Californian restaurants in North America
-
A
Park Chow
Cozy up by the fireplace downstairs or the patio heat lamps upstairs, and shake that fog-belt chill with reliable, California comfort food like mild curry Smiling Noodles, stalwart spaghetti with meatballs, and caramel gingerbread with pumpkin ice cream. This is one of the most kid-friendly and pet-positive restaurants in the city, with booster seats and water bowls by the door.
reviewed
-
B
Boulevard
The quake-surviving, 1889 belle epoque Audiffred Building is a fitting locale for Boulevard, which remains one of San Francisco's most solidly reliable and effortlessly graceful restaurants. Chef Nancy Oakes has a light, easy touch with classics like juicy pork chops, finesses Dungeness crab salad with fresh basil, watermelon and yogurt, and ends East–West coastal rivalries with Maine lobster stuffed inside California squid.
reviewed
-
C
Ahwahnee Dining Room
The formal ambience (mind your manners) may not be for everybody, but few would not be awed by the sumptuous decor, soaring beamed ceiling and palatial chandeliers. The menu is constantly in flux, but most dishes have perfect pitch and are beautifully presented. There's a dress code at dinner, but otherwise shorts and sneakers are OK. Sunday brunch is amazing.
reviewed
-
D
Bouchon
The perfect, unhurried, follow-up dinner to a day in Wine Country, convivial Bouchon's bright, flavorful California cooking uses only locally grown small-scale-farm produce and meats, which marry beautifully with the more than 50 local wines available by the glass. For romance, book a table on the cozy candlelit patio.
reviewed
-
E
Big Sky Café
With the tagline 'analog food for a digital world,' this airy, ecoconscious cafe gets top marks for market-fresh breakfasts (served until 1pm daily), although big-plate dinners trend toward bland.
reviewed
-
F
Aqua
Prix-fixe dinners here are major FiDi investments, but the $36 three-course business lunch delivers tiny, jewel-like dishes so fresh and delicately handled, you can almost taste the sun in a cherry-tomato sorbet and stormy seas in the geoduck clam ceviche. Trust your savvy server to recommend wine pairings and provide spot-on assessments of a dish, including where that tomato or clam comes from (most ingredients are sustainably sourced) and how it was prepared. Aqua has been justly famed as one of the city’s finest for years now – this is where star chefs Traci Des Jardins and Michael Mina got their starts, among others – so be sure to book well ahead if you’re planning a…
reviewed
-
G
Canteen
The Mini Cooper of San Francisco restaurants, Canteen packs maximum flair into minimal space. Chef Dennis Leary (of Rubicon fame) jumped off the celebrity-chef-in-Vegas track to preside over the kitchen solo and cook whatever he damn well pleases on any given day, which if you're lucky might include smoked duck with Treviso raddichio and roast figs, and lamb with a pomegranate reduction. There are only three seatings a night at 6, 7:30, and 9.
Brunches may mean an hour wait, but it's hard to complain with your mouth full and toes curled in delight. Fingers crossed it's a prix fixe night, where the chef pulls out all the stops for around US$50. They can't accommodate…
reviewed
-
H
Range
Inspired American dining is alive and well at Range. Lowly pork shoulder becomes an eye-opener rubbed with coffee and served with bafflingly smooth grits, and wild nettle pasta stuffed with local goat cheese is a study in decadence. Celebrated pastry chef Michele Polzine's impeccable dessert soufflés will leave you weak in the knees, but although the beer fridge is a repurposed medical cabinet ominously emblazoned with the words 'Blood Bank,' Range won't actually cost you an arm or a leg.
reviewed
-
I
Bar Bambino
Rustic Italian fare at communal tables, right off the freeway. The olive-oil tasting is a bit much at $3 to $5 an ounce, but otherwise there’s no denying the appeal of this Southern Italian menu highlighting Californian produce: pasta with Mission figs and pancetta, fresh squash blossoms stuffed with sheep’s milk ricotta, and pine-nut-studded eggplant polpette (meat balls), each for under $15, plus a well-priced, adventurous Italian wine list.
reviewed
-
J
Café Myth
Office jockeys risk the boss' ire to wait in line for Myth's California-style classics, including sushi-grade ahi tuna salad, butternut squash soup with duck confit, and chicken pot pie bursting with organic vegetables. Ditch work early to share a leisurely dinner of large and small plates, and be prepared to a fight over the last bite of seared duck with sprightly orange, earthy shitake mushroom and pistachios, and mellow port wine reduction.
reviewed
Advertisement
-
K
Eos Restaurant & Wine Bar
A classic overachiever, Eos isn't content to have appreciative crowds licking the last of its classic shitake mushroom dumplings, chorizo sausage mussel small plates, and gooey cardamom chocolate cake. Instead it plies you with eclectic wine flights until you're proclaiming its genius to everyone who'll listen. Since tables are close, that could be everyone in the restaurant - good thing everyone's in a similar state.
reviewed
-
L
Bar Jules
Small, local and succulent is the credo at this corridor of a neighborhood bistro. The short daily menu thinks big with flavor-rich, sustainably minded offerings like local duck breast with cherries, almonds and arugula, a local wine selection and the dark, sinister 'chocolate nemesis.' Even with reservations, waits are a given – but so is simple, tasty food.
reviewed
-
M
Spruce
VIP all the way, with Baccarat crystal chandeliers, tawny leather chairs and your choice of 1000 wines. Ladies who lunch dispense with polite conversation, tearing into grass-fed burgers on house-baked English muffins loaded with pickled onions, zucchini grown on the restaurant's own organic farm and an optional slab of foie gras. Want fries with that? Oh yes you do: Spruce's are cooked in duck fat.
reviewed
-
N
Ivy
In the heart of Robertson's fashion frenzy, the Ivy's picket-fenced porch and rustic cottage are the power lunch spot. Chances of catching A-lister babes nibbling on a carrot stick or studio execs discussing sequels over the lobster omelet are excellent.
reviewed
-
O
Tiara Café
Pretty in pink and with a high ceiling, this Fashion District spot feeds designers, sales clerks and frenzied bargain hunters with healthy, organic fare that can be calibrated to meet vegan and vegetarian needs. The salads are fresh and abundant and the sandwiches are custom-made. Carbo-phobes should try the rice paper–wrapped versions.
reviewed
-
P
Lark Creek Inn
Lark Creek Inn is in a lovely spot and is a fine-dining experience. It's housed in an old Victorian building tucked away in a redwood canyon, and the farm-fresh American food (roast veal, seared scallops, roasted chestnut ravioli) is gratifying. The main dining room has a Sunday dinner formality, but you can also dine in the adjacent bar.
reviewed
-
Q
JiRaffe
Raphael Lunetta knows his waves and his kitchen. The avid surfer who studied cooking in France is a wizard when it comes to Cal-French compositions: pork chops are caramelized and paired with cider sauce; glazed salmon comes with saffron lemon couscous and artichokes. It's elegant, complex and supremely satisfying.
reviewed
-
R
Seis Palmas
The fantastic ocean sunsets from this Carrizalillo clifftop perch are the perfect backdrop for the inventive and delicious Californian-Oaxacan dishes arriving at your table. You might start with green-bean tempura with mustard, and follow it with a grilled whole snapper with grilled veggies and caramelized onions.
reviewed
-
Forge in the Forest
Many of the employees at the Forge are also the owners through a trust. They bring an enthusiasm to this fun place that's infectious. Dine on the well-heated and flower-bordered patio or on an antique table inside. The huge menu features great sandwiches, steaks and pizzas. The bar is a fine place for a drink.
reviewed
-
S
Salt House
For a business lunch that feels more like a spa getaway, take your choice of light fare such as duck confit or yellowfin tuna with beets. Forget the ice tea, and unwind with wine by the glass and refreshing ginger juleps instead. Service is leisurely, so order that carrot cake with cream-cheese ice cream now.
reviewed
Advertisement
-
T
Foreign Cinema
Reliably tasty dishes like cocoa-rubbed bavette steak and five-spice quail are the main attractions, but Luis Buñuel and François Truffaut provide an entertaining backdrop with movies screened in the courtyard, and subtitles you can follow when the conversation lags. For the red-carpet treatment, there's valet parking ($12) and a well-stocked oyster bar.
reviewed
-
U
Evans
This intimate and elegant dining room inside a little Tahoe cabin has been a highlight on the local foodie map for quite some time. It scores big for its exquisitely prepared and flavor-intensive Cal-French cuisine, subtle but attentive service and expertly put-together wine list. Reservations advised.
reviewed
-
Restaurant 301
Eureka's top table, romantic, sophisticated 301 serves a contemporary California menu, using produce from its organic gardens (tours available). Mains are pricey, but the five-course prix-fixe menu (around US$45) is a good deal. This is the place on date night. The encyclopedic wine list is stunning.
reviewed
-
V
Pinot Brasserie
The architectural accents and the kitchen's copper pots are authentic French imports. Traditionally, a brasserie (Alsacean for 'brewery') was for beer and the sustenance was cheap. At this star LA import, the focus is purely gourmet. Don't miss the fresh-shucked shellfish and wine-tasting flights.
reviewed
-
Casanova
From the time you step past the home grown lavender and into this cottage until you get the bill, you'll know you are someplace special. The food and service is all high end and the seasonal menu blends French and California cuisines. Most ingredients are organic and sourced locally.
reviewed