The Best Places in Paseo de San Antonio & around

Tables sit on burlap coffee bags pressed under thick glass, and the dining room fills with tall greenery, so the room already has a point of view before the food arrives. This is a contemporary Ethiopian restaurant where the kitchen swaps beef for tuna in the kifto and keeps a long roster of vegan dishes most spots skip. Honey wine and craft Ethiopian beer round out a meal that the San Francisco Chronicle has put on its Top 100 list.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. San Francisco Chronicle Best Ethiopian restaurants in the Bay Area
3. San Francisco Chronicle #43 · Top 100 Restaurants in the Bay Area

Petiscos, the Portuguese word for snack-with-drinks, is exactly what this casual small-plates spot in SoFA delivers. The menu leans on imported ingredients and rustic, home-style cooking, the kind of food you'd share at a kitchen table with a bottle of wine open. Cornbread, lupini beans, codfish croquettes, and an octopus salad substantial enough to anchor the table. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Bib Gourmand, which tracks for a place this generous with flavor.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants In San Jose

1. AAA Three Diamonds

Nasi lemak is the organizing principle here, the Malaysian national dish built around coconut rice with its constellation of sides. This quick-service counter in downtown San Jose plates it with Mamak-style fried chicken, an overnight spice-and-curry-leaf marinade under a thin cornstarch crackle that happens to be gluten-free. The San Francisco Chronicle put it on both its best San Jose restaurants and best Bay Area fried chicken lists, which is a tidy double for a $13 plate.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best fried chicken restaurants in the Bay Area
2. San Francisco Chronicle Best restaurants in San Jose

A coffee shop in San Jose's SoFa district where single-origin espressos share the menu with drinks drawing on Asian flavors, the kind of detail that makes regulars possessive about their order. The space has been a Downtown gathering spot for years, and the staff friendliness that built its reputation hasn't faded. Sprudge flagged it in their San Jose coffee guide, which tracks.

1. Sprudge The Sprudge Guide To Coffee In San Jose, California

A natural wine bar tucked into a downtown alley, Goodtime Bar is about the size of a large walk-in closet, which somehow only adds to the energy. The formula is simple: zippy, low-intervention pours and creative small plates that pull from all over, including a bucatini seasoned with Thai tom yum. The San Francisco Chronicle put it on their Top 100 Bay Area restaurants list, and the overflow crowd spilling out front on any given night suggests people got the memo.

1. San Francisco Chronicle #87 · Top 100 Restaurants in the Bay Area
2. San Francisco Chronicle Best restaurants in San Jose
3. San Francisco Chronicle Best restaurants in Palo Alto, San Jose, the Peninsula and South Bay

The pink walls hit you before the espresso does. This coffee shop in San Jose's SoFa District sits among a row of Black-owned businesses and runs like a neighborhood living room, with a mezzanine overhead for anyone who came to read and stayed for three hours. Open mic nights and live music fill the place regularly, and the sidewalk seats are good for people-watching. Strangers here tend to introduce themselves unprompted, which is either charming or a lot, depending on your mood.

1. Sprudge The Sprudge Guide To Coffee In San Jose, California

1. AAA Approved

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best restaurants in San Jose
2. San Francisco Chronicle Best restaurants in Palo Alto, San Jose, the Peninsula and South Bay

A vegan brewpub where the kitchen makes its own ferments, and you can buy a jar to take home if one wins you over. Nachos arrive topped with mole-braised hibiscus; a crudités spread leans on cashew queso. The rotating ferment list, cabbage-pear kimchi one week, seasonal giardiniera the next, turns ordering into a low-stakes experiment. Downtown San Jose, tucked between two bakeries, which says something about the neighborhood's current priorities.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best restaurants in San Jose