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San Francisco Trip!

borgech

I will be traveling to San Francisco in mid-August, and am already planning where we will eat. We will spend the first 2.5 days in Napa, and the next 2.5 days in San Francisco. Currently, these are the places I am thinking of, but would love to hear some suggestions from this crowd!!

Napa:

Vinyards: Long Meadow Ranch, Smith-Madrone and Hendry Ranch.

Dinner: Farmstead @ Long Meadow Ranch and Ad Hoc

Lunches: Addendum (Ad Hoc fried chicken) and La Luna Market

Breakfast: Bouchon Bakery and Boon Fly Cafe

San Francisco:

Dinner: Cotogna and two others?

Lunches: Ferry Building (Hog Island Oysters, Cow Girl Creamery, Acme and Boccalone), chinatown?, mexican?

As you can see, I am having more trouble finding places in the city than I did in Napa. Changes/additions are of course welcome!

Thanks,

Chris

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Comments

matthew.snyder77

Excellent! My wife and I are actually going this weekend. Gonna try to get in at Mission Chinese, and then we have ressies at Slanted Door and Incanto.

We're also going to Boccalone, and we want to get porchetta sandwiches from the Roli Roti truck. Of course, there will be seafood as well, and we'll probably pop into the Tonga Room or the Starlight for cocktails.

Also want to try to get in at Tony's Pizza Napoletana, but I hear it's tough getting one of the 73 wood-fired Margheritas they make every day...

Last six years we've gone up to Sonoma (Russian River) for a weekend of shenanigans with some of my wife's ex-coworkers, but I think that trip might be ppd this year. Love it up there; if I were phat stoopid loaded rich, that's where I'd want to live.

seijoed

Tortas in the tenderloin at one of the whole in the wall places

is rather nice, Takara for sushi there are tons of great places apart from

all the obvious celeb joints.

Matt__34377

These are just places I have heard are excellent and would be on my list of places to go if ever I was to make it to the West Coast:

-Bar Agricole
-Commonwealth
-Incanto
-Benu
-Mission Street Food

peter_martinezfonts_83124

You'll have a great meal at all of those places @Chris

If I can be a little snooty, I've been disappointed by the Slanted Door and Mission Chinese.

Some other considerations for you.

Get a burrito in the Mission - My favorite is the lengua or cabeza from Taqueria Cancun.

SPQR - Great Italian on Fillmore St. They just got their first Michelin star, and it's very well deserved.

Tony's for Pizza - Great choice, if you have to wait, give them your number and go grab a beer at Rogue down the street.

Brenda's French Soul Kitchen for Brunch

Absolutely try the porchetta from Roli Roti at the ferry building on Saturday. Don't be shocked by the 100 person line. It moves quickly. While you're at the Ferry Building buy some chicharrones from 4505 meats and a coffee from Blue Bottle.

If you want to try Chinatown, try Capital which tends to be pretty good, or give Yank Sing a chance for Dim Sum.

Cocktails at Tonga Room can be fun, but get there early. If there is a line, it's probably not worth waiting for. For a truly great cocktail without the kitsch, try Beretta in the Mission.

If you've got other questions, please let me know. I'm a local here and happy to give you my thoughts.

jason.r.whitworth

It sounds touristy but Swan oyster depot was amazing.

matthew.snyder77

@Peter. It's only snooty if you're dismissive because they're trendy. If you were genuinely unimpressed, that's the simple fact.

Still looking forward to it, tho.

Corey_37766

I live vicariously through others, but a friend that recently visited had very positive things to say about SPQR, flour + water, Saison, and the tasting menu at AQ.

ren_74229

Where are you coming from Chris? Depending on your hometown, I can filter accordingly. Based on what you've already listed, here is what I'd suggest you consider:

Coincidentally, each place also takes you to different neighborhoods worth walking around and exploring.

Farmshop at the Marin Country Mart

Swan Oyster Depot for breakfast (get there as soon as they open, that way you won't have to waste too much time waiting in line)

Zuni Cafe

Nopa for late night

La Palma Mexitessen (get some chicharonnes con cuero if they still have it when you get there along with their a la minute tortillas)

Rich Table

Smitten Ice cream if you want LN2, humphry slocombe for SF kooky, or Mitchell's for Classic and delicious.

B Patisserie

If you do decide on visiting chinatown, I'd suggest a visit to Red Blossom Tea. If you want chinese food...I'd suggest places not in Chinatown. Just let me know if you really want chinese food, let me know if you're looking for a specific region and I'll expand my recs.

Japantown? not much there, but Benkyodo is a great spot along with the local hardware store (Soko)

As an alternative to tony's there's also una pizza napoletana, or if you just want a damn fine pie and some soft serve without much hassle, I'd suggest Pizzeria Picco in Larkspur. For something uniquely old school, there's Liguria Bakery in North Beach.

Great markets to check out while you're here are the Wed civic center farmer's market (both Marin Civic Center, as well as SF civic center). Thursday Castro Market, Sat Ferry Plaza (this is the busiest and fanciest by far), and a new Sunday Clement St market. (the "real" SF chinatown)

Oh...and we haven't even gotten to beer/coffee/cocktails yet!

borgech

Wow, thanks to all of you for such quick replies!!

I will be coming from Boston. I recently visited Seattle (highlighted here: http://forum.chefsteps.com/discussion/680/recent-trip-to-seattle), and we loved every second of it. Although we will be in San Francisco for a shorter time period, we would love to have similar dining experiences.

From this thread so far it seems like I will be doing most of my lunching on Monday and Tuesday at The Ferry Building. As for dinners, I would like to do something on the lighter side on Sunday Night (we will have just eaten at Farmstead on Friday and Ad Hoc on Saturday (presumably), and I honestly like to cook more than I like to eat out), perhaps somewhere better known for small plates and appetizers/salads than larger plates? After that, Monday and Tuesday are still undecided, but one of the nights I would like to visit Cotogna, as it looks like somewhere we'd like.

I'm not hell bent on going to chinatown, I just have heard that San Francisco has much better Chinese food than Boston, and would love to try it.

As for cocktails, I've been told by a friend to visit Smugglers Cove. Other than that, I am a fish out of water. I prefer places that are well versed in their Amaris, and ideally they would also serve wine.

Looking forward to the continued discussion!! Thanks again!

Sumit__65166

you could rent a bike, and ride from ferry building to sausalito. from sausalito you can take ferry back to ferry building.
it's a really nice ride but you'd need a almost a day for this.

robmcquarrie

Saison chef's table was the best meal I've ever had anywhere (was at their old location). Expensive but I thought worth it. I really liked Zuni Cafe as well.

Also tried Crenn, Coi, Benu, Manresa, Incanto, Chez Panisse and some of the diners, driveins, and dives places. They were all good with Incanto and Chez Panisse being somewhat disappointing and Saison being more than a few steps ahead.

andrea.feldman

I lived in SF for 3 years + I too stayed away from Chinatown. But CLEMENT ST is SF's walkable, compact Little Asia. Foodwise I especially recommend Burma Superstar. And you can always end up at GREEN APPLE BOOKS, which is SF's version of THE STRAND (or Brookline Booksmith, to throw in a Boston reference).

COI is phenomenal, but if you want the "casual" version, trot over to the East Bay and go to Patterson's HAVEN in Jack London Sq.

(Oakland is so vastly changed from when I worked there and it was called "Oaksterdam" — recommend a jaunt over.)

TONGA ROOM is good kitschy fun, but SO expensive. There are so many other watering holes to try. I particularly like BOURBON + BRANCH.

ren_74229

For chinese food, I'll give you a number of options...and you can choose what best fits what you're looking for:

1. For grand Dim Sum experiences: Koi Palace (Daly City) or Yank Sing (SF Fidi). Beware though if you decide to go for weekend brunch as both will be quite busy. Of the two I'd say that Koi Palace may be more heralded for the quality of its cuisine, where as Yank Sing will less hassle to wait for. Both are great. Oddly though, Yank Sing's sui mai and Har Gow are middling, while they have excellent XLB. If you want something still of high quality, but a little more low key, I'd suggest Hong Kong Lounge II

2. For hole in the wall cantonese food: China First on Clement St.

3. For wonton mein: King Won Ton on Irving

4. For Dumplings: Kingdom of Dumpling

5. For Hot Pot: Old Mandarin Islamic in the Outer Sunset.

6. For Beijing/Sichuan/HK cafe and so on...you'll have to venture further south a bit. If you're looking specifically for that, I'll add my recs. Although Chili House (also on Clement) is pretty solid.

7. For the quintessential SF tourist chinese food experience...there's House of Nanking.

borgech

Thanks all for the continued discussion, this has really been a huge help. As it turns out, Smith-Madrone is closed on Saturday. We will be visiting Hendry in the morning, and would like to visit another small vineyard/winery like in the afternoon (possibly after lunch at Addendum). Any suggestions?

matthew.snyder77

So just to close the loop on the SF recommendations, I can now side with @peter.martinezfonts re Slanted Door. Highlight of the meal was the cocktails.... which is definitely not something you want when dropping two bills at a restaurant. Non-existent service, ho hum food. Will not visit again. Mission Chinese was closed for the week (as was Swan Oyster Depot, a late addition to the possible itinerary), so we never got to sample.

However, both Tony's and Incanto were the very best kind of outrageous. We were pleasantly surprised to find that Tony's had a bone marrow dish on their menu, and at Incanto we were treated to pork skin spaghetti. And words cannot begin to describe how awesome the porchetta and potatoes from Roli Roti were. I'd fly back to SF just to eat at any of those places again.