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Patisserie Philippe
Tartine better watch its derriére: dazzling new Patisserie Philippe is already becoming the French patisserie of choice for authenticity and elegance. You may come for the impeccable ham and cheese croissant or classic quiche Lorraine, but one look inside that swanky European glass counter and you'll skip straight to dessert.
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Pauline's Pizzeria
Bonding experiences begin with a shared thin-crust pie at Pauline's. First you'll wait for a table, then you'll wait for your pie - but with romantic candle light, crayons for drawing on your paper tablecloth, and zesty organic salads, there are worthy distractions before the main event. This is the pizza that makes locals smug and visiting Chicagoans and New Yorkers nervous, yet it's a good time had by all.
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Powell's Place
You came for the fried chicken, right? Join locals who anxiously followed this historic restaurant to its new location in the Fillmore, and rediscovered perfectly crispy chicken, spicy collard greens, and dirty rice with savory flecks of meat and secret spices. Bet you can't finish that order of chicken and waffles.
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Rainbow Grocery
The legendary cooperative attracts masses to buy eco/organic/fair trade products bulk, drool over the bounty of local cheeses, and flirt in the hemp-based skincare aisle. The worker-owners can't always be bothered to answer your questions about where to find what in the Byzantine bulk section, so ask a fellow shopper instead.
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Ramp
Only locals lunch here, in an industrial shipyard on the eastern waterfront. Sit on the docks at umbrella tables and purge your hangover with Bloodies. The food's OK, mostly sandwiches and salads, but the crowd is a cool cross section, and the not-yet gentrified area shows a side of SF few visitors see. Musicians play weekends and the place become a bar.
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Range
Fine American dining is alive and well within Range. Lowly pork shoulder becomes an eye-opener rubbed with coffee and served with bafflingly smooth grits, and bread pudding becomes a main event baked to velvety perfection with local radish sprouts and hints of gooey Gruyère. Although the repurposed medical cabinet behind the bar is labeled 'Blood Bank,' no resuscitation will be necessary after you get the check - mains are priced around US$20 .
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Real Food
Pacing the acreage of deli counter packed with appealing foods prepared in-house, and sandwiches in the making, doesn't make choosing any easier, but may eventually qualify as a gastronomic Olympic sport. Go with respectable nigiri sushi, fresh roasted eggplant and tomato salad, free-range herb turkey on focaccia, organic gingerbread, and fair trade coffee, and on less windy days, grab a seat on the front patio.
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Red's Java House
All the cheap diner classics you'd expect from a waterfront shack that's been dishing out hearty fare to dockworkers and the terminally hung-over since 1812: restorative greasy-spoon breakfasts, double cheeseburgers, chili cheese fries, even a deli Reuben on rye a New Yorker wouldn't refuse.
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Restaurant Michael Mina
Involuntary shudders can be induced in most San Franciscans foodies by uttering the words 'hotel restaurant,' but chef Michael Mina has created an exception at the Hotel St Francis that proved so successful he opened a second venue at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Mina's concept can be described as three-dimensional dining, where each dish is actually three variations on one key ingredient.
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Ristorante Ideale
Expat Italians are stunned that a restaurant this authentic borders the Pacific, with al dente pasta, risotto made with superior Canaroli rice, and wisecracking Tuscan staff and a Roman chef. The portions are lavishly American and the seafood and meat preparations quintessentially Italian to highlight the flavors released in cooking - unlike the many goat-cheese-and-sundried-tomato-pesto-on-everything imposters you'll find in this neighborhood.
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Ritual Coffee Roasters
House-roasted brews here are admirable; so is the sociability that persists despite the presence of free wi-fi. Or perhaps because of it: Ritual was abuzz with powered-up laptops till the disappearance of some wall sockets. Eavesdrop on group art projects and activist meetings in progress, and you could be privy to kite-flying performance art and the latest antiwar protest.
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Rosamunde Sausage Grill
Lowly links are the food of the gods here, from the divine chicken-cherry to the almighty duck. But you'll have a devil of a time choosing your complimentary condiments - roasted red peppers, grilled onions, and wasabi mustard are tempting with the Bratwurst, and mango chutney gives a touch of sweet heat to the lamb Merguez.
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Rose's Cafe
Lunch has a way of becoming dinner at this charming corner café. Follow your salads and house-made soups with rich organic polenta with gorgonzola and thyme, then linger over your espresso or grenadine-and-vanilla Monk's Blend tea. So shop if you must, but return from to for half-price wine by the glass.
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Sai Jai Thai
Mum and the cooks shout at each other in Thai, hardly anyone speaks English, and the room is grungy, but the cooking's spot-on. Just make sure when you're asked how hot, you reply, 'Spicy like for Thai people!'
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Saigon Sandwich Shop
Consider it frontier justice for the indecisive: order your around US$3 banh mi sandwich when the ladies of the Saigon call you, or you'll get skipped. Plunk down your pocket change when asked, and you'll be rewarded with a baguette piled high with your choice of pork, chicken, meatball, or tofu, plus pickled carrots, onion, jalapeños, cilantro, and mayo.
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Salt House
Finally, a downtown business-lunch place where you can forget you're headed back to the salt mines afterwards. The white corn soup with scallions and basil oil is as suavely dishy as the new guy in marketing - could it be secretly laced with white truffle oil? - and the ahi tuna sandwich is a healthy hunk of heaven that's the next best thing to ditching work for lunch at a spa. There's no way you're going to spend less than US$20 here for lunch.
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San Tung
When you arrive at 5:30 on a Sunday and already the place is thronged, you might think you've hit a family dinner crowd - but no, it really is this crowded all the time. Blame it on the dry braised chicken wings - tender, moist morsels that defy the very name - and the dumplings and noodles made by hand. You'll still be smacking your lips with the memory when the bill comes, and leaves you agog: a four-course meal for two for under US$20 .
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Shalimar
Follow your nose to tandoori chicken straight off the skewer and naan bread still bubbling from the oven; vegetables are leaden, so don't hold back on the succulent tandoori chicken that jumpstarted the whole florescent-lit Pakistani restaurant scene. Watch and learn as foodies who demand five-star service elsewhere meekly fetch their own water pitchers and tamarind sauce from the fridge.
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Slanted Door
San Francisco's most effortlessly elegant restaurant harmonizes Continental and American influences and Vietnamese inclinations. Owner/chef Charles Phan heightens organic flavors with distinctive ingredients, creating fragrant duck with figs, and garlicky Meyer Ranch 'shaking beef' atop watercress. The wildly successful venture is still a family establishment, with 20 Phan family members serving multi-star meals for here and to go at Open Door.
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Sparky's Diner
If you're hankering for breakfast at , head to Sparky's for burgers and coffee-shop classics 'round the clock. In the early evening it's not a bad place for families, but late at night customers tend to show up in duck costumes, full leather regalia, and sweaty glitter-strewn club gear.
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Spices
The menu might remind you of an oddly dubbed Hong Kong action flick, with dishes labeled 'explosive!!' and 'stinky!' in accordance with the mysterious house philosophy of 'Szechuan Trenz.' But the chefs here are true auteurs, creating sensational lip-tingling meals from pickled Napa cabbage and chili oil, silky ma-po tofu, and brain-curdling 'explosive!!' chicken. Cash only.
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Split Pea Seduction
You have to admire the gumption it takes to bring healthy, homestyle cooking in one of the least healthy, homey blocks in the city - and with the right ingredients at the right price, it seems to be working. Winning US$8 gourmet combinations include seasonal soups like heirloom tomato with lima bean and a signature crostata (open-faced sandwich), such as housemade Italian sausage with a slice of apple and a slab of blue cheese.
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St Francis Fountain
Tender nostalgia and a mean griddle account for lines out the door for breakfast on weekends, but lunch and soda-fountain treats deliver a similar kick without the wait. Share the chocolate malted, and offer to carry your date's books home from school. Works every time.
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Stacks
The kitschy urns of artificial flowers and faux-garden decor are more Branson-Missouri-motel than Cali-chic, but the fluffy-crispy wheat germ pancakes and stuffed crabmeat omelets add a fresh California twist on brunch. The prices may seem high until you get your loaded plate, and realize that the thing is big enough to double as a boogie board.
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Sunrise Deli
Another hidden gem in the fog belt, Sunrise dishes up what is arguably the city's best smoky baba ghanoush, mujeddrah (lentil-rice with crispy onions), garlicky foul (fava bean spread), and crispy falafel, either to go or to enjoy in the old-school café atmosphere. Local Arab American hipsters confess to passing off the Sunrise's specialties as their own home cooking to older relatives - it really is that authentic.
