Hi everyone ill be in san fransisco for the first time in april 1st through april 7th. Its not ideal circumstances but ill have my own hotel room so thats nice anyway some of the people im going with having vegan restuanratns so i think i would like to know about good vegan restuarants and alsop sushi. these people have deep wallets- i.e ill be the only kansas grocery stocker in attendence.

Spaceman,

Post in the vegan thread, amazin just visited SF and went to some vegan places.

As for sushi, there's a lot in this thread, but seriously if you just google SF best sushi or search on yelp you'll find tons of great sushi places from reasonably priced casual places through super expensive fancy places. Too many options to start recommending randomly, but post if you have more specific questions about specific price/location/etc places or about specific places.

Thanks el diablo the reason I didn't respond to this was at the time I kind of thought someone else would respond to my post and when they didn't I got mad. Then I forgot I posted here. Im in sf now and I love the city.Theres too much to do in 4 days and I realized im insane no matter where i go(seriously). It's kind of grating on me because in my head i had a different but impossible trip planned.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread. I’ve read it all and I gleaned tons of great ideas for my trip to SF & Santa Rosa next month, during which I’ll be spending two weekdays in SF. In fact, this thread has so many good ideas--particularly regarding food and drink--that there’s no possible way for me to fit it all in. But I’m going to do my best to focus on stuff that is iconic/unique to SF.

I have two questions right off the bat before getting into my proposed schedule for those two weekdays I’ll be in SF proper:

(1) Dim Sum: what’s my best play if I want to do dim sum for one of my lunches or dinners? I don’t mind spending a decent amount if the quality is good. However, it looks like Yank Sing might not be good value for the price, Yelp says that City View and New Asia are health risks, and many reviews for Great Eastern call their service poor and, in many cases, racist. So I think that leaves Dragon Beaux, San Tung, and Hakkasan. Between those three, which would you choose and why?

(2) Sourdough pizza: apparently this is a SF thing that was mentioned a couple times in this thread, but I didn’t see specific recommendations on venues. Where should I go for the best version of it?

Rap,

Definitely not hakkasan. It's a great restaurant with delicious food, but it's a high-end international fine dining chain. It would be like going to Japan and having sushi at a Nobu. I didn't even know San tung has dim sum - the thing to get there are the excellent dry fried chicken wings. So dragon beaux of those three. I haven't been there because it's pretty out of the way, but it gets great reviews and their sister restaurant koi palace in Daly City is excellent. However, I'd go to City View. I was just there a couple weekends ago and it was great. They just got caught for stuff that all the other places do but didn't get caught for, and are probably the cleanest of the bunch now! I also really like great eastern and lol at dumbasses who don't know how to order or anything complaining about racist service. The only negative there IMO is that it's order from menu not cards. So I'd say go with city view, and if you're a pussy about silly stuff like health dept scores, dragon beaux.


Sourdough pizza is not really an SF thing. The most SF pizza style is thin crust Neapolitan style with a cal twist. My favorite place for that is Gialina/ragazza. Pizzeria Delfina also great for that. Beretta/Delarosa also do v good ones.

Thanks!

Good to know that Hakkasan is a chain. Sounds like it'll be City View then. I'm not worried enough about health department scores to have it keep me away.

Looks like I don't need to be too worried about the pizza then, although I'll certainly refer back to your list if I get a hankering for it. I'll have plenty of other things I need to eat anyway during that less-than-48 hours anyway.

Speaking of which, I'd appreciate feedback on my loose plan below for the time I'm there. Of particular help would be letting me know if I'm trying to pack in too much / being unrealistic about timing.

Tuesday

12:30p Arrive @ SFO, get rental car, check in to hotel. If it's not too late by the time I'm ready to head out, I'll try to grab lunch @ City View. If it's too late for City View, I'll take my chances with the racists @ Great Eastern.
[after lunch]-5p Grace Cathedral, then Cable Car Museum, then a cocktail at Tosca Cafe or somewhere else walkable, then call Flour + Water to see if I can get in there; if not, spend the evening walking around Chinatown, including Li Po, Buddha Lounge, and Yuet Lee.

Wednesday

8a Try Mama’s for breakfast, but I'll need a backup plan for this in case we sleep in and/or it’s too crowded. Then Ghiradelli Square / Fisherman’s Wharf, then streetcar from the Wharf to the Ferry Building to check out vendors, then metro to Japanese Tea Garden and spend the rest of the afternoon/early evening in Golden Gate Park.

While I think it'd be nice to see a sunset on the beach at the west end of GGP, the sunset that day will be 8:15p. So I'm thinking it's not really viable to do that and then head back east to the Mission where I'd like to walk up and down Valencia and Mission to check out art shops and maybe grab a couple tacos or a burrito or pop in to whatever restaurant looks good. Also, being in Mission puts me close to Flour + Water if they're able to squeeze me in.

Thursday

In the morning, I'll head out of town toward Santa Rosa, stopping briefly to take a look around Muir Woods for a bit. I also might stop in Petaluma for a meal if anyone has any good suggestions there.

The rest of the time will be in Santa Rosa, where I have a centrally-located airbnb. I plan on doing a wine tour, visiting Russian River Valley Brewing, and attending a wedding. I'd be very open to suggestions about good restaurants for meals up in Santa Rosa as well.

Please let me know if there's any glaring omissions in my plan or if anything else really jumps out at you about it. Thanks again.

Rap,

Right by tosca, Vesuvio and specs are good old school north beach bars. Comstock for excellent fancy cocktails. Check out OpenTable. F+W usually has 9p midweek reservations available a couple weeks out, and 930/10 available with shorter notice.

Mama's is great, but in the end it's just pancakes and other breakfast ****. I imagine it's prob nbd to go on a weekday, but if there's a wait just check yelp for lots of options. Walking down embarcadero from wharf to ferry building is nice, I'd recommend that over streetcar. Ferry building is an easy stop to drop from your itinerary if you're tight on time. You'll see tons of vendors like that throughout your trip. Uber/lyft across town instead of transit to GGP.



If you end up at F+W one of the nights, get a fancy hipster cocktail at trick dog. And for a great pre or post dinner snack, consider the manimal fries. Best fries in town IMO - and hey, you're on vacation!




I'd try to lock down the plans for the wedding soon. Summer weddings in wine country are very popular, so a lot of them are probably full already.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond and for the valuable advice, El D. I'm especially intrigued by Trick Dog's website. I'll post what we ended up doing here if you'd be interested in the results.

Hopefully I can return the favor if you're ever looking for recommendations in DC or Budapest.

Any SF - Carmel - Monterrey recommendations?

5 to 6 days total.

Carmel/Monterey:

Definitely kayak in elkhorn slough. It's a preserve with a ton of wildlife including many otters and sea lions. Really cool. They have guided tours or you can just rent a kayak. Probably saw more sea otters there then I've ever seen anywhere else.

I love Point Lobos park which is just south of Carmel, absolutely beautiful and lots of sea lions.

17-mile drive of course, scenery is breathtaking.

Carmel beach is beautiful and is a great place for a stroll. Usually lots of dogs on the beach.

Monterey aquarium is probably the best in the country.

Pacific's Edge restaurant in the Hyatt Carmel Highlands is a splurge but worth it for the views and the food.

Nice place for lunch in Carmel Valley is the Corkscrew Cafe, nice outdoor patio.

Thinking of booking Hyatt Carmel Highlands and using up some of my chase points.

Do I have to worry about temperature of the water with the kayaking?

Thanks for help

amoeba,

Buy tickets in advance online - there's a different advance tickets line.

What is traffic from SF to Carmel like? Google says 1 hour but I have some doubts.

1 night in SF, 4 nights in Carmel or 2 nights in SF, 3 nights in Carmel? I have done most of the usual stuff in SF and would mostly be in SF to eat and maybe do some strolling.

Amoeba,

What exactly are you asking google that's telling you 1 hour?

Oh i mixed up my search results. Google was telling me 1 hour 11 min from Los Gatos to the Carmel. Was originally considering going to Manresa but I cant get a table this close to dining date. SFO to Carmel seems more like 2 hours.

Does that seem about right?

Sf to carmel is probably 2.5hrs. Get a reservation at Monterey's fish house and montrio bistro. If you get hungry at the aquarium, eat at the restaurant there (Not the cafe, same physical space but very different experience. Ask someone to show you). Also locals seem to really like the new ice cream shop called revival. Similar to Humphrey slocombe in sf in some ways.

Had a great time in carmel. Good meal at visuvio and enjoyed the flavored balsamic tastings at trio carmel.

I think the Hyatt in carmel is more expensive in points that the on in Monterey. Not sure if it's worth the extra points, read some reviews. The Hyatt in Monterey is nice enough and has lice music Friday and Saturday nights which was fun.

Both towns are cool and cute, personally I liked carmel better for exploring but to each his own.

Carmel is more quaint and picturesque than Monterey. Monterey has the aquarium. They are both nice though. It's very cheesy but when my wife and I drive from SF to Carmel we often stop for lunch at Bubba Gump next to the aquarium in Monterey on our way. Overpriced food, nothing special, but the views are great and it gets us into vacation mode.

Wife and I own a Hyatt timeshare and the Hyatt has some units that are part of the Hyatt Carmel Highlands resort. They are really nice and large, and have a full kitchen. Might want to check Redweek.com, sometimes owners are renting out extra nights at a reasonable price.

The main selling point of the Hyatt Carmel Highlands is the view, it is on a cliff overlooking the ocean and Point Lobos. It's pretty spectacular. But it's a little bit of a drive to Carmel and Monterey, can't walk to anything.

Going for dinner at Sushi Yoshizumi tomorrow night...probably already built it up too much in my mind.

If you're dead set on sourdough pizza Goat Hill does it. I used to go a lot when I lived in the neighborhood it was pretty good but I haven't been there in a while.

el d,

there's some pizza place in north beach that's ridic good and always super busy and it won some award for best pizza in Italy and has some special margharita pizza that they sell out of everyday cuz they only make a limited amount.

I think it might be called tonys but can't remember and too lazy to look it up.

does that ring a bell?
was really really good from what I remember.

Rbk,

Tony's, yeah. V good but overrated and not worth the wait IMO. I like his nearby deep dish pizza place, capo's.

I think better overhyped pizza is Una pizza napoleotano. Very expensive for individual thin crust pizzas, but damn good.

ya i liked tony's but also felt it was a bit overrated.

Speaking of overrated that la taquiera place is just ok. Much better Mexican food in Kansas City- than the places I went to.

Cosign. Maybe there's something I'm missing about the appeal of the Mission burrito, but there are about 25 places in Chicago I'd rather spend $8 on Mexican food at.

nah you're not. I know food. San francisco is a great food town but for mexican ..eh. compounding the dissapointment is how great the chinese, japanese and seafood is there. Kansas city does three things well and in this order: bbq, steaks, and mexican. doso de ores in kansas city is just straight up better than mexican food in SF. I am not affiliated with them in anyway.