Small rooms, mostly, and the ones we keep going back to.
The city we live in
See the restaurants Get Early AccessSan Francisco eats in small rooms. The places we go back to are mostly a dozen tables on a residential corner, run by the people who cook in them, and they fill on a weeknight without any help from a guidebook. The city rewards going back to a handful of rooms rather than working through a list, which is how this section is built.
The small rooms go early, so book when the window opens rather than the week you want to eat. The first seating is quieter and easier to get, and it is the one we take most nights. Some of the best places take no reservations at all, in which case arriving inside the first half hour of service is the whole trick.
This is a short list against a city this size. Whole neighbourhoods are missing, and so is most of what we eat in a normal week. It grows one room at a time, after the meal rather than before it, and nothing goes up until we have the photographs and the dish names to back it.
On a Noe Valley corner at 30th and Church. Bottarga over spaghetti, baby octopus in spicy tomato, and a room we have come back to since 2016.
🇮🇹 Sardinian🏠 Local FavoriteSecond floor of a Victorian at 18th and Castro. House pasta, swordfish with olives and capers, and a courtyard out the back.
🇮🇹 Calabrian🏠 Local FavoriteThe corner of Jackson and Front in Jackson Square. Saghanaki, a whole grilled lavraki, and a room that has barely changed since 1998.
🇬🇷 Greek⏳ Worth The Wait590 Valencia at 17th, in the Mission. Xiao long bao, whole shrimp shumai and sweet bao shaped like animals, pleated in the window an hour before they reach you.
🇨🇳 Dim Sum🏠 Local FavoriteThe travel sites behind these meals
More journeys: 🌺 rHawaii 🗺️ rStates ✈️ rVacation 📷 rPhotography 🔤 Letter R 🌐 rInternet
Some links on this site are affiliate links. If you book through them, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. We only recommend tours and stays we would book ourselves.