SF food

SF food

Ho ho ho! I started my annual transformation into Champers the elf last Thursday at Arlequin's holiday Champagne tasting, what a blast that was. Pop! After the event, this tipsy lady was grateful to be able to slide into a late table at Dingles (read my preview ) for their life-saving and crazy-delicious cheeseburger (it's rapidly becoming a favorite).

The Ferry Building is gaining another new spot in Lucania, a southern Italian restaurant from the team. On top of the expected pizzas and pastas, they're also focused on seafood like roasted sardines, steamed mussels, and more. Plus, Lucania is taking over the former MarketBar space, so we're hoping the former patio will become another great spot to people-watch along the Embarcadero.

Guests enter the restaurant through the main doors of the Westin and land in the Bourbon Loungeformerly Clock Bara cinematic expanse of marble and brass, with coffered ceilings lit by sparkling spherical chandeliers and warm globe lamps that illuminate soft leather stools. A party of Gatsby impersonators would blend right in. You could linger here all night sipping craft cocktails that nod to Mina's legacy of restaurants.

photo credit: Taylor Gomez You build your own bowl of hot pot and pay by weight at Tang Bar in the Stonestown food court, so leave your indecision paralysis at the door and load up on a little bit of everything. The buffet-style bar has a laundry list of quality protein options like wagyu beef and mussels, plus every vegetable imaginable.

The wait is over. Gold Mirror, the 56-year-old family-owned Italian restaurant out in the Sunset that has been closed since early 2024, is reopening at the corner of Taraval Street and 18th Avenue. The DiGrande family, which has owned the restaurant since 1969, is celebrating with two days of invitation-only parties for city politicos including the mayor, family, friends and neighbors, starting Saturday at 5 p.m. It will be open to the public next Wednesday.

Perched halfway across the span of a pedestrian bridge inside the Japan Center mall, there's a well-worn but charming restaurant where hundreds of tattered volumes of manga line the walls. In the kitchen, proud Japanese-American chef Mitsuhiro Nakamura spends three days preparing luscious pots of Shinjuku-style curry, to be ladled liberally over crispy chicken katsu and rice. Out front, his wife Yolanda takes orders and ferries plates of mentaiko spaghetti and okonomiyaki pizza to diners' tables.

"The corn is so delicious on its own. We want it to taste like Mexican cuisine. We want it to taste like summertime," Cantu says.

Grab a beer and some sausages and try your best (or your wurst) to beat the competition while Bebe keeps the questions hard and the ambiance light. Willkommen features a Bauhaus-meets-Bavarian aesthetic with 20-foot windows, towering live indoor trees, multiple living walls and creeping vines that make you feel like you're sitting in a downtown Munich beer garden in October.

Best Burrito? Best Night Market? Best Clothing Store? Best Date Restaurant? You know best, and we're extending Best of the Bay Readers' Poll voting through Friday so you can show the Bay your love.

Perhaps no cuisine is as frustratingly scarce in the Bay Area as the one I was born into - Armenian food. While San Francisco once boasted a world-famous Armenian restaurant, you can't find so much as a food truck now with an officially Armenian menu. As if taunting me, Los Angeles with its larger diaspora population has a thriving Armenian food scene, including one restaurant in the Michelin Guide.

Crossing the threshold into the San Francisco brunch restaurant, Early to Rise brings an instant feeling of comfort - a direct reflection of the spirit of Southern hospitality it aspires to embody. After operating for eight years as a meandering pop-up, this eatery from chef Andrew McCormack finally settled into its permanent home within the San Francisco restaurant scene in 2024.

Our very serious formula takes into account important factors like menu variety, wrapper chewiness, and soup-to-meat ratio of xiao long bao. Bonus points for alliteration (hi, Dumpling Dynasty), or names that make us want to sign a lease and move in (love you, Dumpling Home). If you're looking for all of our favorite dumpling spots in SF, regardless of what they're called, we've got a guide for that, too.

Ernest chef-owner Brandon Rice, whose Mission District restaurant continues to be a hot ticket after four years, is ready to expand with a second spot, tenatively called Lawrence. As the SF Business Times reports via liquor license activity, Rice is taking over the former Alexander's Steakhouse space at 488 Brannan Street. He won't yet share any details about the new concept, but did confirm to the publication that it is int he works.

"I did a lot of pizza festivals over the years. I did one in New York. I was in Naples. I was in Chicago. Then I said San Francisco really has to have a pizza festival but COVID happened, so I couldn't do it. But right out of COVID, I started it. And thought, let's add a beer component. Let's add a bagel component. And here we are," Gemignani said.

The team continues to grow their Hayes Valley footprint with a casual offshoot called RT Bistro. It'll be right next door to their original Rich Table and is their third concept after nearby RT Rotisserie (with another location in NoPa). Expect wood-fired vegetables, icebox pies with roasted fruit, and a burger topped with toma cheese and bacon jam.