A lot of times people ask me for recommendations on where to go in San Francisco and the Bay Area.
This is not meant to be comprehensive, just a list of places which I can recommend, because I’ve been to them recently and enjoyed myself.
Food:
Bar Jules: Hayes Valley Jewel.
Canteen: Tenderloin/Nob Hill Oddity.
Commonwealth: Eclectic New American Cooking.
Front Porch: Carribean influenced home cooking.
Fish!: Sustainable and delicious Seafood in Sausalito.
Gialina: Pizza and Italian home cooking in Glen Park.
Ichi Sushi: Sushi in Bernal Heights.
Ken Ken Ramen: Great Ramen in the Mission.
La Ciccia: Sardinian Food in Noe Valley.
Magnolia Brewpub: Great Pub food and charcuterie in the Upper Haight.
Mission Chinese Food: Eclectic Asian Food in the Mission.
Papalote Mexican Grill: Depending on my mood, it may be San Francisco’s best burrito.
Cocktail Centric Bars and Restaurants:
15 Romolo: Newly remodeled North Beach bar.
Absinthe: Food also quite good.
Alembic*: Along with cocktails, some “offally” good food at Alembic. Sweetbreads, Hearts and Kidneys, Marrow Bones.
Bar Agricole: Sustainable food and excellent cocktails.
Beretta: Great Pizza and Italian small plates.
Bourbon & Branch: San Francisco’s first neo-speakeasy.
Cantina: Latin American inspired cocktails downtown.
Clock Bar: Maybe the best cocktails you’ll have in an American hotel.
Comstock Saloon: Inspired cocktails and food.
Flora: Food and cocktails in Oakland.
Heaven’s Dog*: Chinese Food and Cocktails.
Jardiniere: My wife and I announced our plans to marry to her parents at Jardiniere. A sentimental favorite.
NOPA: Really good food, too!
Presidio Social Club
range: Food also quite good.
rye: Oft overlooked Tenderloin/Nob Hill Bar.
Smuggler’s Cove: Traditional drinks of the Caribbean islands, classic libations of Prohibition-era Havana, exotic cocktails from legendary Tiki bars. Lots and lots of Rum.
Slanted Door: One of the first, and still best, new school cocktail bars in the bay area. Good food, too.
Wilson & Wilson: New reservation only bar from the team behind Bourbon & Branch.
Wo Hing General Store: Chinese Food and Cocktails from Brooke Arthur & a ridiculously fine cast of bartenders.
Bars where I am routinely insulted or otherwise abused, yet go back anyway:
Li Po Lounge
Toronado
Zeitgeist
Just Bars:
Bender’s: Yes, that Bender. Now does the Heavy Metal makes sense?
Broken Record: Actually they have pretty decent bar food, too.
Homestead
Rite Spot
Wild Side West
Classic SF Bars:
Big 4
House of Prime Rib
Pied Piper Bar at the Palace Hotel
Tadich Grill
Tonga Room
*I sometimes bartend at these places.
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Love you blog, and really enjoy your comments on each cocktail. Would you make a short list of the best Savoy drinks you have had say top 20-30?
Hi, Erik,
I love your Blog and I had no idea that you bartend at the Tadich Grill. When are you there? I invented a new drink tonight.
The Froggy Dragon
3 parts Kirkland (Greygoose) vodka
1 part Soho Lychee liqueur
one cute little round of lemon peel with your fancy $1.98 kitchen tool
Hi Sandy,
Thanks for the cocktail recipe!
I don’t work at the Tadich Grill, only Heaven’s Dog and Alembic.
Erik…Just came across your blog…nice to know you…Stefano (owner of Dimmi Liquore)
Hi. Great site! Are any of the haunts you list really haunted? I’m always looking for places for haunted meetups. Thanks!