San Francisco Restaurant Tips by karenincalifornia

Restaurant Name: Limon

Limon is a popular, hip, trendy restaurant in the Mission District. It was the perfect place to take my popular, hip and trendy companion for dinner. Limon serves Peruvian food, Peruvian beer, and wine from places like Spain and California (no Peruvian wineries, I guess). However, you can't get the national Peruvian drink here - no hard liquor. We settled for the weak stuff.

The Mission District is sheer entertainment. When my out-of-state companion and I saw the first few people dressed in bizarre costumes, I just shrugged my shoulders and said "This is California." By the time we saw the 20th person in a very bizarre costume, I grudgingly acknowledged that perhaps Halloween had something to do with this. In San Francisco, suffice it to say, it is very difficult to distinguish between those who are dressed in costume and those who aren't.

Favorite Dish: We split the ceviche el pescadora and a scallop appetizer, which were both outstanding. I ordered the plato vegetariano (Peruvian food is not really for the non meat eatering club, but you wouldn't know it by the plato vegetariano.). IT was an outstanding rice dish with greenish sauce and a sculpted cracker.

Understand that the Mission District is not Celebration, Florida. You could very easily be accosted here by an aggressive homeless person as you leave the restaurant or nearly trip over someone playing Christmas carols on a harmonica in October in the Bart Station. Don't stray too far to the east of Valencia Street - and it's best to make sure you know east from west as you get off the Bart. People go from just plain nutty on Valencia to downright scary looking a few blocks to the east.

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Theme: Other
Comparison: more expensive than average
Prices: US$41 and up  » Currency Converter
Phone: 415-252-0918
Address: 524 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA
Website: http://limon-sf.com

Restaurant Name: No more white tablecloths

I'm not going to give you tips about nice SF restaurants with white tablecloths, candles and all. You can read any guidebook on San Francisco and get the names those restaurants, if that is what you are looking for.

Expensive doesn't always mean best, and especially not when it comes to SF restaurants. I'm going to show you the BEST restaurants in town - this is where SF working crowd and locals go for great food.

The uninformed visitor will pass by these restaurants because from the outside they look too greasy spoon, too let go, too scary even, whatever. But after you read my tips, you'll know better.


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Theme: Local
Comparison: least expensive
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter
Address: San Francisco

Restaurant Name: L'Osteria de Forno

Great tiny little Italian bistro (only 28 seats) in North Beach. Staff is Italian. Owned by two Italian women from Varese and Bologna. Long lines at lunch. Get there before noon or after 1pm. No reservations. No credit cards accepted. Lunch and dinner.

Favorite Dish: Delicious antipasto, foccacio sandwiches, pizza, pasta. Save room for tiramisu.

Pay no attention to that cop busting the guys in the corner of this picture. We don't. Seriously, North Beach is very safe.

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Theme: Italian
Comparison: least expensive
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter
Address: 519 Columbus
Directions: North Beach: On Columbus between Green and Union

Restaurant Name: Henry's Hunan

The ultimate hole in the wall. No offense to the owners - in my book that is a term of endearment. Worst decor and ambience, best Hunan food ever. And so spicy, you'll be crying.

The bars on the windows merely add to the ambience. A sign hanging in the window says "Closed for Renovation" but they are open. Please, please don't renovate! The seediness is part of the charm!

Favorite Dish: Too many excellent dishes to list. All good. Almost all spicy. Very. Fantastic spicy green beans. Popular with the Chinese community. Located where the Financial District melds into Chinatown. Line at lunch. Open for lunch and dinner.

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Theme: Chinese/Dim Sum
Comparison: least expensive
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter
Directions: Sacramento Street, between Montgomery and Kearny

Restaurant Name: Taste of the Himalayas in the Marina District

After seeing "Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion" at the Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, I announced to my family that we were going to eat at Taste of the Himalayas (formerly Lhasa Moon), the only Tibetan restaurant in San Francisco. The Persnickety Teens (my restaurant reviewers) rolled their eyes at yet another one of my "themes" and were certain the food would be too weird for them.

We were very pleasantly surprised. The restaurant is small and has pictures of Tibet and HH the 14th Dalai Lama on the walls, Tibetan Buddhist prayer flags hanging from the ceilings, and waitpersons in their native dress. This place is not touristy in the least and the food was absolutely delicious.

The Persnickity Preteen (age 12) proclaimed her dish as "good and not too spicy". The Persnickity Teen (age 15) between shoveling in mouthfuls of shogok ngopa described his dish as "very good, with the right amount of spice."

I was pleased to see a number of vegetarian dishes on the menu.

We will definitely come again soon, bringing more friends in tow.

Favorite Dish: Lephing & Bhaley Flat Bread with spicy soy vinegar and bean curd, a favorite Lhasa dish

Momos (beef, chicken and vegetable dumplings), best described as a Tibetan potsticker

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Theme: Other
Comparison: about average
Prices: US$11-20  » Currency Converter
Phone: (415) 674-9898
Address: 2420 Lombard Street, San Francisco
Directions: On Lombard, between Scott and Divisadero
Website: http://www.lhasamoon.com/

Restaurant Name: Taste of the Himalayas

Pictured here is Shogok Ngopa - sliced beef sauteed with thinly cut potatoes, spinach, garlic and ginger, along with a Tibetan steamed roll

Favorite Dish: Also recommended:

Lhabu Dhikrul - lamb, daikon radish and spinach leaves, simmered in borth with herbs

Tsel Gyaker - vegetable curry of cauliflower, potatoes and green peas, with rice

Phingsha - sliced chicken sauteed with been thread strings, sliced potatoes, and green peas. Flavored with ginger and emma (Tibetan peppercorn).

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Theme: Other
Comparison: about average
Prices: US$11-20  » Currency Converter
Phone: (415) 674-9898
Address: 2420 Lombard Street
Directions: Lombard Street, between Scott and Divisadero
Website: http://www.lhasamoon.com/

Restaurant Name: 360 Degrees Gourmet Burritos

This burrito place is very popular with the working crowd in the Financial District. Not really a Mexican restaurant, 360 Degrees serves burritos with a flair, using ingredients that aren't typically used in burritos, like artichokes, feta cheese and mushrooms. But if those combinations seem too strange, 360 Degrees also serves more traditional burritors as well.

Favorite Dish: All fresh ingredients and low fat. Vegetarian and meat. Limited tables, order at the counter, then take your burrito to go. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. Closes at 8pm. Closed weekends.

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Theme: Mexican
Comparison: least expensive
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter
Address: Financial District
Directions: 359 Kearny St
Corner of Kearny and Pine.

Restaurant Name: Bangkok Best

If you didn't know better, you'd probably pass this restaurant by. The paint is peeling off the sign, its side of the street is a bit seedy, there are trendier cafes in the area. The locals and working crowd, however, know this is the best Thai food restaurant in the Financial District.

Favorite Dish: Pad Thai with various toppings, red, yellow, green curry dishes. Line at lunch. Get here before noon. Sit down, but also has a take out window. Reasonable. Serves lunch and dinner. Easier to be seated at dinner after the working crowd goes home and the Financial District calms down.

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Theme: Pan-Asian and Pacific Rim
Comparison: less expensive than average
Prices: US$11-20  » Currency Converter
Phone: 415-362-2216
Address: 301 Kearny
Directions: Corner of Kearney and Bush

Restaurant Name: Hunan's Home

Small restaurant with Hunan food to die for. Popular with the lunch and Asian crowd. Line at lunch. People are willing to wait a long time for a seat. Get here before noon. Cheap lunch with lots of food. Open for lunch and dinner. Located in Chinatown.

Favorite Dish: All good and much is spicy. Very authentic. Frequented by Chinese patrons. Shredded jelly fish, tea smoked chicken, beef with orange peel, squid with spicy salt, sizzling eel, hot spiced bean curd.

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Theme: Chinese/Dim Sum
Comparison: least expensive
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter
Phone: (415) 982-2844
Address: 622 Jackson
Directions: On Jackson between Kearny and Grant

Restaurant Name: House of Nanking

This place is so scary looking on the outside, (and inside, too) if you didn't know better, you'd cross the street to the other side. Then you would notice the long line of people lined up in front halfway down the block. First, you would think this is a line to get into one of the numerous live nude places on the same block, but then you would realize, no, people are actually waiting to get into this hole in the wall. Scrumptiously delicious szechuan and hunan food. Lunch and dinner. Frequented by Chinese locals and working crowd.

Favorite Dish: Don't bother ordering from the menu. At House of Nanking, you simply tell the owner, "I'd like fish (or shrimp, or meat, or chicken, or vegetarian") and he'll whip up something that will make you think you really are in the Jiangsu Province. His dishes vary each time I go there. Sometimes he uses a black bean sauce, sometimes a garlic sauce, sometimes a peanut sauce. All excellent. All cheap.

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Theme: Chinese/Dim Sum
Comparison: least expensive
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter
Phone: 415.421.1429
Address: 919 Kearny St
Directions: (Broadway/Pacific) -near Columbus and Kearny
On the dividing line between Chinatown and North Beach