San Francisco · Where to eat

Modern Asian-American
A calm, low-lit room off a SoMa alley where a different server tends to arrive with almost every course. Book on Tock; expect three hours at the table and supplements that move the bill well past the headline menu price.
Order: No à la carte: the fixed tasting runs to around sixteen courses, and the thousand-year-old quail egg and the foie gras xiao long bao are the ones people talk about afterwards
book on Tock, weeks ahead

Italian-Californian tasting
A grand, hushed Jackson Square dining room with a second, lower-key life in the Bolinas Bar. Open Tuesday to Saturday only; the main room books through SevenRooms, while the Bolinas Bar takes walk-ins unless you want its four-course menu.
Order: The pasta course on the Gastronomy menu, built on produce from the restaurant's own Fresh Run Farm in Bolinas
reserve via SevenRooms; Bolinas Bar walk-ins

French seafood tasting
A small, deliberately theatrical Fillmore Street room where the menu arrives as verse and the pacing is slow by design. Booked through OpenTable and gone quickly; the wine pairing roughly doubles what you pay.
Order: The Chef's Grand Tasting Menu is the only option — seafood and vegetables, no red meat, the courses printed as lines of a poem
book on OpenTable well ahead

Contemporary Mexican
Black walls, high ceilings and stage lighting in a cavernous 11th Street space; the floor team moves like a company. Around sixteen courses at roughly $390 a head, so treat it as the evening rather than part of one.
Order: The chilapita — a masa chip under sturgeon cream and caviar — and the squab árabe folded into a sourdough tortilla
book on OpenTable, weeks ahead

Californian wood fire
An open room built around a working wood hearth, formal in execution but conversational in tone. Around $368 a head before the 150-page wine list, so dinner for two comfortably clears $1,000.
Order: Whatever comes off the hearth with its skin left crackling — the trout is the usual answer — and the antelope served three ways
reservations required, book on OpenTable

Modern American tasting
A two-storey Mission space done as a knowing riff on a hunting lodge, with an upstairs lounge for the aperitif before you sit at communal tables. Eleven courses at around $295, sold as tickets through Tock — join the mailing list, because releases go fast.
Order: The whipped scrambled eggs served back in the shell, and the honey cake among the parting treats
ticketed on Tock; watch the email releases

Nordic-leaning tasting
Eleven tables in a converted Hayes Valley garage — exposed concrete, no tablecloths, music loud enough to keep neighbouring tables private. Roughly twenty courses at about $305; the fifteen-minute grace period is enforced and a late arrival can forfeit a prepaid booking.
Order: The Dungeness crab custard with pear and trout roe; the caviar supplement is the one add-on worth taking
prepaid booking; arrive within 15 minutes

Refined Italian
A converted chapel on Sacramento Street run with old-school formality — jackets for men — and a cellar of some 15,000 bottles weighted to Italy. Choose between à la carte and the tasting menu when you book; the dessert trolley is the reason to leave room.
Order: The Parmesan budino with truffle perlage, then as much as you can take from the mignardises cart
book ahead; jacket expected

Californian Chinese
A sleek room above a Chinatown alley in a building that has housed banquet halls for a century. Dinner only, Tuesday to Saturday, and reservations are taken online only — they do not accept them by phone or email.
Order: The Peking-style whole roast duck, ordered when you book, with prawn toast and the smoked Hodo tofu alongside
online reservations only, no phone bookings

Inventive Californian
A bright, noisy Fillmore Street room where dishes circulate on trolleys and the bill assembles itself as you point. Reservations for parties of one to four go through the website; the alcove seats six to eight.
Order: The state bird with provisions — fried quail with stewed onions — and then whatever looks best coming past on the carts
book online; small parties only

Korean charcoal barbecue
An all-white Mission building with the grill working in plain view behind the bar; service is unhurried and precise for somewhere this casual. Tables are released 29 days out at 10am on SevenRooms and a 7pm slot is close to impossible — walk-ins queue before the 5pm opening.
Order: The galbi off the lychee-charcoal grill, with the galbi mandu and their lacy crisp skirts to start
tables at 10am, 29 days ahead

Contemporary Thai
A two-storey Japantown room of curved booths and overspilling plants, nothing like the hotel dining room it occupies. Book through Resy; the upstairs cocktail lounge takes walk-ins and serves the à la carte menu.
Order: The squid and pork jowl off the grill, and the miang pla — crisp branzino cubes with chilli
book on Resy; lounge takes walk-ins

Neapolitan Italian
A long, loud Marina room with bar seats facing the ovens, going since well before the Michelin attention. One of the few places at this level where a table on the night is genuinely possible; open from noon at weekends.
Order: The margherita off the wood oven and the maccaronara with ragù and ricotta salata
reservations advised, walk-ins often fine

Japanese izakaya
Carpentered wood, arched beams and a plant-filled courtyard on a scruffy stretch of 14th Street. Closed Tuesdays, last seating 10pm, and bookings open on Resy 28 days ahead at 10am — walk-in seating is very limited.
Order: The yakitori tsukune with its egg yolk dip, then the kurobuta tonkatsu and the hanetsuki gyoza
Resy at 10am, 28 days ahead

Cantonese dim sum
White tablecloths and rolling carts across two downtown branches, third-generation family run. Dim sum service stops at 3pm and there is no dinner, so this is a lunch plan; the Spear Street room is the quieter of the two.
Order: The pork xiao long bao and the har gow, plus the Peking duck when the cart reaches you
book online; lunch only, closes 3pm

Sichuan
A plain, busy Jackson Street room run by a chef who cooked at the Chinese consulate. Closed Tuesdays; groups of four or more need to reserve at least a day ahead, smaller parties can usually walk in.
Order: Fish fillet in flaming chilli oil, and the tea-smoked duck to balance it
walk-in for two; book ahead for four plus

Californian seasonal
Reclaimed timber and sea light on Judah Street, four blocks from Ocean Beach and worth the trip out. Dinner takes reservations, weekend brunch does not — turn up and wait, maximum party of eight.
Order: The Wednesday-night burger on a house brioche bun with hand-cut fries; any other night, start with the bread boule
book dinner online; brunch is walk-in only

Japanese izakaya
A relaxed, wood-lined room on Townsend Street from the Omakase group, busy with the SoMa lunch trade on weekdays. Reservations are recommended through OpenTable; weekday lunch service runs 11.30am to 2.30pm.
Order: The Shinjuku roll — snow crab and avocado under A5 wagyu — with nigiri from the Toyosu delivery
reservations recommended

Raw bar seafood
Eighteen stools along a worn marble counter, unchanged for a century, no tables and no bookings. Cash only, doors open at 8am, and the queue can already be long by then; the building changed hands in 2025 but the counter kept running.
Order: The Sicilian sashimi — salmon, tuna and scallop with olive oil, capers and salt — and a crab cocktail
walk-in only, cash only, expect a long queue

Californian Mediterranean
A split-level wedge of glass on Market Street with white tablecloths and the wood oven in view, going since 1979. Closed Mondays; reservations open 60 days ahead by phone or OpenTable, and parties of seven or more must ring.
Order: The brick-oven roast chicken for two with bread salad — order it the moment you sit, it takes an hour
books 60 days ahead; closed Mondays

American prime rib
Dark wood, tartan and silver carving carts on Van Ness, essentially unaltered since 1949. Dinner only from 5pm on weekdays and 4pm at weekends; reservations are strongly advised and go weeks out.
Order: The City Cut, carved from the trolley, with Yorkshire pudding and the salad spun at your table
book weeks ahead, dinner only

Old-school seafood
California's oldest continuously running restaurant, all mahogany booths and career waiters on California Street. Closed Sundays and it opens late on Saturdays at 4pm; reservations are now taken but the bar handles walk-ins.
Order: The cioppino, or anything grilled over mesquite charcoal
reservations taken, walk-ins at the bar

Bakery and pastry
The corner of Guerrero and 18th that reset American bread baking, still a counter with a handful of seats and no bookings. The wait is now nearer twenty minutes than the old block-long queue, but the country loaf is baked twice a day and sells out.
Order: The morning bun, and a country loaf if you time the second bake
walk-in only, about twenty minutes at weekends

Wood-fired Californian
A converted bank on Divisadero with a mezzanine, a jazz mural and an open wood oven, the neighbourhood's anchor since 2006. Dinner only and it runs late on Fridays and Saturdays; book on OpenTable or take a seat at the bar.
Order: The pork chop, charred hard at the edges, with the wood-baked gigante beans
book on OpenTable; bar kept for walk-ins

Mission-style Mexican
A tiled Mission Street room with a painted arch, arguing the case against rice in a burrito since 1973. There is almost always a line, and the hours are shorter than the taquerias around it, so check before making the trip.
Order: The riceless carne asada burrito, dorado on the plancha, with the green salsa from the table
walk-in only, short hours, expect a queue

Californian seafood
A narrow marble-and-stainless counter on Castro Street hung with anchors and life rings, plus a parklet outside. No bookings: write your name on the whiteboard and walk the block until it comes up — tables turn fast.
Order: The cioppino, with the crab cakes and a bowl of clam chowder before it
no bookings, whiteboard waitlist

Mission-style taqueria
A strip-lit counter operation on Mission Street with a salsa bar and a queue that moves quickly, open long past when anything else is. Cash only, with an ATM inside; most of the menu sits under $15.
Order: The super burrito with carne asada; the quesadilla suiza if it is after midnight
walk-in only, cash only, open late

Sicilian-style slices
A sticker-covered North Beach shopfront under a red neon finger, punk on the stereo, beer on tap and nowhere to sit. Takeaway only — order in person or phone ahead — and slices run about $4.50.
Order: A square of the pepperoni, or the clam and garlic if it is out
takeaway only, order at the counter

Cantonese dim sum
A Stockton Street counter with a display case, no seating and a queue out the door most mornings. Cash, takeaway only, and almost nothing costs more than $4 — know your order before you reach the front.
Order: Har gow, siu mai and a baked barbecue pork bun, with an egg yolk bun for later
walk-in only, takeaway, be quick at the counter

Burmese counter
A galley kitchen on 18th Street with about a dozen counter stools, run by two cooks working at speed. Cash only; expect to wait outside even for takeaway, and a full meal comes in around $21.
Order: The tea leaf salad and the house noodles
walk-in only, cash only, counter seats

Hakata tonkotsu ramen
An upstairs unit in the Japantown mall, plain and permanently full. No bookings and the queue can run to an hour at peak; lunch service closes at 2pm on weekdays before the evening reopening.
Order: The Hakata tonkotsu with thin noodles and chashu pork belly
walk-in only, up to an hour at peak

Burmese
A plain, packed Clement Street room that has been the city's Burmese benchmark since 1992, best eaten family-style. A limited number of tables can be booked through the website; otherwise join the waitlist and expect a wait.
Order: The tea leaf salad, tossed at the table, with the platha flatbread and coconut dip
limited bookings, otherwise waitlist