Food & Drink >>

• Readers' Poll
  Best Restaurant Delfina Best New Restaurant Dogzilla Cafe Best Hidden Restaurant Catalyst Cocktails Best Vegetarian Restaurant Greens Best Seafood Restaurant Pacific Cafe Best Thai Restaurant King of Thai Noodle House Best Fast Food In-N-Out Burger Best Burrito Pancho... More >>
• Best Steakhouse
  C&L 1250 Jones (at Clay), 771-5400, www.cl-steak.com The menu here is a little tricky (starters, steaks, vegetables, and desserts each inspired by one of eight cities), but what inspires us in a steakhouse is its meat, and C&L serves some of the best we've ever had: pure cornfed beef... More >>
• Best Vegetarian (Expensive)
  Fleur de Lys 777 Sutter (at Taylor), 673-7779, www.fleurdelyssf.com San Francisco offers many delights for the vegetarian epicure, but none is more beguiling than the welcome given at the starry French temple de cuisine Fleur de Lys, whose Web site proudly states, "Vegetarians will be... More >>
• Best Vegetarian (Inexpensive)
  Herbivore 983 Valencia (at 21st Street), 826-5657, and 531 Divisadero (at Fell), 885-7133, www.herbivore-restaurant.com Everything on Herbivore's extensive menu is vegan, but run-of-the-mill vegetarians and carnivores eat here happily, side by side with their more abstemious brethren.... More >>
• Best Classic San Francisco Lunch
  Swan Oyster Depot
  Decades before some overpaid restaurant consultant coined the term "raw bar," this unpretentious landmark was serving up fresh seafood to a clientele of working-class regulars. Located in the same Polk Street storefront since 1912, Swan now attracts devotees from every niche of the social... More >>
• Best Mixed Drinks
  Levende Lounge
  Many places claim to have created their own mixed-drink recipes, but most of those concoctions taste suspiciously like a mai tai or a Cosmopolitan under a different name. Levende, however, has invented some truly cool ones. Try the Effen Cherry Bomb (black cherry vodka and crushed brandied... More >>
• Best Tea
  Samovar 498 Sanchez (at 18th Street), 626-4700, www.samovartea.com Drinking tea is a ritual that's been around for 5,000 years, and doing it in style makes all the difference, as the folks at Samovar will tell you. This Castro tea lounge is more of a modern Zen oasis than the stuffy... More >>
• Best Foodie Web Site
  www.chowhound.com As Thackeray once said, "Next to eating good dinners, a healthy man with a benevolent turn of mind must like, I think, to read about them," and we're with him, especially when the reading can introduce us to more of those good dinners to eat. Chowhound.com is a longtime... More >>
• Best Cheap Meal
  Saigon Sanwiches
  For gourmands, slumming is a $6 burrito at Taqueria Can-Cun. For the rest of us, it's a $2.25 roast pork sandwich at Saigon Sandwiches, easily the best bargain in the city. The clerks start with a crusty roll, fill it with various meats, then add shaved carrots, cilantro, sauce, and lots of... More >>
• Best New Bar
  Madrone Lounge
  While it may seem like San Francisco needs a new bar as much as a canary needs a cat, the mid-Haight/Western Addition neighborhood is surprisingly lacking in decent watering holes. Thankfully, in October of last year Leila Fakouri opened Madrone Lounge on Divisadero Street. The space is far... More >>
• Best Unsung Restaurant
  RNM 598 Haight (at Steiner), 551-7900, www.rnmrestaurant.com This small, bilevel, urbane restaurant, a little out of place in its Lower Haight neighborhood, consistently offers fresh, interesting, and well-cooked food that speaks of the skill and passion of its young chef/owner, Justine... More >>
• Best Street Food
  Mission Taco Trucks El Tonayense, 22nd Street & Harrison, 550-9192, and Doña Tere, 21st Street & Alabama There are two local eateries within blocks of each other that are not only unequaled in the areas of gustatory satisfaction and affordability, but they also serve their... More >>
• Best Breakfast
  Mama's on Washington Square
  1701 Stockton (at Filbert), 362-6421 Every great breakfast spot has a line out the door, and Mama's is no different. Outside it's brutal, but once you get the nod from the server/bouncer, you're ushered into the second line, which hugs the counter. This line is easier. You're now inches... More >>
• Best Italian
  Acquerello
  Everything is top-notch at this 15-year-old Italian restaurant: the serene setting (a spacious, calm, and grown-up room with a striking vaulted wood ceiling); the professional, knowledgeable, and caring service; and the exciting cooking, high-style Italian food created from the best seasonal... More >>
• Best Thai
  Thai House Express 901 Larkin (at Geary), 441-2248 The beautifully conceived dishes that come out of the open kitchen here at blinding speed (hence "Express") would do honor to much fancier surroundings -- and prices. The setting does have its charms (the metal-topped tables, blond wood... More >>
• Best Late-Night Eats
  Yuet Lee
  The good news is that you can feast on wonderful fresh seafood (fried squid, steamed whole flounder, pepper and salt roasted prawns in the shell) until all hours -- well, 3 a.m., which is late indeed in our fair city -- in this underdecorated but picturesque corner spot in North Beach, where... More >>
• Best Sausages
  World Sausage Grill 2073 Market (at Church), 621-7488 World sources its artisanal sausages locally (no preservatives, no nitrites, and no artificial flavorings of any kind are used), offering at least two dozen varieties including several vegetarian options, from the familiar (Polish... More >>
• Best Sweets Shop
  XOX Truffles 754 Columbus (at Filbert), 421-4814, www.xoxtruffles.com The mystery surrounding European chocolatiers always seemed a bit like hokum until we wandered into XOX Truffles. The shop is a funky little slice of lower Columbus Avenue charm, its windows plastered over with... More >>
• Best Cheeseburger
  Rosamunde Sausage Grill
  It's only available once a week, on Tuesday from 11:30 a.m. "until the meat runs out," but maybe that's one of the reasons we find ourselves dreaming of this burger on other days. And we're not alone: On that one day, the line at this popular sausage shack runs out the door, and nearly... More >>
• Best New Restaurant (Inexpensive)
  Blue Jay Cafe
  We wish we lived near this friendly neighborhood spot, which offers generous portions of Southern-accented home cooking for breakfast, lunch, and dinner at gentle prices, in a funky setting with a large U-shaped counter and a row of tables. For breakfast you can get inventive scrambles or... More >>
• Best New Restaurant (Expensive)
  Jack Falstaff
  Chef James Ormsby is cooking wonderful organic comfort food in a modern setting at this newest member of the PlumpJack family, located just two blocks from SBC Park. His "slow food" approach includes milling his own flour, creating an array of exotic bar snacks that can be packaged to take... More >>
• Best New Restaurant (Very Expensive)
  Michael Mina
  Michael Mina, in a lush room in the St. Francis, is the big-news opening of the year, with a tricky concept sure to intrigue and annoy foodies: A three-course seasonal menu, with many choices offered for each course, presents you with an ingredient-based variation on a theme. It's ostensibly... More >>
• Best Milkshake
  Falooda at Bombay Ice Cream and Chaat
  Wonderful on its own or as a cooling counterpart to the crunchy, spicy snacks served here, Bombay's falooda is created with your choice of several homemade ice creams (we loved a version with saffron pistachio, cardamom, and mango, when we asked for the server's favorites), layered with... More >>
• Best Beverages
  Mint Lemonade, Jalab, Tamarind at Zatar
  We are very fond of this snug, eccentric East Bay eatery, which purveys its own brand of "eclectic Mediterranean cuisine" using organic ingredients, including many fruits and vegetables from its own gardens. But we dream about Zatar's distinctive and delicious fruit beverages, including a... More >>
• Best Place to Get a Quiet Drink Downtown
  Hotel Rex Bar
  Downtown hotels are generally to be avoided. Busy, noisy, and full of people in suits, they're usually the last place you'd go to get away from the crowds. The unnamed lobby bar at Hotel Rex is different. Inspired by the San Francisco art and literary salons of the 1920s and '30s, it features... More >>
• Best Cheese Shop
  Cowgirl Creamery
  Walking into Cowgirl Creamery is like slamming into an olfactory brick wall. "Heady" doesn't quite describe it. This is living, breathing, ripening cheese, releasing dripping molecules of scent into the Ferry Building's cavernous hall like an animal attracting mates. No wonder Cowgirl was... More >>
• Best Taco
  Nick's Crispy Tacos 1500 Broadway (at Polk), 409-8226 If you've never ordered a taco from Nick's, you're probably going to make a mistake, so listen up: After you say, "Carnitas taco, please" (the place sells other meat, but it's your money), follow it up with, "Nick's way." It takes... More >>
• Best Hot Chocolate
  Giacomo Coffee Bar 120 Stockton (at O'Farrell), 296-4907 "Charlie put the mug to his lips, and as the rich warm creamy chocolate ran down his throat into his empty tummy, his whole body from head to toe began to tingle with pleasure, and a feeling of intense happiness spread over him."... More >>
• Best Pub Grub
  The Pig and Whistle
  The classic plowman's lunch of fresh bread, a wedge of cheddar, pickled onions, and a pint of ale is considerably supplemented at the Pig and Whistle, a bona fide English pub repotted in Laurel Heights, where hunting bugles decorate the walls, the barkeep knows how to pour a proper Guinness,... More >>
• Best Cafe
  If a cafe is a place where people from the neighborhood catch up and read the paper and watch the world stroll by over the sweet and savory snacks that go with a good cup of coffee, Cafe Hurghada is the genuine article. When you walk in, you become part of a loving, wisecracking extended... More >>
• Best Fish and Chips
  Piccadilly
  There are tons of fish-and-chip places in London exactly like the Piccadilly: tiny bare-bones establishments with the interior design of a fast-food joint and the Empire's most positive contribution to global cuisine on the menu. The similarity to the real thing doesn't end at the aesthetic,... More >>
• Best Takeout
  Mistral Rotisserie Provençale 1 Ferry Building, No. 41, Market & Embarcadero, 399-9751 Mistral serves the sort of rich, hearty, soul-warming food that goes well with a good local cabernet and a hunk of sourdough, the perfect restorative feast after a long, hard day of work. Among... More >>
• Best Prix Fixe
  Sociale
  The tasting menu here, which changes frequently, is four courses (two choices per course) priced at a reasonable $35. (Starters on the regular menu run from $5.50 to $10, pastas from $12 to $18, and main courses from $16 to $24.) We have happy memories of a feast that began with our pick of... More >>
• Best Hawaiian Restaurant
  Hukilau
  The Hawaiian Islands have tantalized San Franciscans ever since Union correspondent Mark Twain paid a visit in 1865, King Kalakaua repaid the favor a few years later, and Matson Lines steamships departed Pier 35 for Honolulu on a regular basis. Hukilau keeps the connection thriving and... More >>
• Best Free Lunch
  Gino & Carlo Cocktail Lounge
  Although it's true that there's no such thing as a free lunch, at one time in our gilded past the saloons of San Francisco would lay out bountiful noontime feasts of oysters, caviar, baked ham, and other salty, thirst-whetting treats, all for the price of a nickel beer. One of the few... More >>
• Best Free Drink Tour
  Anchor Brewing
  Anchor Brewing, which makes seven beers and ales (including the popular Anchor Steam, since 1896), offers a free, weekly, yeasty-smelling public tour of its handsome and immaculate all-copper brewhouse, by reservation only, for parties of up to 10. The guided walking tour lasts about 45... More >>
• Five Best Historical Bars
  San Francisco has been a city of taverns, pubs, saloons, and watering holes for a century and a half, and in all that time these pinnacles of interactive vice, gin-fueled activism, popular culture, and political discourse were bound to absorb their fair share of the local history. Here are... More >>
• Best Food Court
  Belden Place
  Anchored on one end by the venerable Sam's Grill and Seafood Restaurant (open since 1866) and on the other by Brindisi Cucina di Mare (since last year), this narrow alley, jampacked with side-by-side restaurants fronted with alfresco tables under strings of lights, offers a distinctive and... More >>
• Best Wine Bar
  VinoVenue 686 Mission (at Third Street), 341-1930, www.vinovenue.net This spot, more of a wine store that offers a fun tasting experience than a wine bar, blends modern technology (temperature-controlled machines that dispense 1-ounce pours of more than 100 different wines) with... More >>
• Best American Food
  The Blue Plate
  The very appealing menu of the Blue Plate, self-described as a "new American restaurant," reveals just how globally influenced and sophisticated today's square meals are: Alongside the excellent meatloaf (with mashed potatoes and a fresh seasonal vegetable), a standard on the frequently... More >>
• Best Restaurant Décor
  Le Colonial
  Once you enter Le Colonial's encompassing atmosphere of drowsy tropical elegance, jangling, frenetic downtown San Francisco ceases to exist. This urban oasis, tucked away in the inner courtyard that once housed Trader Vic's and accessed via a fronded open-air atrium, is rich with polished... More >>
• Best Ice Cream (East Bay)
  Sketch Ice Cream
  There are more than a dozen flavors of dense, creamy gelato and deeply flavored sorbet and granita available daily at this tiny, immaculate shop in the highly walkable Fourth Street shopping neighborhood. The server will scoop your roasted strawberry or peach gelato atop crepes, freshly baked... More >>
• Best Soufflés
  Café Jacqueline 1454 Grant (at Green), 981-5565 The two major ingredients of soufflés -- eggs and air -- are inexpensive and in great supply, but the skill involved in combining them is apparently not, so soufflés have largely disappeared from the dining scene. Luckily... More >>
• Best Fancy Vietnamese
  The Slanted Door
  Once the myriad fans of the Slanted Door's extraordinary high-style Vietnamese cuisine had gotten over the restaurant's two moves to increasingly upscale locations (from the Mission to Brannan Street to the Ferry Building) and braved the tedious reservation lines (complete with seven-digit... More >>
• Best Sushi
  Ino
  Nigiri sushi stars at this immaculate, tiny establishment, a narrow room in the Miyako Mall with a blond-wood sushi bar and matching walls. Nine or 10 people can sit at the bar, and a similar number at the five tables that line the wall. The specialty of this small, spare place is the classic:... More >>
• Best Brewpub
  21st Amendment
  Following a San Francisco tradition of masterful brewing that stretches back to the Gold Rush, the 21st cooks up a distinctive array of beers that range from the light and crisp to the rich and yeasty. The 21A IPA, for instance, employs three hops in the fermenting process to especially lusty... More >>
• Best Beer Bar (6 Comments)
  Magnolia Pub and Brewery
  There are always 10 to 12 house-made beers on tap here (as well as another three to five on the hand pumps), including the award-winning Blue Bell Bitter and Proving Ground IPA and such original creations as Sara's Ruby Mild ("with a hint of black cherries"), Cole Porter ("just a hair shy of... More >>
• Best Biscuits
  Pao de Queijo at Mangarosa
  There are lots of reasons to like this North Beach Brazilian-Italian eatery: its stylish and comfortable setting, tasty food (especially the homemade pastas and grilled meats), and affordable prices (its steaks are big enough for two), to name just three. But every time we've dined here, we... More >>
• Best Dive
  Gyro King
  The unprepossessing room -- dominated by an open grill and a glass-fronted refrigerated case containing salads -- belies the fresh and exciting Middle Eastern fare on offer here. You order at the counter, grab a drink and silverware, and find a seat at one of the 10 not very comfy tables,... More >>
• Best Wine List
  Rubicon 558 Sacramento (at Montgomery), 434-4100, www.sfrubicon.com Some say that Rubicon's wine list, which runs to 70 densely printed pages in a hefty tooled leather binder, is not only the best in San Francisco, but also the best in the United States. Under Master Sommelier Larry... More >>
• Best Chinese
  Jai Yun
  When you walk into this tiny, unlisted, six-table hole in the wall, there's no menu to peruse or decision to make except to settle in, put yourself in chef Nei Chia Ji's hands, and spend the next couple of hours eating a fabulous, often unusual multicourse meal. Every morning Nei visits the... More >>
• Best Pre-Giants Game Eats
  MoMo's San Francisco Grill
  The gourmet eats at MoMo's can be a bit pricey, but the creative and artfully arranged American fare -- particularly the ahi tuna tartare with caviar and the grilled skirt steak smothered with portobello mushrooms and braised bourbon onions -- justifies the cost. Located right across the... More >>
• Best Pastries
  Tartine Bakery
  Consider, if you will, a light-as-air citrus-edged genoise layered with a delicate grapefruit mousse and topped with torched peaks of meringue; or a crisp, flaky tart lined with bittersweet chocolate and billowing with coconut cream; or a custardlike brioche pudding crowned with macerated... More >>
• Best Kitchen Aid
  Boulette's Larder
  Cooks in search of an idea for dinner and noncooks in search of dinner will both find what they need in the well-stocked haven of Boulette's Larder. The cooks will be pleased to find preparations to ease their travail, such as bouquets garnis, homemade stocks, prepped and chopped organic... More >>
• Best Only-in-the-Bay-Area Pastry
  La Farine 6323 College (at Alcatraz), Oakland, (510) 654-0338, www.lafarine.com Tartine Bakery 600 Guerrero (at 18th Street), 487-2600, www.tartinebakery.com Until Tartine came up with its own spin on the morning bun (its kitchen adds a touch of grated orange rind to the mix),... More >>
• Best Free Tasting
  Yum Foods
  Tastes vary widely in our gastronomic metropolis, but most refrigerators have something in common: They tend to have overcrowded top shelves, home to those various ingenious accents that can turn a plain cut of meat or a raw vegetable into something spectacular. This affliction ensures that... More >>
• Best Ice Cream Shop
  Swenson's
  Buying ice cream should be a nostalgic event, so stop kidding yourself that Cherry Garcia helps the environment and go to a real shop: the original Swenson's at Union and Hyde. Opened in 1948 by Earle Swenson himself, this place has catered to the Russian Hill community for years, and lines of... More >>
• Best Cheap French
  San Franciscans have enjoyed the pleasures of French cuisine ever since the Poodle Dog opened at Grant and Washington in 1849, offering five courses of Gallic comestibles for 15 cents, but few of the Poodle's successors have followed its wallet-friendly example. The Baker Street Bistro, a cozy... More >>
• Best Homegrown San Francisco Treat
  Blackberry Bushes
  Lake Merced, Sunset & Lake Merced, www.lakemerced.org Starting in late summer, the city is liberally dotted with blackberry bushes loaded with tempting, juicy fruit. But since many of these bushes grow in areas where they're constantly dirtied by car exhaust, their fruit is often unfit for... More >>
• Best Turkish
  A La Turca 869 Geary (at Larkin), 345-1011 In addition to the familiar, expertly prepared mezes (such as hummus, baba ghanouj, and dolmas) and kebabs (lamb, chicken, and kofte) available in this pleasant place, which is lined with a wide wooden banquette and dominated by an open grill,... More >>
• Best Fried Chicken
  Our opinion of fried chicken is monotonous: We like it. Big juicy chickens, small tender chickens, thick crunchy coating, thin crisp coating, spicy, bland -- lots of choices, lots of styles, lots of price ranges. And we like proper fried chicken sides, too, with points for real mashed... More >>
• Best Cake
  DeLessio Market & Bakery
  Yes, Citizen Cake does make some nice cakes. Hell, it's right there in the place's name. And if you want to pay as much for a cake as for a small foreign car, go right ahead. But if you want a more reasonable price -- for a cake that's just as insanely exotic and tasty -- go to DeLessio. The... More >>
• Best Caesar Salad
  Oola
  Too many salads served under the proud name of Caesar don't fulfill the mandate of this dish: The lettuce is neither romaine nor served in whole leaves, the eggless dressing is watery, there's a timid hand with the garlic, and all too often the anchovies have gone entirely missing. Not so at... More >>
• Best After-Opera Meal
  Absinthe
  Whether it's Wagner or Offenbach (or even the ballet or the symphony or City Arts & Lectures), our favorite act is always the last one, which takes place at Absinthe, a thoroughly professional restaurant that's well aware of the responsibility conferred on it by its location adjacent to Civic... More >>
• Best Turkey Sandwich
  Lee's Deli Twelve locations, including: 322 Kearny (at Bush), 986-1052; 475 Sansome (at Clay), 391-4740; 222 Front (at California), 433-3222; and 648 Market (between Montgomery and Kearny), 421-0648 They're down-market in so many ways, but the multiple Lee's Deli locations still make... More >>
• Best Dim Sum
  Yank Sing
  This large, efficient eatery in the middle of the large, efficient Rincon Center is less charming than the old, rickety Yank Sing of memory, but the dim sum on the rolling carts are still as fresh and appealing as ever. The carts appear at your table with blinding speed after you're seated,... More >>
• A Decade of the Best Burritos
  For many San Franciscans, making a declaratory statement about burritos is a good way to start an argument, since everyone who shovels one down more than once a week has an allegiance to his favorite shop. While trying to sort out 10 years' worth of Best Burrito winners, we've discovered... More >>
• Best Free Food Tour
  Scharffen Berger 914 Heinz (at Eighth Street), Berkeley, (510) 981-4066, www.scharffenberger.com The Bay Area boasts a holy trinity of chocolatiers (Ghirardelli, Joseph Schmidt, and Scharffen Berger), which proffer their exceptional morsels of delight to decaying teeth all over the... More >>
• Five Best 24-Hour Restaurants
  There's an eerie feeling of culinary limbo to this one-time Wickedest City on Earth once the bars close. A mere dozen establishments serve up sustenance to the insomniacs, night creatures, and graveyard shifters on a 24-hour basis. Even if you're safe at home, full of belly and snug... More >>
• Best Oyster Bar (tie)
  Swan Oyster Depot 1517 Polk (at California), 673-1101 Hog Island Oyster Co. 1 Ferry Building, No. 11A, Market & Embarcadero, 391-7117, www.hogislandoysters.com We can't choose between these two places: one of San Francisco's oldest eateries and one of its newest. It depends... More >>
• Best Dumplings
  Shanghai Dumpling Shop
  We happily trek to this unassuming two-room establishment way out in the Richmond District for beautifully made soup dumplings, here listed as Shanghai steamed dumplings: heaven on a plate, and only $4.95 for 10 big, plump, juicy beauties. There are lots of other dumplings on offer, as well as... More >>
• Best Early Bird Special
  Bendean
  It's the early bird who gets the bargain at Lance Dean Velasquez's homey Berkeley eatery. Velasquez, who cooked at San Francisco's Moose's and Home, thrills the neighborhood with a $13 three-course meal named for his son Ben (who shares the restaurant's name with his father). Ben's Supper is... More >>
• Best Ice Cream (S.F.)
  Ciao Bella Café
  More than once we've inquired if the delicious ice creams and sorbets we've enjoyed for dessert in a variety of fancy restaurants were house-made and been told that the icy treats came from Ciao Bella, whose gelato is made from a family recipe out of Torino, Italy. It contains only 12... More >>
• Five Best Pizza Parlors
  A friend from North Carolina once told us that among the more popular snack items in the Raleigh area is something called California pizza. "What's that?" we asked. "Oh, you know," she said, "pizza with a lotta weird stuff on it." Although it's true that our affection for the offbeat does... More >>
• Best Jams
  We were never big jam fanciers until we sampled the delicious hand-cut marmalades and preserves of June Taylor, and we've never been without a jar (or two or three) since. We were introduced to her wares by the serious foodie (and erstwhile San Franciscan) Dan Philips, proprietor of... More >>
• Best Singaporean
  Penang Garden 728 Washington (at Kearny), 296-7878, www.penanggarden.com A nice change from the numberless Chinese restaurants that surround it, Penang Garden has taken its inspiration from a Singaporean food court lined with vendors, but made all its offerings conveniently available... More >>
• Best Hidden Restaurant (tie)
  Sociale 3665 Sacramento (at Spruce), 921-3200 The City Club 155 Sansome (at Bush), 362-2480, www.cityclubsf.com Anybody who can find Sociale (at the end of a narrow, slanted lane that appears unexpectedly at the midway point of an ordinary retail block of Sacramento) is... More >>
• Best New Sandwich Concept
  "All-in-One" at Giordano Bros.
  You've tried the Philly cheesesteak and the New Orleans po' boy and the Atlantic City sub and the Italian beef out of Chicago and other examples of regional American sandwich-making ingenuity; now there's a new hero/grinder/blimp/ hoagie in town. The "All-in-One" (conceived as an especially... More >>
• Best Tapas
  Bocadillos 710 Montgomery (at Washington), 982-2622, www.bocasf.com The small-plates frenzy still engulfing the San Francisco restaurant scene was inspired by the many tapas bars in Spain. Small plates can be found all over town, in dizzying variety, but our favorite spot draws its... More >>
• Best Local Coffee Blend
  Philz Coffee
  "It's my life's masterpiece," says Phil Jaber, leaning across the counter of his shop in his snap-brim fedora, expectantly holding the bag, waiting for us to take a whiff. "I call it," he says, pausing, "Tesora." The name of his signature blend of coffee rolls off his tongue like the password... More >>
• Best No-Frills Vietnamese
  Tu Lan
  Ignore the uninspiring, grungy surroundings (we choose the cramped upstairs over the tables tucked behind the open grill that dominates the downstairs room, but many in the long lunchtime line prefer grabbing their food to go) and concentrate on the wonderful (and wonderfully cheap) food. The... More >>
• Best Cheap Sushi
  No Name Sushi
  Reservations are nonexistent at the tiny, diner-style restaurant popularly known as No-Name Sushi -- hell, the place doesn't even have a phone. The seating space is cramped and the crowds are overwhelming, as the line of would-be patrons often spills onto Church Street. But there's a reason... More >>
• Best No-Frills Sandwich
  Roasted Turkey at Tommy's Joynt
  The best sandwich on Earth is the roasted dark meat turkey sandwich on LaBrea Bakery sourdough at Greenblatt's Delicatessen in West Hollywood, but a reasonable facsimile is available at Tommy's Joynt, the ornately rendered cafeteria/ bar at Geary and Van Ness. Shards of meat are sliced from a... More >>
• Best Caviar Tasting
  Tsar Nicoulai Caviar
  If you don't mind the envious glances of the passing parade, sit yourself down at the U-shaped counter of this purveyor of luxury and enjoy the taste of the sea in an assortment of pricey little fish eggs, accompanied by homemade buckwheat blini and crème fraîche. We prefer the... More >>
• Best Freebies (tie)
  The Old Clam House 299 Bayshore (at Oakdale), 826-4880 The Rotunda 150 Stockton (at Geary), 362-4777, www.rotundarestaurant.com Tartare 550 Washington (at Montgomery), 434-3100, www.tartarerestaurant.com We like tradition, especially when it comes in such tasty forms... More >>
• Best Nepalese
  Little Nepal
  After its greeter welcomes you with a kind "Namaste," this chic, spare, and modern wood-lined room in Bernal Heights is a calm setting in which to enjoy Little Nepal's highly spiced and appetizing fare. You have to start with momos, perhaps the best-known Nepalese dish: sturdy, plump dumplings... More >>
• Best View Bar
  Bloom's Saloon 1318 18th St. (at Missouri), 552-6707 As spring heats up, a young person's mind turns to ... beer, of course, preferably drunk outside. If you're tired of waiting in line at Zeitgeist with all the other sun-and-suds worshippers, head on over to this distinctively tiled... More >>
• Best Pasta
  Tajarin at Quince
  You eat very well indeed at Quince, a charming, small, Italianate neighborhood restaurant of high ambitions. But the pastas reign supreme. They change frequently, but if tajarin is on the menu, don't miss it. It doesn't look like much on the plate: a tiny, tangled haystack of the thinnest, most... More >>
• Best Butcher Shop
  Golden Gate Meat Company
  The reborn Ferry Building isn't just a fine example of architectural grace and the shining jewel of our lovely new waterfront: It's a dream come true for the many and varied food fanatics of San Francisco. Especially invaluable is the Golden Gate Meat Co. over in slot 13. This... More >>
• Best Fries
  Tallula 4230 18th St. (at Collingwood), 437-6722, www.tallulasf.com They call them "pommes frites" here, and they come stacked high in a tall silver cup: fresh-cut fries, crisp without, floury within, dusted with an Indian masala (spice mixture) and topped with a container of mayonnaise... More >>
• Best French
  La Folie
  For the full-on, top-notch, starry French experience, try this newly redecorated temple of luxury (subdued tones of rust and burgundy replace marionettes and harlequins, and tables are bigger and fewer). Here you can command a three-course ($60), four-course ($75), or five-course ($85) menu... More >>
• Best Grown-Up Ice Cream Sandwiches
  It's not that we don't love the gummy chocolate-flavored cookies glued together with pasty artificial vanilla ice cream that you can buy in any convenience store, if only for their nostalgic appeal. But Citizen Cake's ice cream sandwiches are surely the living end of all cookies-and-cream... More >>
• Best Empanadas
  Tamal
  We like a lot of the small plates on offer at this chic, comfortable new South of Market wine bar -- or "Vino y Mas(a)," as it styles itself, with "mas" for more and "(a)" for masa, the corn flour dough that encloses Tamal's signature tamales. But we were especially wowed by the crisp, fragile... More >>
• Best Vegetables
  Here are the sides that haunt our dreams, that would draw us back even if these eateries didn't also offer many delicious dishes of flesh, fish, and fowl. One caveat: You can always find our favorites at Grégoire and the Helmand, but seasonality rules at Home and Lime. Brussels... More >>
• Best Salad Bar
  Mrs. T's Cafe
  One year we ate lunch at Mrs. T's every day and never got sick of it. The reason is its amazing salad bar. You probably think a salad bar is just lettuce and fixin's, right? Well, Mrs. T's has that. But it also has more: sushi, freshly baked turkey and cranberry sauce, veggie tempura, meatloaf,... More >>
• Best Soup
  Acqua Povera at Brindisi Cucina di Mare 88 Belden (at Pine), 593-8000, www.brindisicucina.com The name means "poor water" (something like the legendary stone soup), but it's ironic in this instance. At Brindisi, home of many good things to eat, this compulsively edible and satisfying... More >>
• Best Post-Theater Snacks
  Grand Cafe
  One of the best things about an evening at ACT or the Curran or Marines Memorial is heading to a bistro afterward and deconstructing the experience over noshes and cocktails. The Grand Cafe is the ideal post-theater option -- and not simply because of its location. The snacks prepared and... More >>
• Best Faded High-Roller Bar
  Empress of China
  These days the Empress of China bar on Grant Avenue is run-down and underappreciated, but the gallery of celebrity photos in the lobby (along with the '70s-chic restaurant) proves that it was once a local hot spot. The bar still has swanky velvet seating, a killer view of Chinatown, and yummy... More >>
• Best Japanese
  Kyo-Ya
  The chic, minimal entry and bar of this Japanese restaurant are much more high-style than its rather ordinary, spare, and underdecorated rooms. But what comes out of the kitchen is Japanese food of the highest order: The simplest dish of grilled squid, for example, is carefully scored,... More >>
• Ferry Building Favorites
  As many before us have pointed out, the 1989 earthquake did have one salutary effect: the eventual removal of the Embarcadero Freeway, which freed up the waterfront and gave us back the Ferry Building (at Embarcadero and Market, www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com), which is now not only a... More >>
• Best Restaurant to Take Your Parents To
  2223 Restaurant and Bar
  A parental visit can be like a walk through a recent war zone: You just never know how many hidden land mines you'll step on. That's why picking the right restaurant during such a visit is so imperative. It's amazing how much more smoothly things can go with a little help from a top-notch... More >>
• Best Crab Cakes (1 Comment)
  Cafe Maritime
  This charming neighborhood spot, whose fresh, crisp facade speaks of the seafood delights available within, offers food and drink until 1 a.m. One of Café Maritime's best offerings is its crab cakes, fragile and thin, the kind that favor crab over filler: lump crabmeat, shreds, and... More >>
• Best Sissy-Drink Bar
  Top of the Mark InterContinental Mark Hopkins Hotel, 999 California (at Mason), 616-6916, www.topofthemark.com When the Top of the Mark opened its 360-degree vistas to the public in 1939, candied violets, pomegranate juice, and lemongrass weren't in your standard bartender's bag of... More >>
• Best Reuse of a Historic Whorehouse
  The Saloon Bar
  This North Beach blues bar is perhaps the oldest drinking establishment still active in the city, having opened in 1861 as the Fresno Hotel Bar and survived several reincarnations (not to mention the 1906 earthquake and fire) since. Lore has it that a group of sailors rushed to save it from... More >>
• Best Resurrection
  Sears Fine Food
  When we left Sears Fine Food one morning without breakfasting there, depressed by its harsh fluorescent lighting, shabby, stained, gray industrial carpeting, and sticky plastic tablecloths, we feared it was on its last legs. But the venerable San Francisco spot (around since 1938) found a... More >>
• Best Steakhouse
  C&L
  Best Steakhouse C&L 1250 Jones (at Clay), 771-5400, www.cl-steak.com The menu here is a little tricky (starters, steaks, vegetables, and desserts each inspired by one of eight cities), but what inspires us in a steakhouse is its meat, and C&L serves some of the best we've ever had: pure... More >>