El D,

Have you been to hopwater? Liked the beer selection there a lot, and pretty reasonably priced. Will have to check out Magnolia pub

ET: I've been to all three and like them all, was just curious of your opinion. Re: June weekend, not sure but contact me closer to then, plenty of good brewpub and WC recs.

JL: hadn't even heard of it, looks pretty legit. Lot of tasty sounding food too.

The problem with Hopwater is it doesn't open until 5 which seems like an awful move for a bar in a city like SF.

JL,

Checked out Hopwater last night. Pretty nice space, was pretty full at ~8pm on a Tuesday night.

Random coincidence, one of the partners in it is a guy I knew from the bar industry 10+ years ago in SF and hadn't seen in over 5 years until running into him yesterday.

Very solid selection of beers, but not really at the top tier of Bay Area beer bar lists.

Food was mixed:
FIVE DEVILED EGGS WITH BACON JAM $7 - these were fine, but nothing special.
DUNGENESS TATER TOTS $12 - these were also fine, but were croquettes, not tater tots.
FRIED CHICKEN SANDWICH Spicy Slaw, Fresh Mozzarella, Chimichurri on a Torpedo Roll w/Steak Fries $12 - this was ****ing great and I highly recommend it.

Overall this place was fine, and I'd prob go there a lot if I lived in that neighborhood, but it's not someplace I'd make a special trip for.

El D,

Thanks for the tip about the chicken sandwich.

I agree it's not top tier selection but I like that it's all California beers. You're not going to be able to beat a place like monks kettle or similar. But not a bad spot, close to financial district and nob hill, so an easy recommendation for me to people visiting for business or something.

Not,
I agree. With summer hours starting now we had to go to bacchus first until hopwater opened, and they're polar opposites in terms bars

What are some good options for World Cup viewing this week/weekend?

Rage,

Kezar pub
Mad dog in the fog
Chieftain

Pete's tavern
Jillian's

Just a few of many. Depends a lot on if you want packed soccer fan atmosphere (first three) or bigger space and more/bigger TVs (last two).

Nice. I was hoping for a place that isn't standing room only, but I can make that work. Any idea if they'll open for the early games?

Also, what's a good place for chowder near fisherman's wharf that isn't way overpriced/too touristy (assuming they exists in that area)?

Rage,

These places are open when World Cup games happen at 4am, so I'm sure they'll be open for all games this WC.

Everything in fisherman's wharf is super touristy, nobody who lives here actually goes there except maybe for in-n-out. You can get clam chowder in a bread bowl at boudin bakery there. No idea about other options, I'm sure there are many.

rage and other soccer fans,

https://www.facebook.com/events/1415809352038223

This should be pretty fun for WC viewing w/ food trucks and a beer garden.

This looks very cool. I might check it out.

Yeah, I may check this out on Saturday.

yeah that place is fun - there's always at least 7 or 8 food trucks, which means there's always a few legitimately good ones, which means I always eat way too much trying as many of them as I can, haha

I'll be posting some trip report type stuff later, but this couldn't wait.

Wife and I just ate at Sweet Maple. This place is amazing. French toast meal with millionaires bacon. Maybe the best breakfast I've had. Definitely top 3 lifetime.

My San Francisco vacation was interrupted when my mom (who lives in San jose) decided to break her foot so bad that it requires surgery.

But while waiting for the surgery I found this ramen place (oreki) which is pretty elite. Had octopus ball and their house ramen.




Now heading to a dive bar across the street in the middle of this Asian neighborhood. I hope they're welcoming folk.

Here is my SF trip report:

San Francisco Day 1

I've been to SF a decent number of times in the past; but only visiting family. When you're visiting family, you don't really do as many touristy things (in my experience). Furthermore, they all live in the Bay Area and not the actual city, so this was going to be a new experience for me.

We decided to go biking for the first day and wanted to bike the Golden Gate Bridge. We ate at a food truck area for the first day (Soma Street food trucks) and they were great. We tried Peruvian (Ceviche), Chinese (pork egg rolls), and Korean (Bulgogi tacos).I would say that we enjoyed the Bulgogi tacos the most and got 2 orders of them. All in all, the food truck experience was really unique and I liked the fact that I could get a variety of different foods for relatively cheap.



After getting lost a bit because my google maps was being awful, we finally arrived at the Golden Gate Bridge. Side note: Along the way, we also tried this great ice cream sandwich called 'It's It', which is two cookies with ice cream in the middle covered in chocolate. I would have liked to have tried the mint chocolate one but never had the chance.







We enjoyed going to Sausalito, a small town across the bridge and then took a ferry back. After checking out Fisherman's Wharf, we went back to our hotel and got sushi at Ryokos (http://ryokos.com/), which we enjoyed very much.

San Francisco Day 2

We walked to Chinatown in the morning and went to a bakery/ate some lunch. I really enjoyed Char Siu Baos (Chinese BBQ pork in a sweet bun) and ordered a few. We also ate some traditional Chinese food, something I don't eat as much (outside of home).

I've walked through Chinatown before and it always surprises me how different it is compared to the rest of SF. This isn't my photo, but you can imagine what it'd be like:



After Chinatown, we walked to the Mission to a place called 'Pancho Villa' to get a burrito. Although the burrito was good, I sort of regret not going to 'La Taqueria', which was recommended to me.



We decided to rock climb at Planet Granite because we had a friend who had a membership there. I really wish there were gyms like this where I lived at.

We got finished around 6:30 and were indecisive for dinner. I originally chose the Slanted Door, an upscale Vietnamese restaurant. Little did I know, you had to have reservations (and they took no walk ins, even if the wait was long). Seeing as it was 8:00pm on a Sunday, our options were closing quickly. We decided to go to 'Fresca', an upscale Peruvian place. I thought the food was really tasty for the most part. My girlfriend ate a seafood platter and I had lamb atop cilantro fried rice.





All in all, it was a good day.

My experience in SF was memorable. We decided to opt out of doing a wine tour- neither of us are huge wine drinkers and we decided that there would be better uses of our time. I thought the bike ride was probably my favorite part of the entire SF trip (aside from just eating nonstop).

We drove back home in a short 2 days and didn't really stop much along the way. Overall, this trip was a success and I had a great time on it. Thanks for reading.

Orange,

That's an awesome cross-section of cool sf stuff you did, you def had a very authentic San Francisco experience.

Yeah, I had a great time. Thanks again for all of your recommendations!

nice tr! yeah, pancho villa is pretty average, but it's still a tasty burrito

Any recommendations for fun stuff to do in San Francisco for the 4th of July weekend? I'm taking a last minute trip there from the 3rd until the 7th.

Hey all,

I'm going to be in SF for ~4-5 days next month. I'll be staying with friends who live near Noma restaurant, which is where we ate last time.

They suggested these 2 restaurants for this time:
-Rich Table
-Opaque Dining in the Dark

We're also going to cook some wild salmon 1 night (I currently live in a place without it, so this excites me more than any restaurant!).

Would be interested in ideas for (a) alternative restaurants, (b) hiking, cycling, and/or wildlife activities -- so far I've proposed whale watching at Monterey Bay, though this is 2 hours away, (c) miscellaneous (interesting shops, bakeries, ice cream spots).

Thanks

Ed: For hiking, just interested in day hikes that are relatively close
For restaurants, it's hard to explain my interests. Something unique-ish to SF would be nice, yet I usually just order plain-ish salmon, chicken, or steak. So I guess a place that has those kinds of things available, but still has some interesting apps and desserts and drinks. Maybe a steakhouse like 5A5 as was recommended above would be a good one to try.

Chis,

Check the last couple pages, similar questions have been asked w some good recs.

Rich Table is a pretty tough res, book in advance. I think it is pretty good but kinda overpriced.

Dining in the dark is pretty mediocre food, but a kinda crazy experience. Do it if you're interested in that, not for the food.

Craftsmen and wolves is my favorite bakery.

Humphry Slocombe is my favorite ice cream place.

Hi all,

Coming to SF in late September for 4 nights with my dad (scheduling it around the Eagles-49ers game). Noticed that hotel rates are extremely high (400-500+ for anything decent), probably because there seems to be a massive Oracle convention.

Looking at AirBnb instead - never done it before, but my dad snores and don't want to be crammed into a little hotel room. Any suggestions for a good location to look for? Hoping for something centralish where we can walk to most of the good stuff - does something like the below look good?

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/606703

When Oracle is in hotel prices are nuts and unlikely to come down.

Can you give a little about what you are looking to see in the city? But in general Telegraph Hill is a nice place to be and shouldn't be too hard to get to most places.

Outside of heading to Eagles-49ers and Alcatraz, no detailed plans yet. Will probably do the usual tourist stuff, like Chinatown, Mission District, the Wharf, Union Square area. Maybe Muir Woods one day.