The Top 100 Places to Eat and Drink Near Starlite
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- Esquire 2024 · The Best Bars in America
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Hotel Bar – U.S. West
- Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. West
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- 50 Best 2026 · #41 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Nominee · Outstanding Bar
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service · Kevin Diedrich
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Rank 3. Benu
Asian
Chef Corey Lee's tasting menu unfolds with technical precision, each course a miniature study in restraint and refinement. A roasted quail, glazed tableside with maple and soy, epitomizes his gift for marrying tradition with invention.
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Rank 4. Quince
Contemporary
In a refreshed early 1900s room in Jackson Square, Chef Michael Tusk builds menus from his partner farm's seasonal bounty with surgical precision: silky broth married to guanciale and clam, agnolotti tender with white asparagus, lamb from the fireplace scattered with favas and edible flowers. The cooking is restrained and confident, letting each ingredient declare itself.
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Rank 5. Alexander's Steakhouse
American/Japanese
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Rank 6. Mister Jiu's
Modern Chinese
Brandon Jew's Cantonese cooking at Waverly Place marries Bay Area seasonality with classical technique—scallion milk bread that dissolves on the tongue, silken tofu studded with maitake and Sichuan pepper. His Peking duck arrives with whipped liver mousse, a flourish that captures his gift for taking tradition seriously without pretending it needs apology.
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- Time Out The best Chinese restaurants in America
- World Culinary Awards 2025 · Nominee · North America's Best Chinese Cuisine Restaurant
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Rank 7. Bombay Brasserie
Indian
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- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best New Bar
- Eater Best New Bar · The 2025 Eater San Francisco Award Winners
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Rank 10. Restaurant Naides
Filipino
Chef Patrick Gabon's tasting menu distills Filipino tradition through a Californian lens—fluffy brioche pandesal with braised chicken gizzards, dry-aged duck adobo with horseradish—each dish as visually composed as it is flavorful. The small room hums with the ease of two people who know their craft, and the cooking feels like an argument that refinement and boldness need not be at odds.
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- The Infatuation The Hit List: New San Francisco Restaurants To Try Right Now
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Rank 11. O' by Claude Le Tohic
Fine French
On the fifth floor of a French fine-dining tower, Claude Le Tohic composes tasting menus that marry classical French technique with California's best—a seafood salad layered with dashi and caviar, black cod dusted with five spice and shellfish purée. The experience unfolds with precision, from warm bread to a final cart of petit fours, attended by service that feels both formal and genuine.
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Rank 12. Kin Khao
Thai
Chef Pim Techamuanvivit's restaurant, wedged into a hotel alcove, forgoes fancy surroundings for something more valuable: Thai cooking that honors tradition while sourcing from local farms and letting each ingredient speak. A curry mousse arrives fragrant and studded with mushrooms; even green curry becomes an event when built around slow-cooked rabbit. The spice here pulls no punches.
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: California · Pim Techamuanvivit
- San Francisco Chronicle 2026 · #58 · Top 100 Restaurants in the Bay Area
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Rank 13. Acquerello
Italian
Suzette Gresham's A-frame dining room has sheltered ambitious Italian cooking since 1989, where handmade pastas and pristine seafood arrive with equal finesse and daring. The mignardises cart alone—stacked with housemade chocolates and caramels—suggests a kitchen that understands generosity as a form of rigor.
- AAA Four Diamonds
- Michelin Guide 2 Stars
- World Culinary Awards 2025 · Nominee · North America's Best Italian Cuisine Restaurant
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Rank 15. Saison
Californian New American
A warehouse devoted to the hearth, where Chef Richard Lee orchestrates playful, earnest cooking—tuna tartlette, rabbit with morels, antelope with blueberries—for San Francisco's elite. The wine program is exceptionally deep, the crowd studiously cool, the setting rustically refined.
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An airy dining room built around an open kitchen where Chef Ravi Kapur marries Hawaiian ingredients with Californian technique, drawing crowds who order halibut kinilaw and fried game hen across a bar loud with cocktail chatter. The house-made Spam in kimchi fried rice signals a kitchen unafraid of culinary contradiction.
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in San Francisco Right Now
- San Francisco Chronicle 2026 · #57 · Top 100 Restaurants in the Bay Area
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Rank 17. Four Kings
Contemporary Cantonese Chinese
A packed Chinatown counter where Franky Ho and Michael Long riff on Cantonese tradition with claypot rice studded with bacon and eggplant that sings with fermented chili heat. The room thrums with energy and the kind of crowd that camps out before opening; reservations vanish within minutes, but the cooking rewards whatever patience you muster.
- Esquire 2024 · Restaurant of the Year · The Best New Restaurants in America
- Food & Wine 2024 · Squab · Best Dishes Our Editors Ate This Year
- Bon Appétit 2024 · America's Best New Restaurants
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Rank 18. Bodega SF
Vietnamese
- The Infatuation Mochi Pandan Bar · The San Francisco Dessert Bucket List
- The Infatuation #11 · The 25 Best Restaurants In SF
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Rank 19. The Big Four
American
- The Infatuation The Hit List: New San Francisco Restaurants To Try Right Now
- The Infatuation The Best Martinis In San Francisco
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Rank 20. Verjus
French
Michael Tusk's wine bar near the Pyramid trades in seasonal French bistro cooking that pivots around impeccable seafood and produce—razor clams with celery and Meyer lemon, a pâté studded with pistachios. The crowd at the bar and counter suggests the kitchen's skill runs deeper than the menu's apparent simplicity.
- The New York Times 2025 · The Restaurant List
- The Infatuation 2025 · #9 · The Top-Rated New Restaurants
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
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Rank 21. Birdsong
Contemporary
Open flames and assembly-at-table theatrics define Christopher Bleidorn's cooking, where lacquered quail arrives with grilled rolls to be built like Peking duck. The whimsy persists through each course—from creek trout roe suspended in kelp kombucha to lemon mochi concealing blueberries and crème fraîche—a kitchen that treats fire and precision as equal partners.
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Rank 22. Prelude
American
The Jay Hotel's ground-floor cocktail bar trades the Financial District's noise for moody elegance, where drinks arrive with the precision and restraint of a well-edited film—nothing wasted, every element earning its place on the glass.
- Bon Appétit 2025 · America's Best New Bars
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in San Francisco
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Rank 23. Azalina's
Malaysian
In a Tenderloin storefront designed like a tropical sanctuary, Chef Azalina Eusope interprets the Malaysian cooking of her childhood through a California lens—economy noodles topped with barbecued quail and toasted hazelnuts, steelhead trout wrapped in banana leaves. Her seasonal prix fixe menu moves with precision and wit, from savory to a pandan custard finale that shows serious pastry work.
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: California · Azalina Eusope
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in San Francisco Right Now
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Rank 24. Holy Nata
Portuguese
- San Francisco Chronicle Top Bakeries of the Bay Area
- The Infatuation Pastel de Nata · The San Francisco Dessert Bucket List
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Rank 26. Angler
Seafood
A hunter's lodge aesthetic frames the view along the Embarcadero, where an open fire drives the menu—embered oysters with smoked chili butter, a radicchio salad that demands a knife, aged black cod with seaweed-buttered rolls. The kitchen's restraint and deliberation show in every char and sauce, building toward soft-serve sundae in warm salted caramel and cocoa nibs.
- AAA Four Diamonds
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- The Infatuation Soft Serve Sundae · The San Francisco Dessert Bucket List
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Rank 27. Good Mong Kok
Dim Sum
- San Francisco Chronicle Top Doughnuts in the Bay Area
- The Infatuation #15 · The 25 Best Restaurants In SF
- The Infatuation The 25 Best Meals For Under $15 In SF
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Rank 28. Kusakabe
Sushi
At Kusakabe, a serene counter lined in live-edge elm sets the stage for an omakase that moves with theatrical precision yet lands every note. Bluefin arrives with yuzu and sesame; softshell crab swims in sweet corn broth; sea urchin crowns scallop and snapper with cured yolk. The kitchen's command of technique serves a singular purpose: making you remember what you ate.
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Rank 30. The Coffee Movement
Coffee
- US Coffee Championships 2025 · #5 · U.S. Barista Championship · Circle Chan
- The Infatuation The Best Matcha Lattes In San Francisco
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Rank 31. House of Prime Rib
Steakhouse
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Hospitality
- Esquire 2025 · Martini · The Best Martinis in America
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Hospitality
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Rank 32. Tony's Pizza Napoletana
Neapolitan Pizza
- 50 Top Pizza 2025 · #3 · 50 Top Pizza USA
- Sunset 2025 · Inspired Italian · Where to Eat and Drink
- The Infatuation The 19 Best Pizza Places In San Francisco
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Rank 33. Yank Sing
Cantonese
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Rank 34. Shoji
Japanese
- San Francisco Chronicle The Best Coffee in the Bay Area
- The Infatuation The Best Matcha Lattes In San Francisco
- The Infatuation The Best Coffee Shops In SF
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Rank 35. TBD izakaya
Japanese
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Rank 36. Cotogna
Italian
An open kitchen framed by exposed brick and copper gleams behind wooden tables where Michael Tusk's pastas—agnolotti stuffed with rabbit and veal, rigatoni with guanciale and chanterelle—arrive with the ease of something both refined and casual. The room moves at the tempo of a neighborhood trattoria, though the cooking never settles for rustic shorthand.
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Los Angeles Times 2025 · The 101 Best Restaurants in California
- The Infatuation The 13 Best Pasta Restaurants In SF
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Rank 37. Origin Lab
Bakery/Cafe
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Rank 38. Outta Sight Pizza
Thin-crust Pizza
- The Infatuation #19 · The 25 Best Restaurants In SF
- The Infatuation The 19 Best Pizza Places In San Francisco
- The Infatuation The 25 Best Meals For Under $15 In SF
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Rank 40. Asha Tea House
Japanese
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Rank 42. Yank Sing
Dim Sum Chinese
Yank Sing rolls out cart after cart of dumplings and buns in a dining room where the pace is brisk and the prices reasonable. The silken xiao long bao and paper-thin har gow announce themselves through their fillings, while the Peking duck arrives with lacquered skin that justifies the wait.
- Time Out The best Chinese restaurants in America
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- The Infatuation The 17 Best Restaurants Near The Embarcadero & Ferry Building
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Rank 43. John's Grill
San Francisco
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Rank 44. Hilda and Jesse
Modern New American
A modernist diner where brunch becomes an argument between restraint and excess, Hilda and Jesse serves a surprise tasting menu that pivots on bold flavor and fine technique. The cooking is brash and unmanicured—a riot of stellar ingredients in unexpected combinations—while the room maintains a disarming warmth that matches the hospitality.
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: California · Kristina Liedags Compton
- San Francisco Chronicle 2025 · #92 · Top 100 Restaurants in the Bay Area
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Rank 45. Z & Y Peking Duck
Sichuan Chinese
A narrow Chinatown dining room where the cooking announces itself before you sit down: dried chilies heap atop fried chicken; chili oil slicks bean jelly noodles alive with numbing pepper. The space wears its age without apology, service moves at its own pace, but every plate arrives calibrated and uncompromising. Come hungry for heat.
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- San Francisco Chronicle 2025 · #72 · Top 100 Restaurants in the Bay Area
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- The Infatuation 11 Of The Best Donuts In America
- San Francisco Chronicle Top Doughnuts in the Bay Area
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Rank 47. Paper Son
Coffee
- San Francisco Chronicle The Best Coffee in the Bay Area
- The Infatuation The Best Matcha Lattes In San Francisco
- The Infatuation The Best Coffee Shops In SF
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- The Infatuation The 19 Best Pizza Places In San Francisco
- The Infatuation The 25 Best Meals For Under $15 In SF
- Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in San Francisco
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Rank 49. Sungho
Traditional Korean
In a Tenderloin corner, Sungho serves grandmother's recipes: fall-apart pork stews, hand-cut noodles in beef broth, crisp seafood pancakes meant for sharing. The house-made kimchi and lively K-pop soundtrack frame dishes that taste less like restaurant fare than like comfort borrowed from someone else's kitchen.
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- The Infatuation 2025 · #10 · San Francisco’s Best New Restaurants
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In North Beach, Comstock Saloon carries the weight of a century with unhurried grace, its wood and brass worn into the shape of ritual. The brussels sprouts arrive blistered and salt-struck alongside a martini that tastes like gin remembering what it was meant to be.
- The Infatuation The Best Martinis In San Francisco
- The Infatuation The 25 Best Meals For Under $15 In SF
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Rank 51. Friends Only
Sushi
A sushi counter still wrapped in exclusivity despite open reservations, where the steep price tag underscores relentless attention to sourcing and technique. House-aged fish meets inventive touches—cherrywood-smoked eel, grilled spot prawn with ramp butter—that feel earned rather than showy.
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- San Francisco Chronicle 2025 · #27 · Top 100 Restaurants in the Bay Area
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Rank 52. HK Lounge Bistro
Cantonese Chinese
A modest storefront in SoMa, rebuilt after fire destroyed its beloved predecessor, draws regulars for pleated Shanghai dumplings heavy with broth and crab, baked pork buns with crackled tops, and silken egg tarts. Dinner expands to roast duck and steamed seabass, but the soul of the place lives in its dim sum service—the artful work of a kitchen that understands both precision and comfort.
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Los Angeles Times 2025 · The 101 Best Restaurants in California
- San Francisco Chronicle 2025 · #47 · Top 100 Restaurants in the Bay Area
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Rank 53. Saigon Sandwich
Vietnamese
- The Infatuation #8 · The 25 Best Restaurants In SF
- The Infatuation The 25 Best Meals For Under $15 In SF
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Rank 54. Sam's Grill and Seafood Restaurant
San Francisco
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Rank 55. Boulevard
American
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Rank 57. Cordon Bleu
Vietnamese
- The Infatuation The 25 Best Meals For Under $15 In SF
- San Francisco Chronicle The Best Classic Restaurants in San Francisco
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Rank 58. Capital Restaurant
Cantonese
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Rank 59. Original Joe's
Italian
- The Infatuation Zanze’s Cheesecake · The San Francisco Dessert Bucket List
- The Infatuation The 13 Best Pasta Restaurants In SF
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Rank 60. Gary Danko
Contemporary French
The dining room glows with the formality of another era: dark-suited servers, a towering cheese trolley, an wine list of serious depth. Chef Danko's prix-fixe menu lets you build your own path through French-inflected cooking with global detours—or surrender to his tasting menu. Since 1999, the place has remained a steady draw for occasions that call for ceremony and restraint.
- AAA Five Diamonds
- Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
- Wine Enthusiast The Wine Restaurant Hall of Fame
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Rank 61. Kiln
Nordic New American
Chef John Wesley's spare warehouse tasting menu channels Nordic preservation techniques—curing, drying, fermentation—into deceptively simple dishes of intricate craft. A puffed beef tendon or squab lacquered in burnt honey reveals the kitchen's balance of rusticity and refinement across each course.
- Michelin Guide 2 Stars
- Condé Nast Traveler 2024 · The best new restaurants in the world
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Best New Restaurant
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The wood grill perfumes this San Francisco taverna with charred meat and citrus, where attentive servers navigate tables and fireplaces with easy grace. Bizelosalata arrives bright with feta and scallions; chicken souvlaki emerges from the rotisserie burnished and simple. A galaktoboureko of semolina custard and pistachio ice cream closes the meal with crisp filo and sweet restraint.
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- The Infatuation The 17 Best Restaurants Near The Embarcadero & Ferry Building
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Rank 63. Californios
Mexican
In a cavernous room alive with color and music, Chef Val M. Cantú channels Mexico's culinary depths through meticulous technique and daring reinvention. Tortillas—whether sourdough crisped with mezcal-battered cod or corn kissed with sesame—become the vehicle for a vision of Mexican cooking that feels both rooted and urgent.
- Michelin Guide 2 Stars
- 50 Best 2025 · #14 · North America's 50 Best Restaurants
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: California · Val M. Cantú
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Rank 64. Ssal
Modern Korean
The Baes' tasting menu inhabits a middle ground between Korean tradition and French technique, moving deftly through dishes like sweet potato puffs crowned with caviar and scallop mousseline wrapped in cabbage with spiked beurre blanc. It's cooking that trusts restraint and clarity over elaboration, which in San Francisco's dining landscape reads as its own kind of statement.
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Rank 65. Trestle
Contemporary
At Trestle, three courses rotate through the seasons at a price that rewards restraint: creamy tomato soup with thyme oil might yield to fork-tender short ribs on parmesan polenta, finished with frozen chocolate parfait and crushed cashews. The dining room hums with energy, and staff move with genuine warmth, making the whole enterprise feel less like a bargain than like being let in on something.
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Rank 66. Zevi Cafe
Turkish
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Rank 67. Nagomi
Japanese
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Rank 70. Kapari Restaurant
Turkish
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Rank 73. Holbrook House
American
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Rank 74. Ararat Kebab & Gyros
Mediterranean
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Rank 75. Harborview
Cantonese Chinese
A vast Cantonese dining room commands the Embarcadero with bay views from its sun-soaked patio and a polished interior that shifts between brightness and intimate shadow. The kitchen moves fluidly from dim sum carts at lunch to a showstopping Peking duck at dinner—lacquered mahogany skin, house-made sauce, the whole deliberate machinery of a room built to impress.
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- The Infatuation The 17 Best Restaurants Near The Embarcadero & Ferry Building
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Rank 76. The Happy Crane
Modern Chinese
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best New Restaurant
- Eater 2025 · The Best New Restaurants in America
- The Infatuation The Hit List: New San Francisco Restaurants To Try Right Now
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Rank 77. Turquaz
Turkish
- The Infatuation The Best Turkish Restaurants In SF
- The Infatuation 2025 · #11 · San Francisco’s Best New Restaurants
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Rank 78. Nisei
Japanese
Chef David Yoshimura balances Japanese tradition with American invention—buckwheat tartlets with date miso, uni in almond dashi—with technical assurance and personality. Service is personable, sake pairings thoughtful, and the wagashi cart a delicate finale.
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Rank 79. Hamburguesa Bar
Burgers
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Rank 81. Rooh
Indian
Rooh fuses Indian flavors with modern techniques—oysters meet tandoori spices, burrata finds curry leaf. Jewel-toned dining room and inventive cocktails frame small plates designed for sharing and desserts that riff on subcontinental tradition.
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Rank 82. Sam Wo Restaurant
Chinese
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- US Coffee Championships 2025 · #3 · U.S. Barista Championship · Jason Yeo
- Eater The Absolute Best San Francisco Coffee Shops
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Rank 85. Nari
Contemporary Thai
A dramatic room inside Hotel Kabuki sets the stage for Chef Pim Techamuanvivit's refined take on Thai cooking, where California ingredients meet intense aromatics and a deft hand with heat. A brick-red bumbai curry arrives with crispy fried eggplant and ethereal roti; grilled squid shares the plate with sticky-sweet pork jowl and chili-lime dressing. Family-style dining elevated.
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- The Infatuation #14 · The 25 Best Restaurants In SF
- The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in San Francisco Right Now
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Rank 86. Hon’s Wun-Tun House
Cantonese
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Rank 87. Rice Roll Express
Chinese
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Rank 88. Heartwood SF
American
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Rank 89. Montesacro
Pizza
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Rank 90. Smuggler's Cove
Tiki Cocktail Bar
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Rank 91. Caffè Macaroni
Italian
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Rank 92. Maison Nico
French
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Rank 93. Mộng Thu Cafe
Vietnamese
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Rank 94. Bon Délire
French
- Sunset 2025 · Fabulous French · Where to Eat and Drink
- The Infatuation The 17 Best Restaurants Near The Embarcadero & Ferry Building
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Rank 95. Tadich Grill
Seafood
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Rank 96. Taishan Cuisine
Cantonese Chinese
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Rank 97. Perbacco
Italian
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Rank 98. Barcha
Mediterranean
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Rank 100. La Mar
Peruvian
- The Infatuation The 21 Best Outdoor Dining Spots In SF
- The Infatuation The 17 Best Restaurants Near The Embarcadero & Ferry Building