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Suppenküche
Doesn't matter if you got just caught in fog without a jacket or saw a Mahler symphony with a hangover: Suppenküche's German comfort food will put things right. Potato pancakes with homemade tart applesauce or a farmer's omelet with bacon, potatoes, cheese and a side of pickles and pork sausage will restore your faith in brunch, if not humanity.
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Sushi Time
Barbie, G.I. Joe, and Hello Kitty make cameos on the maki menu at this surreal sushi spot downstairs from a bookstore and gym, Tokyo-style. Devour sashimi in the tiny glassed-in patio like a shark in an aquarium, and notice how your munching mysteriously synchronizes with the J-pop on the stereo and exercise bikers pumping away upstairs.
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Swan Oyster Depot
Superior freshness without the superior attitude. There's inevitably a long wait for the few counter seats, but high turnover means your seafood is unbelievably fresh. On sunny days, place an order to go, then whisk past the line to pick up your crab salad with Louie dressing and the obligatory top-grade oysters with mignonette (wine/shallot) sauce. Bus/hike up to Sterling Park to enjoy your superlative seafood with ocean views.
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Swenson's
Bite into your ice-cream cone, and you'll get instant brain-freeze and a hit of nostalgia besides. Oooh-ouch, that peppermint stick really takes you back, doesn't it? The 16-ounce root beer floats are the 1950s version of Prozac, but the classic hot fudge sundae is pure seratonin with sprinkles on top.
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Taiwan Restaurant
Feast for days on stellar dishes under US$8 , including dumplings made fresh to order, smoky dry braised green beans, feisty black bean chicken, and housemade Shanghai sesame hot sauce noodles with pickled vegetables. The pink and chrome '80s decor just goes to show that Taiwan is single-minded in its pursuit of the most lavish banquet for four you'll ever get this cheap.
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Tartine
Gluttony and vats of butter are the obvious explanations for pain au chocolat rich enough for millionaires and croque monsieurs turbo-loaded with ham, two kinds of cheese, and bechamel. Cinnamon-laced, butter-rich morning buns and pain au jambon might sound grand for a breakfast picnic in Mission Dolores Park, until you realize after the fact that you no longer have the will to stand.
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Taste Of The Himalayas
Yes, there is ethnic food and charming eccentricity even in the Marina. Even more heart-warming than a momo (a dumpling-samosa hybrid) or the nutty-creamy chicken tikka masala is the sincerely kind owner, who's often moved to sing a song of welcome to diners and donates a portion of proceeds to local nonprofits, including Curry without Worry.
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Taylor's Automatic Refresher
The pasture-raised beef burgers may have won awards, but the spicy sweet potato fries alone are worth the wait in line. Chocolate mint milkshakes are generous enough but a bit milky for Midwestern purists - but you can hardly complain about a drink menu that hits all the Napa wine favorites, including the high-end Opus One created by Robert Mondavi and Baroness Philippine de Rothschild.
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Thanh Long
During crab season, foodies join famished surfers in the Outer Sunset for whole roast Dungeness crabs (around US$30 ), large enough to be shared by two, and garlic noodles (around US$7 ). Reservations are recommended.
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Thep Phanom
The duck larb salad is aromatic with a tantalizing zing, and the crispy quail will get you wondering what could top this - and your answer would be prawns bobbing in a lime-lemongrass coconut sea, or deep-friend whole tilapia with garlic/ginger sauce. Enjoy your dinner with a frisky New Zealand white, and Kahlua crème brûlée afterwards.
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Ton Kiang Restaurant
The reigning champion of dim sum runs laps around the competition, pushing trolleys laden with fragrant, steaming bamboo baskets. Don't bother asking for an explanation: just take a whiff, and decide what dishes to take on aroma alone. A running tally is kept at your table, so you could conceivably quit while you're ahead of the US$20 mark - but wait, that one smells good too…
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Town Hall
The plain-speaking menus and low-key décor recall a simpler time, before nouvelle cuisine created menus that read like romance novels and dinner for two became high theater. But if you're won over by the populist charm, wait until you try whipsmart dishes like slow-roasted duck with wild rice and gingersnap gravy, or scallop and andouille sausage jambalaya. Speaking plainly: mains are just as inventive at lunch, at half the price.
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Trader Joe's
This low-rent gourmet chain carries some great deals on California wines, prepared salads for healthy picnics, and a wide variety of trail mixes, nuts, and power bars to suit Mount Everest trekkers and San Franciscan hill climbers alike.
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Tu Lan
Get a whiff of what's cooking, and you won't mind waiting on the sketchiest stretch of sidewalk in SF, surly service, or dingy linoleum. Don't be dissuaded by the unappetizing names: 'Tomato Sauce Prawn' is a succulent stir-fry with tomatoes, onions, and hot peppers, and 'VN Chicken Curry' means chicken, potatoes, and peppers in a velvety, savory-sweet mild curry sauce. One dish under around US$10 easily fills two starving artists.
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Vital Tea Leaf
With so many teas to taste free, you might get jitters before you decide between the venerable Thousand Year Red and the gender-bending Iron Goddess King. Sounds like a job for White Peony - even if it's not 'antispasmodic' as advertised, there's no arguing with its mellow flavor. For gifts, go with flower teas that blossom in a pot of hot water: one ball serves four and costs around US$2 to $2.
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Whole Foods Market
Somewhere between the gym and checking on the trust fund at the bank, Pacific Heights denizens squeeze in grocery shopping at Whole Foods. Watch as locals wise to Whole Foods' Chilean imports of organic asparagus demand the local stuff instead, inquire after the care and feeding of cattle at the meat counter, and make a meal of free samples of fair trade chocolate: this is luxury grocery shopping, San Francisco style.
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Wing Lee
Ha gow (shrimp dumplings) are the perennial favorites here, with an order of three for a couple of bucks - but at these prices, you can show some love for dumplings filled with shrimp and chives, chicken bao (buns), and vegetable-pork pot stickers for under around US$10 . Sit down at the school-cafeteria-style communal tables and enjoy - and pssst, pass the hot sauce.
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Wooden Charcoal BBQ
Serious late-night munchies deserve marinated short ribs and chicken, thinly sliced and grilled to perfection at your table. All orders come with rice, soup, and an assortment of sundubu, Korean side dishes.
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Yuet Lee
With a radioactive green paint job and merciless fluorescent lighting, this so-hideous-it's-cool seafood diner isn't for first dates, but for drinking buddies and long-time couples with nothing to hide and a willingness to share outstanding batter-dipped salt and pepper calamari and tender roast duck. As in a Wong Kar Wai film, true love and late-night munchies really can conquer all.
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Yum Yum Fish
You've found it: the one restaurant review certain to outrage San Franciscans. Once you've heard about watching the Chinese sushi chef at this fish market lovingly slice lavish hunks of fresh sashimi and prepare a platter to order with your special maki (roll) needs in mind, at as little as a dollar per order for vegan rolls, naturally you're going to want to investigate.
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Za
Pizza lovers brave the uphill climb for cornmeal-dusted, thin-crust pizza by the slice piled with fresh ingredients, a pint of Anchor Steam, and a friendly sit-down setting among witty, flirtatious pizza-slingers - all for eight bucks.
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Zazie
Zazie's narrow skylighted dining room and overgrown back garden is about as pleasant a spot for breakfast or lunch as you could find. Eggs, fluffy pancakes (with batter left to rise overnight) and gourmet sandwiches are the order of the daytime. It's also open for dinner, when the menu focuses on the Provençal version of comfort food - nothing spectacular, but not bad when you're shirking the kitchen.
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Ziryab
Banish all memories of choking down dry chicken shwarmas with one midnight bite of this succulent organic chicken number rolled in flatbread and sealed with hummous with a tantalizing whiff of curry. Granted, this one costs more - around US$9 , in fact - but consider it a college education for your palate, and it seems cheap.
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Zuni Café
Gimmickry is for amateurs - Zuni has been turning basic menu items into gourmet staples since 1979. Reservations and fat wallets are necessary, but the see-and-be-seen seating is a kick and the food is beyond reproach: organic beef burgers on focaccia with matchstick fries, Caesar salad with house-cured anchovies, crispy roasted free-range chicken with horseradish mashed potatoes, and impeccable chocolate pudding.
