The Best Places in San Francisco

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1. The Infatuation The 20 Best Kid-Friendly Restaurants In SF

The Boys' Deli is a sandwich counter tucked into the back of Polk Street Market in Russian Hill, and the rotisserie chicken turning near the entrance does most of the recruiting. It's an order-at-the-counter, wrapper-and-napkin lunch where the Spitfire pairs chicken with bacon, jalapeños, and sriracha mayo. The specials rotate, so the menu changes while the faint smell of chicken on your jacket does not.

1. The Infatuation The 20 Best Sandwich Spots In San Francisco

1. The Infatuation The Best Martinis In San Francisco

The Hornet is a takeout sandwich counter tucked inside London Market in Pacific Heights, which is less a restaurant than a very well-organized errand. The menu of sandwiches and wraps changes daily, so you pick from a handful of options and hope nobody beat you to it. Ordering online helps, since the good ones sell out early and standing in a corner market staring at an empty chalkboard is a bleak way to spend lunch.

1. The Infatuation The 20 Best Sandwich Spots In San Francisco

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The Rabbit Hole is a casual Taiwanese spot on the Mission-Bernal border, and its burger is the reason a lot of people show up. It arrives piled with pickled carrots, cucumbers, and peppers under a shimmering brioche bun, with a cheddar crust on the smashed patties that crunches against all that vinegar. The fries come dusted with nori and a side of gochujang ketchup, so the burger is doing a very specific kind of cultural crossover.

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The Tonga Room is a tiki bar and restaurant built around the Fairmont's old indoor pool, which now holds a floating stage where a band plays through the thunderstorms. Every fifteen minutes the ceiling rains on the lagoon, complete with lightning and thunderclaps, and grown adults rise from their seats to film it. The mai tais are strong, the kids get a layered blue-and-pink mocktail, and the pork belly bites help the whole thing along.

1. The Infatuation The 20 Best Kid-Friendly Restaurants In SF

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1. The Infatuation The 20 Best Kid-Friendly Restaurants In SF

The marinara here is just tomato, olive oil, and blistered basil, and it doesn't need a single thing more. Vesta is a wood-fired pizza shop in downtown Redwood City where the oven does the heavy lifting, scorching pies to a proper, crackling crisp. The sausage and honey pie, mascarpone folded in, is the crowd favorite if minimalism isn't your move. The San Francisco Chronicle put it on their Peninsula and South Bay best list.

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1. The Infatuation The Best Martinis In San Francisco

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Hundreds of flags and string lights cover the ceiling, CRT TVs along the bar counter are loaded with old-school video game consoles, and a mural of Walnut Creek landmarks greets you before you even open the door. This hot chicken shop does Nashville-style fried chicken and sandwiches, with heat levels that go from polite to genuinely humbling. The outdoor picnic tables are there when you need air, or perspective.

1. San Francisco Chronicle Best restaurants in Walnut Creek

1. The Infatuation The 25 Best Meals For Under $15 In SF

A Chinatown noodle shop where the soup comes piled with roast duck, wontons, and springy yellow noodles, all for around eight dollars. The move, though, is the brisket version, where the braised beef melts into the broth and makes the whole bowl taste twice as serious. Add a side of slow-cooked beef tendon and stir it in as you go. Named among the San Francisco Chronicle's picks for Chinatown, and the line out front tends to agree.

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1. The Infatuation The 25 Best Meals For Under $15 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.

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1. The Infatuation The Best Martinis In San Francisco

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A wood-stone oven dominates the back of this cocktail bar on Valencia, turning out pizza while the bartenders run a tight menu of drinks built on a few well-chosen flavors rather than a paragraph of modifiers. The room hits that sweet spot between lively and unpretentious, with filament bulbs over the bar and a crowd that looks like they found the place before it was a thing, even though everyone has found it by now.

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

Bare cement walls, a rope-strung ceiling, and Edison bulbs doing almost nothing to warm the place up: Churchill is a neighborhood cocktail bar that leans into its chill rather than fighting it. Early-90s hip hop keeps things honest, the cocktails are carefully made, and the bourbon-spiced nuts are the kind of detail that earns loyalty. Car headlights sweep through the windows as drivers take the Market Street turn, which adds a bit of unplanned theater.

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

Concrete floors, steel girders, and a smoking area the size of a small parking lot set the tone at this Tenderloin cocktail bar. The utilitarian look is clearly intentional, the sort of space that can survive a rowdy Saturday without complaint. A chalkboard cocktail of the month keeps things moving, and the menu spans pisco punch to rum-and-port builds with house-made Swedish punsch. Not where you go to catch up quietly, but volume was never the point.

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

Every room faces the water at this 33-room boutique hotel perched over the bay in Sausalito, a ferry ride from San Francisco for anyone who's decided downtown has enough concrete. Decks, fireplaces, and spa bathrooms fill the larger suites, and even the modest rooms get big windows framing the bay rather than a parking structure. Muir Woods and Stinson Beach are close enough to justify staying a few nights.

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1. The Infatuation The 25 Best Restaurants In The Sunset

1. The Infatuation The 14 Best Restaurants In The Lower Haight

1. The Infatuation The 24 Best Restaurants In SoMa

1. The Infatuation The 18 Best Restaurants In NoPa

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1. The Infatuation The 18 Best Restaurants In NoPa

1. The Infatuation The 18 Best Restaurants In NoPa

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1. The Infatuation The 24 Best Restaurants In SoMa

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1. The Infatuation The 25 Best Restaurants In The Sunset

1. The Infatuation The 25 Best Restaurants In The Sunset

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 14 Best Restaurants In The Lower Haight

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1. The Infatuation The 14 Best Restaurants In The Lower Haight

1. The Infatuation The 14 Best Restaurants In The Lower Haight

Papa Noodle is a fast, casual Chinese noodle shop a short walk from a good chunk of SoMa's office towers, which explains the lunch-hour line of people holding badges. The menu is a handful of bowls, including pork or chicken noodles, beef noodle soup, and a vegan option, with noodles made daily. Every order comes with a White Rabbit candy, the closest thing to a dessert menu or a raise.

1. The Infatuation The 24 Best Restaurants In SoMa

1. The Infatuation The 17 Best Restaurants Near The Embarcadero & Ferry Building

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1. The Infatuation The 14 Best Restaurants In The Lower Haight

1. The Infatuation The 24 Best Restaurants In SoMa

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1. The Infatuation The 14 Best Restaurants In The Lower Haight

1. The Infatuation The 17 Best Restaurants Near The Embarcadero & Ferry Building

1. The Infatuation The 25 Best Restaurants In The Sunset

1. The Infatuation The 18 Best Restaurants In NoPa

1. The Infatuation The 25 Best Restaurants In The Sunset

Tú Lan is a no-frills Vietnamese counter-service spot on Mid-Market that has been feeding the neighborhood for what feels like forever. Lunchtime means office workers grabbing takeout while a few people eat at the back tables. The imperial rolls arrive loud and crackling, and the pho, rice plates, and vermicelli bowls are sized for a second meal. You leave with leftovers and change from a twenty.

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1. James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Yuka Ioroi and Kris Toliao

The mahogany back bar has been here since the Wild West era, and Elixir wears that history without trying too hard. It's a proper neighborhood dive on the Mission-Castro border, the kind where dog walkers fill the stools by late afternoon and nobody opens a cocktail menu. A dartboard in the corner, sports on the TVs, and regulars who clearly consider this their living room, just one with a liquor license.

1. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide

A top-floor hotel cocktail lounge perched above Powell Street, the Starlight Room is essentially a finishing school that graduated half the notable bartenders in San Francisco, Tony Abou-Ganim and Jacques Bezuidenhout among them. The room got a significant makeover not long ago, all plush red furniture and gold accents, which makes it feel like old-school glamour with a fresh coat of ambition.

1. Difford's Guide 3 stars · Difford's Guide

The floor tilts so sharply that the table legs have been sawn down just to keep your drink from sliding off. This ancient saloon, built from whaling ship timbers and barely changed since forever, sits in the middle of a modern plaza like it missed the memo. Jack London drank and wrote here, then name-dropped the place seventeen times in "John Barleycorn." Order something simple and let the lean do the work.

1. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide

The original redwood paneling dates back forever, but Philippe Starck's redesign layered in an illuminated Venetian bar top, a floor-to-ceiling light-box back bar, and plasma screens set in classical frames that slowly animate the portraits hanging in them. A Martini in hand when a painted subject blinks at you is a specific kind of San Francisco evening. It's a cocktail bar that reads as a grand room first, a drinks destination second.

1. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide

Leather booths, wood paneling, and casual taxidermy give this cocktail bar the feel of a gentlemen's club that decided to relax a little. It sits inside Tyler Florence's Wayfare Tavern, and the bar downstairs splits the room between cocktails and food. Local lore insists a gangster is buried somewhere in the foundations, which does make the old-fashioned taste slightly more interesting.

1. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. James Beard Awards 2022 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program

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