I lived on the west slope of Nob Hill for 2 years. In terms of things to see in the Nob Hill neighborhood, the park and cathedral on top of Nob Hill are very cool, with some outrageous views from the top of the hill. I also recommend Lafayette Park, just on the other side of Van Ness. Also, the cable car museum is free and worth visiting.

For food:

Acquerello is excellent, Michelin-starred prix-fixe, pricy best with a (not first) date.

Mid-range: Olea is very good locally-sourced mostly organic for brunch or dinner. Nob Hill Grille was my fave local brunch spot. Swan Oyster Depot has great fresh seafood in a super casual environment (open daytime only).

Cheaper: Grubstake for late-night comfort (and Portuguese) food and only-in-SF crowd. Darbar for tasty Pakistani/Indian food and very friendly service.

If you head down to Polk Street there are tons of restaurants and bars and retail shops. On the east side of the hill it's a short walk to Chinatown/North Beach (Little Italy) which have a ton of restaurants and stuff going on.

TYTY I'm def gonna check some of these out this weekend! Especially the park! Looking for the full SF experience while I live here for awhile.

I'm currently swearing maps on my iPhone for not having a 3d model showing hills... So flat in Texas. Today I made the mistake of walking from my office (dt/financial dist) up to my apt on California STRAIGHT up California. These hills are some bull****. :/

Also made the mistake of walking south from California to Market on Hyde -- I don't know what neighborhood I stumbled through whilst dressed to the 9s but I'm not making that walk again without a gun!!

Yeah, that neighborhood was the Tenderloin. It's not so tender. But also mostly harmless just dress more appropriately and be street smart.

My wife used to walk back and forth over Sacramento Street (from Sac & Larkin) every day to work in the Financial District. Good exercise. I guess you must be near California & Polk, so definitely check out all of Polk St. It gets kind of gritty (still very worth checking out cheap eats & nightlife) south of about Post, but north of Broadway (Russian Hill) it's more upscale with some more nice restaurants.

And if you have obscured views towards the north from the park on top of Nob Hill just walk a block or two in either direction you'll be able to look north to Alcatraz, Marin, and Angel Island.

You're in San Francisco. You have to be a Senator to carry a gun.

Heh. When I was looking for places, three people told me no guns in the house or asked if I had guns with me once I told them I was from Texas. :/

I just returned from San Fran -

Stayed in the financial district at the Omni. I would highly recommend it, free internet free bottled water, under 200 a night. I was worried based on reviews, that it'd be too far from 'the action' but it was only a brief walk from the Hyatt, where I originally wanted to stay. I really loved San Fran, we were there with someone who had previously lived there for 8 months so we were able to get around easily by public trans and walking.

Dinners

Wayfare Tavern -- Good. I was expecting a little more restaurant and a little less bar but the steak was good and it really was some of the best fried chicken that I've ever tried.

Slanted Door -- Really good. Everybody enjoyed every course, a little pricey for Chinese imo but a nice atmosphere.

We also went to an Italian restaurant in North Beach that was pretty good as well, but I don't remember the name. I was impressed with the number of solid restaurant options that San Fran had. Also, beers are definitely cheaper in San Fran compared to NYC.

We checked out Alcatraz, the Full House spot, got In & Out at Fisherman's Wharf (felt like Times Square) and walked around a bunch in other random spots doing touristy stuff before dinners. In three nights I felt that we saw a lot of the city.

On our fourth day we rented a car and drove up to Napa. We went to a ton of wineries and ate more good food.

Platypus Tours: Great bus tour from 10-5:30 that brings you to 4 vineyards/wineries and serves lunch. $99/p... Had a great time.

Ad Hoc: Dinner place in Napa that was really good, although I am disappointed that we missed their chicken night as it's supposed to be awesome (prefix menu). Same chef as French Laundry.

Mustards: Awesome awesome awesome, my favorite meal of the trip.

The Girl and the Fig: Dinner place in Sonoma, was very underwhelmed and it was annoying taking an expensive taxi from downtown Napa to get there for pretty mediocre food. It wasn't terrible but it wasn't special either.

Oakville Grocery: Great lunch spot/market with a lot of local grocery items and great sandwiches, would highly recommend this place as well to stop by, grab a beer, and eat lunch.

We stayed at the Andaz Napa which is downtown about 20-30 mins at least from the wineries for 228 a night. I thought the hotel was great, and it was a pretty cheap option for Napa. The nicest winery we went to was Jordan Winery which was an hour and 15 minute drive to, which was beautiful. My favorite tour was the Englenook tour where we walked the caves and the beautiful property.


All in all, a great trip and picked up a bunch of wine after the tastings. I can't wait to go back, they were both wonderful vacation cities. I thought I'd share in case anyone else was planning a trip.

I did Platypus tasting about three weeks ago. Highly recommend as well.

Mikey,

Great trip report and you hit a nice set of spots. Definitely a solid template for anyone visiting for a few days.

Visited Bay Area with my girlfriend 2 weeks ago. Some recommendations:

- Keiko a Nob Hill: very very good upscale restaurant. Intimate setting with only 7-8 dining tables. Also quite cheap at 95$ for 7 course dinner + amuses.

- Milennium: vegan restaurant. Never went to a vegan place before but the food was very well prepared and tasty.

- Olea Hotel in Glen Ellen (Napa region). Very nice hotel with free wines available and a few good restaurant options within walking distance.

Booked hotels through HotelTonight app. If you don't need to know far ahead where you'll be staying it offers good hotels at a decent discount

ruben, what did you end up paying for hotels and where did you stay? Curious how much it will cost people.

All,
Has anyone been to the Halloween Ghost Ship thing? Is it any good?

Any recommendations on a place we can take a 6 year old for dinner? I was thinking Slanted Door, which my wife and I ate at a few years ago, but we're probably going to do dim sum at Yank Sing for brunch. Something non-chain preferrably.

Also, looks like he's going to be touring Sonoma instead of seeing Alcatraz and Muir Woods. Thanks government shutdown!

Although the Gold Dust Lounge is giving out free drinks when you show a useless ticket for the Alcatraz tour.

Booked first two nights while in advance, paid around $200 a night for Chancellor at Union Square. Pretty crappy hotel (no airco in room) but great location. Then used Hotel Tonight for Olea Hotel ($200 also) and Diva hotel ($160 but during Oracle convention when prices were extremely high). Diva was much nicer than Chancellor, although location is a bit worse.

So glad I found this thread, contemplating taking gf to SF or NYC over winter break.

I assume 3 nights would be an ok amount of time to explore?

Going to be in SF next week with my wife for a work conference for about 6 days. Staying at the Hyatt regency embarcadero. Couple of questions.

-planning to hit up ino sushi on either tuesday or wednesday. Do we need a reservation if we planned to go around 7?

-My wife is in meetings and I am on my own on Wednesday during the day. Any good art museums that I can access without a car? I'm kind of a simpleton when it comes to art but enjoy looking at cool stuff. Looks like there is a cartoon art museum near the hotel, that sounds kind of fun. It would be fun to munch a good burrito or gyro for lunch.

-I would like to hit up a middle eastern restaurant if there are any good ones around. i generally prefer casual or hole in the wall type places as opposed to fancy/dressy/classy service.

-same for indian, I noticed dunbar mentioned earlier and that sounds solid, but might want something a bit closer to the hotel...

Thanks for any help...

Pretzel,

You should call ino for a reservation. You usually will be fine calling day of for a tues/weds seat, but of course make a res in advance to be completely sure.

Mehfil is very good casual Indian and not too far. New Delhi restaurant in the tenderloin is good but very sketchy area. The closest one to you is Gaylord which is good but more of a fancier style Indian place.

The big art museum downtown (sfmoma) is closed a few years for remodeling. The Asian art museum is pretty cool. There are also tons of random small museums downtown.

Jump on Bart to 24th st station (just a few minutes ride from embarcadero station) and get a burrito at la taqueria.

Thanks for the tips. Definitely will make a reservation for ino. Got mehfil and la taqueria marked on my map.

I was searching around on google maps and it looks like there is a pinball museum in alameda! Looks like about 30-40 minutes by public transportation, but I think it might be worth it for me. I used to love those back in grade school. Anyone else ever been?

Pretzel,

I don't know anything about the pinball museum, but this is pretty cool IMO: http://www.museemechanique.org/

The pinball museum is pretty cool, but it was a while ago when I went so I'm not sure if things have changed. I think it's like $15 but you can play as long as you want (double check the website, obviously). If you go to google street view you can walk through the place virtually.

The Musuem Mechanique was ok for nostalgia and had some neat things, but if you want to actually play a game you'll probably be disappointed. It's much closer to a museum than an arcade.

All,

Great list of good, cheap food in the Bay Area: http://www.sfgate.com/restaurants/ar...13-4901891.php

Also, I think I've recommended this before, but if you love pasta check out Cotogna:
http://www.cotognasf.com/

Late (9pm+) reservations are usually available, need to reserve way in advance to get earlier table. Don't go on Sunday nights - that is a less awesome Sunday Supper menu. Pro move at Cotogna is to not get any main/entree items and to just get apps (the sformata is a must) and pastas.

El Diablo, the pizzas at Cotogna are ridiculously good too. Definitely second that recommendation.

Heading to San Fran for the Seahawks-Niners game in December with my brother and a couple of his friends. They want to hit up Napa/Sonoma on Saturday, and have charged me with finding a few good wineries to visit that are: 1) Closer in to San Fran (i.e., not too far north) and 2) aren't outrageously expensive. Any ideas?

There's a wine train that does different tours of various wineries. Apparently you just get on the train and they take you to and fro.

HP,

I would absolutely NOT recommend the napa valley wine train at all.

Good to know, but we wouldn't have done it anyway. There's a driver set up, so planning on our own.

HP,

Please quantify "outrageously expensive."