It’s undeniable that the Fisherman’s Wharf of today may not quite live up to the rose-tinted memories of years gone by. But things remain reliably and pleasantly the same at Scoma’s, the nearly 60-year-old restaurant on the literal dock of the Bay. The menu will satisfy all your touristy seafood cravings for oysters, Dungeness crab cocktail, clam chowder, and cioppino, though the lengthy selections also include a spicy chicken sandwich and pasta with red sauce. Almost as much as the food, the space itself is the draw, whether you sit outside with the sound of lapping waves in the background or inside the wood-paneled dining room decorated with oodles of local sports paraphernalia.

Chef Francis Ang’s Abacá brings contemporary Filipino cuisine to a sunny space on the ground floor of a Fisherman’s Wharf hotel, the plant-filled restaurant further brightened by sunflower yellow banquettes and woven baskets from the southeast Asian archipelago. The dinner menu gives familiar dishes a modern California update — think, seafood pancit topped with smoked bay scallops, and longganisa pork sausage skewered on a thin stick and served with egg yolk and cane vinegar for dipping. Weekend brunch is a real treat, when you can truly appreciate the pastry skills of both Ang and James Beard Award-nominated pastry chef Vince Bugtong in dishes like a chewy pandan mochi waffle and savory ensaymada French toast. 

Dalida packs a one-two punch. Located in San Francisco’s Presidio, it will feel like an adventure navigating through the park’s streets, and the reward is gorgeous views of the water, the Golden Gate Bridge, and lovely green spaces. Wrest yourself from the great outdoors and inside Dalida, you’ll find high-calibre Eastern Mediterranean food from chefs Laura and Sayat Ozyilmaz. Expect showstopper food such as their octopus and sujuk dish, as well as tahdig dressed in luxe items like uni and smoked trout roe. If you’re feeling extra adventurous, the Chefs Menu option for $75 will see the Ozyilmazes select dishes for your meal to guarantee a great time at the table.

Wander through picturesque Jackson Square and down Gold Street, and step into the time machine that is Bix. The two-story restaurant immerses diners into a sleek, speakeasy, jazz club-type space, where the city outside melts away with a classic martini or Manhattan. The “modern American” food is excellent here; don’t skip the steak tartare or the “Potato Pillows”: puffed, fried squares of potato topped with caviar. It’s hard to go wrong from there, but a word to the wise: If Bix’s summer tomato cart option is available, go for it and watch as the tomatoes are dressed tableside in mozzarella, basil, and olive oil. It’s pure summer magic.

Of course, San Francisco has an armada of top-notch bakeries specializing in sourdough bread, croissants, legendary egg tarts, and Asian American pastries. But there’s only one épicerie and café where diners can get a custardy cannelé and a slab of pâté en croûte — and that’s Maison Nico. Chef Nicolas Delaroque earned a Michelin star for his eponymous restaurant, but one global pandemic later he’s focused on fabulous brioche feuilletée; pâté en croûte studded with pork, butternut squash, and smoked eel; and an eye-catching ​​seafood aspic made with hunks of lobster, red snapper, mussels, and a bouillabaisse gelée. Pop by for a light lunch, but be warned some pastries may be sold out by midday. 

It was a big deal for San Francisco when James Beard Award-winning chef Brandon Jew took over the historic Four Seas banquet hall space and opened an ambitious Chinese-American restaurant in the heart of Chinatown. The dining room remains a green-and-white gem of the neighborhood, even following a light renovation earlier this spring. Jew also introduced a new prix-fixe menu format with the option to add on banquet-style plates like some of San Francisco’s best roast duck served with peanut butter hoisin, along with cocktails, beer, and cider.

This 70-year-old Nob Hill classic is a trip back to a time when plating with tweezers was not yet a thing. The name says it all: House of Prime Rib serves one thing and one thing only, and it does that roast prime rib very, very well. The only choices to make are: meat temperature, cut thickness, mashed or loaded baked potatoes, and martini or Manhattan. Each plate comes with a salad (prepared tableside), creamed spinach, Yorkshire pudding, and potatoes — and of course a hulking piece of beef cut from one of the wheeled meat carts.

Pastry superstars Belinda Leong and Michel Suas continue to dominate both California Street — where the duo operates B. Patisserie, b. on the Go, and their latest full-service restaurant Routier — and the San Francisco pastry scene. There’s no shortage of excellent bakers in this city, but Leong’s impossibly buttery and flakey kougin amann are truly iconic. On a first visit, it’s hard to stray from the classic iteration, but when the seasons change it’s an excellent idea to explore the fruit and black sesame variations.

For a touch of classic San Francisco at classic San Francisco prices (read: not exorbitantly expensive), Tommy’s Joynt is the casual hofbrau where locals go for a hearty meal and divey drinks. Line up and order a dinner platter featuring a choice of hand-carved meats like turkey, roast beef, pastrami, or corned beef with a choice of two sides, or add those carved meats into a sandwich served with barbecue, gravy, or au jus. The restaurant is group-ready, with plenty of seats to drink and eat at.

Chef Srijith Gopinathan has been a star of the Bay Area dining scene for years, having earned two Michelin stars at Campton Place, where he cooked for an impressive 15 years. His most recent project, however, takes things in a more personal direction. The stunningly designed Copra draws inspiration from his home state of Kerala, on the southwestern tip of India. Start with a palette of seasonal chutneys served with various lentil crisps before moving into larger plates like black cod pollichathu, which features shallot-crusted fish wrapped in banana leaves. For dessert, don’t miss the “God’s Own” Coconut Variation.

Kin Khao, the more casual sister restaurant to Nari in Japantown, holds a single Michelin star, and for good reason. Here chef Pim Techamuanvivit and chef de cuisine James Slagle give diners a taste of Thai cooking with no holds barred in terms of flavor. Don’t miss the steamed jar of spicy curry mouse called mushroom har mok or the charred local squid, a tart and smoky dish scattered with peanuts and cilantro. Open for lunch and dinner in a hotel near Union Square, the restaurant doesn’t offer as elegant an atmosphere as Nari, but the addictingly bold flavors more than make up for anything you might find lacking in the decor. 

The location of this Malaysian restaurant in the heart of the Tenderloin neighborhood is no accident. James Beard Award-recognized chef Azalina Eusope has been bringing her food and culture to this corner of the city for decades, first selling at the farmers market and later at a stall inside the Twitter building. This eponymous restaurant, however, is her most polished yet, housed in a sunny corner space that transports diners far from the Bay and to a Southeast Asian night market. Eusope and her small but mighty staff serve four-course menus that change regularly but strive to give diners a taste of rare Mamak cuisine. You’re all but guaranteed to see dishes not found elsewhere in the city. 

Most people probably think of the Progress as a spinoff of James Beard Award-winning State Bird Provisions, which opened first. But ask co-chefs Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski and they’ll explain that the Progress is actually the stunning, fine-casual restaurant they first dreamed of creating. The menu, which is constantly in flux, reflects whatever’s in season around the Bay Area and never seems to hold back on bold flavors and unexpected ingredient combinations. Bring a crew as the menu is comprised almost entirely of sharable plates – though you’ll definitely want a caviar potato cloud and a cup of “world peace” peanut milk entirely to yourself. 

Though the small enclave of Russian markets and businesses in the Richmond has contracted over the years, Cinderella Bakery & Cafe endures, thanks in large part to its fresh baked loaves of rye bread, puff pastry perogies, and delicately layered slices of honey cake. On the savory side, don’t skip the Russian dumplings called pelmeni, which can and should be enjoyed with broth and plenty of sour cream. 

Besides “the” chicken, Zuni's burger, Caesar salad, and bloody mary have all been called the best in the city at various points in the restaurant’s illustrious, 40-plus-year career. Sitting on the edge of Hayes Valley, it’s the utility belt of San Francisco restaurants: good for brunch, for late-night dining, for oysters and a cocktail at the bar, or for a lovely sit-down meal with a date. The chicken, meanwhile, deserves every last bit of praise.  During the pandemic, Zuni started serving takeout for the first time in its storied history — and became the first restaurant in the city to switch over to all reusable takeout containers.

Under swinging lines of cerulean papel picado, chef Nick Cobarruvias presents a veggie-forward menu of tacos, tostadas, and large plates that’s delightfully fresh and flavorful. There are meaty options, too, including slow-cooked carne con guajillo chile wrapped in soft tortillas made from masa that’s nixtamalized in house. But don’t overlook the hen of the wood huarache, showered with a tangle of tender and savory mushrooms, or the unexpectedly vibrant charred cabbage, sporting dark spots of char and dusted with toasted pecan dukkah. Cocktails are unfussy but well executed; you can’t go wrong with a spicy margarita sipped on the wooden parklet off Haight. 

Muffulettas are by no way a traditional San Francisco treat — we have New Orleans to thank for this culinary gift — but under the guidance of Nola native Peterson Harter, the sandwich has found new fandom in this 7x7 city. The muffulettas aren’t overly traditional, but those changes are what make the sandwich stand out, as San Francisco Chronicle food critic Cesar Hernandez writes, such as the zingy olive salad and mayo of choice (Duke’s, if you must know). There’s the meat-loaded muffuletta and a vegetarian, roasted mushroom version, and they’re available in 1/8 or 1/4 slices, or whole slabs. There’s also a pimento cheese sandwich and a pickled egg salad sandwich topped with Zapps chips, if that’s more your speed, but whatever you do, add on a brown butter chocolate chip cookie if you know what’s good for you.

Rintaro feels like a secret hideout in the Mission, with a lovely front patio guarded from the street by a bamboo fence. Enter, and find an inviting, wood-clad izakaya from Chez Panisse alum Sylvan Mishima Brackett, whose menu has long drawn a bustling, stylish crowd that lines up before the restaurant even opens for business. Gyoza, yakitori of all kinds, pristine sashimi, and the platonic ideal of fried tori katsu (fried chicken stuffed with Cowgirl Creamery cheese) are all on order.

On a sunny afternoon or a cool San Francisco evening, there’s perhaps no better place to find comfort than on Biet Rima’s flower-lined patio or inside its cozy dining room with a generous mezze spread before you and a cold Arabic beer in hand. Owner Samir Mogannam turns seasonal produce into simple yet stunning vegetarian-friendly dishes like delicata squash in brown butter with tangy labneh and pine nut dukkah, while the meatier entrees including tender beef kabob and yogurt marinated chicken lend the menu some weight.

After taking a years-long break spurred by the pandemic, Delfina reopened on 18th Street with a fresh new look in October 2022. Co-owners Annie and Craig Stoll are proud to show off a new bar and a new private dining room, where fans old and new can get a taste of the restaurant’s pioneering Cal-Italian cuisine. The spaghetti pomodoro returned to the menu, but as ever, the selection changes just about every day so the kitchen can incorporate whatever’s freshest from the Stoll’s farm in Sonoma.

San Francisco’s only Guamanian restaurant continues to provide newcomers to Chamorro cuisine with a delicious education: stroganoff-like tinaktak with egg noodles, pork ribs over red rice, and an assortment of the Guamanian-style ceviches known as kelaguen — served here on flatbreads, like a taco. The covered outdoor patio means every meal feels something like a beachy party, particularly when the sun in shining on this Mission District restaurant.

La Taqueria and Taqueria El Farolito are, undeniably, the most famous of the Mission District’s many destinations for a massive Mission-style burrito. But ask someone who’s lived in the neighborhood for 15 years, and they might just point you toward Taqueria Cancun. Here you’ll want to order the pollo asado-stuffed Mission burrito, with the tortilla griddled on the plancha before it’s stuffed with shredded Monterey Jack cheese, tomato-tinged rice, your choice of beans, diced onion and cilantro, pico de gallo, sour cream, and avocado. If it sounds like a lot of food, that’s because it is.

The expectation may be that the finest Dungeness crab dishes can only be found along the wharf, and while indeed that’s the place to go for buying freshly caught dungies to cook at home, crab aficionados usually make the trek to Thanh Long in the Sunset. There, Dungeness crab stars alongside luscious garlic noodles, a classic San Francisco food in its own right pioneered by Thanh Long itself. One can’t go wrong with these two dishes at the table.

You can’t go wrong with any of chef Corey Lee’s restaurants, whether it’s the black-and-white French bistro Monsieur B in Hayes Valley or his three Michelin-starred Benu in SoMa. But his latest, San Ho Won in the Mission, is where the chef takes things back to his Korean American roots, working with chef Jeong-In Hwang to prepare meticulously charcoal grilled double cut galbi and tender beef tongue. This is a Korean barbecue restaurant unlike any other with elegant seasonal banchan, sizzling stews, and flaky blood sausage and green onion pancakes served in an austere space wrapped in warm woods. 

True Laurel is the casual, cocktail-focused offshoot of chef David Barzelay’s Michelin-starred Lazy Bear, but since its opening in 2017, this bar earned its own awards hardware, including being named number 30 on the World’s 50 Best Bars list in 2024. Highly drinkable, complex cocktails star on the drink menu, such as the milk-washed Mai o Mai made with blended rum, pistachio orgeat, Curacao, and lime, with a coffee-rum float on top. The tight food menu is equally considered, with items like the ever-favorite TL patty melt or crispy hen of the woods mushrooms served with “sour cream ‘n’ alliums dip.”

Fully revamped in the spring of 2019, Heena Patel’s Dogpatch restaurant shifted away from her initial “California Gujarati” cuisine concept, leaning heavily into the regional Gujarati dishes she grew up eating and launching a family-style vegetarian tasting menu option. The result? One of the most fantastic — and now, meat-free — Indian restaurants in the city. Customers may have never previously tried the smoky, spicy eggplant stew known as ringan no oro. But they’ll happily dig into those bold flavors here.

There are plenty of places to spend big on a night out at a sushi bar in this city, but if you’re looking for something a little more chill — and perhaps, a little less traditional — then this is your spot. Chef Eric Aplin worked at Robin, Akikos, and the now-closed Ichi before opening his own spot. The omakase includes a parade of nigiri that evokes diverse flavors like sweet onion, olive oil, and blue cheese. Plus, there’s a full omakase menu for vegetarian diners, too, meaning you can bring just about anyone along for the ride. 

On cold nights, many of the regulars who crowd Old Mandarin Islamic’s small, scruffy dining room would order one of the spicy Beijing-style hot pots — a warming antidote to the chilly Outer Sunset fog. In general, this San Francisco institution, one of the only places in the city that specializes in Chinese Muslim cuisine, is a great place to feast on lamb — stir-fried with cumin, braised, stuffed inside of dumplings, or boiled in a clay pot. Chile-heads will want to test their endurance against the side dish/condiment known as la si ni, or “spice you to death.”