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San Francisco, California RESTAURANTS Author: Barbara Hayo www.TrustedTours.com |
Great food, a real adventure in taste and ambience, is one of the many reasons to visit San Francisco. To attempt to list the thousands of choices would be daunting, subjective, and to do so might leave out a very special place.
In San Francisco, while the culinary language is global, chefs have wonderful, fresh regional ingredients with which to work �| plentiful catch from the sea, seasonal produce direct from surrounding farms, and vast wine selections from nearby wineries.
Restaurant choices run the gamut in price, menu selection and ambience. In fine, expensive restaurants, acclaimed master chefs express their culinary genius in over-the-top atmospheres. Many of these are in the Financial District and Union Square, where restaurants can be elegantly Old World or spare, sleekly sophisticated places. Here too, are small French bistros and Italian trattorias with compact interiors, relaxed atmospheres and wonderful food. SOMA is known for flashy, trendy spots, many in fabulously restored warehouses.
With equal pleasure, enjoy Asian restaurants found throughout the city, but especially in Chinatown, serving not only Chinese specialties from every region, but also delicately flavored Thai, tasty Vietnamese, and Japanese selections. While tasty dim sum is a favorite, savor the choices in a Cantonese or Sechuan banquet. In Pacific Heights and Japantown, forego the sushi for amazing Japanese cooked specialties.
In North Beach, enjoy the food and ambience in a friendly, family-style trattoria, or a flavorful pizza, oozing with fresh cheese. Try New American cuisine in the Civic Center area; seafood in busy tourist spots with great views in Fisherman's Wharf. Enjoy grilled meat in a Brazilian churrascaria, steak frites in a French bistro, regional fried steak in a steakhouse, tapas in the Mission.
There are wonderful culinary treats on the run too. Have French toast at Ella's in Pacific Heights, or a freshly baked churro in the Mission. Pick up a seafood sandwich in a shack along the Embarcadero, Dungeness crab and sourdough bread from a cart along Fisherman's Wharf. Grab a flavor-filled enchilada from a taqueria in the Mission, a perfectly frothed cappuccino in North Beach, a tropical gelato in SOMA, rich, chunky ice cream from Mitchell's in the Mission. Stop for elegant afternoon tea in a grand hotel on Nob Hill; sample an egg tart at the Golden Gate Bakery in Chinatown; sip super thick hot chocolate at Cafe�L Madeleine in Union Square; nibble on a cannoli from Stella's Pastry in North Beach. In Ferry Building Marketplace, savor fresh cheese at Cowgirl Creamery , meaty banh mi from a Vietnamese cart, chocolate from Scharffren Berger Chocolate . Stop for Irish coffee at the Buena Vista Cafe�L , sangria at Cha Cha Cha in Haight Ashbury, cocktail with a view from atop the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, the Mark Hopkins, the Grand Hyatt, the Hilton San Francisco, the Bank of America Building.
San Francisco dining is a delightful discovery. Ask locals where they go. Read reviews. Be adventuresome. Be spontaneous. Take a chance on those that look interesting or whose menus appeal. Just pick one and try it! You won't be disappointed.
Trust us, we've been there!
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