Floppy,
Quote:
Originally Posted by FloppyJ
We are going to be in San Francisco (1st time) for a conference in July and will be staying a few extra days to check out the city.
Check the weather. July is usually kinda chilly in SF!
Your day plans look good, you'll definitely get to check out a lot of stuff. Some comments:
Sushi Ran - I haven't been in forever, but I think it's still very good. I wouldn't bother with it, though, plenty of excellent sushi in SF. Instead I'd eat a sandwich or fish and chips or something at some little cafe on the water.
Sonoma or Napa - if you're not really into wine, I probably wouldn't bother.
There appears to be no shortage of fine dining available but the prices get pretty high pretty fast by the looks of it. - fine dining tasting menu and omakase sushi prices have escalated like crazy the last few years.
Interested in any must try places near the Mark Hopkins. - Olea is great for brunch, I imagine it's pretty good in general. Sushi Toni is a reasonably priced casual sushi place with very good sushi.
Commonwealth - this is the best tasting menu value in SF imo, and I really love the food and service there.
Flour + Water - another good tasting menu value, as well as just good restaurant in general. tough reservation.
Yuet Lee - very good but sorta hole-in-the-wall Chinese place
R&G Lounge - a little fancier Chinese place than Yuet Lee
City View - very good dim sum
Mission Burritos or Tacos - tons of options throughout the Mission
Slanted Door - I would skip it
Tartine Bakery - they also have Tartine Manufactory now. and lots of other excellent bakeries all over SF too.
Zuni Café - the chicken is great, but nbd to skip Zuni.
Akiko’s Restaurant - sushi is great, but pretty expensive. if you do decide to go to Akiko's, make sure you're going to the right one. Akiko's Sushi Bar is an unrelated place a couple blocks away (which also gets good reviews).
Mister Jiu’s - I liked but didn't love this place. Chinese with a modern/foodie twist. Check out the menu and see how interesting it sounds to you.
Sakana - low-key traditional sushi place that I think is great, and reasonably priced.
Seven Hills - very good Italian
Amelie - nice cute wine bar, can get annoyingly crowded
Del Popolo - excellent cal/Neapolitan pizzas. Plenty of places do great neapolitan style pizza in SF, but DP is a solid choice.
Kiss - excellent omakase, and a great deal too.
Sugoi - good place, but nothing special.
For sushi omakase, I'd go to either Kiss or Sushi Hon (I prob give Hon the edge between the two). Both are good values and excellent food. For casual sushi, Sushi Toni and Sakana are two good picks.
some other excellent restaurants not on your list (mostly in the sort of medium-nice category)
Uma Casa - Portuguese
China Live - this is kind of a tourist-focused emporium type place, but the casual chinese restaurant is really good with some amazing dumplings.
Cockscomb - if you're meat lovers, lots of delicious creative stuff here.
Rich Table - another fancy tasting menu dinner that isn't crazy priced, this is (slightly) under $100 and very good.
Cotogna - Italian
Cala - Mexican
Liholiho - Hawaiian, very tough res.