Restaurants

A charming neighborhood restaurant that's worth a drive from yours. The short but generally reliable menu features seasonal California cooking with a Mediterranean influence, complemented by a thoughtful and interesting wine list. Impeccable fresh salads, carefully cooked flesh and fish sided by... More >>

Absolutely tasty low-budget delicacies are prepared and served fresh from the grill and oven at San Francisco's most authentic Turkish restaurant. Rich stuffed grape leaves, juicy kebabs, huge, savory turnovers, and a wide array of buttery pastries are among the menu's standouts. Tidy, friendly... More >>

Named for the Italian autoroute that begins in Naples, A16 is a delightful combination of a sophisticated setting; rustic, earthy food; and a well-thought-out Italian and California wine list with many unusual vintages, including 40 wines available by the glass, carafe, or in flights. More >>

You can get anything you want including absinthe (now that it has been legalized) at this extremely pleasant French restaurant in Hayes Valley's restaurant row, which services the Opera House and Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall. Every gustatory desire, from exquisite cocktails through ripe... More >>

Aicha offers homey, full-flavored Moroccan cooking, served in a small storefront that has been painted peach and hung with glass Moroccan lanterns. The tagines, served in small versions of the conical pots they're named for, are mostly wonderful, especially the lamb shanks cooked with prunes,... More >>

Chef/owner Leland Jung first nurtured a love of cooking while watching his father make dim sum dumplings at his Chinese restaurant. For his own venture, however, Jung eschews not only all meat, but all animal products, dairy, honey, wheat, and grains. Oh, and cooking. Raw cuisine is often... More >>

One of the region's best Indian restaurants, this surprisingly expansive and luxurious place (located in an unprepossessing mini-mall) features impeccably prepared classics (tandoori meats and seafood, samosas, pakoras, curries, and vegetable dishes) as well as more unusual dishes such as lamb... More >>

This casual but chic fish house from the Rosenthal brothers (chefs Steve and Mitchell) and their partner, Doug Washington, joins their other downtown favorites, Town Hall and Salt House. The setting, a renovated turn-of-the-19th-century warehouse, has exposed brick, painted wood floors, and a... More >>

This family-run, Outer Mission/Bernal Heights favorite is worth the trip from anywhere in the city for its charming service and unique food. For a meal you won't find elsewhere, stick to the Cambodian specialties, including the "stewed ground pork" (prahok), a warm dip strongly flavored with... More >>

In a city with distinctive neighborhood restaurants, this is one of the best (and therefore worth a trip out of yours). It doesn't take reservations for parties of fewer than six, but call ahead and you'll get the first free table when you arrive at this snug, nicely decorated corner space.... More >>

This charming small cafe, sister to fancy Absinthe down the street, has an especially pleasant large outdoor garden space with tree-shaded tables tucked behind it. There’s good chow all day long, from house-baked pastries to lovely sandwiches, homemade soups, and moist roast chicken.... More >>

This adorable, small, rustic-but-chic spot was opened by the young couple who run the more traditional Burma Superstar down the street. It features exciting and affordable fusion cooking, including miso cod, Thai salmon green curry pot pie, chicken biryani, and hanger steak and eggs. It's a... More >>

Some of the best barbecue in San Francisco, served in a room in which you actually want to linger (unlike most local barbecue spots) — what's not to like? The perhaps overly complicated menu offers many ways to combine the basics: excellent pulled pork, shredded beef brisket, wonderful... More >>

Husband-wife team Jeff Banker and Lori Baker — he does savory, she does sweet — run this neighborhood bistro, which works both as a clubby Wednesday night place for Pacific Heights denizens and a destination for the rest of us. Banker prefers to call his seasonal, local food "New... More >>

Chic, sophisticated, and adorable restaurant/wine bar, with tempting menu from which you can order everything from a snack to a full meal, ranging from bruschetta, salumi platters, and panini to pasta or meat entrees. All-Italian wine list. Snug cafe tables, unpolished wood walls, and a small,... More >>

A charming small restaurant in Hayes Valley that changes its entire menu virtually every day (check the blackboard on the Web site to find out what’s cooking), in response to what’s fresh and local and the whim of owner-chef Jessica Boncutter. The menu is tightly focused: usually... More >>

What better to accompany Bar Tartine's excellent bread (sourced from its famous parent, the Tartine bakery a few blocks away) than cheese? And cheese is treated with respect: It's given a separate menu, featuring about a dozen different varieties, whose careful affinage results in each one being... More >>

Opened just two doors down from Perbacco on California Street, Umberto Gibin and Staffan Terje's spinoff wine bar and casual restaurant is all about the filigree that surrounds Perbacco's renowned Northern Italian food: the wine list, the housemade salumi, the scrupulously curated cheeses, and... More >>

This place is a find: a truly wonderful Cambodian restaurant, whose pleasant, small, and immaculate dining room doesn't begin to suggest the wonders served up there on a daily basis (well, it's closed Sunday). We've enjoyed literally everything the kitchen serves, especially soups made with... More >>

Bix is San Francisco's closest approximation of a supper club, with a superb bar and very good food that ranges from tony snacks to more serious dining, including thoughtfully composed salads followed by carefully cooked fish, flesh, and fowl and amazing desserts. Dinner is served in a soaring,... More >>

Inventive, well-prepared takes on classic dishes -- perhaps a flatiron steak with huckleberry potato salad and a pork chop with baby mustard greens and hominy -- are followed by homey desserts like chocolate cake and banana cream pie. More >>

The ambitions of this small, chic spot are much more modest than at owner Gerald Hirigoyen's other restaurant, Piperade, but the food is as big in flavor. The lunch menu is mostly bocadillos, small but hearty sandwiches you order two at a time from a list of a dozen; at night, the menu is mostly... More >>

It's nearly impossible to go wrong at tony, wildly popular Boulevard, from the sumptuous interior by Pat Kuleto to Nancy Oakes' flawlessly executed New American menu. The offerings are seasonal, and desserts are exceptional. Extensive wine list, full bar. More >>

Charming small Creole spot. Well-cooked specialties include beignets both sweet (stuffed with chocolate or chopped apples) and savory (yummy crawfish spiced with cayenne), po'boys, and grillades and grits. Daily specials might feature meatloaf or hoppin' john with andouille sausage. Few items... More >>

Katharine Zacher and Ryan Ostler, chefs with four-star training who made their name at the Excelsior bar Broken Record, are in the kitchen at the iconic Mission supperclub. They're adapting to their swank surroundings by upscaling Southern road food from the inside out. Their chile-flecked hush... More >>