The Best Restaurants in San Francisco

The barbacoa tacos dorados here leave a pool of vivid red oil on the plate that stops first-timers mid-bite. This casual Antioch taco spot specializes in guisos, proteins slow-simmered into something silky, ordered as tacos or thick, crispy gorditas. The San Francisco Chronicle put it on their short lists for both best Mexican restaurants and best tacos in the Bay Area, which for a strip-mall counter in the East Bay is a statement worth noting.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Mexican restaurants in the Bay Area
2. San Francisco Chronicle Best tacos in the SF Bay Area

A lunch window on Vine Street where the herbs arrive in what can only be described as quantities. The team behind it came up through Chez Panisse, and their California produce fixation reads clearly in the Middle Eastern menu: falafel with a serious crunch, flatbreads buried in mint and dill, yogurt spiked with broccoli and dill. Takeout only, which keeps things honest. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the best Berkeley and best Bay Area Middle Eastern spots.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Middle Eastern restaurants in the Bay Area
2. San Francisco Chronicle Best Berkeley restaurants

String lights zigzag above the patio out back, where counter-service Taiwanese food and soft serve draw crowds to this Emeryville spot. Fried tofu skins that look remarkably like Wheat Thins share a table with grilled corn and fried chicken in a citrusy Sichuan peppercorn sauce. The housemade sparkling oolong and an unconventional sake list give you something to argue over while you wait for a seat.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Chinese food and restaurants in the Bay Area
2. San Francisco Chronicle Best restaurants for outdoor dining in the Bay Area

Hamburguesa Bar is a casual SoMa burger counter from the same crew behind Pie Punks, which explains why the beef gets a surprising amount of attention. The Black Label stacks an eight-ounce patty with truffle butter, mushroom ragout, demi-glace, and white American cheese, a pile that sounds excessive and somehow isn't. It comes with a side salad, a small gesture toward moderation that everyone politely accepts.

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James Syhabout of Commis runs this casual Thai-inflected counter spot in Temescal, where the menu swings between a spicy chicken sandwich lacquered in Thai chile oil and garlic noodles that somehow taste like a Bay Area institution. The cooking splits the difference between street food and comfort food, and it does so without making a big deal about it. Cash-friendly prices, a busy room, and nothing on the menu that needs a long explanation.

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

The steamed-up windows are the first sign you're in the right place. Hon's is a no-frills Cantonese noodle house in Chinatown, been around forever, and the wonton soup is the reason: thin noodles, plump pork-and-shrimp dumplings in a clear broth with a deep, funky dried-shrimp backbone. The scallion pancakes are hard to skip. Lunch crowds move fast, solo diners fit right in, and the whole thing costs almost nothing.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best classic San Francisco restaurants
2. San Francisco Chronicle The Best Classic Restaurants in San Francisco

The complimentary focaccia that lands at your table before dinner is spongy and faintly sweet, closer to a savory pound cake than anything you'd expect for free. This rustic Tuscan restaurant in downtown Fairfax does freshly made, rib-sticking pasta alongside a porchetta sandwich at lunch that justifies the name on the sign. Marble countertops inside, wood benches out front for when Marin decides to behave weather-wise.

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Woven Messob baskets hang from the ceiling at this Ethiopian restaurant on Adeline, and the room is clearly built for a party, with a long bar, plush chairs, and a fully adjustable lighting rig that suggests someone once had serious ambitions for the space. Order the meat and veggie combo and let the kitchen do the rest. The 100% teff injera crumbles a little differently than you might expect, which is its own small education.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Ethiopian restaurants in the Bay Area
2. San Francisco Chronicle Best Berkeley restaurants

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Manakish are pizza-sized Lebanese flatbreads, and this fast-casual spot in Walnut Creek has built its whole identity around them. The menu runs from simple za'atar to meat-and-cheese loaded versions, plus wraps, bowls, and kebab plates, with weekend brunch on top. Patterned tiles and Turkish mosaic chandeliers give the room more personality than the format usually bothers with. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the Bay Area's top Middle Eastern restaurants.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Middle Eastern restaurants in the Bay Area
2. San Francisco Chronicle Best restaurants in Walnut Creek

The sugar-crusted barbecue buns have a following serious enough to cause shortages. Ming's Tasty is a no-frills dim sum shop in Oakland's Chinatown, the kind where takeout orders go out the door in stacks and the breakfast and lunch crowds spill onto the sidewalk. The fried shrimp balls are famously frilly and bouncy, the siu mai lands every time, and the line, when there is one, moves faster than you'd expect.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best dim sum restaurants in the SF Bay Area
2. San Francisco Chronicle Best restaurants in Oakland

A food truck that does one thing: pav bhaji, the Mumbai street staple of spiced, buttered vegetable gravy served with soft, toasted rolls for scooping. The bhaji gets its richness from Amul butter, and the locally made pav handles like Parker House rolls. Spicy, cheesy, or both are your main decisions. Order extra bread regardless, because the gravy always wins the race. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the Bay Area's top South Asian and top vegetarian spots.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best vegetarian and vegan restaurants in the SF Bay Area
2. San Francisco Chronicle Best Indian, Pakistani, and South Asian restaurants in the Bay Area

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Posters advertising long-gone menu items like cottage cheese salad hang alongside the candy display at this Mission District diner, which has been around forever and looks exactly like it. Wood booths, a lunch counter, and the kind of simplicity that produces genuinely fluffy flapjacks and a patty melt on marbled rye. The city's Legacy Business Program keeps the bones intact, which means new ownership changes nothing a regular would notice.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best classic San Francisco restaurants
2. San Francisco Chronicle The Best Classic Restaurants in San Francisco

The Taishan roast chicken arrives head-on, carved tableside by a server wearing two layers of gloves who tears it apart with her bare hands. This Cantonese restaurant in Chinatown is one of the few places left that stays open deep into the night, which means the 2 a.m. crowd runs from solo diners working through a clay pot of eel rice to the chefs from Four Kings. Named among San Francisco Chronicle's top Chinese restaurants in the Bay Area, it earns the spot at any hour.

1. San Francisco Chronicle #11 · Top 100 Restaurants in the Bay Area
2. San Francisco Chronicle Best Chinese food and restaurants in the Bay Area

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Oxblood marble and decorative molding dripping in merlot tones have replaced what the Chronicle once described as a middle school production of Camelot. This old-school Italian red sauce restaurant on Taraval has been around forever, and a lengthy remodel hasn't loosened its grip on the classics. Regulars who never open the menu fill the room by six, and if you ask the kitchen nicely about the veal saltimbocca, it will appear.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best classic San Francisco restaurants
2. San Francisco Chronicle The Best Classic Restaurants in San Francisco

The enchiladas are why people come back to this California Indian restaurant in Sausalito, draped in cheese, yogurt, tamarind, and a curried house sauce that shouldn't work as well as it does. The owner is a regular presence at the tables, cheerfully fielding questions about why the menu also includes Jamaican jerk chicken. There is exactly one dessert. You order it.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Indian, Pakistani, and South Asian restaurants in the Bay Area
2. San Francisco Chronicle Best restaurants in Marin County: Sausalito, Novato and San Rafael

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

Metal skewers pulled from an open flame and left to rest on the grill's upper rack, that's the move at this Indian barbecue spot in Fremont. The menu is deliberately short: paneer, chicken, and mutton skewers, plus rice and biryani. The grilled chicken comes drenched in a creamy, smoke-kissed white sauce that doubles as a biryani condiment if you're paying attention. The San Francisco Chronicle put it on their Top 100 list.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Indian, Pakistani, and South Asian restaurants in the Bay Area
2. San Francisco Chronicle #92 · Top 100 Restaurants in the Bay Area

Blue corn tortillas packed with saucy, warm-spiced beef birria is the move at this Mission District taqueria, which calls its style Chicano rather than the more tomato-forward versions you'll find elsewhere. The asada and adobo chicken are there for the uncommitted, both lifted considerably by the creamy salsa verde. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the best tacos in the Bay Area, which the line out front suggests locals have known for a while.

1. San Francisco Chronicle #38 · Top 100 Restaurants in the Bay Area
2. San Francisco Chronicle Best tacos in the SF Bay Area

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

Seawater tanks full of live crustaceans greet you at the door of this sprawling seafood market and casual eatery tucked into an industrial warehouse in Burlingame. You order at the counter, pick your lobster by the pound, and eat surrounded by painted buoys while the place buzzes around you. It functions as a fish market too, so oysters on the half shell are there if you want them. The Michelin Guide has had its eye on it for years.

1. AAA Approved

1. The Infatuation #3 · The 25 Best Restaurants In SF

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

A googly-eyed metal tiger on the wall and a wooden tableau glossing the definition of "hangry" set the tone at this Thai street food spot in downtown Danville, where the vibe is more family dinner than date-night theater. Khao soi and pumpkin curry are the reasons regulars keep coming back. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the top Thai restaurants in the Bay Area.

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

Murals of desert landscapes and the Nasser family carving shawarma off vertical spits cover the walls, which tells you most of what you need to know. Abu Salim is a counter-service Middle Eastern spot on Haight Street, casual in the way the neighborhood demands. The hummus runs soft-serve creamy and the Ramallah-style falafels shatter cleanly. Portions lean generous, and the kitchen covers shawarma plates, vegetarian combos, and salads with evident care.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Middle Eastern restaurants in the Bay Area

The logo is a Ramones seal riff, and the walls are buried in band stickers and prints, so the vibe is established before you order. Aburaya is a karaage shop in Oakland's Temescal that goes deep on one thing: thick boneless thighs marinated in shio-koji, dredged in potato starch for a crunch that actually holds. The seasonings and dipping sauces, garlic miso powder, sansho pepper, miso ranch, are where the kitchen puts its personality.

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

Chandeliers and vibrant Afghan artwork give this small Fremont kabob shop the feel of a classy living room, which sets up the food nicely: deeply comforting, made from scratch, and the kind of thing Bay Area diners drive across several zip codes to find. The mantoo and chapli kebabs are the draws, and the dimpled flatbread comes by the slab, built for sopping. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the Bay Area's top South Asian restaurants.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Indian, Pakistani, and South Asian restaurants in the Bay Area

A small Afghan restaurant in Concord where the narunj palow arrives looking simple and proceeds to misbehave. The signature rice dish hides a lamb shank somewhere beneath saffron-tinted basmati, with caramelized orange peel lending a faint bitterness that makes the tender meat taste even richer. The habanero chile paste on the side is not decorative. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the Bay Area's top South Asian tables.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Indian, Pakistani, and South Asian restaurants in the Bay Area

A Cal-Italian restaurant on Nob Hill where all the pasta is made in-house and the Bolognese simmers for half a day before it touches a plate. The kitchen leans on the rich, meaty flavors of central Italy, which means comfort is the whole project, not an afterthought. The room is cozy enough that the cooking and the atmosphere feel like they had a meeting. The San Francisco Chronicle has named it among the best Italian in the Bay Area.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Italian food and restaurants in SF Bay Area

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 back patio is the whole reason to come: a lush, sheltered garden that you'd never guess existed from the Hayes Street sidewalk. Arbor is a casual American comfort spot with a strong lean toward vegan options, serving burgers, chile cheese fries, and the kind of mac and cheese that makes you stop mid-sentence. On a sunny afternoon the patio fills up fast, which in San Francisco means you should probably just go on the next sunny afternoon.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best restaurants for outdoor dining in the Bay Area

The bún mắm here, a thick-noodled seafood soup built on fermented fish broth and lemongrass, is the dish that defines what this Mission District Vietnamese restaurant is doing differently. The menu draws from Bạc Liêu, a coastal southern province whose mastery of fermented seafood doesn't often make it this far north. The grilled shrimp paste on sugarcane, served with rice noodles and vegetables for DIY wraps, has its own following.

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Handmade pasta and seasonal Italian cooking from the team behind AltoVino, landing on Valencia Street with enough confidence to unsettle places that have been doing this for decades. The bagna cauda arrives warm over a votive candle, an anchovy-laced olive oil dip that earns the table's full attention before the rest of the menu even starts. Produce gets treated with the same seriousness as the proteins, which is the quiet tell of a kitchen that knows what it's doing.

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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

A daytime sandwich shop tucked between the office towers of downtown San Francisco, Cafe du Soleil runs a tight lunch rush with a short line and shorter seating. The prosciutto sandwich, layered with brie and roasted bell peppers, is the kind of thing coworkers quietly compare notes on. Yerba Buena Gardens is a short walk when the tables fill up, which is most days.

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1. San Francisco Chronicle The best Vietnamese restaurants in the Bay Area

The patio is strung up to feel like a beachside cabana, and on a warm Mission afternoon that illusion mostly holds. Chuy's is a mariscos spot with a burrito worth ordering, specifically the flattop version where the tortilla gets pressed and crisped on the griddle. A frosty mug or a michelada fits the mood exactly. Seats outside go fast at peak hours, so arriving early isn't overthinking it.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best restaurants for outdoor dining in the Bay Area

Polished concrete floors and olive-green banquettes replaced the worn carpet when City View moved to its new spot overlooking Portsmouth Square, and the room now reads more gallery than dim sum hall. The classics still show up on the carts, though, and the baked pork buns arrive airy with a crackly top. A sleeker option than the old-school palaces nearby, and the San Francisco Chronicle named it among the best dim sum spots in the Bay Area.

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

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

The lasagnette arrives sliced, crisped, and floated over a pool of green fondue, which tells you most of what you need to know about this Italian restaurant on Hyde. The team behind Seven Hills took over their original space and pivoted toward something warmer and a little more relaxed, all monochromatic blue walls and wines by the glass. Snacks, pasta, and surprisingly compelling sides fill out a menu that keeps the room full on a weeknight.

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The outdoor tables on Baker Street are as close to a Parisian sidewalk cafe as Cow Hollow gets, which is either charming or delusional depending on your mood. Côte Ouest is a French bistro where weekend brunch brings smoked salmon benedict on an open-faced croissant, and a Kir Royale seems less indulgent than it should at noon. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the Bay Area's top French restaurants.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best French restaurants in the Bay Area

The chef here trained in fine dining and then opened a Japanese curry shop in a Burlingame strip mall, which is either a pivot or a philosophy. The curry is built on three-hour caramelized onions and two dozen spices, and it eats like something that took considerably longer than it costs. Katsudon and a buttery corn soup round out the short menu. Casual, counter-service priced, and named among the Bay Area's best Japanese spots by the Chronicle.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Japanese restaurants in the Bay Area

The move at this Japantown Korean soup shop is kalbijjim, braised beef short ribs served tableside while a torch melts a crown of cheese over the meat and chewy rice cakes. It's theatrical in a way that feels earned rather than forced. The New York Times named it among San Francisco's 25 best restaurants, which tracks with the line out front most evenings. Go hungry and order the beef soup alongside; it's not a one-dish situation.

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Soup dumpling shop where the windows let you watch the pleating happen before the steamer basket lands on your table. The xiao long bao are supple and broth-heavy, and the pork and crab version goes a shade yellow from the crab fat, which tells you everything you need to know. Noodle bowls and dry-fried pork chops round things out. Modern, sleek, always busy, and named among the Bay Area's best Chinese restaurants by the San Francisco Chronicle.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Chinese food and restaurants in the Bay Area

A golden dragon installation anchors the back of this sprawling Alameda dim sum hall, where Lazy Susans spin constantly and the noise level confirms everyone is having a good time. Siu mai and har gow are done right, and the golden shrimp rice rolls, crunchy fried shrimp wrapped in chewy rice noodle sheets, are the kind of thing you keep ordering before the last plate is gone. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the Bay Area's top dim sum spots.

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

Hunanese cooking in Berkeley, built around peppers and a kitchen with a particular way with fish. The poached fillets arrive with green peppercorns and pickled chiles that mean business, and a cracked coconut on the side functions as both a prop and a practical necessity. Portions run large at this casual, share-everything Chinese restaurant, and the sticky rice steamed with pork ribs and corn has developed something of a following.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Chinese food and restaurants in the Bay Area

Near Lake Merritt, Enssaro is a roomy Ethiopian restaurant that covers the full range, from slow-cooked lamb in berbere and ghee to kitfo rolls that wrap spiced beef tartar inside spirals of injera. The menu is mostly traditional, but it takes the occasional contemporary detour, Ethiopian nachos among them. A spiced, sweetened tea, hot or iced, is the move if the heat builds up.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Ethiopian restaurants in the Bay Area

The steamed taro buns here are shaped like little pigs, which tells you something about the mood. This is a neighborhood dim sum house in the outer Richmond where the har gow are fat with filling and the siu mai are delicate enough to make you forget the trek out Balboa. The menu stretches well past brunch into roast squab and clay pot brisket, and the prices run noticeably gentler than downtown.

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

Gold flower fixtures hang from the ceiling of this grand San Leandro banquet hall, where the projectors are always ready for the next big event and the dim sum carts have been replaced by tablets. It's a multigenerational scene, grandparents and kids at the same table, tea steaming alongside turnip cakes. The strawberry taro balls, crunchy outside and custard-oozing within, tend to stop conversations mid-sentence.

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

A smoothie shop and casual Ethiopian eatery sharing the same strip-mall storefront in Fremont, which sounds like a contradiction until you're sitting under the art with a flavored latte and a plate of lamb tibs on injera. Breakfast runs to spiced fava beans and jalapeño-flecked scrambles, and the apricot smoothie does real work against the heat. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the Bay Area's best Ethiopian spots.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Ethiopian restaurants 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

Perched at the water's edge in Emeryville with a full view of the San Francisco skyline, this dim sum restaurant leans hard into old-school banquet hall grandeur, crystal chandeliers, guardian lion statues, and furniture that screams wedding reception. The classics anchor the menu, barbecue buns, siu mai, lotus leaf sticky rice, and the salt and pepper calamari that nobody expects but everyone orders twice. Dim sum runs into the evening, which is rarer than you'd think.

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

A takeout window on Hyde with over two dozen sauce options for chicken wings, which is either a gift or a crisis depending on your decisiveness. The Korean buldak runs genuinely hot, and the lemon pepper wet fans of "Atlanta" will recognize the reference. Cheeky aphorisms and house rules cover the windows, so there's something to read while you decide. Cash in hand, no seat required.

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Sixteen dosa configurations is the move at this South Indian casual spot inside Stoneridge Mall, where the crepes come out shatteringly crisp and the kitchen doesn't treat mall traffic as an excuse to coast. The Hyderabad bandi dosa, stuffed with chopped vegetables in a lentil-ginger sauce, arrives with a tomato chutney worth ordering extra. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the Bay Area's top South Asian restaurants, which is a lot to carry for a food court neighbor.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Indian, Pakistani, and South Asian restaurants in the Bay Area

Hanging ivies, bamboo lanterns, and a menu that opens with raw blue crab tucked into an Isaan papaya salad, which is either the dish that converts you or sends you to the safer side of the menu. This Thai restaurant in San Carlos leans hard into northeastern Thailand, where the food runs funky, sour, and intensely aromatic. The grilled pork jowl with its house fish sauce dip is the kind of thing regulars order before they sit down.

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

An izakaya tucked into a Concord strip mall, with the emphasis firmly on kobachi, the small bites meant to be eaten slowly alongside sake or shochu. The menu front-loads little plates that pair well with drinks, while heartier bento sets and grilled meats occupy the back half for anyone who came hungry. When you order a shochu sour, the proprietor walks over and squeezes the citrus at your table, which sets the tone immediately.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Japanese restaurants in the Bay Area

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

A red velvet curtain meets you at the door of this Duboce Triangle bistro, fully separating the street from a dim, burgundy-and-dark-wood room that could pass for a family hotel in Dijon. Coq au vin, duck confit, and house-made pâtés hold down the menu, and the île flottante is the kind of dessert that makes you briefly forget you're in San Francisco. Stepping back through that curtain afterward feels like returning from somewhere farther away.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best French restaurants in the Bay Area

A torta shop on the Peninsula with over 20 variations stacked into crusty telera bread, grilled until the crust is crosshatched and the inside is a soft collapse of queso fresco, refried beans, caramelized onion, avocado, and chipotle. The Cubana piles on breaded steak, ham, pork leg, chorizo, and turkey sausage, which is either excess or the point, depending on your appetite. Seating is sparse, so most people take theirs to go.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Mexican restaurants in the Bay Area

A Mexican grocery and taqueria that has been making its own tortillas and masa since forever, La Tapatia is the kind of place where the carnitas come out of trays in the front and into your burrito in the back. The chile relleno burrito, built around a melty cheese-stuffed poblano, is the move. Everything is made in-house, it's takeout only, and the San Francisco Chronicle has called it one of the Bay Area's finest.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Mexican restaurants in the Bay Area

Persian cooking is rare in San Francisco, and Lavash has been one of the city's few serious addresses for it. The kebab plates arrive piled over rice on wide sheets of flatbread, which is both a practical move and a slightly theatrical one. The tahdig, all crackle and crust, is the thing regulars come back for. Tables spill into a roofed parklet when the Sunset fog cooperates, which is optimistic but charming.

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Le Central's neon sign above Bush Street has been announcing the cassoulet day count for what feels like forever, and the number is well into the five figures. This is an old-school French bistro, white tablecloths against exposed brick, curved booths, faux stained glass overhead. The cassoulet, duck and sausage and beans in a sauce that folds in a bit of the previous day's batch, is the reason regulars never open the menu.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best French restaurants in the Bay Area

Bruno Chemel ran one of the Peninsula's more ambitious tasting-menu restaurants for years; this is not that. Le Parc Bistrobar, tucked into a hotel near Union Square, is a French bistro and cocktail bar that leans classic, with oxtails braised in red wine until the meat nearly dissolves into the sauce. Christie Chemel's cocktail list runs deep on Chartreuse and Pineau des Charentes, which is either a selling point or a warning depending on your relationship with French liqueurs.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best French restaurants in the Bay Area

The garlic sauce at this South San Francisco sandwich shop has its own cult following, which tells you something about the commitment level here. The sandwiches are legendarily large, large enough that ordering two for yourself draws concerned looks from strangers. Bread holds everything together with more authority than the deli meats deserve. A San Francisco Chronicle pick for the Bay Area's best sandwich spots, and a genuine test of anyone nearby.

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

A J-shaped yellow bar and a handful of stools are the entire dining room at this takeout-only shack in San Rafael, and most people just grab their box and go. The menu changes constantly, sometimes the morning of, and things sell out. The chef pulls from various Asian cuisines and California seasonality, so one week it's pork in black vinegar caramel over rice, the next it's ceviche salad. Call ahead or arrive early, and arrive with no fixed idea of what you want.

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

Tuna kitfo is the order that sets this Ethiopian bistro apart, raw minced fish in place of the usual beef, melting in a way that earns the detour to Uptown Oakland. The vegetarian platter covers the classics well, and if you make it to dessert, the teff chocolate cake is a quietly clever use of injera's starring grain. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the Bay Area's best Ethiopian spots, which tracks.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Ethiopian restaurants in the Bay Area

The fried oyster mushrooms arrive tempura-crisp and somehow juicy underneath, which is the kind of thing that makes you stop mid-sentence. Millennium is a full-service vegan restaurant in Oakland's Rockridge neighborhood, been around forever, and still the kind of place where the menu takes real technique seriously rather than just swapping out the meat. A la carte most nights, prix fixe on weekends.

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Fried chicken ordered to order is the move at this Pakistani-American fast-casual mini-chain, a longtime staple for the halal community in the East Bay. The bird comes out of the fryer with a bumpy, spiced coating and buttermilk-tender meat underneath. The menu wanders cheerfully into chicken tikka pizza and Desi-style burgers, and the Chronicle named it among the Bay Area's top fried chicken spots.

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

A wok that produces real smoky hei on Indo-Chinese noodles is a good sign you're not at a standard curry house. Munch India is a casual South Asian restaurant in Berkeley that draws from India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, with California produce and the occasional Japanese ingredient folded into the mix. The menu rotates monthly, kebabs go over hardwood charcoal, and everything is available for takeout and delivery.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Indian, Pakistani, and South Asian restaurants in the Bay Area

Meat on a stick is the organizing principle here, and the sticks arrive loaded, ten pieces high, with lamb cubes, duck tongues, and frog legs all in the rotation. This Jilin-style BBQ spot in the Inner Sunset is the kind of place that makes vegetarianism feel like a personal attack, though the potato discs and tofu skins are quietly essential. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the Bay Area's best Chinese restaurants.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Chinese food and restaurants in the Bay Area

Every weekend, a sprawling outdoor food market assembles near the Oakland Flea Market, and the density of good options is almost unfair. A towering al pastor trompo gets shaved to order, while a stand called Las Cazuelas works through a rotation of clay-pot guisados that taste like someone's grandmother is running the operation. Carnitas, chicharron by the pound, stuffed gorditas. Bring cash, bring an appetite, and resist the urge to commit to a plan.

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Floor-to-ceiling windows face the marina, and the room leans into it with a chandelier big enough to mean business. This is a dim sum hall in Alameda, the check-box slip-and-tray kind, with a menu that mixes traditional and modern. The baked pork puffs, shiny and sesame-flecked, are the thing to track down when the cart comes by. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the Bay Area's best dim sum.

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

Halal tandoori from a wood-fired oven and curries priced so low you'll order three things you didn't plan to, at a Pakistani-Indian restaurant that's been a Tenderloin fixture long enough to feel like infrastructure. The chickpea masala and chicken tikka masala are the moves, with naan arriving in quantities that suggest the kitchen is rooting for you. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the top South Asian spots in the Bay Area.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Indian, Pakistani, and South Asian restaurants in the Bay Area

Lazy Susans on every large table and clubby blue ceiling lights give this San Leandro dim sum house more party energy than you'd expect from a shopping plaza. The menu runs through the classics: taro cakes, pork siu mai, rice rolls stuffed with shrimp and yellow chives. The shrimp balls arrive so crunchy that staff split them tableside with scissors, which is a small performance worth witnessing. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the Bay Area's top dim sum spots.

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

The North Beach spot that used to be the legendary Washbag is now Petite Lil's, a French bistro that seems perpetually mid-renovation, with paint swatches on the walls and a sawhorse in the corner whose handler has quietly relocated to a barstool. The menu leans French, running from a proper omelet to a tomahawk steak with anchovy butter, and bone marrow arrives with an optional green Chartreuse luge, which is exactly the kind of upsell you say yes to.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best French restaurants in the Bay Area

Pho Auntie 7 started as a home kitchen before becoming Castro Valley's go-to Vietnamese spot, and the soul of that origin still shows. It's a casual sit-down restaurant where the soups are good but the street food is the reason to linger: crispy banh xeo crepes stuffed with pork and shrimp, and chewy steamed banh beo rice cakes. Wash either down with fresh sugarcane juice or a salty plum soda and you're in no rush to leave.

1. San Francisco Chronicle The best Vietnamese restaurants in the Bay Area

Teochew rice porridge, served in a clay pot, is what draws people to this casual Millbrae spot, and it does the job quietly and well. The gingery porridge is technically for two but has a way of multiplying when chive pancakes and an order of Chinese doughnuts join the table. Pick your add-ons, crab and prawn being the house move, then customize the bowl with scallions and preserved olive vegetables at the table.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Chinese food and restaurants in the Bay Area

Punjabi Kitchen is tucked inside an Indian grocery and beer store, which means you could walk right past it and just buy a six-pack. Don't. The family-run dining room doubles as a craft beer taproom, and the combination of vegetable biryani, potato-stuffed parathas, and a flight of local ales turns out to feel completely logical. El Sobrante is not exactly a dining destination, which is exactly why the regulars here look so pleased with themselves.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Indian, Pakistani, and South Asian restaurants in the Bay Area

The handmade corn tortillas here taste like an actual ear of corn decided to become a taco, and they're sturdy enough to hold the juiciest fillings without folding on you. This taqueria sits near Lake Merritt, which makes eating outside feel less like a picnic and more like a civic event. Classic fillings, snappy carrot pickles, and carnitas that manage to be both chewy and crisp, from a team that grew up in East Oakland taco royalty.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Mexican restaurants in the Bay Area

Hat Yai-style fried chicken is the reason to know this casual Berkeley Thai spot, where a rice flour batter does double duty as marinade and delivers a thin, shattering crust topped with fried shallots. You order from a touch screen, the staff will walk you through the menu, and the sweet chile sauce that comes alongside is fine, but the prik nam pla is the move.

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

A photo of Keanu Reeves in the window is this Tenderloin Thai spot's unofficial marquee, and the barbecued pork shoulder is the reason he keeps coming back. The fish sauce marinade gets charred on a grill and turns up three ways: over fried rice, in a salad with toasted rice powder, or straight with a dipping sauce. A cash-and-plastic neighborhood joint where the regulars look comfortable enough to be furniture.

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

A halal market in West Oakland where the grocery aisles give way to a dining room out back serving pita sandwiches, mixed grill plates, and a rotating spread of Yemeni specialties. The saltah, a lamb and fenugreek soup served in a stone bowl, arrives bubbling and practically orders the flatbread for you. Stock your pantry, grab lunch, or do both, which most people here seem to be doing.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Middle Eastern restaurants in the Bay Area

The squat brick building on Webb Avenue smells like Thanksgiving every single day, because Sandwich Board roasts its turkey in-house and has been doing so forever. This old-school deli counter is an Alameda institution, and regulars have been known to walk in, say nothing, and walk out with exactly what they wanted. The Dutch crunch sandwiches are the move, loaded with that carved turkey alongside avocado and pepperoncinis.

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

The name itself tells the story: "San" for San Francisco, "Jalisco" for the Mexican state where the family's roots are. This homey, generations-run breakfast and lunch spot on South Van Ness has been feeding the Mission's hangovers with chilaquiles and huevos rancheros for decades. The weekend birria special draws its own crowd, served either as a rich stew or dry with the broth alongside, which is the move.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Mexican restaurants in the Bay Area

The orange dining room sits next door to a movie theater, which the regulars treat as a snack-supply opportunity. Star Chaat is a cheerful, family-packed Indian chaat restaurant with a vast vegetarian menu, the kind of place where the whole wheat chaat baskets and a coriander-heavy veggie burger keep the tables full without any help from the multiplex. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the Bay Area's best South Asian restaurants.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Indian, Pakistani, and South Asian restaurants in the Bay Area

The sashimi-grade fish counter is the reason most people make the drive to this Japanese grocery and prepared-foods shop in San Mateo. Pick up hand-rolled onigirazu stuffed with Spam and egg, seaweed salad by the pound, or one of around twenty bento options at lunch. Pre-cut sashimi gets discounted toward closing, which the regulars have long figured out.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best Japanese restaurants in the Bay Area

A cart outside a Cardenas grocery store in East Oakland, where the vendor shouts "Tacos! Tacos de canasta!" loud enough to settle the question of where lunch is. Tacos de canasta are a Mexico City staple rarely spotted in the Bay, and this stand does them straight: steamed basket tacos stuffed with chicharron, pollo con mole, or papas con chorizo, pulled from baskets lined in red picnic cloth, with pickled veggies and a chimichurri aioli that overperform for the price.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best tacos in the SF Bay Area

A spinning trompo in the window is the whole argument for this Mission District taco stand. Thin-shaved al pastor lands straight from the spit onto the tortilla, pineapple shard included, with three salsas on the side ranging from tangy to genuinely punishing. The tripas are the quiet move, especially ordered doraditas, fried until crispy. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the best tacos in the Bay Area, which feels about right from the sidewalk.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best tacos in the SF Bay Area

The salsa flies through the air here, literally flicked by spoon onto your tacos in a move that's part performance, part seasoning strategy. This Chavinda-style taqueria in Richmond cooks its meats together in one enormous steel cauldron, so the chorizo, al pastor, and beef all end up in each other's business. Mix and match fillings at no extra cost. The San Francisco Chronicle named it among the Bay Area's finest tacos, which explains the weekend wait.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best tacos in the SF Bay Area

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