The Best Places to Eat in San Francisco

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.

Cracked & Battered is a halal breakfast and lunch counter where the menu wanders from chicken and waffles to fried chicken benedict to nasi goreng wearing a fried egg like a hat. Order at the counter, and expect a sandwich with lemony slaw and a tangy house sauce, plus fries that don't feel like an afterthought. It's a casual, inexpensive daytime stop, and The Infatuation lists it among SF's best fried chicken sandwiches.

Kogi Gogi is an all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue spot in the Sunset, where the grill sits at your table and the dress code is whatever you already had on. The long, easygoing room suits big groups and weeknight stragglers alike, and the pork belly and bulgogi arrive thin and sweet-salty. Monday to Thursday, a flat per-person price covers four meats and three sides, so nobody has to do math over the smoke.

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.

The shelves at this Eastern European deli and market run floor to ceiling with imported snacks, spices, and things you won't find at a regular grocery store. Grab a piroshki from the deli counter, a yeasted hand pie stuffed with beef and cheese, and ask them to warm it. The samsas and chebureki are worth the indecision. A courtyard out front makes it easy to eat standing up, which is probably for the best given the portions.

Barebottle is a warehouse-sized brewery in Bernal Heights where you navigate dog toys and stroller wheels just to reach the taps. Arcade games, foosball, and a wall of TVs keep the kids busy while the adults drink, and whatever food truck is parked out front handles dinner. Odds are good you'll run into your third grader's classmate, and their dog.

Bodega is a North Beach wine bar that spends most of the week doing wine bar things and then, on Saturdays at 9am, abruptly becomes a burrito stand. The breakfast burrito comes stuffed with chorizo, eggs, avocado, and potatoes crisp enough to hear across Washington Square, and it sells out, so the alarm clock is part of the order. Sleep through it and their Cow Hollow sister bar, Celeste, serves the same thing on Sundays.

This Mission counter spot is built around the breakfast burrito, a foil-wrapped brick with tater tots folded in alongside the eggs. There are five versions, and the Tia Maria swaps in fried plantains and queso fresco, which is a lot of sweetness for a burrito and somehow gets away with it. Order at the window, eat among the Mexican folk art, or carry it up toward Dolores Park and unwrap it on the grass.

Old-timey bulbs hang over leather booths inside this rock-and-roll burger joint, where the menu leans loud and the vibe leans louder. The Johnny Cash Burger piles on bacon, crisp onions, peppers, and barbecue sauce in a way that manages to feel both retro and inevitable. A lamb burger with goat cheese is there for anyone who wants to go funkier. Most people pair either with a cold beer from the full bar.

Cafe Isabella is a counter-service Mexican cafe on Taylor Street where the griddled breakfast burrito does most of the talking. Carnitas, eggs, and cheese come tightly wrapped, and adding avocado and sour cream is the polite way to make it heavier. A few sidewalk tables exist for the impatient, though the thing travels fine, which suits the Nob Hill locals who climb down from their Victorians still recovering from the night before.

The spaghetti arrives buried under shredded cheese that stays stubbornly unmelted, swimming in sweet sauce you'd never mistake for Italian. Chibog is a Filipino homestyle restaurant in Daly City where weekends mean families crowded around platters of crispy pata and lechon kawali. Solo diners can work through silog-style meal sets without feeling lost. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the best restaurants on the Peninsula and South Bay.

A Chinatown noodle shop where the namesake bowl, listed plainly as "Chongqing hot numbing spicy noodles," does exactly what it promises with Sichuan pepper and red chile oil doing most of the talking. The menu is narrow by design, each strand matched to a mood, and the tan tan noodle soup goes richer and heartier for anyone who needs a reason to stay. Prices are firmly in the single digits, which explains why the stools fill fast.

The spiral-tailed monkey painted on one wall gives the place its name and its vibe: a cheerful Peruvian restaurant with wood accents and geometric light fixtures that somehow feels both casual and considered. The antojitos trio is a good way in, landing beef hearts, jumbo corn, and causa on the table before you've made any real decisions. The San Francisco Chronicle named it one of Berkeley's best restaurants.

A one-person takeout operation in Berkeley where the pre-orders open at 9 a.m. sharp and are often gone before the place does. The pies are 18-inch, NY-style, with charred and pillowy crusts, and you have to plan around them rather than the other way around. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the best Berkeley restaurants, which feels about right for something this inconvenient to obtain.

Turquoise glazed tiles, dramatic florals, and a sixth-floor view over Chinatown and Telegraph Hill set the tone before you've touched a menu. This is a tasting-menu Cantonese restaurant from the chef behind Hakkasan, and it carries that same instinct for precise, composed presentations of classic dishes. Come for cocktails if the full commitment feels like a lot; the view alone justifies the elevator ride.

Fort Point Valencia is the Mission taproom for people who came for the beer and stayed for the cheeseburger. It's a thin-patty, double-american-cheese affair on a buttered sesame bun, with enough shredded lettuce to technically cover your vegetables for the day. Grab a table outside on a sunny Saturday, order a lager, and take the pace of the afternoon as seriously as the pint in your hand.

A roadhouse that means it when it says farm-to-table Italian, Giaco's sits a five-minute drive from Samuel P. Taylor State Park, which matters more than you'd think by night two of camping. There's a bar up front, a cozy dining room in back, and a patio when the weather cooperates. The wood-fired pizzas run a little bready, but creative toppings carry them, and the saffron arancini with Point Reyes truffle cheese earns its place on the menu.

A no-frills Vietnamese lunch spot on the edge of Portsmouth Square, where the best move on a sunny day is to grab takeout and eat in the park while retired neighbors argue card games at the tables nearby. Pho, grilled meats, rice plates, and vermicelli salads are the whole program, exactly as advertised. The spring rolls, fried in rice paper, come out blistered and genuinely airy in a way that's hard to explain until you've had one.

The garlic fries alone have launched a thousand detours off the freeway. Gott's is a California roadside grill doing burgers and shakes with Niman Ranch beef and seafood sourced with the same seriousness, which is more than most places in this price range bother with. The classic cheeseburger hits the produce-and-seared-beef formula cleanly, and when the soft-shell crab sandwich is on the menu, it's the move. Plenty of outdoor tables if the sun cooperates.

A small French sandwich shop on Cedar Street where the main event is a buttermilk-fried chicken cutlet on a Semifreddi's roll, craggy-coated and topped with a creamy, spicy slaw. The potato puffs are the other reason people come, little pillowy spheres that have built a loyal following on their own. A few sidewalk tables exist, but most orders leave in a bag headed for Live Oak Park.

The focaccia at this Italian sandwich shop and pizzeria is springy enough to qualify as a mattress topping, then loaded with stracciatella, 'nduja, pistachio butter, or artichoke cream. A deli counter runs along one side, stocked with mortadella, salami, and prosciutto that get hand-sliced to order. Roman-style pizza sits out in thick, dimpled slabs. Bring cash for lunch and a plan for a slow afternoon.

Diners at this casual Millbrae Korean spot can be spotted holding oxtails up to the light like jewelers, hunting for every last scrap of meat. Han Sang runs on bone broth soups and sliced beef, the kind of cooking that earns regulars fast. The sul long tang, a cloudy white stock loaded with brisket, tongue, and tendon, arrives unseasoned so you can salt it yourself, which somehow makes it feel more personal.

Mojitos are the organizing principle at this Cuban restaurant and bar in Walnut Creek, and the menu runs a dozen or so of them, spiked with guava or prickly pear depending on your mood. Floral-print booths line the walls, a long communal table anchors the middle, and the patio fills fast on weekends. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the best restaurants in Walnut Creek. Come thirsty and order the ropa vieja empanadas while you figure out the rest.

A San Francisco fish market that planted a second flag inside Proof Lab Beer Garden in Mill Valley, where the obvious move after a Marin hike is a fish taco. The fried rockfish comes out of the oil crackling, buried under a carrot habanero salsa that uses sweetness and acid to dial back the heat rather than just announce it. Order at the counter, find a sunny spot, and let the endorphins from the trail and the chile sort themselves out.

The menu here is basically a suggestion, since the family running this Chinatown restaurant has been known to steer you away from it entirely and just decide what you're eating. That's not arrogance so much as confidence, and the Shanghainese cooking that lands on the table tends to justify the approach. Pork confit egg rolls with basil and chile sauce are a signature. Cash in on the experience; just don't expect to be in charge.

A West Oakland coffee shop where the jollof rice is serious business: sharply spiced Nigerian rice with heat that keeps building, served with caramelized plantains and your choice of stewed chicken, oxtail, or goat. Okra and egusi soups arrive with fufu. Seating is tight and the wait can stretch, so bring patience and a friend you want to impress with how good Oakland gets. The San Francisco Chronicle put it on their best Oakland restaurants list.

The sweet potato brulée, a potato starch custard torched to a glassy crust, gives you a sense of how this Berkeley izakaya operates: familiar enough to land, unexpected enough to stay with you. The menu shifts constantly around a core of Japanese small plates, with daily specials that swing from nigiri to okonomiyaki depending on the chef's mood. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the best restaurants in Berkeley.

This is a neighborhood Iranian wine bar in Bernal Heights where the big round tables were clearly built for spreading out. Parents graze through mazze platters with a glass of something cold while kids tally the decorative pots behind the bar, and nobody needs a sitter or a reservation strategy. The sweet and sour chicken stew is soft enough for the teething set, which is more than most wine bars can say.