These newcomers or new menus cover the gamut, from restaurants with views and good food to a modern German beer hall and Spanish sherry and tapas gem. Alongside my latest restaurant reviews — Bar Iris, The Wild, Che Fico Pizzeria, overnight in Sausalito — these seven are also worth visiting, with last month’s standouts here. As always, I’ve personally vetted and visited each:
FOOD
Modern German Beer Hall with a View: Radhaus, Fort Mason
Light-filled, 3,700-square-foot Radhaus opened August 2018 in a lofty, white warehouse marked by woods, including a 200-foot ponderosa pine tree, and inspiring Bay and Golden Gate Bridge views. Like a modern Bavarian beer hall in Fort Mason Center, it’s also one of my top three spots in the entire SF Bay Area for excellent Germanic food (the other two are Suppenkuche and Leopold’s).
Of my top three, Radhaus boasts the best drink offerings. While all three of my Germanic favorites do right by German draft beers and Germanic wines, only Radhaus has a hard liquor license and thus a rarity for Germanic schnaps (eaux de vie or fruit brandies, not at all sweet, but robust, elegant brandies made by small producers all over Germany and Austria) and German spirits in cocktails. I still love getting a shot of elegant Reisetbauer schnaps — from my beloved carrot to subtly nutty hazelnut — as a digestivo/digestif near the end of a meal. There’s a few different cocktails and NA cocktails, refreshing beer cocktails and subtle beer influence, like the spirit-forward Charm School cocktail: cold brew coffee, tequila, mezcal, bier syrup and orange zest.
Chef Jorge Echeverria continues to keep the menu strong with traditional German food done with modern flair and fresh ingredients, in keeping with its tradition since the beginning when I was at Radhaus’ pre-opening party. Think legit pretzels and a beautiful fischbrotchen (fish sandwich), to Berlin specialties like currywurst and doner kebab. Alpine fondue brussels sprouts, rightly contrasted and cut with black vinegar, remains a vegetarian highlight here, as do fluffy-crispy potato pancakes with sour cream and applesauce or their buttermilk dill tzazki gurkensalat of cucumber and shaved fennel.
Their kasespatzle, loaded with gruyere cheese and caramelized onions, is as comforting as ever, while konigsberger klopse (German meatballs with mashed potatoes) are amped up with caper cream sauce. Over the month of December, they served schweinshaxe, a giant, dramatic pork knuckle, over scene-stealing braised red cabbage and sauerkraut. It was a bit dry in parts, tender in others, with beautiful, chicharrónes-like skin.
Radhaus would be a great German restaurant anywhere: casual, but high quality, from food to drink pours. And that view doesn’t hurt either.
// 2 Marina Blvd., Bldg A, Fort Mason; radhaussf.com
Spanish Tapas, Pinxtos & Sherry Treasure: El Lopo, Polk Gulch
I first wrote about Polk Gulch’s unexpected El Lopo earlier in 2024, after discovering it’s best-in-the-city collection of sherries and vermuts (especially now that my favorite SF Spanish restaurant Bellota sadly closed and cocktails and sherry focus of legendary sherry bar pioneer 15 Romolo went downhill).
Since summer 2018, owner Daniel Azarkman and a sweet, informed team share their clear love of sherry, Jerez, vermut (Spanish vermouth) and all its drinkable goodness in this humble, chill space, complete with weekly events from live music and trivia to sherry-oke (karaoke with sherry — yes, please!) Impressively, they lead trips to Spain, while offering sherry education and sample flights, Spanish wines, ciders (sidre), low proof cocktails and vermut, even some on draft, to us lucky locals here at home.
Pull up to a sherry butt (giant sherry barrels), my pick being the window seat barrel table, which opens to the street on nice days. Returning recently, I dug deeper into their food, cooked impressively with no kitchen. They work wonders with minimal equipment behind the bar in a range of Spanish snacks/pinxtos and tapas ideal with their robust drink offerings. The bites are more complex and delicious than they sound, from chilled diced mussels in radishes and crème fraiche served in their shells, to delicata squash in saffron yogurt mousse.
Two unexpected standouts I’m glad they recommended to me were ricotta almond-stuffed figs and mutsu apple toast in hazelnut butter and sherry gastrique. Both way better than I expected (I’d bottle that hazelnut butter). My top pick? Their comforting Galician-style (how I adore Galicia!) empanada gallega, a seasonally-changing savory “pie.” It was pumpkin on my recent visit.
I’ve been a sherry fanatic for over 20 years and a vermouth lover nearly as long. I’ve visited dear Jerez and Cadiz, the home region of sherry in Spain. This humble “hidden” gem is one of the best sherry bars in the nation, certainly for geeks like me but also for playful sherry and Spain education sans attitude or pretension. It’s also a delightful place to eat, welcoming those feasting as much as those stopping in for a quick drink and a snack in proper Spain style.
// 1327 Polk Street, www.elloposf.com
Seafood with Water Views: Waterbar, Embarcadero
It was 2021 when I last visited and wrote about waterfront restaurant Waterbar, next to its sister restaurant, EPIC Steak. The same winning team remains over the lofty, dramatic restaurant under the gaze of the towering Bay Bridge along the Embarcadero, from chef Parke Ulrich to managing partner Pete Sittnick. Our gracious server Luca from Italy made this visit feel particularly special. And I was surprised to have two of the best cocktails I’ve ever had dining here since it opened in 2008 from beverage director Valentina Moya.
I love brunch/lunch here to best take in those views, and Macarum is the ideal brunch cocktail. It combines Planteray rum, orange, lime, coconut milk, a float of coffee and blissfully nutty house macadamia nut orgeat. Tamarind Man surprises beyond a ubiquitous Tamarind margarita with ancho chiles, crème de cacao, citrus and delicate shavings of dark chocolate adding earthy, spiced intrigue to tart tamarind and reposado tequila.
Joys like crab cocktail (now in season!) and oysters abound, but especially pleasing were oysters baked in parmesan, chives and pangrattato breadcrumbs. Cornmeal fish and chips to a Dungeness crab frittata layered with sweet peppers and lemon agrumato centered brunch, while desserts from longtime pastry Queen Lori Baker delight the sweet tooth. Her standout this visit was a “banana split” of boozy, lush house brown butter rum ice cream, bruleed bananas and coconut caramel.
At over 15 years, Waterbar has become a modern day SF classic. There are more cutting edge and legendary seafood classics in town by the dozens (Swan Oyster and Anchor Oyster Bar forever), but none with a view quite like this (Hog Island Oyster also has a great view of the Bay) and such sweet staff to boot.
// 399 The Embarcadero, www.waterbarsf.com
Mexican Food & Cocktails with a View: Barrio, Fisherman’s Wharf
Fisherman’s Wharf and Ghirardelli Square historically have not been a heavy locals’ destination, especially for food in a city rife with superb food block after block. But since opening July 2021, along with Palette Tea House and Square Pie Guys, Barrio has changed Ghirardelli Square, drawing in locals and industry.
Certainly Barrio serves the best Mexican food in the neighborhood from chef Bill Riordan and team (who also runs special neighborhood wine art bar, Waystone, in the original Barrio North Beach space). But a big draw is the consummate hospitality of bar manager Michael Carlisi and his approachable-but-quality cocktails.
Returning on yet another sunny, pristine blue January day, the views of the Bay, Wharf and Alcatraz are stellar, whether from the open air patio or the floor-to-ceiling windows fronting the bar and dining room inside. During brunch, their chilaquiles remain a highlight, as do poc chuc (Mayan/Yucatecan grilled pork) tacos, even if their long-great huitlacoche (corn smut) cheese quekas in house blue corn tortillas were drier and more bland than usual. There’s Mexican-style tater tots, smothered in eggs, salsas and queso, and the hefty Barrio salad if you want to veer towards veggies.
Their Barrio Trinity of guacamole, salsa and queso is the right accompaniment for margaritas, including seasonal flavors like fresh cantaloupe. My favorite of recent seasonal cocktails was Jack Skellington, a blanco tequila and pumpkin cocktail that manages to be both fall/winter spiced, luxurious yet acidic, light and bright with lemon. Carlisi’s balance and texture is spot-on.
// 900 North Point Street, Unit J 101, www.barriosf.com/location/barrio-north-beach
Heartwarming Indian Food: Kolapsi South Indian Cuisine, Mission District
Just opening late November 2024 in the former Media Noche space (RIP as we have so few great Cuban spots), a new South Indian restaurant from “Chef Sankar”: Kolapsi South Indian Cuisine. The menu veers from curries and biryanis to dosas, goat kurm and Kerala chicken fry.
While mulaikattiiya thanioam is a bit bland, it’s a light, crisp, texturally rewarding sprouted lentil salad with coconut, green chilies and lemon. Bagara baingan is one of the most gratifying versions of the eggplant curry in a spicy peanut-coconut sauce I’ve had in ages. Malgudi fish fillets tossed in a tangy chili garlic sauce hits the right crispy-flaky contrast and their chicken tikka dosa may not be traditional but is crave-worthy. My new Indian takeout/delivery go-to.
// 3465 19th Street, https://kolapasi.restaurant
All-Day Burmese by the Chase Center: Kayah by Burma Love, Mission Bay
Opening November 12, 2024, at ever-growing Thrive City surrounding the Chase Center, Kayah by Burma Love is the latest from the expanding Burma Food Group (BFG) and founder Desmond Tan of Burma Superstar. Scandal exists around co-owner Jocelyn Lee, who in 2020 paid a $1.3M class-action settlement to workers for alleged wage theft. I’ve been saying it over 20 years: though I’ve enjoyed the funky, original Burma Superstar in the Inner Richmond, a legend since the 1990s, nearby Mandalay has long been my favorite Burmese takeout and menu in SF, the OG since 1984. Next, I love Burmese Kitchen and others more than the inconsistent, yet ever-expanding Superstars and Burma Loves.
San Francisco being the only N. American city with a past and current Burmese food “scene,” our Burmese food and community is rich, historic and heavily concentrated in SF’s Richmond District. Burmese (modern-day Myanmar) is a fascinating, bright cuisine that tastes Southeast Asian (touches of Thailand, Laos), combines influences from China to India, yet is its own unique cuisine, heavy on vivid salads and comforting, non-spicy curries.
The new Kayah is colorful, exuding fast casual vibes with sweet service, but also shows gaps and inconsistencies I’m used to in BFG restaurants. Thus I’d only recommend it before a Warriors game or Chase Center concert, not as a cross-town, locals destination (even then, there are more consistent restaurants I’d steer you to in the complex first, including new Che Fico Pizzeria).
The group’s culinary director, Jarvis Yuan, created a menu of skewers cooked over a binchotan charcoal grill, ubiquitous tea leaf salad and gratifying roti platha bread dipped in coconut chicken curry sauce. There are meat dishes but plenty of fish, like Yangon grilled branzino with vermicelli noodles and little gems lettuce cups (a fresh dish but the skin was a bit slimy and I’m a fish skin lover), black cod cooked in a banana leaf with lemongrass, Thai chiles and dill, as well as grilled calamari (squid) uniquely accented with grapes, fennel, chili crunch and lime juice.
Likewise vivid is hamachi crudo dotted with fermented tea leaves, cherry tomatoes, serrano chiles, persimmons, ninja radishes, trout roe and calamansi lime curd. It was all over the place but at least an unusual and vibrant crudo.
Wine offerings are basic, with a couple good beers by draft and can and solid but not exceptional cocktails that at least incorporate some Southeast Asian ingredients. All in all, I feel lackluster about the new Kayah, though I’m happy to see Burmese food on this side of town.
// 151 Warriors Way, Suite 106, www.wearekayah.com
DRINK
Hong Kong-Esque Hidden Whisky Bar: Cold Drinks at China Live
Hidden upstairs above China Live and down the hall from one-of-a-kind, temporarily closed, Chinese fine dining destination Eight Tables, Cold Drinks always transports me straight to Asia, feeling as if it could be Singapore or Hong Kong. With Blade Runner-esque wall tiles, striking tiger marble bar top, velvet gray couches, metallic black-and-gold bar chairs, views of the Transamerica Building and kind staff, this remains one of SF’s best whisk(e)y bars since opening summer 2017.
Scotch dominates the rare spirits selection, while the cocktails show off Scotch in varied angles from breezy to spirituous. Yong Xu and his team continue to turn out pleasing cocktails like the crushable yet subtly complex Emerald Green Wood Ear (Iwai 45 Japanese Whisky, Green Chartreuse, Fino sherry, soda water) or the surprising, unique Montgomery Street Shuffle, featuring bracing, peaty Ardbeg Wee Beastie Single Malt Scotch, delicately enhanced (and that’s not a delicate whisky) with falernum, lemon and pineapple gum syrup.
// 644 Broadway; https://chinalivesf.com/china-live-spaces/cold-drinks-bar
Non-Alcoholic Shop Extraordinaire: The New Bar
The New Bar is one charming NA (non-alcoholic) shop, opening May 2024 in Cow Hollow. The clean whites and colorful shelving of this inviting storefront are centered by a bold red center bar where samples are poured and sweet, knowledgeable staff can help you choose from NA wines, spirits, canned cocktails, beers and RTD (ready-to-drink) drinks, all sans booze. As someone who has judged the NA category for years — and written about it as it’s risen up, I saw the best of the category lining New Bar’s shelves but also learned of new NA products I hadn’t yet seen. Here’s to more such shops across neighborhoods (thankfully we still have OG NA source Ocean Beach Cafe, although NA shop Boisson sadly closed in Hayes Valley).
// 2181A Union Street, https://thenewbar.com