If you go through “basic training” at the tasting room you'll get a sip of their lineup, & the weekend-only tours will deepen your appreciation for the ambrosia you just enjoyed. Read more.
Best on weekdays, this place is kind of like bar meets adult game room with a shuffle board, darts, a pool table, & a hoop shot game that's fun as hell. Read more.
Stemming the tide with hearty bistro dishes, strong drinks & an outdoor terrace & rooftop bar to enjoy them on. Overlooking Market Street downtown, we have found the mountaintop. Read more.
In front of the row of Victorian “Painted Ladies” houses (made famous by the Full House opening sequence), but on nice days you can spy the ocean and the Bay from here. Read more.
This long-time fav serves authentic poke “lau lau” plate of steamed pork wrapped in taro leaves & other 50th state delicacie. Tropical drink in hand, pork & seafood, you’ll swear a breeze just passed Read more.
Coolest little bar in Chinatown, where tired regulars, hip locals & confused tourists meet. Tip: Get a shot of the magical Chinese elixir pronounced “in-gah-pay” in the clay bottle behind the bar.
This little Hayes Valley resto is one of the most charming date spots around. The menu changes daily, but expect treats like wood-grilled quail with chickpea puree, a whole baby lamb marinated. Read more.
At Samovar, the art of tea is the art of relaxation, and we recommend going with full-blown tea service. The Russian tea service brings you deviled eggs with caviar and other snacks. Read more.
One of those rare spans that’s beautiful form a distance - this steak & wine place has a custom-built woodfire grill to cook your meat the way cavemen intended Read more.
Strong drinks & an old-school lodge vibe make it feel like a sailor’s bar. Just a block from the mighty Pacific, they show surf movies here every Wednesday night Read more.
Tofu tots with miso dipping sauce sound like fun, & the lamb loli chops are a carnivore’s take on a favorite childhood candy. Best of all, from 11 p.m. to closing time all cocktails are half price. Read more.
Nombe Japanese Cooking Class - 2 classes in June & more to come next month, after these classes you’ll be able to recreate the summer festivals & street food of Japan in your own home. Read more.
The peppercorn and garlic crab is the best, but the deep-fried choice is good too. The garlic noodles are a must-order appetizer, and for dessert, the deep fried banana is sinfully delicious.
The drinks are strong and the service, mainly from a married couple, is awesome. And, there are lots of low-slung white couches where many a friend has been made. Read more.
SIDEBAR Wine Tavern - The draft beers go through a fancy cooling tower so that your brew has that frosty mug sensation, including a great dinner menu -- with 2 types of chicken wings. Read more.
The idea here is to recreate Asian-style street food -- in a hip setting. The modest prices more than offset the cost of coming across the Bay to chow down. Read more.
The oldest bar in the Lower Haight. Even people who have been visiting for years always find something new. Happy hour on weekdays & after midnight on weekends is definitely the witching hour here. Read more.
The space inside the Phoenix Hotel formerly occupied by Bambhudda Lounge, it’s decorated kind of like a cool ex-goth with gobs of good taste and cash got to have her way with the interior
Although many locals still ride their bikes across the symbol of not just our city, but of the promise of the American West, not many of us walk it. It may take a few hours to stroll the 1.7-mile span Read more.
Imagine tasty skewers of meat, and little plates like tofu with shimeji mushrooms, sugar snap peas and sesame. Wash it all down with beer, sake or wine, and you have yourself a deal. Read more.
Touted as the oldest blues club this side of the Mississippi, the Boom Boom Room was once owned by musical legend John Lee Hooker. Friendly & funky, is a mustsee for anyone who's serious about music. Read more.
The newest sake place to grace the city, they're running a grand opening special where you can get a $1 bottle of house sake with any appetizer. The tableside, drunkenly DIY s'mores will be a hit. Read more.
The pilates machines look intimidating, but the machine-assisted pilates, vs. the kind you just do on the floor, is the way for strengthening your core with a min. stress on the rest of your body. Read more.
Open a few weeks now it’s already on many a gourmet’s top-ten list. Italian food with a strong folksy, salt-of-the-earth, straight-from-the-farm vibe dominates. Read more.
Set in the old Baghdad Café spot, is this new chicken and waffle joint offering Creole pork with a side of rice and beans, shrimp-stuffed hush puppies and other soul/Southern faves. Read more.
We don’t know if it works by rerouting our energy or if it’s just getting cared for and relaxing for an hour -- at a bargain price -- but we always seem to feel better. Read more.
Serves every kind of burger there is - beef, chicken, turkey, vegetarian, & Portobello mushroom - but it’s the toppings and sauces that set them apart.
Grab a “cheddar head” sandwich and a beer and sit at one of the tables or, grab a chunk to go and embark on a nice long bread-and-cheese binge in the privacy of your own home. Read more.
From the crew that brought you Double Dutch & Bloodhound, inside you’ll find ten beers on tap, a pool table, a jukebox, and what promises to be a solid cocktail lineup.
Our favorite thing to do on nice days is get a round-trip ferry ticket to Angel Island, buy a beer on the boat, and sun on the upper deck until the ferry gets back to SF. Read more.
They’re beefing up their high-end tequila selection & giving the interior a makeover. Another step in gentrification? Maybe, but with good tequila, you can’t go wrong.
Set inside a liquor store so you can enjoy your “Holy slow braised cow,” a short-rib sandwich, or a vegetarian sloppy Joe while picking up the vodka.
An aquarium, zoo and science center all rolled into one; try one of the adult sleepovers (with an on-site bar) to get in touch with your wild side. Read more.
Head over to Mystic in the Lower Haight/Upper Market for a straight-razor shave from Shorty Maniace. To learn this manly art for yourself, sign up for one of the monthly straight-shaving classes.
This old school spot serves up huge ice cream sundaes, potent cocktails, huge slabs of ribs, and jambalaya pasta with equal aplomb. Read more.
Part impromptu naval museum and party kitsch-fest, venture into the little alley this place is tucked into and stumble out a happier man who just drank up some bona fide San Francisco history.
Plenty of hearty sandwiches for lunch, & almost everything is either locally sourced or organic. Add a slew of local beer, wine on tap & a big, airy space, & we see a bright future for this place. Read more.
Expect a fun vibe, craft beers and special cocktails made with just as much vigor. Enjoy the salty breeze. Read more.
It's known as a dive, & has a dive crowd (mostly) with divey prices, but with white tablecloths, low mood lighting, & candles. It kind of looks like a cozy Italian joint. Read more.
A boutique spot with only 16 rooms, ain’t cheap - but the on-site Pony Club wine bar & location make it worthwhile. Leave the car in park & walk to nearby tasting rooms & restos. Read more.
Serves small plates like fresh spring rolls & papaya salad & has a whole list of pho varieties. They even serve beer 333, something we don’t see often enough outside of Southeast Asia. Read more.
The drinks menu stretches back all the way to the 1600s, when punch was first popularized by rum-swilling, scurvy-avoiding sailors. Drinking your way to the present is the only way to honor the past. Read more.
St. Germain serves sweet crepes, but the braised beef crepe, with avocado, jalapeno, cheese, tomato and green onion is the heartiest and manliest crepe we've ever had the pleasure of wolfing down. Read more.
Tthere's a different six-layer flavor every day of the week. Wednesday's lasagna is a favorite, with wild mushroom and red wine sauce, cremini, and portobello mushroom sauce. Read more.
With specialty rolls like oasis and rock lobster, executive chef Take Fujita keeps the culinary hits coming while the resto's sound system is dedicated to indie bands from around the Bay. Read more.
Enjoy amusement-park-themed drinks like the cotton candy martini in the upstairs lounge. There's also a great sound system and a stage, so expect good DJs and live tunes. Read more.
The culmination of the hyper-fresh, hyper-local cocktail movement. They grow some of their garnishes on site & contract with local farms & artisanal spirits makers. Expect awesome. Read more.
Count on lots of American whisky, good tequila and the occasional live band. And, of course, inventive cocktails. Read more.
This spot in Marin offers stellar Bay views and upscale food that's exquisitely prepared but not pretentious. "Approachable" is how chef Jamie Prouten describes his California-comfort food. Read more.
The old Heart wine bar space has been spruced up a bit so that it feels just as big but a touch more cozy. Owner and sommelier David Lynch hand-picked over a 100 wines for your enjoyment. Read more.
So close to the ballpark you can feel the excitement and hear the roar of the crowd. Pete's fills up quick but somehow manages to never get uncomfortably crowded, and the service is always quick. Read more.
you'll be bobbing in the water just feet from the stadium and in prime location to catch a home run that would otherwise be lost to the fish. Read more.
The dugout suites are hotel rooms meet baseball museum, decked out in the Giants' colors of orange and black and stuffed with memorabilia, a giant TV, and stadium snacks. Read more.
With tons of reclaimed wood, comfort food and 12 wines on tap, what's not to love? It offers apps like grilled baby artichokes, mains like lamb meatballs and desserts like the boozy beer float. Read more.
The two pies are bona fide Southern favorites -- pecan and lemon -- and their fried pickled okra is great. Add beer and wine to all this flavor, and we're there to savor. Read more.
Come for the wonton noodle or bun rieu soup but stray from the favorites and discover the pulled pork sandwich and Vietnamese crepe (we've only had meaty crepes this good on the streets of Hanoi). Read more.
This is the first working brewery in the Mission since the 1950s, and you can count on $3 drafts and a menu of inventive but hearty eats. Expect a big back patio for whiling away sunny days. Read more.
A small handful of authentic and delicious German beers are served in ginormous steins, and the bratwurst is the best you'll find outside of Bavaria. Read more.
Chotto promises the experience of a genuine izakaya-a Japanese post-work/pre-karaoke rallying point for filling up on beer, hard-to-find sake,small plates & lots of fried & skewered Japanese pub grub Read more.
With bottle service and VIP tables, you usually only see this level of opulence in Las Vegas or New York -- and we mean that as a huge compliment. Read more.
Sugoi Sushi is serving up more types of tuna than we know existed, and although most sushi involves raw fish, the emphasis here is on fresh seafood rather than fancy rolls. Read more.
The roasted wild boar sausage with Yukon gold potatoes in garlic and rosemary oil is to die for, and the homemade beef jerky makes Slim Jim cry in shame. Read more.
Must-tastes: The locally-made Charbay vodka, Pritchard’s rum from Tennessee, and the St. George single malt. Read more.
