next time your in the area take a day trip out to hog island oyster farm (not the restaurant in the city) and get a bunch of oysters n sit there overlooking the water and shucking fresh oysters that have been pulled right out of the water for you.

tho it may ruin oysters for you thereafter as good luck getting oysters that delicious in any restaurant.

it's absolutely awesome. and a beautiful ~30min drive from the city.

I'd add Magnolia as another suggestion for craft beer. And they might even have their new BBQ place open by the time you get here.

They also do the beer for Off The Grid (http://offthegridsf.com/markets/fort-mason-center#about) which is fun.

I'd take a boat ride out to Alcatraz
http://www.alcatrazcruises.com

then late lunch at Fog City Diner, which is walking distance from boat landing.
http://fogcitysf.com

The last 2 times I went to GD the service was pretty average, and a shadow of the first few times I went in 2002-04. The first bad night I wrote off, but the second one I assumed they were done and gave up. Maybe I just ran bad.

Potato,

I think with the proliferation of high end restaurants as the economy here has been soaring for the past number of years, service levels everywhere have been diluted a bit. And GD is no exception. But I'd say it has dropped from like A+ to A and you prob did run pretty bad to get two subpar experiences.

Just heard a spot on the radio: There is now an Al's Beef in San Jose

I will be Flying this Saturday to San Francisco, not really looking forward to the 11+hr flight.

My friend booked all our accommodation and we are staying at The Touchstone
480 Geary Street @ Union Square
Is there anywhere we must eat/drink/see that is nearby?

We are 3 Irish guys, who will do some tourist stuff such as Alcatraz (we have it booked)

Just wondering if you would suggest something we may not have thought, (2+2 always comes up with great ideas)

We will also be looking to hit up good bars/clubs at night, any suggestions?

bill,

Wow, that looks pretty convenient. I will most def check that out.

Any local restaurants/diners that are local that I must try?

Bill,

That was mainly a joke, but it's actually not a bad place. Not a must see or anything, though, unless you really want to check out an American version of an Irish pub.

Tons of stuff nearby you. You should skim this thread for tons of ideas. Anything referred to as union square, downtown, or Polk street area is very close to you. North beach and Chinatown easily walkable from there too. And really everything in town is pretty close and easily accessible.

Is there ANYWHERE to drink after 2-3 a.m we are looking to catch an important soccer game around 4/5 a.m


Thanks for all the advice so far.

Bill,

What's the match? You won't find a sports bar serving after 2 (there are after hours places serving, but they'll have electronic music, not football) but there are various bars that will stay open for various leagues. And if the match is at 5 they'll start serving again at 530 or 6.

Thanks once again. We found an irish bar open at 6am showing it anyways. We done a lot of sightseeing and now tonight is the night to get wasted. Think we will just bar hop /pub crawl around union square.

This is a great thread and I thank everyone who has contributed to it (El D especially).

I'm going to be headed to SF for 2 days (or maybe 2.5 days) with my girlfriend. We'll be road tripping there (and will be hitting up Colorado, Utah, and Yosemite along the way). We don't care much for bars/night life as much, but we do enjoy good food, anything outdoors related, and some touristy things.

Here's what I'm thinking:

Day 1- Walk at Fisherman's Wharf/Embarcadero and walk around that area. Maybe lunch in Chinatown or food trucks (we really want to check out the food truck scene in SF). During the afternoon, I think I would like to rent some bikes and go across the Golden Gate Bridge, followed by driving to Muir Woods. Dinner would be either sushi or something of that nature. (Girlfriend doesn't really like raw fish, sadly, so we'd be looking more for places that serve more sushi rolls).

Day 2- Do a wine tour in Sonoma. I've read some good reviews here on Platypus Wine Tours (http://www.platypustours.com/join-in-wine-tours.php). My girlfriend and I are huge noobs regarding wine quality/knowledge, so any recommendations/advice you guys could give would be nice. I saw most of the tours are about ~6-8 hours long, which is almost a bit much for my liking. Perhaps a better option is to just drive up there and doing it on our own?

After wine tour, I'm thinking we will go to Planet Granite, which is a rock climbing gym in SF. Dinner, I'm looking for mid range restaurant- maybe $50-$100 a head (we don't really drink much, so food quality is more important than drinks). Anything you guys can recommend would be great here as well.

Day 3- Morning activity needed. We could end up just doing nothing and hitting up either a food truck or Chinatown for lunch, whichever we did not do on Day 1.

Thanks for any comments/suggestions.

Orange,

When are you visiting? Do you know where you'll be staying yet?

if u like sushi n ur gf doesn't sushi ran in Sausalito is an excellent choice.
great sushi and tons of non sushi dishes that are also excellent.

if you go on fri-sat they have Japanese uni which is phenomenal.

El D, I'll be visiting very early next month (June). I'll be staying in the Hilton at Union Square.

Thanks, man, I'll check that out. Girlfriend likes sushi rolls, but just not the raw stuff (too bad, since I enjoy it).

I'm also going to be in town June 10-15. I'll be hanging out with the wife until Friday them solo til Sunday. Probably hit a giants game on Saturday and thinking of catching the A's on Saturday, but I'm not sure if I should mess with Oakland.

Need to read the thread for now, but if anyone has good weekday suggestions, let me know. Don't have a hotel booked yet, so I guess I should do that soon.

A's games are great.
don't know if they still do the dollar dog promotion on wed's but if so thats a great day to go.

also, lol don't be afraid oakland.
as someone who has spent a considerable time in both places, i'd be way more nervous walking around parts of the city at night than oakland.

Didn't say I was afraid, I just don't know how far it is and what traffic is like, etc.

orange,


"Walk at Fisherman's Wharf/Embarcadero and walk around that area. Maybe lunch in Chinatown"
You'll def want to walk to/through Chinatown. A zillion food options. I highly recommend Yuet Lee for a cheap but amazingly delicious meal (sweet and sour pork and BBQ pork chow mein are especially great) or maybe dim sum (Great Eastern and City View are two really great dim sum places but you order from a menu, New Asia is a giant one with carts if you prefer that).

"or food trucks (we really want to check out the food truck scene in SF)"
http://offthegridsf.com/markets - tons of SF weekday food truck markets
http://somastreatfoodpark.com/ - a big food truck site

"During the afternoon, I think I would like to rent some bikes and go across the Golden Gate Bridge, followed by driving to Muir Woods."
Biking across the bridge is cool, but I'm not sure about your plan of going there and back, then heading straight back over to Muir Woods. Muir Woods is pretty awesome, though. One thing a lot of people do btw is bike over to Sam's in Tiburon for some food/drink and then take the ferry back.

"Dinner would be either sushi or something of that nature. (Girlfriend doesn't really like raw fish, sadly, so we'd be looking more for places that serve more sushi rolls)."
I would not rec Sushi Ran for someone who is not really into sushi. RBK is right they have lots of other good stuff, but you really way overpay there for someone who is not really into sushi. Also they changed chefs and aren't as good as when RBK was there.

Two great options close to you:
http://ryokos.com/ - more of a party vibe and a huge array of crazy rolls, will be a bit of a wait to get in but nothing crazy
http://www.sfsakana.com/ - more chill traditional place, fewer crazy rolls, but probably more than enough

"Do a wine tour in Sonoma. I've read some good reviews here on Platypus Wine Tours (http://www.platypustours.com/join-in-wine-tours.php). My girlfriend and I are huge noobs regarding wine quality/knowledge, so any recommendations/advice you guys could give would be nice."
Platypus looks like you have to get to Napa yourself? I would highly recommend a tour like this $99 one http://www.winecountrytourshuttle.com/ I've done that a couple of times with friends fitting your description, and it's great. You get on a bus at like 8am and then go to a few wineries w/ free or modest tasting fees and reasonably priced wine if you want to buy, then take the Ferry back to SF and arrive back like 430pm. I think that is a million times better than dealing with getting up there yourself, picking wineries, dealing w/ driving, etc.

"After wine tour, I'm thinking we will go to Planet Granite, which is a rock climbing gym in SF."
I'm not a climber, but all my climber friends seem to prefer Mission Cliffs to PG.

"Dinner, I'm looking for mid range restaurant- maybe $50-$100 a head (we don't really drink much, so food quality is more important than drinks). Anything you guys can recommend would be great here as well."
Read the thread for this, lots of suggestions in this price range, and SF is one of the best places in the world for amazing dinners in this range. Feel free to ask re: specific types of restaurants.

oh man sushi ran changed chefs?
that is super dissapointing.

rbk,

Well, they have a number of senior chefs there, so I'm not sure who exactly did what, but I know some staff has changed and it hasn't been as good recently.

However... http://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com/blog...san-francisco/ (this dude was there for 10 years)

http://kusakabe-sf.com/ opening May 24!

ya thats def the guy.

me and alex went there multiple times when we lived up there and it was always amazing.

good to know its declined in quality before we made a return visit.

hopefully sushi ino is still top notch.

Rbk,

Ino is still awesome and there's another new awesome place Ichi.