Food & Drink >>

• Readers' Poll
  Best Restaurant Boulevard Best New Restaurant 1751 Social Club Best Hidden Restaurant Stix Roadhouse Best Chef (tie) Greg Leon/Craig Stoll Best Bar 540 Club Best Irish Bar The Irish Bank Best Gay Bar The Cafe Best Cop Bar No winner Best Pickup Bar (Straight) Cat Club... More >>
• Best Chili
  Chili Up!
  Man, it’s hard to find a good bowl of red in this town. Despite its Wild West lineage and satisfying and delectable attributes, sizzling-hot Southwestern chili is as rarely encountered around here as Tunisian torshi and Bulgarian banitsa. Filling the culinary vacuum somewhat is a chain of... More >>
• Best Cheap, Healthy Fast Food
  Asqew Grill
  The city's smallest fast-food chain is also its most wholesome, with fresh fruits and vegetables the common currency and grilling, not frying, the kitchencraft of choice. Sound ... uninspiring? Think again, burger boy! Asqew specializes in flame-licked skewers of meat, veggies, and seafood edged... More >>
• Best Japanese Restaurant
  Kabuto A&S
  There's something for everyone at Kabuto A&S, newly installed in smaller but brighter digs across the street from its longtime space on Geary. For lovers of classic sushi, there's no fresher fish or greater choice than that personally selected by chef Sachio Kojima and prepared in traditional... More >>
• Best Dim Sum
  Dol Ho
  Dol Ho isn't the most elegant dim sum joint in town, but the savory noontime tidbits that emerge from its tiny kitchen are fresh, eclectic, and delicious. The cheerfully ramshackle storefront setting is all Formica and high-decibel, with savvy regulars vying for goodies from (occasionally... More >>
• Best Thin-Crust Pizza
  Arinell Pizza
  The East Coast expats among us often have a difficult time finding great pizza in San Francisco, especially the New York-style thin-and-crispy-crust variety. But since 1989, the Mission District's Arinell has filled that void admirably. Its owner, Ron Demirdjian, is originally from New York,... More >>
• Best Italian Deli (2 Comments)
  Lucca Ravioli Company
  There's no doubt that Lucca is the real deal: sawdust on the floors; weekly specials handwritten on butcher paper; cramped aisles stocked to the gills with imported pastas, tomato paste, biscotti, and bottles of fine Italian red wine. But the front counter is where the action happens. There,... More >>
• Best Restaurant for Girlfriend Maintenance
  Cafe Jacqueline
  Best Restaurant for Girlfriend Maintenance You want romance? This tiny, Paris-style bistro stinks of romance. Tucked into a cozy storefront on upper Grant in North Beach, the restaurant serves a clientele that runs heavily toward couples engaged in affaires de coeur (that's "love affairs," you... More >>
• Best Continuing Education
  Tommy's Blue Agave Club
  Best Continuing Education Acquiring new stores of knowledge to impress dates, earning extra degrees to sex up your résumé -- there are many good reasons to do postgraduate work. Tommy's Blue Agave Club is an institution of higher learning for those who know a few better reasons (say, 225 of... More >>
• Best Down-Home Farmers Market
  Alemany Farmer's Market
  If you think high-end chocolates, wine bars, and chichi restaurants don't belong at a farmers' market, head to the southeastern corner of Bernal Heights for an earthier experience. The Alemany Farmer's Market opened at this location in 1947, and it's one of the most successful in the country. It... More >>
• Best Place to Change Your Mind About British Food
  White Caps Cafe
  Perhaps because of stereotypes about British cuisine, the White Caps Cafe on Geary Boulevard does not advertise that it specializes in British treats. From the outside it's no different than the hundreds of other San Francisco joints serving coffee and pastries. Inside, though, is an... More >>
• Best No-Wait Brunch
  Bistro Yoffi
  Best No-Wait Brunch There's one thing about Bistro Yoffi you'll have to forgive right off the bat: The décor looks like the Swiss Family Robinson kids' treehouse decorated with hepcat jazz records. In other words, it's a little contrived. That turns out to be a good thing, though, because it's... More >>
• Best Place for a Blind Date
  Foreign Cinema
  A successful first date is a dicey proposition. You have to be funny, but you can't be a clown. You have to be smart, but you can't be a know-it-all. And, above all, you have to pick the perfect restaurant. That's why Foreign Cinema is such an excellent venue. The food is moderately priced and... More >>
• Best Handmade Coffee
  Gateway Market
  Best Handmade Coffee Phil Jaber is "into" coffee the same way the pope is "into" God. Jaber's a fanatical barista who takes artful pride in each cup he brews. And he makes those cups one at a time. After you order your fix from Phil, it's hard not to be in awe of his intensely ritualistic... More >>
• Best Breakfast for a Beer Hangover
  Valencia Pizza and Pasta
  Best Breakfast for a Beer Hangover Try ordering a couple of scrambled eggs at any of the fancy-pants eateries around town and all the foodie jargon might just turn your stomach. Not at Valencia Pizza and Pasta. It's the perfect breakfast stop when all you crave is a large portion of... More >>
• Best Breakfast for a Tequila Hangover
  Taqueria Can-Cun
  Mission Street is a sure bet for two things: tequila and taquerias. If too much of the former leaves you craving the latter, check out Taqueria Can-Cun. The popular late-night menu of delectable burritos has earned the fanatical devotion of hungry bar-hounds over the years, but if you decide to... More >>
• Best Bar You Can Smoke In (Illegally)
  Phone Booth
  To nicotine aficionados, going to a bar and not smoking is ridiculous. It's like going to a movie and not being able to eat popcorn. Madness. Thankfully, you can still spark up a cancer stick in peace at the Phone Booth, a cozy Mission closet that's so small even nonsmokers get a secondhand... More >>
• Best Bar You Can Smoke In (Legally)
  Hemlock Tavern
  See if you can follow the immaculate logic behind the smoking area at the Hemlock Tavern: It's a hipster bar; hipsters like to check each other out and smoke cigarettes; let's build a place where hipsters can buy drinks, smoke cigarettes, and check each other out! In addition to being the... More >>
• Best Vegan Chocolate Cake
  Ananda Fuara
  Vegan desserts get a bad rap in general for being dry, flavorless, and a bit overly nutty or grainy. But those who have their doubts about being able to find dairy-free dessert options that actually taste sinful instead of sawdusty have yet to try the chocolate cake at Ananda Fuara (translation:... More >>
• Best Chocolate-Flavored Libation
  Chocolate Cake Shot at the Top
  Best Chocolate-Flavored Libation Forget the chocolate martini -- that's sooo yuppie. Lower Haight bar the Top, which hosts DJs nightly for its various house, drum 'n' bass, and downtempo parties, favors the Chocolate Cake Shot. It seems an impossible bit of science that a mix of vodka and... More >>
• Best Use of Cactus
  Agave Wine Cocktails at Movida Lounge
  From California cactus salads to spicy Southwestern cactus jellies, the family Cactaceae is quickly turning into the Swiss army knife of the plant world. But we think that cactus is a drink best served cold, preferably with chunks of yummy seasonal fruit, as in the agave wine margaritas and... More >>
• Best Eritrean Food
  New Eritrea Restaurant
  The physical border between Ethiopia and Eritrea has historically been contentious; indeed, the two countries argue its location in the U.N. to this day. But the nations' local cuisines live in harmony at a charming Inner Sunset restaurant (because, when it comes right down to it, there's little... More >>
• Best Coffee Shop
  Nob Hill Grille
  According to the Random House Second Edition Unabridged, a coffee shop is "a small, usually inexpensive restaurant where refreshments and light meals are served." According to us, a coffee shop is also a place where the waitress remembers how you like your eggs the second time you come in;... More >>
• Best Gumbo
  500 Jackson
  Best Gumbo The evolution of French bouillabaisse into Louisiana gumbo took the better part of a century, and God knows it was time well spent. "Gumbo, c'est bon, c'est tout," goes the old Creole saying, and this fragrant confluence of Gallic, African, Hispanic, and Native American tastes and... More >>
• Best Brisket
  East Coast West Delicatessen
  Most briskets of beef are pickled in brown sugar and saltpeter and emerge after a week or two as corned beef, an undeniably tasty delicacy, but there's nothing like a fresh, sliced brisket, braised in its own juices for several hours with onion, garlic, a bit of carrot, salt and pepper, and... More >>
• Best Cheesecake
  Il Caffe Emporio Rulli
  The best thing about the newly reconfigured Union Square is Rulli's little cafe just off Stockton Street, where you can sit at the edge of the piazza, soak up the ambience, sip an espresso, and eat the best pastries east of the Pacific Ocean. Take the house cheesecake, for instance. This isn't... More >>
• Best Tea Shop
  Ten Ren Tea Company of San Francisco, Ltd.
  Big canisters of loose-leaf oolong, pouchong, and tung-ting line the walls of this spacious Chinatown tea emporium, where the dried leaves of the Camellia sinensis shrub are proffered in several aromatic varieties. Everything from your basic black tea ($5.60 per box) to a pound of primary-grade... More >>
• Best Candy Store
  Z Cioccolato
  We're talking candy here, not the fancy-schmancy Armagnac-infused varietal truffles that make chocoholism such a pricey proposition around these parts. Despite its Italianate moniker, Z Cioccolato is a repository of the kind of all-American sweet stuff you used to get trick-or-treating or at the... More >>
• Best Frozen Yogurt
  Michaelis Wine & Spirit
  Sure, this Cow Hollow liquor store sells bourbon and cabernet and Anchor Steam and all that, but its raison d'être is the frozen yogurt it serves up from a little counter in the back. Thick, rich, and creamy as a fine gelato, the stuff is a perpetual magnet for svelte, savvy locals jonesing... More >>
• Best Irish Pub
  The Plough and Stars
  The greatest thing about a good Irish pub is its congenial, courtly, somber, gregarious, witty, sentimental, surly, musical, poteen-fueled ambience, and the Plough is all of that in a beaker of brew. From the sidewalk out front one can hear the sound of clinking glass, ruttish laughter, and the... More >>
• Best Juice Bar
  Juicey Lucy's Organic Juice & Food Bar
  Juicey Lucy's is a very groovy place. Vivid shades of purple, orange, and green saturate furniture, floor, and ceiling. Tabletops and altars are adorned with Buddhas and Shivas and pliable yogis. Handcrafted jewelry and vegan yam bread are sold at the counter; fresh herbs sprout from every nook... More >>
• Best Salsa
  Papalote
  Salsa isn't just for double dipping, y'know. In Mexico, a meal without a bowl of this beloved condiment is as lacking as menudo without the pig intestines. There are a thousand saucy varieties to choose from, from the familiar tomato-onion salsa cruda to more complex regional variations... More >>
• Best Paella
  Fina Estampa
  The first paella was cooked up near the town of Valencia on the east coast of Spain, where the rice, saffron, and olive oil come from. That initial attempt featured snails and eels as well, but you can add anything you like to the basic triad; the trick is balancing the different ingredients... More >>
• Best Fondue
  Matterhorn Swiss Restaurant
  The ideal wintertime scenario: an Alpine lodge in Cortina, the Wallis, or maybe Truckee; a bevy of sweater-clad kindred spirits; one of those sunken stone-and-brass fire pits; and a gloriously retro cauldron of fragrant, luscious, interactive fondue. Like Mongolian hot pot and Korean barbecue,... More >>
• Best Pie Resource
  Mel's Drive-In
  Playland's Pie Stand, the Hick'ry Pit, and Bepple's on Union are but memories, and today the town is overrun with beautifully designed, delicately rendered tartes that have plenty of charm but none of the gutsy satisfaction of, say, deep-dish coconut cream pie with a butter-and-lard crust and a... More >>
• Best Bourbon Selection
  Cannery Wine Cellars
  Bourbon, the happy offspring of mashed-up corn, limestone-rich water, and two or three centuries of backwoods know-how, is best taken at sunset in a nice thick tumbler with just enough melting ice to "let the flavors blend" (F. Sinatra) -- its sweet, golden nature inspiring reflection, quietude,... More >>
• Best Brazilian Restaurant
  Canto do Brasil
  Wannabe Cariocas yearning for the motherland will find Canto do Brasil a languid, sultry pleasure. The welcome is as warm as an evening in Rio: Bossa nova shimmers from the stereo like waves lapping Ipanema; the house caipirinha is as sweet and potent as a midnight samba; and the bright, lusty... More >>
• Best Vegan Restaurant
  Golden Era
  "With respect for all life, we proudly serve all dishes free of meat, poultry, fish, egg, and MSG," is Golden Era's motto, and the restaurant's low-cruelty ethos is good news indeed for diners who've taken that extra step past vegetarianism into the dairyless realm of veganism. But even chronic... More >>
• Best Wine Bar
  Hayes and Vine Wine Bar
  The Hayes and Vine is a great place to enjoy your very own casually empirical impromptu wine-tasting, especially after a long, hard day at the office. The cellar features upward of 1,200 wines, 40 or 50 of them by the glass, creating several relaxing opportunities to educate your palate. (The 40... More >>
• Best Mojito
  Habana
  Much of the pleasure of a good cocktail comes from the ambience in which it's savored, viz., a sweetly potent margarita among the Christmas lights of La Rondalla; a tumbler of single malt at the dark 'n' moody Edinburgh Castle; a crisp martini at the eternally elegant Top of the Mark. And when... More >>
• Best Cheap Sushi
  Shi Mo
  There's nothing like a bonbon of tender rice and silky raw fish to stroke the taste buds, blissify the belly, and soothe the disposition. And there's nothing like getting the bill a few hirame later and realizing that those tasty little morsels, tout ensemble, were equal in value to the next... More >>
• Best Fresh Seafood
  R&G Lounge
  You can't get any fresher seafood than the crustaceans and fish pulled from the big tanks in the downstairs dining room at R&G, where the creatures swim around as décor until they're plucked out for your delectation. The lightly battered, disjointed salt-and-pepper crab is a don't-miss... More >>
• Best Pupu Platter
  Roy's
  The best part of any tiki-accented soiree is those barbecued, coconut-coated nibbles that go so well with your third Mai Tai. Yet many island-themed venues settle for heavy, greasy appetizers that lack that old Polynesian zest and undermine the whole pupu zeitgeist to boot. Roy's, one of a... More >>
• Best Really Cheap Taco
  El Metate
  The term "cheap" is so insufficient to the task of pricing El Metate's delicious tacos, we're forced to elaborate. They're really cheap. For a mere buck and a quarter you get two corn tortillas piled high with radishes, onions, lime, cilantro, and one of a dozen substantial fillings, including... More >>
• Best Offal
  Incanto Restaurant & Wine Bar
  Best Offal We like sautéed kidneys as much as Leopold Bloom does. Luckily for us, Chris Cosentino -- who became the executive chef of Incanto, the highly regarded Italian trattoria, in the spring -- is also enamored of offal, aka variety meats, and features them on his menus. The offerings... More >>
• Best Chinese (Sichuan)
  China Village
  Get the three-page, densely printed menu listing the spicy Sichuan dishes (happily, in English) at this brightly lit, sparkling white restaurant on Albany's restaurant row, rather than the generic Chinese laminated menu, and you'll be rewarded with some of the spiciest, hottest, best-tasting... More >>
• Best Chinese (Cantonese)
  Harbor Village
  Harbor Village is well-known for its dim sum, which it offers daily for lunch in a glitzy but anonymous mirrored-and-gilded room that feels like an upscale hotel lobby. But that room becomes a temple to exquisite Hong Kong-style Cantonese cooking when you order off the dinner menu, an... More >>
• Best Chinese (Shanghainese)
  Fountain Court
  This corner restaurant, a long, narrow room with pleasant but unprepossessing décor, offers the exciting cooking of Shanghai, mostly long-cooked braises and stews rather than quick stir-fries. Start with the characteristic cold appetizer platters, including wine chicken (delicate poached chicken... More >>
• Best Irish Food
  Wilde Oscar's
  There are several good things to eat on the menu at Wilde Oscar's, a cozy Irish pub in a neighborhood where it's usually easy to find a parking space, a plus if you're hankering for a properly pulled pint of Guinness with a creamy head. The clam chowder is the real deal, made with cream, chopped... More >>
• Best Vegetarian
  Greens
  What looked and tasted revolutionary in 1979 -- a vegetarian menu that was as concerned with flavor as it was with health and morality -- is now considerably less so, as vegetables are treated with respect all over town. But Greens is still the place to go if you want inventive, delicious,... More >>
• Best Cookie
  Morena at Emporio Rulli Gran Caffe
  It's a simple thing, really, but a perfect one: a preserved amarena cherry, imported from Italy, wrapped in a ball of house-made marzipan, the resulting sweetmeat rolled in sliced almonds and powdered sugar. Quite a luscious bite (perfumed, heady, but not cloying). This is our clear favorite... More >>
• Best Milkshake
  Taylor's Automatic Refresher
  Many people love Taylor's burgers, others rave about the fish and chips, and there's a vocal group that cheers loudly for the fish tacos. But we think the best thing on the menu is the milkshake, which is about as thick as a milkshake can be and still (eventually) be drinkable. Our favorite is... More >>
• Best Fried Fish
  Kokkari Estiatorio
  There are many pleasures to be had in this rather formal room, which could be in a Spanish grandee's castle rather than a Greek taverna, and is close enough to the Embarcadero to catch a sea breeze. But there's one dish that demands to be ordered. For $6.50, you get an impressive heap of fried... More >>
• Best Specialty Wine List
  A16
  Devised as a terrific complement to the novel, well-prepared southern Italian cooking highlighted at A16 (named for the autoroute that traverses Campania, the region around Naples including Capri and the Amalfi coast), this wine list (currently seven pages and continually expanding under wine... More >>
• Best Sit-Down Mexican
  Chava's
  There are dozens of taquerias littering the Mission District that are ideal for quick, inexpensive snacks. But if you'd like to sit down in comfort for a while and enjoy a real meal ordered from a server rather than at a counter -- perhaps a plate of delicious pork carnitas, cheesy chile... More >>
• Best Prix Fixe
  Chapeau!
  We'd like Chapeau!'s classic French cuisine -- dishes as simple as textbook-perfect onion soup and sole meunière and as complicated as ballotine of foie gras and cassoulet -- at any price. But we like it best when we can run riot through the seasonal, evolving menu and choose our own... More >>
• Best Pizza by the Slice
  L'Osteria del Forno
  We were so beguiled by the sandwiches at this tiny (10-table), cash-only, old-style North Beach restaurant that it took an idle comment by a friend to shake us from our habits. He said that his favorite pizza by the slice was the porcini sold here. We took his advice, only to find that the... More >>
• Best Indian (With Tablecloths)
  Amber India
  It's worth the trek down the Peninsula to savor Amber India's famous velvety butter chicken, as well as its other uniformly well-cooked specialties, in its comfortable, nicely decorated rooms. The lunch buffet is an amazing bargain at $11.50, including nearly a dozen hot dishes, several cold... More >>
• Best Indian (No Tablecloths)
  Shalimar
  You order at the counter and pick up the food when it's ready. The tables are Formica, and the napkins are paper. You grab a pitcher of water from the refrigerator, and you bus your own dishes. But the food here is so extraordinary and reasonably priced that it surpasses one's needs for... More >>
• Best Tamales
  Primavera
  There are many reasons to visit the Saturday Farmers Market: In addition to the beautiful setting, which is there every day of the week, Saturday boasts the most vendors and the liveliest attendance (a nice way of saying the biggest crowds). But the irresistible draw, to our mind, is getting a... More >>
• Best Under-the-Radar Restaurant
  Absinthe
  It's not what you'd call unknown, but Absinthe doesn't automatically come up when people are discussing San Francisco's best restaurants or competitively assessing celebrity chefs. Yet it consistently serves memorable, delicious food (we're still dreaming of a chilled Dungeness crab with truffle... More >>
• Best View-With-a-Drink
  Bloom's Saloon
  Located on a pleasant Potrero Hill dining and shopping street, Bloom's boasts a distinctive vintage glass-brick facade, but cute as that is, it doesn't suggest the wonders revealed behind it. We're not talking about the neighborhood camaraderie, the noteworthy beer selection, the heated... More >>
• Best Burrito
  Truly Mediterranean
  This is not a joke. It's wrapped in lavash rather than a stretchy tortilla; filled with falafel, lamb or chicken shawerma, or charbroiled lamb or chicken chunks instead of beans and rice; and tricked out with cucumber salad, seasoned onions, chopped parsley, broiled tomatoes, and tahini sauce in... More >>
• Best S/M Sushi Experience
  Midori Mushi
  Located in, of all places, a Days Inn hotel in Hayes Valley, this unprepossessing little restaurant doesn't look like much: five small tables crammed into a tiny circular building, with a cadre of cool young Caucasians in the kitchen and a tiny sake lounge upstairs. But just one bite of Gerard... More >>
• Best Vegetarian Sandwich
  Vietnam Sandwiches (aka Wrap Delight)
  Everyone who's ever tried them loves banh mi, those yummy Vietnamese sandwiches on big French rolls with cilantro and pickled carrots. But since they're invariably made with pork or pork balls or chopped pork or pork with pork sauce, vegetarians haven't been able to sample them -- until now.... More >>
• Best Late-Night Snack
  San Francisco P+DC
  For a city filled with fun-loving folks, San Francisco sure shuts down early. Those emerging after last call from a club or a bar are stuck with the same pedestrian late-night snack choices over and over: diner food from a number of passable, though uninspired, joints in pockets of the Castro... More >>
• Best Burning Man-Esque Bar
  Sublounge
  Maybe it's Sublounge's location, in the midst of Dogpatch's darkened warehouses and unclaimed condos, that gives the nightclub that Burning Man feel. There's an oasis vibe at work, as if this were the only civilization for miles. At the same time, that splendid isolation lends an outlaw attitude... More >>
• Best New Chocolate Treat
  Gracie's Chocolate Nipples
  While everyone knows that food and sex go great together, it took Oakland sisters Genessa and Ami Kealoha to place the two in one convenient package. In January 2002, Genessa took an art class for which she began crafting molds of her sister's nipples. With a little help from a denture-making... More >>
• Best Italian Restaurant
  Delfina
  When tiny Delfina expanded into the comparatively massive storefront next door, the restaurant became much more comfortable, more chic, and (if it was possible) even more popular. Happily, the exciting rustic Italian cooking stayed the same. Whether it's a deceptively simple pasta (spaghetti... More >>
• Best French Restaurant
  Fleur de Lys
  The glory of the three-star French cooking celebrated in the famed Michelin guidebook lives on, happily for local gastronomes, in this venerable downtown restaurant. The décor (walls lined with mirrors and upholstered in busy printed fabric, a trademark enormous flower display tucked under the... More >>
• Best Takeout
  Whole Foods Market
  The newest outpost of this well-known organic-food chain features an overflowing cornucopia of prepared foods. There are multiple steam tables devoted to differing "flavors": Asian, Latin American, Indian, Middle Eastern. Another hot bar is devoted to comfort foods: quartered roast chickens,... More >>
• Best Soup
  Sourdough Soup at Old Krakow
  The friend who brought us here confessed that he'd eaten at Old Krakow many times before he tried this dish, which didn't sound appealing to him; yet once tasted, it became not just his favorite soup, but also the main reason for repeat visits. It's a hearty yet somehow still delicately flavored... More >>
• Best Foodie Luxury
  Shellfish Consommé at Aqua
  "Luxury" is the word for Aqua. The banquettes are plush, the enormous flower arrangements are exotic and overpowering, and caviar, lobster, and rare vintage wines are on offer. But still we were dazzled by the in-your-face extravagance of the soup we began our meal with one evening. This... More >>
• Best Pizza
  Tommaso's
  It makes us happy that the oldest wood-fired brick oven in San Francisco (built in 1935, when Tommaso's opened as Lupo's, and reportedly the first such oven on the West Coast) turns out the best pizza crust in San Francisco: puffy, crispy, faintly smoky. Whether you prefer toppings of Italian... More >>
• Best Indian Pizza
  Zante Pizza & Indian Cuisine
  This delicacy was born right here in San Francisco when an old neighborhood pizzeria was purchased by Indians, who started selling Indian food in the place while still offering pizzas. Continued suggestions by the clientele to combine the two resulted in the creation of Indian pizza -- a classic... More >>
• Best Pig
  Mi Lindo Yucatan
  This small corner restaurant is deceptively modest: Formica tables, linoleum floors, white-painted walls. The only attempt at décor is a few pieces of folkloric Mexican dress casually nailed to the walls and a couple of red stripes painted around the open kitchen. But from that tiny kitchen... More >>
• Best Steakhouse
  Acme Chophouse
  Taking steak as seriously as she does haute cuisine at her superb Jardinière, Traci des Jardins does honor to carnivores in this huge restaurant tucked into SBC Park. Start with a perfect Caesar salad, a wedge of crisp iceberg slathered with blue cheese dressing, spinach salad properly... More >>
• Best 50s Flashback Dinner
  House of Prime Rib
  We find it reassuring that the House of Prime Rib serves exactly the same food as it did when we were kids, and deeply satisfying that the place still offers an honest meal. (And it's something of a bargain: The ritual dinner, including a salad and several sides, costs between $24.85 and $29.85.... More >>
• Best Food Court
  Ferry Building Marketplace
  We think the beautifully renovated Ferry Building is a Fairyland (pun intended) for foodies, who can wander through its skylight-lit corridors in a kind of happy daze, picking up wonderful baked goods at the Acme Bread Company, ripe cheeses at Cowgirl Creamery's Artisan Cheese Shop, and pastries... More >>
• Best Argentine
  Villa del Sol
  You don't have to be on that crazy diet -- we don't even want to spell it out (you know, the A-word) -- to get the urge to sink your teeth into a big piece of meat. A lot of big pieces of meat, in fact. And that's just what's waiting for you at Villa del Sol, a small place in South San Francisco... More >>
• Best Barbecue
  Memphis Minnie's Bar-B-Que Joint & Smoke House
  The first sign that the kitchen does barbecue right is that it always serves the sauce (sauces, really: North Carolina vinegar, South Carolina mustard, and Texas red) on the side. "Why else," the owner says charmingly, "do I spend 16 hours smoking the meat?" We approve, because it's that taste... More >>
• Best Hidden Restaurant
  Desiree
  This tiny breakfast-and-lunch place may be tucked away in the Presidio, in one of the old military office buildings now colonized by film production companies, but enough people have found a way here to feast on the farmers' market- influenced home cooking of Annie Gingrass (former chef and... More >>
• Best Lobster Dinner
  500 Jackson
  Best Lobster Dinner For lovers of the sweet ivory flesh of our favorite crustacean, there's a new place in town that treats the lobster with the respect it deserves. At 500 Jackson, you can tear into a carefully steamed 2-pound Maine beauty, served split for easy access to the tender tail,... More >>
• Best Fried Chicken
  Pork Store Cafe
  We love fried chicken both in its high form (a crisp breast at Chez Panisse) and its low (an order of the extra-spicy from Popeye's with a side of red beans and rice). But the best fried chicken we know is the honey-dipped served at the Pork Store (despite its name, which refers to the original... More >>
• Best Small Plates
  Cortez
  The small plates served here aren't tapas, but exquisitely prepared appetizers and entrees just a touch on the small side (and at somewhat lower prices than you'd expect in a place of such ambition). The menu encourages sharing, but you could just as easily dine satisfyingly by ordering a... More >>
• Best Cuban
  Habana
  Fantasy is at play here in both the overwrought but pleasing décor, meant to evoke a pre-Castro 1948 Havana, and the cooking, which is more Nuevo Latino, strictly speaking, than Cuban. But who cares when everything looks and tastes so good? The bar features "hand-crafted Cuban cocktails" such as... More >>
• Best New Restaurant
  Quince
  The main attraction of this small, creamy-walled, urbane dining room is the seasonal Italian-inspired cooking of chef/owner Michael Tusk (late of Chez Panisse and Oliveto; his partner and wife, Lindsay, worked at Oliveto and Boulevard). The menu changes daily, but you'll always find impeccably... More >>
• Best Trendy Dish
  Sformato at A16
  We're not nuts about the word "trendy," but we don't remember ever seeing sformato on menus before, even in Italy, and recently we've been offered several versions of the frittatalike, crustless quiche. We liked the firm, square version made with stinging nettles (once cooked, no more stinging... More >>
• Best Upscale Burger and Fries
  Zuni Cafe
  There's so much other good stuff on the menu at Zuni that we tend to forget that the place makes the juiciest, most delicious hamburger around: 6 ounces of Niman Ranch beef, ground in-house, served on rosemary focaccia with garden lettuces, garlicky aioli, and the restaurant's own famous... More >>
• Best Bakery-Cafe
  Tartine Bakery
  We loved Tartine from the first moment we sank our teeth into the first thing we ordered there, now lost in the mists of time -- was it a croissant? A plain one, or one stuffed with fragrant almond frangipane? Or was it an orange-scented morning bun? Maybe we toted one of the pressed sandwiches,... More >>
• Best Napa Restaurant
  Market
  Steak with garlic mashed potatoes, fried chicken with sweet potatoes, sautéed Idaho trout with bacon -- the list of comfort food at Market is comforting indeed, when you need a respite from overwrought, pricey haute cuisine or when you just want some delicious, affordable fare. Chef/partner... More >>
• Best Mixed Grill
  Foreign Cinema
  The menu at this sophisticated Mission District spot changes frequently, as do the movies projected on the wall of the big outdoor patio, but you'll often find a mixed grill on the list, an orgy of flesh that encompasses several different kinds of meat, chosen for texture as well as flavor, with... More >>
• Best Burmese
  Burma Superstar
  There are so many "bests" at Burma Superstar: best "falafal" (floating in the samusa dok, which is samusas broken up with the croquettes plus lentils, cabbage, and onions in what is accurately called a "nice spicy soup"), best ginger salad (gin dok, a plate covered with finely shredded ginger,... More >>
• Best German
  Suppenküche
  Flying in the face of fashion, Suppenküche has been dishing out superlative German cooking in its cheerful, light-wooded corner spot in Hayes Valley for more than a decade. Our favorite starter is the Vesperplatte (an assortment of cured meats, including ham, blood sausage, and salami, with... More >>
• Best Beer Bust
  Eagle Tavern
  What is a beer bust, exactly? Why, it's an all-you-can-drink brewfest for the low, low price of $8! It Band-Aids your Saturday night-induced hangover with barrels of beloved suds. The Eagle Tavern's "Sunday Beer Bust" has been popular with the cigar-chomping leather-daddy crowd, jolly bear... More >>
• Best Gay Bar for Getting Laid
  The Detour
  Best Gay Bar for Getting Laid Since the advent of the Internet and Craigslist's notorious "Men Seeking Men" personal ads, the tacky art of cruising for sex -- as well as the careful art of flirting -- has become almost extinct. But if you're fond of the good old days and yearn for an evening... More >>
• Best Gay Bar for Not Getting Laid
  The Bar on Castro
  Best Gay Bar for Not Getting Laid Make no mistake: The Bar on Castro is a terrific bar -- great music, great drinks, great-looking bartenders pouring great drinks. But we're damned if we can get laid at the place. Maybe it's that every guy is surrounded by an impenetrable clique. Maybe it's... More >>
• Best Reason to Risk Your Life at Sixth and Market Streets
  Arrow Bar
  Best Reason to Risk Your Life at Sixth and Market Streets Other than scoring your drug of choice, babbling incoherently at a lamppost, or getting a cash advance at the corner check-cashing center, there are few reasons to venture to Sixth and Market streets -- that is, other than to take... More >>
• Best $2 Lunch
  Saigon Sandwiches
  It's only a cramped storefront straddling the Civic Center and Tenderloin border, but Saigon Sandwiches has the best Vietnamese sandwiches in the city -- some say the country -- and they cost all of $2. Called banh mi, the traditional sandwiches are packed within a French bread bun, and you can... More >>
• Best San Francisco-Themed Cocktail
  Cable Car at Harry Denton's Starlight Room
  It's almost a cliché, but the Cable Car cocktail at the legendary Starlight Room atop the Sir Francis Drake Hotel is truly to die for. Served in a cocktail glass rimmed with cinnamon sugar, the Cable Car consists of spiced rum, curaçao, lemon juice, and simple syrup. Its reddish-brown hue... More >>
• Best Mole Sauce
  La Posta
  La Posta is a rustic jewel in the heart of the Mission, the kind of place where regulars claim a barstool to watch fútbol and gulp down Coronas, while mothers and children crowd around tables to consume massive plates of steaming, cheese-filled enchiladas. It's the kind of place where you... More >>
• Best Fake-Meat Restaurant
  Lucky Creation
  Entering Lucky Creation feels like stepping into a street-side eatery in Hong Kong. It's cramped (there are only eight tables, and the servers will seat you with strangers when there's a rush); the walls are decorated with newspaper clippings; and the waitstaff preps string beans or bean sprouts... More >>
• Best Turkey Dinner
  Howard's Cafe
  Mmmmm, Thanksgiving: turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, and gravy. Wouldn't you like to have some right now, in May? Indulging your off-season cravings never felt so good -- or as easy on the pocketbook -- as it does at Howard's Cafe on Wednesdays. That's turkey-dinner-special night at this... More >>
• Most Obsessively Comprehensive Restaurant Review
  A Journey Through the Menu at Henry's Hunan
  SF Weekly provides some of America's best restaurant reviews. But we don't always use them in deciding what to eat. They're incomplete. Not that it's unhelpful to learn that one dish contains crisp yet creamy croquettes of crab, or that another is disappointingly dull chicken stew. But what's... More >>
• Best Ribs With Free Delivery
  Big Nate's BBQ
  Best Ribs With Free Delivery The free delivery is only on the weekends (nice if you're sacked out in front of the TV), but during the week you can pay for delivery or swing on by yourself for the delicious, meaty Memphis-style pork ribs offered under the aegis of former Golden State Warriors... More >>
• Best Hot Fudge Sundae
  Ghirardelli Chocolate Manufactory
  Although the chocolate factory founded by Italian immigrant Domingo Ghirardelli has long since moved across the bay to San Leandro, the flagship manufactory and soda fountain in the square that bears his name still churns out confectionary delights, none of which is more acclaimed than the... More >>
• Best Fortune Cookie
  Japanese Tea Garden
  Fortune cookies taste pretty much the same, you say? Well, maybe, but the ones served in this venerable Golden Gate Park retreat score big-time points for no other reason than that the teahouse is the birthplace of the fortune cookie. (Please keep this a secret in Chinatown.) Japanese immigrant... More >>
• Best Irish Coffee (1 Comment)
  Buena Vista Cafe
  Talk about sticking with a good thing! The Buena Vista has been serving its signature elixir for half a century, and from where we sip nobody does it better. Start with the perfect Irish whiskey, toss in sugar (and coffee, of course), and then add cream aged for 48 hours and frothed to just the... More >>
• Best Cocktails
  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow might have considered that time between the daylight and the dark -- when the night begins to lower, heralding a pause in the day's occupations -- as the children's hour, but we prefer to think of it as the cocktail hour, thank you very much. Fortunately, there are... More >>
• Best International Tapas
  Iluna Basque, Mezes, Pesce and Baraka
  The biggest recent trend in San Francisco dining is the proliferation of new restaurants serving tapas -- traditionally plates of salty, easily dished-up snacks (hams, cheeses, olives, perhaps oysters) served in Spanish bars to encourage lingering over drinks. Here in S.F., the definition has... More >>
• Five Best Ice Cream Parlors
  Pralines and Cream ... Chubby Hubby ... Blackberry Sorbet ... French Vanilla ... Chocolate Fudge Brownie ... Mint Chip ... Blueberry Cheesecake ... Chocolate Caramel Crackle ... these are a few of our favorite things. Especially on a hot spring afternoon when the sun's out and the stuff drips... More >>
• Alice's Favorite Little Bites
  We caught up with the peripatetic Ms. Waters during her brief visit to New York, where she was eating pasta at Lucca, ramps at Babbo, and innards at the Spotted Pig, in between jaunts to Italy to judge a food film festival and England to attend a conference on American gastronomy, followed by a... More >>
• Best Foie Gras
  We like chopped liver, we like liver pâté, and we like the top-of-the-line stuff, too, the plump foie gras of duck or geese, made into pâtés and terrines to be served cold or simply sliced, seared, and served hot with a myriad of different accompaniments. Some of San Francisco's best... More >>
• Five Best Breakfasts
  Breakfast is one of our three favorite meals, and as it's the first one we've been allowed to enjoy since last night's dinner, it possesses a certain anticipatory as well as gustatory importance. Luckily, there are lots of places around town where the consequence of properly breaking one's fast... More >>