The Best Places in Inner Richmond & around

Mandalay's tea leaf salad skips the cabbage most Bay Area Burmese spots default to, landing closer to what you'd find in Myanmar, layered with sesame, peanuts, tomatoes, and fried garlic. It's an old-school Burmese restaurant on California Street that's been around forever without feeling tired. A 2024 James Beard America's Classics winner, it draws regulars who clearly have a usual order and aren't changing it anytime soon.

1. James Beard Awards 2024 · Winner · America's Classics: California
2. Los Angeles Times The 101 Best Restaurants in California
3. The Infatuation #4 · The 25 Best Restaurants In SF

A ramen omakase in the Richmond where the noodle is the main character, not a supporting act. The team built their name through pop-ups and global competitions before landing in this small corner space, and the tasting menu shows the range, broths that shift from delicate to deeply rich across several courses. It runs at a fine-dining pace and price, so dress one notch up from your usual bowl-of-ramen energy.

1. The Infatuation Infatuation’s Highest-Rated Restaurants In America
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Kaya toast on pillowy bread striped with coconut-pandan jam is the thing people cite first, but the menu at this Asian American bakery on Clement Street rotates enough to keep regulars guessing. Pan de sal buns cradle egg salad with panko-fried veg, and the Basque cheesecake is cut thick enough to feel like a statement. Outdoor seating only, but the line moves. The New York Times and the LA Times both put it on their San Francisco lists.

1. Los Angeles Times The 101 Best Restaurants in California
2. San Francisco Chronicle #7 · Top 100 Restaurants in the Bay Area
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A wine bar on Clement Street doing Turkish food with a California edit, and the Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand to prove the combination works. The börek arrives golden and shatteringly flaky, the hummus floats in chili oil, and the künefe kadayif pulls cheese under a crunch of pistachio. The wine list runs deep and leans affordable, which explains why nobody at the small tables seems to be in any hurry to leave.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. San Francisco Chronicle #55 · Top 100 Restaurants in the Bay Area
3. The Infatuation The Best Turkish Restaurants In SF

1. US Coffee Championships #5 · U.S. Barista Championship · Circle Chan
2. San Francisco Chronicle The Best Coffee in the Bay Area
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A colorful bar anchors the pale, airy room on Geary, where Mourad Lahlou's Moroccan-California restaurant has been back and quietly owning the Richmond for a few years now. The menu folds California ingredients into North African tradition, and the basteeya, golden phyllo packed with chicken and spiced almonds, has made the trip back too. Service runs warm and knowing. The New York Times named it among the top restaurants in San Francisco.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Los Angeles Times The 101 Best Restaurants in California
3. San Francisco Chronicle Best brunch restaurants in the Bay Area

The sour cream cake near the door has been pulling people off Balboa Street for longer than most San Francisco restaurants have existed. Cinderella is an old-school Russian bakery and cafe in the Richmond, the kind of place where the piroshki are stuffed with cabbage or beef, the borscht is non-negotiable, and the honey cake has its own following. Order something, find a seat, and stop worrying about whatever you were worrying about.

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Weekend lines form outside this Inner Richmond bakery before most people have finished their coffee, and the croissants are why. They shatter into a thousand airy layers on first bite, the kind that make every other version feel like a compromise. Pain au chocolat and a ham and cheese round out the short menu. The Civic Center location adds seating and sandwiches, but the original is a pilgrimage of the buttery kind.

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3. The Infatuation The 25 Best Restaurants In The Richmond

The French dip bánh mì arrives with a cup of beef phở jus for dunking, which tells you everything about how this Inner Richmond restaurant handles Vietnamese food. Chef Rob Lam pulls from both classic technique and contemporary Saigon street food, so the menu lands somewhere between a chicken consommé you'd linger over and jackfruit "pizza" on crispy rice paper. Closer to a special-occasion dinner than a casual bowl spot, price-wise.

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2. San Francisco Chronicle #42 · Top 100 Restaurants in the Bay Area
3. The Infatuation The 25 Best Restaurants In The Richmond

Carpeted walls and glass cases displaying the day's ingredients signal that this isn't your average dim sum hall. Dragon Beaux is a contemporary Cantonese spot in the Richmond where the siu mai comes topped with crab roe and the barbecue buns have a crunchy sugar crust that makes you rethink every bun you've had before. Save room for the custard dumplings, which arrive looking demure and then absolutely don't.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best dim sum restaurants in the SF Bay Area
2. The Infatuation The 25 Best Restaurants In The Richmond

A former drugstore in the Outer Richmond that went full Cal-Italian neighborhood restaurant, with the soaring ceilings and oversized windows to prove it. By day it's airy and bright; by night the candles take over and whole albums play instead of playlists, which is either charming or a statement. The kitchen does rustic pasta and seasonal proteins, and the Italian-leaning wine list is genuinely well-chosen.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
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3. The Infatuation The 25 Best Restaurants In The Richmond

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1. AAA Approved

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A cozy Richmond District Thai restaurant with a menu long enough to require real commitment. The slow-braised pork-leg stew, a Thai street-vendor staple fragrant with cinnamon, star anise, and soy, is the kind of thing regulars order before they sit down. The crispy chicken wings in sticky chile-garlic sauce pull their weight too. Hard-to-find specialties fill out a menu that goes well beyond the usual neighborhood Thai repertoire.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Thai restaurants in the SF Bay Area

The shokupan here is soft enough to make you question your relationship with crusts. Bread n' Chu is a Japanese-style sandwich counter on Clement Street where the egg salad is Kewpie-heavy and dill-flecked, the chicken katsu arrives with purple cabbage slaw, and the choux sandwich with strawberries and pastry cream exists primarily to be photographed. No seating, but there's a ledge by the window for exactly that purpose.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best sandwich spots in the Bay Area

Pinball machines, vintage hats for sale, and bags of Flossie cotton candy set the tone at this neighborhood deli, which leans hard into sandwich-shop whimsy, pun names and all. The menu takes vegetarians seriously, not as an afterthought but as an actual mission, with options built around wild mushrooms and goat cheese rather than just meat subtracted. Sandwiches with names like Shrooms over My Hammy, rosemary and all, do the arguing for the rest.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best sandwich spots in the Bay Area

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1. The Infatuation The 18 Best Sports Bars In SF

An 11-seat sushi bar in the Inner Richmond where the nigiri run thick enough to make you reconsider everything you thought you knew about portion sizes. There's no menu to study; you sit down and eat what the kitchen sends out. The hand-written notes covering the walls suggest regulars have feelings about this. A line forms well before the 6 p.m. seating, so arriving early is less a tip than a requirement.

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A Korean BBQ restaurant on Geary in the Richmond where the grills burn real charcoal instead of gas, so the meat picks up smoke in the few seconds between grate and mouth. You can order a la carte or hand the decision to the two-, four-, and six-person sets, a kindness on a day your judgment has clocked out. The banchan keeps coming, and so do the japchae and soondubu, in case you thought the grill was the whole show.

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Open rafters, pale pink tiles, and bright teal accents set the tone at this casual Chinese spot on Clement Street, where Brandon Jew runs a room that looks like it was designed on purpose, because it was. The sweet-and-sour chicken, rice-battered and stuffed into a homemade pineapple bun, is the kind of thing people come back for. Housemade sodas round out a menu that treats the nonalcoholic drinks as a feature rather than an afterthought.

1. Condé Nast Traveler The 25 Best Restaurants in San Francisco for Casual Diners, Twelve-Course Tasting Counters, and Late-Night Eats

1. The Infatuation The 6 Best Korean BBQ Restaurants In SF

Zajang Grill is an all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue spot on Clement, where the overhead hoods are painted like mountain ranges, which feels fitting for the amount of meat involved. Walk-ins are easy, so it works when a group decides on dinner an hour ago. You get 90 minutes at the tabletop grill, soju on the side, and a scoop of ice cream at the end, a gentle nudge toward the couch you'll be horizontal on by nine.

1. The Infatuation The 6 Best Korean BBQ Restaurants In SF

1. The Infatuation The 25 Best Restaurants In The Richmond

1. The Infatuation The 25 Best Restaurants In The Richmond

Han Il Kwan is a Korean BBQ restaurant on Balboa in the Richmond, where the banchan arrives in such volume that the table looks catered before any meat shows up. Grills sit at the center, set menus feed six or eight, and a free soondubu or egg soufflé comes with the order. Go with a group and a plan to be carried out, because the crispy mandu and japchae will absolutely get involved.

1. The Infatuation The 6 Best Korean BBQ Restaurants In SF
2. The Infatuation The 25 Best Restaurants In The Richmond

1. The Infatuation The 25 Best Restaurants In The Richmond

1. The Infatuation The 25 Best Restaurants In The Richmond

1. The Infatuation The 25 Best Restaurants In The Richmond

1. The Infatuation The 25 Best Restaurants In The Richmond

1. The Infatuation The 25 Best Restaurants In The Richmond