Food & Drink >>

• Best Restaurant
  Fifth Floor
  George Morrone's departure from the Fifth Floor last year raised concerns about the venue's culinary future, but under new Executive Chef Laurent Gras the food is better than ever. The menu is arranged into categories (Farm, Ocean, Field & Forest) that exemplify Gras' respect for fresh, natural... More >>
• Best New Restaurant
  Aziza
  For the past few years, naming the best new restaurant in San Francisco has been difficult. High-end projects popped up faster than we could review them -- Fifth Floor! Gary Danko! Elisabeth Daniel! Azie! Now, in these leaner times, the newcomers have become a lot less ambitious. Even the names... More >>
• Best Hot Bar Street
  Polk
  The Mission bar scene is thriving, SOMA still has it going on, and the Lower Haight continues to be the city's premier bohemian drinking enclave. But if you want to know where it's fucking happening, man, get your ass down Polk. From the Civic Center to Russian Hill, Polk offers something for... More >>
• Best Dessert Menu
  Citizen Cake
  Dessert is almost always the best part of the meal, any meal, but at Citizen Cake, the bakery-cum-restaurant in Hayes Valley, the sweet stuff is especially magnificent. Executive Pastry Chef Elizabeth Falkner and pastry chefs Shuna Lydon and Sara Cameron not only make fantastic tarts, pastries,... More >>
• Best Dive Bar
  The Sand Bar
  You've gotta like a bar with a slogan. In the case of outer Taraval's Sand Bar, the place has actually earned two. There's the one printed on the façade: "At the edge of the Western World." Then there's the informal slogan we've heard on numerous occasions: "Where the debris meets the... More >>
• Best New Italian Restaurant
  Sociale
  With the exception of sushi houses, Italian restaurants are probably the most common venture for restaurateurs in this city. Sometimes they're good; often, they're not; and then, every once and again, we encounter a true gem like Sacramento Street's Sociale. Located in a quiet courtyard in the... More >>
• Best Monday Night Make-Out Bar
  Hush Hush Lounge
  First dates can be awkward rituals. Do you do coffee? Have dinner? Take a walk in the park? Or, maybe you prefer to get acquainted the old-fashioned way, by getting drunk, making out, then sorting out the details later. If the last method sounds good, drop by the Hush Hush Lounge on a Monday. We... More >>
• Best Chinese Restaurant
  Koi Palace
  We could tell you about simple meals we've had at Koi Palace -- exquisite dim sum, coconut-sauced beef and taro in a clay pot, egg noodles braised with lobster until they took on a richness that could make God himself drop to his knees. We could tell you about meals we'd like to have (the menu's... More >>
• Best Peruvian Restaurant
  Fresca
  Though we've had some fine Peruvian meals in the Mission, the best have all been at the West Portal district's Fresca. The recipes aren't always traditional here -- a classic papas a la huancaina (chilled potatoes with cream sauce) comes with olives and feta, and mulas de salmon (salmon tacos)... More >>
• Best Small Plates
  Isa
  This award would have been a tie, except for one factor: Chez Nous (Mediterranean small plates on Fillmore) is hella freaking loud. Thus, let's travel to the Marina District's Isa, a narrow slip of a restaurant that opens onto a quiet, spacious, heated outdoor patio. Having made his bones at... More >>
• Best Persian Excursion
  Maykadeh
  Few experiences compare to dropping by North Beach's Maykadeh on a Saturday. It may seem like every Persian in the Bay Area has shown up, and the wait can be prohibitively daunting. Our advice: Make a reservation, go on a weeknight, or, if you must plunge into the fray, know that an hour spent... More >>
• Best Japanese Restaurant
  Maki
  The thing about eating Japanese food in San Francisco is that you can't say you're serious about it until you've been to Japantown's Maki. The place serves sushi (including the best unagi roll we've ever had), but the specialty is steamed dishes: chawan mushi (steamed egg custard) and wappa... More >>
• Best Taqueria
  Pancho Villa
  Enough has been written about which taqueria makes the best burrito in San Francisco, so we won't bother with that this year. OK, we can't resist -- it's Can-Cun, damn it! Now that that's out of our system, we have to admit that we prefer a trip to Pancho Villa. The burritos here aren't as... More >>
• Best Dim Sum
  Yank Sing
  The debate continues over who serves the freshest, tastiest, most inventive dim sum in San Francisco: Ton Kiang in the Richmond or Yank Sing downtown. Both serve an astonishing variety of brightly flavored tidbits hot from the kitchen. Both boast lively, attractive, upscale surroundings ideal... More >>
• Best Burger
  Balboa Cafe
  The excellent hamburger prepared and served at the Balboa Cafe is unlike any other in the city. Instead of a sesame seed bun or a slice of focaccia or a sourdough roll, the starch of choice is a crisp, slender, hollowed-out baguette that serves as a delicate crust for the thick and juicy slab of... More >>
• Best Pizza
  Pizzetta 211
  Pizza's come a long way since the old pepperoni-and-Ragú renditions of our vanished youth; nowadays we have before us a quasi-Sicilian smorgasbord of stuffed pizzas, deep-dish pizzas, pizzas with tripe and cilantro, even fluffy pizza soufflés. Amid all of this pizza effluvia are... More >>
• Best African Restaurant
  Cafe Eritrea D'Afrique
  Sometimes the restaurants with the most memorable food are the ones you are least likely to walk into off the streets. Cafe Eritrea is a perfect example. The atmosphere here -- from the obviously plastic flowers to the crowd of boisterous regulars who never seem to be there to actually eat --... More >>
• Best Vegetarian Restaurant
  Golden Era
  Vegetarians often joke that their meatless lifestyle has made them poor decision-makers. After all, herbivores rarely need to decide what to eat when they dine out: It's either the chef salad (minus the ham) or the ravioli (minus the Bolognese sauce). Which is why this well-run, unpretentious,... More >>
• Best Barbecue
  Zeitgeist
  With an enormous back patio and a diverse crowd, this "dive bar" has all the ingredients for a family picnic, but with family you would actually want to spend time around. The motto here is "Warm Beer, Cold Women, and Clean Rooms Cheap." Don't be fooled, though, the 25 beers on tap are the... More >>
• Best Microbrew
  There's something about really dark beer that feels downright nourishing. It might be its top-fermenting yeasts, or its well-roasted grains, or its totally cool, pitch-black color. In any case, a fine, full-bodied stout has the power to fill your belly and soothe your soul as it clouds your... More >>
• Best San Francisco Beer
  Speakeasy Brewing's Prohibition Ale
  For a town that loves its beer and boasts its share of breweries and brewpubs, S.F. has city-brewed suds that are fair to middlin' at best. In fact, despite all the great breweries in Northern California, San Francisco itself has only one: Speakeasy. Five years ago, the company was a small-time... More >>
• Best Brewpub
  E&O is a big, noisy, fun-filled Disney version of some Southeast Asian trading post, and in addition to a tasty selection of Indonesian, Malaysian, and Vietnamese tidbits there are half a dozen house-brewed beers suitable for quaffing. They include the ebony-black, velvety-smooth King's Stout;... More >>
• Best Guacamole
  Cafe Marimba
  We would be perfectly happy to live out the rest of our days sitting at one of Cafe Marimba's window-side tables, sipping margaritas, listening to Beny Moré on the stereo, and eating bowl after bowl of the marvelous house guacamoles. Making good guacamole seems simple enough -- mash up an... More >>
• Best Mixology
  Gold Dust Lounge
  There are two kinds of bartenders in this world: Those who pour drinks, and those who elevate their profession to a level that approaches art. At the Gold Dust Lounge, you find the latter breed. Phil the bartender makes a mean Flaming Lamborghini (it's not quite as potent as the version we've... More >>
• Best Place to Sip Single Malt
  Edinburgh Castle
  Single malt whiskey, that rich, mellow distillation of barley, peat smoke, and Scots Highlands branch water, stands alongside cognac, grappa, and that relative upstart single-barrel bourbon as one of the world's great restoratives. Each single malt (and there are many) has its own set of... More >>
• Best Bar for an Illicit Rendezvous
  Big Four Restaurant at the Huntington Hotel
  Deep-pocketed tourists with a yen for a view go to the Top of the Mark, while thirsty visitors of marginally lesser incomes gravitate to the Fairmont bar. That leaves the classy, low-key den in the foyer of the Big Four Restaurant at the Huntington Hotel, a short block away, for us locals. The... More >>
• Best Ice Cream
  Joe's Ice Cream
  There is reason to rejoice in these difficult times. As topsy-turvy as the world may be, one thing is certain: You can count on the ice cream at Joe's to comfort the taste buds and soothe the soul. The recipes and homemade blending techniques have gone unchanged for the better part of half a... More >>
• Best Shack
  Emmy's Spaghetti Shack
  Technically, Emmy's Spaghetti Shack is not an actual shack (the place shares half of the ground floor in a regular building with the El Amigo bar). Still, this homespun bohemian joint feels shantylike at the very least thanks to a corrugated steel ceiling and aprons strung like laundry across... More >>
• Best Beverages for Adults
  Windows, Beverages for Adults
  Whether you're looking to escape the roar of Lombard Street traffic or the drunken, obnoxious, white-bread goobers who make up so much of the Marina bar scene, Pierce Street's Windows is an oasis of civility amid San Francisco's yuppie ghetto. As the name implies, the place draws an older crowd.... More >>
• Best Corner
  Red's Corner
  San Francisco has plenty of fine corners -- Capp's Corner, an old-school Italian place in North Beach; 26's Corner, a new-school sushi house in the Richmond; Cotter's Corner, a neighborhood bar in the Excelsior -- but our favorite corner would have to be Red's. Located in the buffer zone between... More >>
• Best Hot Bowl of Soup
  Grand Isle Crawfish Bisque at Alcatraces
  "Of soup and love," goes the old Spanish proverb, "the first is best." While the latter is an unending roller coaster of ecstasy and despair, the consommés, chowders, gumbos, gazpachos, borschts, and mulligatawnys that enrich our planet are dependably soothing, satisfying, and... More >>
• Best Focaccia
  Liguria Bakery
  Most focaccia bread is so heavy and greasy, its olive oil soaks through the paper it's wrapped in. The focaccia baked at Liguria, a bare-bones storefront across the street from Washington Square, is soft, slightly spongy, and absolutely greaseless -- a light and lovely snack. The bakery's... More >>
• Best Outdoor Market
  Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market
  One of the great pleasures of living in San Francisco is heading down to the Embarcadero on a sunny Saturday morning and shopping, schmoozing, and noshing your way through the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market. It's California's cornucopia in microcosmic form: Delta asparagus and Pescadero chervil in... More >>
• Best Mojito
  Luna Park
  Although the Mojito cocktail is new to many of us locals, it's not new to the world at large. The first was muddled together after World War I, probably at La Bodeguita del Medio bar in Havana (home of many a Hemingway-approved tropical cocktail), and since then it has traveled north and... More >>
• Best Gemütlichkeit
  Schnitzelhaus
  If you get a group of friends together and share stories and laugh and drink beer and play music and snack on lots of hearty, tasty food, you've got yourself some gemütlichkeit, an evocative German noun that roughly translated means "warm congeniality." Some of the most gemütlich... More >>
• Best Korean Barbecue
  Brother's
  Korean barbecue is one of those great communal experiences that bring people together and make dining fun as well as tasty, and Brother's, an unprepossessing restaurant in the Inner Richmond, does it up right. After your table's personal barbecue pit has been filled with red-hot coals, a... More >>
• Best Tea and Scones
  Rotunda at Neiman Marcus
  At least half of the high tea experience has to do with the surrounding mood and milieu, and you can't get much more white-glove proper than the Rotunda atop the Neiman Marcus department store. Starched linens and polished silver gleam in the afternoon sunshine. The dazzling stained-glass dome... More >>
• Best Panna Cotta
  Antica Trattoria
  Panna cotta is one of the simplest and most transcendent of desserts. Although its name means "cooked cream" in Italian, this rich, feathery union of sugar, vanilla, gelatin, and (lots of) cream is barely simmered, and only for a couple of minutes. Its flavor is purely, wonderfully lacteal --... More >>
• Best Pick-Me-Up
  The Ginger Rogers at Absinthe
  Although hangover as lifestyle is a career choice best avoided, there are those occasional mornings when even the best of us pay the piper for the previous night's revels. While we don't advise the hair of the dog on a regular basis (you might learn to rely on it too much), we must at this point... More >>
• Best Kitsch Cocktail Hour
  The Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar
  When early summer's fog and wind get you down -- or even when they don't -- step into the tacky tropical Tonga Room for an instant dose of vacation spirit. It's plastic Polynesia for sure, but surrounded by tikis, tourists, and $6 all-you-can-eat plates of greasy grub (weekdays from 5 to 7... More >>
• Best Bar With Bottomless Snacks
  Seasons Bar
  Yeah, you'll have to pay $4 for each 20 minutes to park at the seductive, moody, men's-club-masculine Seasons Bar. But order a drink and sink into your leather lounger long enough, and you can make up your losses by scarfing down as many addictive wasabi-coated peanuts and kalamata olives as you... More >>
• Best Cocktail Lounge for Getting Frisky (1 Comment)
  Le Colonial
  Hard to say whether it's the mood lighting, the couches that encourage guests to settle in for another drink, or the young professional crowd that makes Le Colonial's French-Vietnamese lounge an excellent spot for flirtation. But whatever it is, it works. Drop in for a glass of wine and some... More >>
• Best Tea House
  Imperial Tea Court
  The Imperial Tea Court is an oasis amid the cacophonous electronic crickets and elbowing crowds of Chinatown. Its calm grace envelops you as soon as you step through the door and survey the polished wood chairs, ornate bird cages, and red lanterns that adorn the room. The extraordinarily... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Restaurant
  Street
  Whether it's Sunday night's signature dish of buttermilk fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and sumptuous corn bread, or the sirloin house burger with apple-smoked bacon, or the grilled ahi with roasted red pepper-caper aioli, you simply can't go wrong at Russian Hill's Street. Thank God, comfort... More >>
• Best Irish Coffee
  The Buena Vista
  A step into the Buena Vista is a step back in time. The bartenders are formally attired and dutiful, pouring one magnificent Irish coffee after another, lining them up on the bar so that a patron at this extremely popular (and yes, touristy) establishment will never have to wait for the Buena... More >>
• Best Glimpse of Old San Francisco, Sans Tourists and Yuppies
  Original Joe's
  A throwback to San Francisco of the '50s -- down to the aloof, jacket-clad male waiters -- Original Joe's maintains its tradition of no-frills Italian-American cooking smack in the middle of the Tenderloin's squalor and destitution. The décor is closer to that of an upscale coffee shop... More >>
• Best Place to Pretend You're in a Prague Square
  Cafe Prague
  Are you nostalgic for the bone-chilling mists wafting around Charles Bridge in fairy-tale Prague, the land of Kafka and Havel? Pining for a Pilsner Urquell, downed in a watering hole in Josefov, the Old Jewish Quarter? Hungry for those ubiquitous Czech dumplings? Four-year-old Cafe Prague, on... More >>
• Best Soju Cocktails
  RoHan Lounge
  Tucked unassumingly between a convenience store and an auto body shop on Geary Boulevard, RoHan, a stylish Richmond restaurant-bar, has concocted the perfect drink: the soju cocktail. Soju, a liquor distilled from rice, barley, and sweet potato, is the Korean cousin of sake rice wine and is... More >>
• Best Tourist-Free Place to Take a Tourist for Lunch
  Mario's Bohemian Cigar Store Cafe
  One of the pleasures of living in a beautiful city like San Francisco is a never-ending parade of out-of-towners to show around. And while tourists have to eat while they're here, there's no reason you should have to elbow through Fisherman's Wharf with them. We recommend Mario's Bohemian Cigar... More >>
• Best Attempt at a Bagel
  Noe Bagels
  Just so we understand each other: There are no good bagels in San Francisco. Every attempt at a traditional variety -- sesame, poppy, plain, cinnamon-raisin -- deserves all the scorn it engenders. Local bakeries have more success when they stop trying to be authentic and ad-lib what they do... More >>
• Best Breakfast Counter
  Herb's Fine Foods
  Lonesome curmudgeons have to eat breakfast, too. And if they want to be left alone while they scarf up a stack of moist pancakes or a pair of eggs cooked exactly as ordered over the Sunday New York Times, they'd be wise to check out the breakfast counter at Herb's Fine Foods in Noe Valley. For... More >>
• Best Way to Get Your Date to Wear a Plastic Bib
  Order Roast Crab at Thanh Long
  Though conventional wisdom says there are no good places to eat in the Sunset, insiders know better. Thanh Long's outstanding Eurasian/French colonial cooking draws a local crowd every night to its corner spot at Judah and 46th Avenue. The elegantly appointed eatery specializes in roast crab, as... More >>
• Best Lunch
  The Cheese Steak Shop
  San Franciscans may have branded the burrito as the city's cheap-eats favorite, but even the most dedicated taqueria habitué knows you can only scarf carne asada six days a week. On the seventh, consider Philadelphia's ode to lunchtime bliss: the cheesesteak sandwich. It's a basic... More >>
• Best Coffee
  Martha & Brothers Coffee Co.
  Those who mourn the demise of old San Francisco often blame chains like Starbucks as the harbingers of the new era. But chains aren't all bad. After all, Martha Guerrero Monroy started her own mini-coffee empire in a Noe Valley storefront nearly 15 years ago, expanding it since then to five... More >>
• Best 1 A.M. Sugar Fix
  Bob's Donuts and Pastries
  Maybe you're a night owl. Maybe you're a huge fan of doughnuts. Maybe you're really, really drunk. Whatever the reason, should you feel compelled to stuff your face with sugar and chocolate after midnight, Bob's Donuts is open late. Boasting strong coffee and a full selection of all the standard... More >>
• Best Food for Chicago Expatriates
  Moishe's Pippic
  If Saturday Night Live's Superfans (the portly chaps who worshipped "da Bears," Ditka, and Italian beef) died and went to heaven, it's a safe bet the pearly gates would look an awful lot like this Hayes Valley delicatessen. The walls are a proud, working-class shrine to the Second City,... More >>
• Best Hot-and-Sour Soup in Chinatown
  Great Eastern Restaurant
  Seafood is the main draw at this better-than-average Chinese restaurant, a vast, classy, and family-friendly establishment in the heart of Chinatown. At the rear of the dining room, giant tanks house several varieties of seafood: Dungeness crabs, lobsters, fish-of-the-day, and large prawns. But... More >>
• Best Place, Other Than Your Kitchen, to Eat Homemade Cookie Dough
  De Lessio Market and Bakery
  This Hayes Valley bistro with an air of European sophistication offers top-notch coffee, sandwiches, and baked goods in a vibrant yellow-and-red interior that hums with warmth and a personable staff. But let's face it: We don't want sophistication or warmth -- we want cookie dough. And we don't... More >>
• Coolest Joint With the Best Fried Chicken
  Eastside West
  What do all those people lined up in front of the new bar MatrixFillmore think they're going to see when they get in? Yes, the bar is the newest über-cool offering by San Francisco supervisor and businessman/entrepreneur Gavin Newsom, and it does have a futuristic-looking fireplace,... More >>
• Best Biscuits
  Rock Soup
  A good biscuit is hard to find. As with chocolate chip cookies, no two recipes are the same, and there are plenty of ways to screw it up. So hats off to Rock Soup for finally getting it right. Its biscuits are flaky, not too buttery or heavy. Yet there is heft -- and most important, height. You... More >>
• Best Off-Shore Dining
  Forbes Island
  We initially visited Forbes Island for the novelty: a houseboat-cum-restaurant fashioned into a mini-island, complete with palm trees and lighthouse above, fine dining below (and we do mean below -- some of the portholes are underwater, so you occasionally catch sight of fish swimming by). But... More >>
• Best Retro Dining Without Irony
  Joe's of Westlake
  There are plenty of things about this place to love -- from the fish tanks to the leatherette -- but what truly warms our hearts is that Joe's is the real deal, serving diners since 1959. And in a city of retro posers, being the real deal is enough to earn our undying respect and regular... More >>
• Best Name for a Bar
  Would You Believe?
  For almost a year, we didn't believe a bar could survive with a name like Would You Believe? Driving down Geary, we'd spy the sign and wonder: Is it a freak show-themed bar? One of those on-its-last-leg dives where cobwebs cover the door to the women's room and at least one customer will be... More >>
• Best Smoking Patio
  Hemlock Tavern
  Technically, smoking is illegal in San Francisco bars, so if we did know of a place -- or even 50 of them -- that allowed customers to indulge their filthy habit, we sure as hell wouldn't mention it in print. But what we can say is that Hemlock Tavern offers a perfectly legal,... More >>
• Best Reason to Wait in Line
  Swan Oyster Depot
  This popular hole in the wall, home to the freshest seafood around, has become an S.F. institution. Throngs of food enthusiasts pour onto the sidewalk as they wait to sit on one of the 20 stools at the narrow counter packed with oyster crackers, sliced lemon, and Tabasco. This family-run... More >>
• Best Yuca
  La Santaneca
  If you've never had yuca (aka cassava, a root vegetable native to South America), it's about time you made a trip to La Santaneca. Located at the base of Bernal Heights, this homey Salvadoran joint makes a mean pupusa, one of the best chiles rellenos in town, and a spectacular yuca frita served... More >>
• Best Restaurant Policy
  Portico
  If you're among those who were starting to wonder if San Francisco was devolving into a place with a bottom line and little else, here's a story of redemption that comes from, of all places, the Financial District. On the corner of First and Mission, on any given evening, a line of 20 or 30... More >>
• Best Bloody Marys
  We've been sampling Bloody Marys around town for the past two years -- talk about dedication -- and have come to a few conclusions. First, a good Bloody Mary requires labor, so tip accordingly. A house-made mix is often the secret to a superior Bloody, as is a complex yet balanced mosaic of... More >>
• Four Best Bakeries
  Bakeries, like delicatessens, come in all shapes, sizes, and ethnic backgrounds, especially in San Francisco, where the sourdough shares basket space with baguettes, focaccia, baklava, and fubiki. Among this fragrant cornucopia of carbohydrates are four of our favorites. Arizmendi 1331 Ninth... More >>
• Five Best Places to Grab a Post-Midnight Snack
  Once upon a time San Francisco was the most pleasure-loving city on Earth; nowadays it's hard to find a restaurant open after 10 p.m., let alone midnight. Nevertheless, a handful of restaurateurs out there are willing to cater to us night owls -- at least until 1 a.m. Among them: Brazen... More >>
• Five Best Comfort Foods
  Warm, soft, simple foods have been pleasing the paunches of humankind for millennia, but only a few salubrious victuals are as satisfying to the soul as they are soothing to the stomach. Pale, creamy, and tepid are important culinary adjectives here, but there's another more intangible... More >>
• Food & Drink Readers' Poll
  Best New Restaurant Street Best Restaurant Boulevard Best Chef John Lamkin, Street Most Romantic Restaurant Fleur de Lys Best First-Date Restaurant Street Best Weekend Brunch (tie) Miss Millie’s; Mama’s on Washington Square Best California Cuisine Firefly Best American Restaurant Mel's... More >>