These newcomers or new menus cover the gamut, from heartwarming Jamaican food to another worthy Italian seafood haven in North Beach. Alongside this month’s full restaurant reviews, these five are also worth visiting. Read more →
Category: The Latest
Coastal India Vibes & Relaxed, Modern Indian Cuisine from a Chef Who Ran the U.S.’ Only 2 Michelin Indian Restaurant: SF’s New Copra
For a decade I’ve been raving about chef Srijith “Sri” Gopinathan’s cooking, even before he became the only Indian chef in the U.S. with a two Michelin-starred restaurant for Indian fine dining at Taj Campton Place, San Francisco. I dined there after he started in 2008, when he started showing his range in his Spice Route menu, as he garnered a Michelin star, and again as he moved to two stars.
Thrilled I was to hear of Thapar and Gopinathan back in SF, taking over the former Dosa on Fillmore to open Copra Restaurant, focused on the coastal cuisines of India’s southern states, including chef Sri’s home state of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, where he grew up. Read more →
Hidden Whimsical-Molecular Restaurant (Formerly A Beloved Pop-Up) Opens On A Sleepy Residential Block: Anomaly SF
The speakeasy trend peaked in the mid-aughts in New York and San Francisco cocktails bars where it first launched in the years prior, just as it was taking off around the country. But the clamor for “secret,” hidden spaces in restaurants and bars has not abated. There remains a thrill in finding a gem behind nondescript doors, a hidden room, a cozy hideaway.
Brand new Anomaly SF, opening January 19, 2023, from chef/owner (and former competitive cyclist) Mike Lanham, feels like just such a space. Read more →
February Eats Checklist: 5 Standouts of the Month
These newcomers or new menus cover the gamut, from elevated German beer hall fare to Sichuan Chinese. Alongside this month’s full restaurant reviews, these six are also worth visiting, with last month’s standouts here (as always, I’ve personally vetted, visited or ordered from each place reviewed): Read more →
Latin Vibes, Tunes, Cocktails & Food with Stunning SF Views at New Rooftop Bar, Cavaña
Rooftop bars are proliferating in San Francisco these days… brand new Cavaña just opened late January 2023 on the 17th floor of the LUMA Hotel San Francisco. A stones’ throw from the SF Giants’ Oracle Park, you can hear the ballpark (and at times, concerts) din buzzing nearby as you take in stunning city views of blazing sunsets behind Twin Peaks and the Sutro Tower from the south patio with outdoor bar, to the more chill, fireside glow of downtown SF and the Bay Bridge on Cavaña’s north and east sides. Read more →
Boundary-Pushing Asian Food at Two Newcomers: Taiwanese-Inspired Piglet & Co. & Chinese-Venezuelan Cantoo
This week, I share experiences at two newcomers playing with the boundaries of Asian cuisine. One is a pop-up turned hip, new Mission district restaurant hidden behind a graffitied wall, Bruce Lee films on two TVs above the bar, striking paintings of birds. The other is a fluorescent-lit, Tenderloin spot, half underground, roomy but utilitarian in design. The former just opened early January 2023, the other two days before Christmas 2022. They are dissimilar in most ways but for their surprising interplay of Asian cuisines. Read more →
January Eats Checklist: 4 Standouts of the Month
These newcomers or new menus cover the gamut, from a nature-rich tribute to California’s majestic trees in edible form, to healthy, chic, nuanced at-home delivery food. Read more →
Former Laundromat Turned Idyllic Neighborhood Hang for Detroit Pizza, Sips & Bagels
Opened November 2022 in San Francisco’s Outer Richmond neighborhood, The Laundromat SF is, yes, housed in a former Laundromat. It’s also a block away from one of our historic theater gems worth supporting year-round: Balboa Theater. In fact, owners Jaimi Holker and Adam Bergeron are behind CinemaSF and run the Balboa Theater, so the connection holds synergy. The Laundromat makes an ideal pre- or post-film spot for a bite and drinks… Read more →
Chic New Italian Cocktail & Food Haven Hidden in the FiDi: Bar Sprezzatura
The new Bar Sprezzatura — opening November 2022 — is in an easy parking post-6pm area, quiet at night. In fact, the restaurant is only open lunch and dinner, Monday through Friday, so it’s ideal for workday meetings, European-esque long lunches and evening gatherings, from bites and drinks to a full meal. Visiting twice now, once for lunch, once for dinner, I had to name it one of the top 14 new restaurant openings of 2022. Read more →
A World-Class New Era for a Reborn, Decades-Old SF Sushi Favorite: Akikos
From The Shota to Omakase, San Francisco already has a wealth of Michelin-starred sushi bars, and many besides of that ilk (Oma SF Station, Ken, Sasa, Kusakabe, An Japanese, or hip counterparts like Robin and Chisai Sushi Club, to name just a few). Now we have another. But it’s a familiar name to San Franciscans: Akiko’s. Read more →