San Francisco Restaurants

The City of San Francisco is home to thousands of restaurants and is a very much a community that is immersed in the culture of food and dining.

• Gary Danko American, Phone: 415-749-2060 Google Map
  • Concierge.com Recommendation: "The intimate rooms, adorned with well-chosen artwork, natural woods, and flattering spot lighting, exude a warm neighborhood vibe."

• • Frommer's Execptional Rating: "Danko offers impeccable cuisine and perfectly orchestrated service in an untraditionally unstuffy environment of wooden paneling and shutters and well-spaced tables (not to mention new spa-style bathrooms)."

• • Zagat Well Rated

• Fleur de Lys Californian/French/Vegetarian, Phone: 415-673-7779 Google Map
  • Concierge.com: "After a fire in 2001, the restaurant was completely renovated, with rich red fabrics, a dazzling crystal chandelier, and cozy alcoves. The canopied dining room now resembles a tent at Versailles, an appropriately regal setting for chef Hubert Keller."

• • Frommer's Highly Recommended: "Fleur de Lys is the city's most traditional and formal classic French affair."

• • Zagat Well Rated

• Farallon Seafood, Phone: 415-956-6969 Google Map
  • Frommer's Highly Recommended: "The multimillion-dollar attraction's outrageous decor follows the "coastal" cuisine theme; hand-blown jellyfish lamps, kelp bedlike backlit columns, glass clamshells, sea-urchin light fixtures, a sea-life mosaic floor, and a tentacle-encircled bar set the scene."

• • Fodor's Choice: "Sculpted jellyfish lamps, kelp-covered columns, and sea-urchin chandeliers give this swanky Pat Kuleto-designed restaurant a decidedly quirky look."

• • Zagat Well Rated

• Fifth Floor French, Phone: 415-348-1555 Google Map
  • Frommer's Exceptional Rating: "Fantastic, young executive chef and two-time James Beard nominee Melissa Perello, previously of Charles Nob Hill, sommelier Emily Wines (yes, that is her last name), and truly exceptional pastry chef Marika Doob are the all-female culinary dream team behind one of the city's finest restaurant experiences."

• • Zagat Well Rated

• Campton Place American, Phone: 415-955-5555 Google Map
  • Frommer's Exceptional Rating: "Campton Place is everything a fine-dining establishment should be: intimate with well-spaced tables, warm (very beige) surroundings; a knowledgeable, unstuffy staff; and decibel levels that allow for relaxed conversation."

• • Zagat Well Rated

• Slanted Door Vietnamese, Phone: 415-861-8032 Google Map
  • Concierge.com Recommendation: "The vast, modern glass-and-steel space is always packed with posh diners ogling each other and the sweeping views of the bay. Chef Charles Phan's menu is a blend of Asian street food and traditional Vietnamese dishes..."

• • Frommer's Very Highly Recommended: "Pull up a chair and order anything from clay-pot catfish or amazing green papaya salad to one of the lunch rice dishes, which come in a large ceramic bowl and are topped with such options as grilled shrimp and stir-fried eggplant."

• • Zagat Well Rated

• Quince French/Italian, Phone: 415-775-8500 Google Map
  • Concierge.com Recommendation: "This tiny one-room, dinner-only restaurant tucked into the ground floor of a Pacific Heights manse has become one of San Francisco's top dining destinations since opening in December 2003..."

• • Frommer's Very Highly Recommended: "With only 15 tables, diners are clamoring for a seat in order to savor the pristine nightly changing Italian-inspired menu by Michael Tusk, who mastered the art of pasta while working at the East Bay's famed Chez Panisse and Oliveto restaurants."

• • Fodor's Choice: "In one of San Francisco's most fashionable residential neighborhoods, the small, smart eatery caters to folks with fat pocketbooks who plan ahead: tables are booked weeks in advance."

• • Zagat Food Tops

• Piperade Basque, Phone: 415-391-2555 Google Map
  • Concierge.com Recommendation: "[P]iperade is a bit like its namesake: a little French, a little Spanish, and all good. With its rustic-chic decor (wooden floors, bold art, and a singles-jammed communal table), the place somehow manages to be both cozy and hip."

• • Frommer's Very Highly Recommended: "Surrounded by a low wood-beam-lined ceiling, oak floors, and soft sconce lighting, it's a casual affair where diners huddle around white tablecloth-topped tables and indulge in small and large plates of Hirigoyen's superbly flavorful West Coast Basque cuisine."

• • Zagat Well Rated

• Foreign Cinema Californian/Mediterranean, Phone: 415-648-7600 Google Map
  • Frommer's Very Highly Recommended: "This place is so chic that it's hard to believe it's a San Francisco restaurant, and it's so well hidden on Mission Street that it eludes me every time I seek the valet."

• • Zagat Well Rated

• Aziza Moroccan, Phone: 415-752-2222 Google Map
  • Frommer's Very Highly Recommended: "Chef-owner Mourad Lahlou creates an excellent dining experience through colorful and distinctly Moroccan surroundings and his modern but still authentic take on the food of his homeland."

• • Zagat Well Rated

• CitySearch: Best Cheap Eats 2006

• R&G Lounge Chinese, Phone: 415-982-7877 Google Map
  • Concierge.com Recommendation: "[E]veryone from families and tourists to local chefs and Asian celebrities - knows that the Hong Kong-style cooking at R & G is far from ordinary."

• • Frommer's Very Highly Recommended: "During lunch, both recently modernized floors are packed with hungry neighborhood workers who go straight for the $5.50 rice-plate specials."

• • Zagat Well Rated

• Ton Kiang Restaurant Dim Sum, Phone: 415-387-8273 Map
  • Frommer's Very Highly Recommended: "Ton Kiang is the number one place in the city to have dim sum (served daily). Wait in line (which is out the door 11am-1:30pm), get a table on the first or second floor, and get ready to say yes to dozens of delicacies, which are brought to the table for your approval."

• • Fodor's Choice: "The lightly seasoned Hakka cuisine of southern China, rarely found in this country and even little known in the Middle Kingdom, was introduced to San Francisco here."

• Tu Lan Vietnamese, Phone: 415-626-0927 Google Map
  • Frommer's Highly Recommended: "You'll have to brave the winos, weirdos, and street stench to get to this total dive in an unsavory neighborhood bordering Union Square and SoMa, but I do it happily to get my hands on the best imperial rolls on the planet."

• • Zagat Well Rated

• Chow American, Phone: 415-552-2469 Google Map
  • Frommer's Very Highly Recommended: "While the food and prices alone would be a good argument for coming here, beer on tap, a great inexpensive wine selection, and the fun, tavernlike environment clinch the deal."

• • Fodor's Choice: "The savvy try to leave room for an order of the ginger cake with caramel sauce. Because reservations are restricted to large parties, folks hoping to snag seats usually surround the doorway."

• • Zagat Well Rated

• Citizen Cake Californian/Dessert, Phone: 415-861-2228 Google Map
  • Zagat Well Rated

• Happy Cow: San Francisco Vegetarian Restaurants

• Greens Restaurant Phone: 415-771-6222 Google Map
  • Frommer's Very Highly Recommended: "In an old waterfront warehouse, with enormous windows overlooking the bridge, boats, and the bay, this vegetarian restaurant is a pioneer and a legend."

• Millennium Phone: 415-345-3900 Google Map
  • Frommer's Highly Recommended: "In a narrow, handsome, Parisian-style dining room with checkered tile flooring, French windows, and sponge-painted walls, Millennium has had nothing but favorable reviews"

• • Zagat Well Rated

• Ananda Fuara Phone: 415-621-1994 Google Map