the decor and ambiance are very cheerful and modern, the staff is super friendly, and you can just walk in. <\/p>\n

El Gallo Giro Food Truck<\/a>: I\u2019m sort of stretching the boundaries of this category to include a food truck that has been parked in the Mission for over two decades, but it would be criminal not to. This little truck has some of the best tacos and burritos in the city. I don\u2019t know how they do it so well. You need to pay with cash or Venmo, so be prepared. <\/p>\n

Anyway, there\u2019s a sampling of my three favorite types of restaurants in San Francisco. But there are a bunch more good ones, so let\u2019s go through some of the standard categories.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Dinner at Sichuan Tasty Restaurant<\/p>\n

I spent a lot of time raving about how great izakayas were, but ever since Izakaya Kou closed, there aren\u2019t really any great ones in San Francisco. Kibatsu<\/a> in Lower Haight and Fenikkusu<\/a> in the Mission are the closest \u2014 both are very solid, but they ought to get more creative and update their menus more. Kibatsu has to be my favorite here, because they also have some great nigiri, including an umimasu that\u2019s the best I\u2019ve ever had. Noren<\/a> also has good quality yakitori.<\/p>\n

However, there are a number of very good Japanese restaurants of other, more standard types. Two ramen places \u2014 Taishoken<\/a> and Mensho SF<\/a> \u2014 really dominate the scene here; both have skilled Japanese chefs, and are similar in quality to what you\u2019d get at very good ramen restaurants in Tokyo. I\u2019d give the edge to Taishoken, since it takes reservations and doesn\u2019t require you to wait an hour on the street in the middle of SF\u2019s worst neighborhood like Mensho does. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s a kaitenzushi place called Izumi<\/a> in Japantown mall that\u2019s actually as good as any I\u2019ve had in Japan (though much more expensive). Nabe<\/a> is a Japanese hot pot place in the Sunset that also matches Japanese quality. There are also some \u201cbig roll\u201d sushi places of the type you can\u2019t get in Japan \u2014 my favorite ones like Arashi Sushi closed in the pandemic, but DJ Sushi<\/a>\u2019s big rolls are criminally underrated and there are a bunch of new ones I haven\u2019t tried yet. Potto<\/a> and Shabu Club<\/a> are also solid hot pot places with good-quality meat.<\/p>\n

Omakase is difficult, because America has trouble getting fresh fish \u2014 both because of stricter health laws, and because of geographic distance from Japanese supply chains \u2014 and most of the famous places are just way overpriced. But there are a couple very solid ones, including Doma Sushi<\/a> in Bernal, and Robin<\/a> in Hayes Valley. Robin is a controversial pick here, because it\u2019s non-traditional and experimental, but their experiments hit a lot more often than they miss, and if you\u2019re in a country that has trouble getting fresh fish, experimentation is more important. An<\/a> is also good, though for some reason it takes 3 hours to eat.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Nigiri at Robin<\/p>\n

San Francisco has a lot of great cheap Vietnamese food, especially in the \u201cLittle Saigon\u201d area near the Tenderloin. I\u2019ve already mentioned Bo&Beurre<\/a> and L&G<\/a>, but also check out Pho Tan Hoa<\/a> and Larkin Restaurant<\/a> for pho. Pho 2000<\/a> isn\u2019t my favorite for Pho, ironically, but has very good appetizers and other dishes. But the best Vietnamese restaurant in the whole area is probably the amazing Hai Ky Mi Gia<\/a>, a little Chinese-Vietnamese hole-in-the-wall that serves some of the best seafood egg noodles I\u2019ve ever had. There are also plenty of good cheap and cheap-ish places scattered throughout the city, like Banh Mi Crunch<\/a> in the Sunset, An Chi<\/a> in the Richmond, and others. <\/p>\n

As for upscale Vietnamese, that\u2019s harder to find, partly because \u201cupscale Vietnamese\u201d is just a thing that not a lot of people try yet. My favorite is definitely Gao Viet<\/a> in the Sunset, which serves absolutely huge portions of absolutely delicious food, including both traditional favorites like banh xeo and some truly wacky giant combos of stuff. Thanh Long<\/a> makes a good crab, though it\u2019s a little bit overpriced. There is also a place called Hem by LeQuy<\/a> in the Mission that does traditional stuff, but slightly more expensive and higher-quality than most; it probably has the single best bowl of pho I\u2019ve eaten in SF. Note that I still have a lot of Vietnamese places left to try in this city.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Crab at Thanh Long<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure why, but there has been an explosion of good Nepalese places in San Francisco in recent years \u2014 most of them pretty affordable. Tyler Cowen has a rule that you should try the less-well-known ethnic cuisines, and that definitely applies to Nepalese in SF; the Nepalese places here tend to be much better than the similar Indian places. The three best I\u2019ve found are the aforementioned Timur<\/a> and Sherpa House<\/a>, plus a third place called Base Camp<\/a> that does excellent lunch and focuses more on noodle dishes than curries. But there are a lot of other very good ones, including Himalayan Cuisine<\/a>, Dancing Yak<\/a>, Nepa Indian Cuisine<\/a>, and others. <\/p>\n

For some reason, San Francisco has a lot of very good Thai restaurants. Unlike Vietnamese places, which tend to be cheap, Thai places tend to be mid-priced or even a little upscale. So they make good spots for date nights or big group outings.<\/p>\n

The yummiest Thai place I\u2019ve been to is the aforementioned Prik Hom<\/a>, but in terms of yums per dollar, it \u2014 and every other Thai place \u2014 is absolutely mogged by Khao Tiew<\/a> in West Portal. You can absolutely gorge yourself sick on amazing food at Khao Tiew for $30. But the downside is that the place doesn\u2019t take reservations, so you have to wait two or three hours in line just to get in. <\/p>\n

Nor are those the only great places in town. Ka Kai<\/a> in the Castro has an amazing sampler platter, and the best khao soi I\u2019ve ever eaten. Nari<\/a> has an absolutely incredible trout curry \u2014 probably the best Thai curry I\u2019ve ever had \u2014 and is more affordable than Google says it is. There are a number of other solid ones as well. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Khao soi at Ka Kai<\/p>\n

People from Los Angeles love to talk trash about how their Mexican food is so much better than San Francisco\u2019s Mexican food. It isn\u2019t. The taquerias in the Mission are as good as what you\u2019ll get in LA, and the \u201cMission burrito\u201d is a genuine local specialty. <\/p>\n

What is the best Mission burrito in SF? This is a long-running debate, but my favorites are Taqueria Buen Sabor<\/a>, El Metate<\/a>, the venerable El Farolito<\/a>, and the aforementioned El Gallo Giro Food Truck<\/a>. If you want a giant sloppy late-night grease-bomb, go with El Farolito; if you\u2019d like higher-quality ingredients with a little more refinement, go with the other three. <\/p>\n

As for tacos, for my top picks I of course recommend El Gallo Giro, and a nearby place called Taqueria Vallarta<\/a>. Taqueria Los Altos<\/a> is very good as well. There\u2019s also a place called El Rey Taquiza Artesanal<\/a> that\u2019s excellent, though more expensive. <\/p>\n

SF also has some good upscale Mexican places, especially the brilliant Maria Isabel<\/a> and the delicious brunch spot el Mil Amores<\/a>. There are a lot I haven\u2019t been to yet, so I\u2019ll report on those in Part 2. (SF also has the country\u2019s only 3-Michelin-star Mexican place, Californios, though I haven\u2019t been.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Corn ice cream at Maria Isabel<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve already covered most of my favorite New American places \u2014 Horsefeather<\/a>, Rich Table<\/a>, 7 Adams<\/a>, Ernest<\/a>, and The Morris<\/a>. Another place I like a lot is Verjus<\/a>, and side a<\/a> can be a little uneven but has one of the best salads I\u2019ve ever eaten (the Garbage Salad). Golden Eye Social<\/a> and Plow<\/a> are solid too, though Plow makes you stand in line. The chicken and fries at Zuni Cafe<\/a> are as good as everyone says, so that\u2019s worth a visit.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Chicken at Zuni<\/p>\n

Like NYC and many other American cities, San Francisco has a lot of \u201cred sauce\u201d Italian places \u2014 traditional Sicilian-type places where you can get lasagna and spaghetti and infinite free bread. Those have never really been my thing, but I do have to say that Sotto Mare<\/a>\u2019s famous cioppino is really very good. <\/p>\n

But there are also some good mid-priced Italian places in town. Everyone says Cotogna<\/a> is the best of these, and they\u2019re correct; they had a corn pasta recently that\u2019s the best pasta I\u2019ve ever eaten. Seven Hills<\/a> gets a lot of grief for being old-fashioned, but the quality is as good as what I\u2019ve had in NYC, for a significantly more affordable price. Flour + Water<\/a> is also quite solid, though I\u2019d get the pasta instead of the pizza. Pearl 6101<\/a> is the most creative. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure if pizza counts as Italian food at this point, but SF does have great pizza. Little Star<\/a> is my favorite, with Chicago-quality deep dish and excellent Detroit-style pizza as well. Outta Sight<\/a> is probably the best place to order for parties. Gusto Pinsa Romana<\/a> is delicious, unusual, and surprisingly healthy. I also like Sforno<\/a> a lot. <\/p>\n

SF can\u2019t hold its own against NYC (or Japan) in terms of Italian food, but it\u2019s not hard to find good stuff here.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Dessert at Cotogna<\/p>\n

Chinese food is undoubtedly San Francisco\u2019s biggest culinary failing. Given the huge ethnic community \u2014 almost a quarter of the city\u2019s population is of Chinese descent! \u2014 it should have a ton of great Chinese restaurants. Instead, it has endless mediocre Cantonese banquet places that look like they haven\u2019t changed a thing (including their signage and decor) since 1982. When regular people (as opposed to snobby NYC chefs) say \u201cfood in SF sucks\u201d, they often mean that the Chinese food sucks. <\/p>\n

It does not all suck. There are some solid high-end places \u2014 Four Kings<\/a> and Happy Crane<\/a> are good \u201cpseudo-izakaya\u201d style places. Mister Jiu\u2019s<\/a> and Empress by Boon<\/a> are solid Cantonese banquet places that aren\u2019t stuck in 1982. There are also a few great hole-in-the-wall places, like Sichuan Tasty Restaurant<\/a>, Oodle Yunnan Rice Noodle<\/a>, Mini Potstickers<\/a>, Fuwa Dumpling<\/a>, and Hai Ky Mi Gia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But these are few and far between. And in terms of mid-price restaurants \u2014 the kind you\u2019d be blown away by in Milpitas, Cupertino, or Daly City \u2014 there really just aren\u2019t that many. Dumpling House<\/a> in the Castro is a sleeper hit in my opinion, with the best green beans I\u2019ve ever had, plus all-around great dumplings. Tasty Pot<\/a> is a great individualized Taiwanese hot pot place, though some people (mistakenly) look down on it. There are a few solid hotpot places like IPOT<\/a>, and a few solid dim sum places like Dragon Beaux<\/a> and Palette Tea House<\/a>. Z&Y<\/a> is OK, I suppose. But honestly, it\u2019s slim pickings, and if you want good Chinese food I\u2019d usually just recommend taking a trip across the Bay Bridge or down to the south suburbs, which IMO rival Greater Los Angeles and surpass NYC in quality.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Dumplings at Palette Tea House<\/p>\n

There\u2019s lots of other good stuff in San Francisco. SF has some great lunch sandwich places \u2014 the best is Tarragon Cafe<\/a>, which is one of the city\u2019s best-kept secrets, and where everything is delicious (I recommend ordering the salmon toast with avocado). Tartine Manufactory<\/a> is great too. For Greek food, go to Kokkari<\/a> for the higher end and The Parthenon<\/a> for the lower end. For German, go to Suppenk\u00fcche<\/a> in Hayes. For brunch, Plain Jane<\/a> and its sister restaurant Mymy<\/a> are hard to beat, though there are lots of great places like Les Marais<\/a> and Sweet Maple<\/a>. Beit Rima<\/a> is another solid Middle Eastern place. For pubs, I like Hazie\u2019s<\/a> and Stoa<\/a>. Hook Fish<\/a> has excellent fish sandwiches and such. Burma Love<\/a> and its sister restaurant Teakwood<\/a> are both yummy (get the duck curry at Teakwood). Brenda\u2019s<\/a> does have good cajun and soul food. For vegan food, I really love both Phonobar<\/a> (which is basically a vegan izakaya), and Shizen<\/a>, the vegan sushi spot. House of Prime Rib<\/a> deserves its status as a local favorite, though it\u2019s a LOT of food. JouJou<\/a> is a solid (if a little uneven) new French spot. Piglet & Co.<\/a> is a Taiwanese izakaya-style place that serves a lot of interesting pork dishes. Niku<\/a> is an excellent steakhouse with great side dishes and a butcher shop next door that does great wagyu burgers. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>House of Prime Rib<\/p>\n

I think that just about does it for my specific recommendations. That\u2019s probably enough restaurants to keep you eating well for a couple of years!<\/p>\n

When I give my recommendations, one thing some people ask me is to identify some restaurants that I think are overrated \u2014 they want to be warned away from bad restaurants, not just pointed toward good ones!<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a reasonable thing to want, but in general I\u2019m kind of against this. As I said, tastes differ a lot \u2014 if you like a restaurant I don\u2019t like, then good for you and good for the restaurant too! I don\u2019t expect my preferences to be universally shared, and I certainly don\u2019t regard them as the voice of authority. <\/p>\n

But that said, knowing what I don\u2019t like might help you to understand whether and how your preferences match or diverge from my own. Just remember that I\u2019m not criticizing anyone for liking things I don\u2019t like. <\/p>\n

First, there are some restaurants I just really did not like at all. These include Lily, a Vietnamese place in the Richmond; La Ciccia, an Italian place in Bernal; and Bir Kitchen, a Nepalese place in the Mission. For whatever reason, the food at these places just really did not appeal to me. If it appeals to you, more power to you.<\/p>\n

Second, there are a bunch of restaurants that form a sort of \u201cstandard canon\u201d of what people in the tech scene \u2014 i.e., my own social scene \u2014 tend to recommend, but which I think are no better than similar places that receive much less attention. One of these is La Taqueria, which serves fine burritos but which in my opinion doesn\u2019t justify the massive line around the block \u2014 especially when you have El Metate and El Gallo Giro so close by. Saigon Sandwich is the same thing for banh mi \u2014 Bo&Beurre and L&G are literally across the street with no line. I don\u2019t understand why people form a massive line for pizza at Jules or dumplings at Dumpling Home, when Gioia and Dumpling House are similarly good and just a few minutes\u2019 walk away. <\/p>\n

Most of all, I can\u2019t understand why everyone always wants to go to Izakaya Rintaro. I\u2019ve been there five or six times now, but you can get pretty much the same sort of mid-level 1990s-era izakaya food at Nande-ya in Japantown, or Izakaya Sozai in the Sunset, or a number of other places \u2014 and honestly better, if you go to The Public Izakaya or Chome. <\/p>\n

I once heard someone say \u201cthe line is the product,\u201d and I guess maybe that\u2019s right. Perhaps there is some level of endogenous coordination, where the fact that everyone else is excited for a particular place makes it more exciting to go there, even when it\u2019s not very different from other places.<\/p>\n

Anyway. <\/p>\n

That about sums it up for my recommendations, but as I said, I\u2019ve been to only 10% of the restaurants in San Francisco. If you want to come to SF and wander around and find places that you didn\u2019t hear about in this guide, or the Michelin Guide, or on the standard \u201cwhere to eat\u201d websites, where do you go? I thought it would be good to offer some general thoughts on the various neighborhoods in the city. <\/p>\n

The Mission: The Mission is, far and away, the best eating neighborhood in San Francisco. This is partly a function of size, since it\u2019s larger than other centrally located neighborhoods. But it\u2019s also very central, and it\u2019s a place that lots of people come to hang out and drink and shop and party. That means it\u2019s a little less burdened by SF\u2019s geographic immobility \u2014 a lot of people are always in the Mission, and so restaurants are forced to compete for their business. That\u2019s why the Mission has lots of good top-end places like Mijote, Flour + Water, Ernest, The Morris, Shizen, and so on, along with great mid-price offerings like Little Star, Base Camp, and Taishoken. <\/p>\n

But the Mission also has a thriving Mexican community and lots of buildings with preferential rent arrangements or legacy leases, which is why you get lots of good cheap Mexican places too. Basically, if you walk around in the Mission, you\u2019re going to find a lot of good stuff. <\/p>\n

Japantown: Japantown has a lot of OK legacy Japanese places \u2014 izakayas and noodle spots and yakitori places that are still basically the same as they were in the 90s. Those are fine, I suppose. But the high level of foot traffic opens up room for a lot of genuinely great spots to open. It\u2019s the city\u2019s center for Korean food, with Bansang, Fermentation Lab, and Daeho Kalbijim, as well as a good Korean-run katsu spot called Ganji.<\/p>\n

North Beach: Again, I recommend not going here for the standard local thing (red-sauce Italian). There are a lot of other random good places here, drawn by the heavy foot traffic \u2014 Noren for yakitori, Tasty Pot for hotpot, Red Window for tapas, Verjus for New American, and so on. <\/p>\n

The Central\/Outer Richmond: Probably the best place in the city to find good hole-in-the-wall spots, especially Chinese ones. I need to try a lot more places (and will report back in Part II). <\/p>\n

The Sunset: Another good place to go hunting for hole-in-the-wall and mid-price spots. It\u2019s very diverse in terms of cuisine. Both the Inner and Central Sunset are good. <\/p>\n

Hayes Valley: My own neighborhood! It has a reputation for being full of yuppies, which is honestly pretty deserved, but it turns out that yuppies want to eat at good restaurants too. The good places here tend to be mid-priced spots like Teakwood, Phonobar, Hazie\u2019s, Dumpling Home, and so on, making it one of the few neighborhoods in SF where you can consistently eat well for $40 a person. <\/p>\n

Russian Hill\/Polk St.: I haven\u2019t been to enough places here, but it\u2019s probably the best neighborhood for Italian food in the city. It also has a few Nepalese spots toward the south end of the neighborhood. <\/p>\n

The Tenderloin: If you\u2019re willing to brave the drug-induced disorder of the Loin, you can eat some extremely good cheap Vietnamese food in Little Saigon. <\/p>\n

The Inner Richmond: This is a surprisingly overrated neighborhood. There are tons of restaurants, many with great reputations, but very few ones I\u2019d put at the top of my list. I\u2019m not sure why; maybe it\u2019s central enough to have high rents, but peripheral enough not to have the heavy foot traffic that lures good places to the Mission, Japantown, Hayes, and North Beach. <\/p>\n

Chinatown: Chinatown is mostly dominated by incredibly mediocre antiquated places that are still hanging on to their ancient cheap leases. There are a few good (expensive) Chinese places here, and a few good little bakeries like Yummy Bakery on Jackson, but in general this is SF\u2019s most disappointing eating neighborhood. <\/p>\n

The Embarcadero\/FiDi: This is the neighborhood I\u2019ve eaten in least, and I plan to review it in greater detail in Part 2. There are some solid famous places along the waterfront \u2014 Angler, Hog Island, La Mar, and so on. Kokkari is great. But overall I haven\u2019t eaten here much. <\/p>\n

SoMa: San Francisco\u2019s great food desert. It was once the center of SF\u2019s bustling daytime office culture, meaning that most of the restaurants were either lunch takeaway spots or happy hour bars. Then Covid hit, and everyone left downtown, and the takeaway spots and happy hour bars closed down. Now workers are slowly coming back to the area, but it\u2019ll take a while for the neighborhood restaurant scene to recover, and there are only a couple of good places left.<\/p>\n

Others: West Portal\/Stonestown\/Parkside, Dogpatch, Potrero, the Design District, and the Wharf area all have a few good spots, but aren\u2019t really places to walk around and discover good new places. The Castro is OK, and is slowly getting some good new spots like Ka Kai and Potto. Noe Valley is surprisingly sparse, given the number of aging yuppies and well-to-do young families who live there. I haven\u2019t been to Bernal enough. The Marina is dominated by bars, being more of a place to drink than a place to eat. <\/p>\n

Anyway, that\u2019s about all I have to say so far about eating out in San Francisco. In about a year, I\u2019ll circle back with Part 2! Happy munching!<\/p>\n

Share<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Crudo at Jilli\"\"<\/a>Crab at Maria Isabel\"\"<\/a>Moriawase at Robin\"\"<\/a>Dinner at Khao Tiew<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Moriawase at An There\u2019s actually a tradition of economics bloggers giving recommendations about where (and how) to eat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-436007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}