Restaurants in San Francisco
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Real Food
The deli cases at this organic grocery are packed with housemade prepared foods, including respectable sushi, roasted eggplant-and-tomato salad, free-range herb-turkey sandwiches and organic gingerbread. On sunny days, grab a seat on the patio. If you like what you taste, sign up for a cooking class (see the website).
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Old Jerusalem
Foodies scouring the Mission for the ultimate taco shouldn't overlook this outpost of Middle Eastern authenticity, complete with Dome of the Rock poster and pristine hummus – it doesn't overdo the tahini or garlic, or put roasted red peppers where they don't belong. Get the classic felafel, shwarma (marinated, roasted lamb) or shish taouk (marinated grilled chicken) with all the fixings: hummus, onion, eggplant, potato and tangy purple sumac, with optional hot-pepper paste.
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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.
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Gitane
Slip out of the Financial District and into something more comfortable at this sexy jewel-box bistro – a dimly lit mash-up of French boudoir and '70s chic, with lipstick-red lacquered ceilings reflecting tasseled silks, tufted leather and velvet snugs. The menu draws inspiration from Basque, Spanish and Moroccan traditions, with standout stuffed squash blossoms, lamb tartare, semolina-crusted sardines, sautéed radishes, silky pan-seared scallops and tagines (Moroccan stews). Make reservations and dress sharp. Or drop by for craft cocktails at the swank little bar.
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El Majahual
Even if papusa isn't part of your dining vocabulary, it'll become your new favorite word after you try El Majahual's Salvadoran pocket of fried dough stuffed with ground pork, green chili, and queso (cheese) loaded with pickled cabbage and salsa - yep, that's an around US$3 meal.
The Colombian side of the menu is pricier and a little lackluster compared to the Salvadoran papusas and tamales, but the fried yucca and plantains, passionfruit juice, and zesty sancocho de gallina (Colombian hen soup) are definite crowd-pleasers.
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Farmerbrown
This rebel from the wrong side of the block dishes up mean seasonal watermelon margaritas with a cayenne salt rim (genius), ribs that stick to yours, and coleslaw with a kick that'll leave your lips buzzing. Chef-owner Jay Foster works with local organic and African-American farmers to provide food with actual soul, in a setting that's rusted and cleverly repurposed as a shotgun shack. Harried service – it's always busy – and afro-funk beats match the uptempo crowd.
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Kabuto
Strict Tokyo traditionalists and seafood agnostics alike squeal over the innovative sushi served in this converted vintage hot-dog drive-in. Every night there's a line out the door to witness sushi chef Eric top nori-wrapped sushi rice with foie gras and olallieberry reduction, hamachi (yellowtail) with pear and wasabi mustard, and – eureka! – the '49er oyster with sea urchin, caviar, a quail's egg and gold leaf, chased with rare sake. Reserve ahead; seats groups up to four.
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Café Jacqueline
The secret terror of top chefs is the classic French soufflé: only when the ingredients are in golden-mean proportions, whipped into perfect peaks, baked at the right temperature and removed from the oven not a second too early or late will a soufflé rise to the occasion. Chef Jacqueline's soufflés float across the tongue like fog over the Golden Gate Bridge, and with the right person across the tiny wooden table to share that seafood soufflé, dinner could hardly get more romantic – until you order the chocolate for dessert.
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Duarte’s Tavern
But the best reason to come to Pescadero is Duarte’s Tavern, a country-style diner in the heart of town, serving classic Americana blue-plate home cooking. The same family has run the place for three generations, and the James Beard Foundation named their little linoleum-floored restaurant an American Classic. The menu lists chops, steaks, deep-fried seafood, good sandwiches and the usual burgers, but it’s the fresh-fish dishes (such as fried sand dabs and cioppino), homemade berry pies with flaky crusts, and rich meaty pan gravies that really win our vote.
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Acme Chop House
Once again chef Traci des Jardins, of Jardinière fame, has hit one out of the park - specifically SBC Park, which is right next door. Acme keeps sports fans and environmentalists happy with a clubhouse atmosphere designed with green building principles in mind, from the recycled cork floors to certified sustainable mahogany tables buffed to a handsome bar finish with non-toxic wax. Unlike certain ballplayers, Acme's organic steaks and chops are strictly steroid-free.
The sustainable petrale sole offers non-red-meat eaters a delectable alternative, and on the offchance you leave any scraps, rest assured it will be composted.
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Acquerello
A converted chapel is a fitting location for a meal that'll turn Italian culinary purists into true believers in Cal-Italian cuisine. Chef Suzette Gresham's generous pastas and ingenious seasonal meat dishes include heavenly quail salad, devilish lobster panzerotti (stuffed dough pockets in a spicy seafood broth), and venison loin chops. An anteroom where brides once steadied their nerves is now lined with limited-production Italian vintages, which the sommelier will pair by the glass.
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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…
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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…
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Jai Yun
‘Hello? When? How many? $55, $65, $75 per person? OK, see you!’ That’s how the reservation system works at Jai Yun, where chef Nei serves 15- to 20-course Shanghai-style market-fresh feasts by reservation only. There’s no menu, since the chef creates the bill of fare based on what’s fresh that day – but fingers crossed, your menu will include tender abalone that drifts across the tongue like a San Francisco fog, housemade rice noodles with cured pancetta, and seemingly lowly yet truly opulent mung beans with sesame oil. Never mind that the restaurant has more mirrors than a Bruce Lee movie and Christmas tinsel wrapped around dining-room surveillance cameras – the…
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Restaurant Michael Mina
Involuntary shudders can be induced in most San Franciscan foodies by uttering the words ‘hotel restaurant, ’ but chef Michael Mina’s exception to the rule at the Hotel St Francis proved so successful, he’s expanded his empire to 15 other restaurants. Mina takes a three-dimensional approach to dining, where each dish is actually three variations on one key ingredient. Though the signature triple tuna tartare starter and lobster pot pie mains have inspired raves and legions of copycats, the seasonal menu showcases innovation and ripe flavors – butter-poached lobster with melon laced with red curry, or foie gras terrine with pickled strawberries. Consultations with your…
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Ideale
Expat Italian regulars are stunned that a restaurant this authentic borders the Pacific, with proper bucatini ammatriciana (Roman tube pasta with tomato-pancetta-pecorino sauce), seafood risotto made with superior Canaroli rice, a well-priced selection of Italian wines, and wisecracking Tuscan waitstaff.
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La Boulange
Even the most die-hard boutique trawler needs to refuel sometime, and La Boulange offers caffeine and house-baked carbo-loading in the middle of the Union St strip. La Combo is a $7.25 lunchtime deal to justify your next Union St boutique purchase: half a tartine (open-faced sandwich) with soup or salad, plus all the Nutella and pickled cornichons (gherkins) you desire from the condiments bar.
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Rosamunde Sausage Grill
Impress a dinner date on the cheap: load up classic Brats or duck-fig links with complimentary roasted peppers, grilled onions, whole-grain mustard and mango chutney, and enjoy with your choice of 100 beers at Toronado, next door.
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Home
There's no place like it, especially if you enjoy comfort food - mac 'n' cheese, roast chicken, pot roast - served fireside, with a gaggle of gym-fresh men and $4 Homegirls (aka Cosmo plus Champagne) during the 4pm to 7pm happy hour.
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El Tonayense Taco Truck
The best meal on wheels in SF. Burritos and quesadillas are generous to a fault, but the $2 tacos are an easy gourmet meal on the go – especially the al pastor (marinated roast pork) and lengua (beef tongue).
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Underdog
For cheap, organic meals on the run in a bun, Underdog is the clear winner. The roasted garlic and Italian pork sausages are USDA certified-organic, and the smoky veggie chipotle hot dog could make dedicated carnivores into fans of fake meat.
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Greens
Career carnivores won't realize there's no meat in the hearty black-bean chili with crème fraîche and pickled jalapeños, or that roasted eggplant panino (sandwich), packed with hearty flavor from ingredients mostly grown on a Zen farm in Marin. On sunny days, get yours to go so you can enjoy it on a wharfside bench, but if you're planning a sit-down weekend dinner or Sunday brunch you'll need reservations.
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La Taqueria
Rabble-rouser, are you? Ask a group of San Franciscans where to get the best burrito in town, then as voices rise, quietly slip off to La Taqueria. There's no debatable saffron rice, spinach tortilla or mango salsa here – just perfectly grilled meats, flavorful beans and classic tomatillo or mesquite salsa wrapped in a flour tortilla. They're purists at La Taqueria – if you don't want beans, you'll pay extra because they pack in more meat – but add-ons of spicy pickled vegetables and crema (Mexican sour cream) are true burrito bliss.
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Pancho Villa
The hero of the downtrodden and burrito-deprived, delivering a fresh, heaping condiments bar and tinfoil-wrapped meals the girth of your forearm. The line moves fast going in, and as you leave, the door is held open for you and your newly acquired Pancho's paunch.
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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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