Whoa thats crazy. Thats like a completely different dish on the cheesecake.

Posting for KingDan who lost access to his 2p2 account.

For a single 28 yr old guy with (assumedly) some capital, you can't beat the mission imo. Best for restos, bars, great park close by, etc. Pets make things a lot more difficult in SF imo. I would also recommend the inner sunset, or Hayes Valley. Inner Sunset has a lot going on and is close to the GG park, and Hayes Valley ( I used to live there) is happening and really centrally located. Stay away from the Marina (again, imo) - way too fratty/young and bad location.... but then again I'm 34 and have a gf; my friends say it's great if you're single.

One thing to keep in mind is SF is small by city standards, so neighborhoods are easy to get to. Then again it's kind of like NYC where you end up staying in your hood.

I have a good group of friends in the city who have lived here long term (I've only been here since Nov), and my gf is born and raised in the Bay Area, so I will ask around and PM pudge if I hear anything. I certainly know how housing can be a ***** here. Good luck!

I've lived in the Marina since I moved here in 2005 and I disagree about it being a bad location. It's a really short commute to downtown and pretty easy to get to most places.

The fratty comment is true though.I don't generally go out around here very often. But the city is small, I'm often going somewhere from work anyway, so to me that isn't a huge drawback.

Went to Rich Table last night and thoroughly enjoyed the starters and pastas. Mains were a bit of a miss for me but I would easily go back just for the Rigatoni. Best single dish this year for me so far, probably top 5 since I moved here.

Chez Panisse - simple and great. Loved the ambiance too. Had one great dish, the others were solid. Definitely had a little fanboy syndrome which made me like the meal a little more

Bouche - my favorite meal so far in SF. Was date night with my gf and she took me there and to this color factory exhibit nearby. The space was great, reminded me of the kind of small French restaurant that I loved while in France, and the food was very good, not too sophisticated for its own good. I really like when a kitchen knows it's limitations (the kitchen is v small, only 2 cooks) and so the menu is small and while not overly ambitious still hits some interesting notes. Only complaint was the hanger steak was cut with instead of against the grain, so even tho it had good flavor and was well cooked it was too tough. I am a chef for a hotel and if I were to ever have a restaurant, I'd only do it if it were a small place like this. Great (romantic) casual atmosphere too. Would def recommend

Props to whoever recommended Alba Ray's, wife and I had a great meal there. Also had a cocktail (Ward 8 I think) which was probably the best cocktail I ever had.

Where's the best place for watching morning NFL action(Cardinals-Lions)?

Staying at Marriott Union Square but don't mind going a few miles if it makes a difference in crowd/football atmosphere.

My girlfriend booked us dinner for her birthday Saturday night at Foreign Cinema. Where is a nice place (splurge/special occasion type places are fine) I can take her for drinks before or after dinner to make the night even better? We both like champagne, but cocktails are fine too.

I am also very interested in the answer to the above, even better if someone knows a good spot in the Peninsula.

Along those lines, anyone have a good not-insanely-packed ace to watch the fight this wknd? Thx

igot: I doubt that exists. TONS of places are having events, more than I've ever seen for a fight. I imagine any general admission place is gonna be swamped and you'll need to get there very early for a seat. Some places...

Joe: Riddler is a cool new champagne place for before dinner. Lots of good cocktail bars in the Mission (Trick Dog, ABV, etc), but not any I can think of with a real fancy vibe if that's what you're going for. For fancier vibe, and better champagne options, I'd recommend going to a hotel bar or fancy restaurant bar. St Regis, RN74, 25 Lusk a few options. Or a nicer wine bar like Press Club.

bosco: No idea if there's a Cardinals or Lions bar in SF, Google can prob help you with that. As far as places to watch the game, tons of choices near Union Square. Here's one list. Golden Gate Tap Room and Jillian's are prob the two best places close to Union Square. I like watching games at the Public House (next to the ballpark) if there's not a baseball game that day (if there is it's absurd crazy). Across the street from the ballpark are a couple of giant places next to each other that are good to watch games - Pete's and Pedro's.

igot,

Enter a zip code here: https://bars.ufc.com/bars-in/CA

Bolded are where I've watched a fight before. Napper Tandy you gotta get there WAY early to get a decent spot. Pete's and Jillian's are prob decent places to watch. Condor and Gold Club come with strippers. I'd call anyplace beforehand - a bunch of these will require advance tix/table reservations/etc.

This list isn't complete - clicking the Google link in my last post comes up with a bunch of other places showing the fight.

Rumors Sports Bar and Lounge
398 7th St San Francisco, CA
1.04 miles away
(415) 553-6169

Napper Tandy
3200 24th Street San Francisco, CA
1.17 miles away
(415) 550-7510

Petes Tavern
128 King St San Francisco, CA
1.3 miles away
(415) 817-5040

Club 93
93 9th St San Francisco, CA
1.35 miles away
(650) 270-9597

Bar San Pancho
3198 16th St San Francisco, CA
1.4 miles away
(415) 649-6077

26 Mix
3024 Mission St San Francisco, CA
1.41 miles away
(415) 826-7378

Jillians @ San Francisco
101 4th Street - Suite 170 San Francisco, CA
1.59 miles away
(415) 369-6100

Gold Club @ San Francisco
650 Howard Street San Francisco, CA
1.67 miles away
(415) 536-0300

Sams Cable Car Lounge
222 Powell St San Francisco, CA
1.8 miles away
(415) 434-7222

Ha-Ra Club
875 Geary St San Francisco, CA
1.97 miles away
(415) 673-3148

Aces
998 Sutter St San Francisco, CA
2.09 miles away
(415) 673-0644

Irish Times
500 Sacramento Street San Francisco, CA
2.23 miles away
(415) 217-5060

Wreck Room
1390 California St San Francisco, CA
2.27 miles away
(415) 613-4480

Patriot House
2 Embarcadero Center San Francisco, CA
2.28 miles away
(415) 986-0797

Cabin
1750 Polk St San Francisco, CA
2.49 miles away
(415) 549-7111

Condor Sports Bar
300 Columbus Ave San Francisco, CA
2.55 miles away
(415) 781-8222

Chief Sullivans
622 Green Blvd San Francisco, CA
2.68 miles away
(415) 989-6222

San Francisco Athletic Club
1750 Divisadero St San Francisco, CA
2.8 miles away
(415) 923-8989

Kezar Pub
770 Stanyan St. San Francisco, CA
3.0 miles away
(415) 386-9292

Bus Stop
1901 Union St San Francisco, CA
3.02 miles away
(415) 567-6905

Eastside West
3154 Fillmore St San Francisco, CA
3.26 miles away
(415) 885-4000

Silver Cloud
1994 Lombard St. San Franscisco, CA
3.3 miles away
(415) 922-1977

Stock in Trade
2036 Lombard St San Francisco, CA
3.33 miles away
(415) 829-3000

Monaghans
3243 Pierce St San Francisco, CA
3.47 miles away
(415) 872-7916

Irelands 32
3920 Geary Blvd. San Francisco, CA
3.69 miles away
(415) 386-6173

Blackthorn
834 Irving St San Francisco, CA
3.74 miles away
(415) 564-6626

McCarthys Irish Bar
46 West Portal Ave San Francisco, CA
4.0 miles away
(415) 564-1412

You're the man El D. As always, thanks so much for the info

Thanks El D! We went to Riddler before dinner and both really liked it. If i were single I would probably make this a go to first date spot.

Obv champagne going to be a little pricier than most other alcohol (we had 2 glasses each, $113 total after tip), but that disclaimer aside I'd recommend the bar to all.

Foreign Cinema was OK to above average. The pasta dish on the menu was great. The fried chicken, which I heard people rave about, was just ok.

Joe,

Nice, glad you liked the rec! And yeah, really even regular wine by the glass at nice places ends up getting v expensive quick.

Totally agree with your assessment of foreign cinema overall and the fried chicken.

Heading to a tour of the Schramsberg caves in Calistoga on Saturday morning. Been drinking their bubbly for years so it will be cool to finally go there. Afterward driving to Guerneville to spend the night. No plans for the rest of Saturday; anyone have ideas for fun stuff to do in either Calistoga/Guerneville/anywhere in between?

Also now that I've been living in Redwood City for two months, a few recommendations on places I've been hanging out:

--IMO Striped Pig is the best restaurant in town. Standard small plate/new American type restaurant; really high quality for the price (most plates under $25 and 3 plates are usually enough for me and my girlfriend for dinner).

--Gourmet Haus Staudt is a really nice German bar that has a well-curated selection of both European beers and American microbrews.

--Alpha Acid in Belmont is a place I can see myself hanging out a lot; it's one of those breweries where you can tell the beer is priority 1 and having a public-facing bar is an afterthought. I really like going on a Saturday afternoon, trying whatever new they have on tap, and hanging out with the brewers.

--I haven't spent a ton of time in SF yet but my favorite bar there so far is Hotel Utah. It's a pretty great dive, apparently one of the oldest bars in SF and looks like it has barely been remodeled in 75 years. Decent if not great beer selection; I usually get a Ninkasi Tricerahops. The owner is from Olympia, WA and it's the only place outside Washington that I've seen with Manny's Pale Ale on tap.

Hey guys,

New 2p2 login ID but this is Kingdan. I've been here for ~2 weeks, wanted to share my thoughts so far. As far as living conditions go, for the next 3 months I have a ~600 square foot 1 bedroom furnished apartment I am renting for $3200/month.. It’s furnished by a 70 year old women, and doesn’t have a dishwasher…. those would be acceptable if I were not sleeping on a double mattress. But that is enough that I can't stay here longterm.


I absolutely love SF and in particular the mission. I go to Dolores Park at least once a day. I love that I can let my dog run like a maniac in the mornings, and I also love that on Saturday afternoon I can see people dress up like robots and dance and play slammo.

Ocean Beach, Golden Gate Park, Crissy Field, etc have all been amazing, too.

Sushi is my hands down favorite food. I have tried 3 spots.

1) http://hinatasf.com/: I was thoroughly impressed by everything, they had a seared toro with uni and black truffle that was pristine. I told the staff I was brand new to town, and they made a three page list of recommendations to try. Adorable.

2) I went to http://www.ijjisf.com and was thoroughly underwhelmed. For $150/ pre tip I expect to be wowed but the fish was pretty lackluster.

3) http://akaisarusf.com/: Despite being a place you could get a roll with mayo etc, they legitimately had some good fish. and I was impressed If you’ve spent time in Vegas, I would say the nigiri is better than Sen Of Japan. For ~$120/head we drank and ate a lot. Not a pretentious vibe at all.

Next week I have some friends in town and we are spending a day doing Russian River Brewery, and also a day in Napa. We didn’t book far enough in advance to go to French Laundry, but we still are going to eat at http://latoque.com/ which has a Michelin star and I’m sure will be wonderful. (also given we are going to three wine tastings beforehand I doubt we are going to even notice the difference)

I'm a bit of a ramen snob, and was definitely impressed with http://nojosf.com/ . Had to wait 45 minutes on a Friday night but in a nice area it was a totally fine place to wait.

Thanks for the recs in this thread, was a good start!

-Dan

Thanks for the write up Dan, please report back on La Toque, going in a few weeks and have looked into it.

Spending a few days in Sonoma as well. Is there anything specifically that needs to be done in order to ship wine back to my home? Or is it as easy as show up, buy wine, ship back? I live in Arkansas if that matters.

Thanks

Thread,

In town for two weeks for work. Where would be a good place to hangout much of the day (starting in the morning) to 1) watch college football 2) drink beer 3) work a bit 4) eat a bit. I'm staying in mountain view but have a car and would feel fine about driving anywhere between san jose and san francisco

I'm sure you'll get a ton of SF suggestions but if you're looking for something closer I'd check out The Office in San Carlos.

c0de:
It matters a lot. Each state has their own alcohol shipping laws. http://www.winespectator.com/webfeature/show/id/50258

Looks like AR is probably fine, though it sometimes also depends on distributor relationships and stuff at some wineries. If they can ship to your state, there's nothing to do. You just give buy it there and they take care of shipping. If there are any issues shipping to your state, you have two options. One option is to take it on the plane - you can check some number of bottles per person, but that's of course a pain in the ass. The more common thing is to get it packed up and then take it to UPS and ship it home yourself. I've never heard of anyone having a problem doing that.

goof:
No reason to come all the way up to SF for that, I bet you can find multiple good options in San Jose or Palo Alto. But if you end up at SF, a table at Jillian's is prob the best place if you want to get some work done too.

Dan,

So many excellent ramen places. Some of my favorites (more or less in order):
https://izaramen.com/
http://kenkenramen.com/
https://www.katanayausa.com/
http://www.ramenunderground.com/
A lot of people love http://orenchi-beyond.com/ - I thought it was good but didn't blow me away.
This place is super hyped and gets love it or hate it mixed reviews http://mensho.tokyo/

It's crazy how many omakase places have opened in the last year or two. Check out this article: http://www.sfchronicle.com/restauran...r-12183621.php

Bummer you had a bad experience at Ijji. I went there last week and had a great dinner. There was one piece of fish the whole time that I thought was kind of whatever, but other than that it was an amazing dinner.

I haven't been to Hinata, I just made that number 2 to try on my sushi list.

Went to Sasaki two weeks ago, was VERY underwhelming for $180 omakase. Def would not recommend.

Kiss Seafood omakase is reasonably priced and excellent, def go there and get the premium omakase.

Kusakabe is very good.

Number one of my to try list is Robin, which people I trust rave about.

I haven't been to Ju-Ni, it sounds great, but a tough reservation unless you book waaaaay in advance.

LOL Hashiri prices.

I haven't been yet, but hear great things about the Sushi Hon $78 omakase.

Perfect, thank you.

Thx for the recs El D! Leaving town for a couple weeks but when I get back will start plowing through some of these and report back.

Was very pleased with Ken Ken Ramen, even though they seem to think October is summer time






Not to be too stereotypical of an East Coast guy, but would like some pizza and or bagel recs, preferably near the mission. Always get disappointed on the west coast!

Codeman,
La Toque was good but not especially memorable (though maybe the 3 wine pairings beforehand had something to do with it). The duck appetizer was my favorite thing anyone ordered. Good but not elite IMO.

Dan,

Wise sons has good bagels.

There's not much good NY style pizza here. Lots of excellent Neapolitan and deep dish. Gialina, beretta, Delfina pizzeria, una pizza napoletana are a few of many good Neapolitan options. Little star for deep dish.

For a cheap NY style slice, arinell is not bad. Great place to grab a quick slice of you're drinking in the mission. Marcello's in the Castro had pretty good NY style, but I haven't been there in years. Amici's is good thin crust but I wouldn't exactly call it NY style.