SFO Downtown Restaurants
10-23-2023 | 08:44 AM
#41
On Reserve
Joined: Sep 2018
Posts: 79
Likes: 0
Hopping on the Muni Metro light rail opens up a lot of options on your SF layover. Muni light rail is safe and modern (at least in my experience), relatively efficient and gets you out of the downtown core to some nicer neighborhood places. If you hit the timing right with Muni, you can be to most of these places 15-25 minutes after you walk out of the hotel.
Put a Clipper transit card on your phone (easy to do, follow the link below) and you're good to go.
https://www.clippercard.com/ClipperWeb/pay-with-phone
From Powell Street station (5 minute walk from the hotel), hop on the N-JUDAH (dark blue) line OUTBOUND toward OCEAN BEACH. It runs underground for a while and then comes above ground at Duboce and Church.
Places along the Muni line that I've discovered over the years, arranged by stop/station:
Duboce & Noe Stop (4 stops, ~15 mins from hotel):
Duboce Park Cafe: Cozy little neighborhood corner place, good coffee and breakfast/lunch food. You can sit at a shady sidewalk table when the weather is nice. The cafe is adjacent to the dog-friendly Duboce Park which itself sits adjacent to a row of handsome Edwardian (Victorian?) houses.
If you walk across Duboce park and then continue a couple of blocks, you'll reach the Lower Haight (different than Upper Haight, which is the hippie Haight-Ashbury part). There are some good places on Haight between Steiner and Fillmore. Memphis Minnie's BBQ Joint for BBQ. Toronado has a huge selection of draft beers.
Carl and Cole Stop (4 stops, ~20 mins from hotel):
Cole Valley Tavern: Upscale neighborhood bar and grill in a bustling location. Excellent drinks and food. Menu skews toward well-made comfort food standards. Get a soft-serve cone from their take-out window.
Wooden Coffee House: Third-wave neighborhood coffee-and-laptops place. Decent selection of baked goods. Nice window seating area overlooking the sidewalk/street. There's sometimes a parrot there.
Say Cheese: killer sandwiches plus gourmet goodies and wine shop. Sidewalk benches in front to enjoy your food and people-watch.
Irving and 6th (5 stops, ~22 mins from hotel):
Lime Tree: Singaporean/Indonesian. Absolute hole in the wall, inexpensive, lots of UCSF students. Outstanding laksa and Singaporean curry noodles.
Yellow Submarine: Great toasted submarine sandwiches and homemade potato chips.
Irving and 9th (6 stops, ~25 mins from hotel):
About 1.5 blocks from Golden Gate Park. An easy walk to the DeYoung Museum, the Academy of Sciences, or the Botanical Gardens. Lots of good food options on 9th Ave. From the Irving and 9th Muni stop, walking toward the park there's:
Arizmendi Bakery. All the baked goods your heart could desire, plus pizza slices that change daily.
Art's Cafe: True neighborhood greasy-spoon diner. Narrow counter, vinyl stools bolted to the floor. Menu is everything you'd expect plus a bulgogi and bibimbap sub-menu.
Ebisu: Hole in the wall neighborhood sushi place. Great and reasonably priced (for San Francisco, at least).
Fiorella Sunset: New-ish neighborhood Italian restaurant. Great pizzas and pasta. Open-air rooftop patio seating on the second floor is great when it's a sunny day. Apparently they have a speakeasy in the restaurant called Bar Noninna.
Underdogs Tres: Mexican cantina/taqueria with bar and seasonal local sportsball on TV. Patio out back.
Tartine Inner Sunset: An offshoot of the original Tartine Bakery in the Mission. All-day dining. Great-quality food. Sandwiches are served on their rightfully famous homemade bread.
um.ma: Killer "fancy" Korean BBQ with a patio in the back.
So many more places to recommend but I'm going to stop now. 
Enjoy your layovers!
Put a Clipper transit card on your phone (easy to do, follow the link below) and you're good to go.
https://www.clippercard.com/ClipperWeb/pay-with-phone
From Powell Street station (5 minute walk from the hotel), hop on the N-JUDAH (dark blue) line OUTBOUND toward OCEAN BEACH. It runs underground for a while and then comes above ground at Duboce and Church.
Places along the Muni line that I've discovered over the years, arranged by stop/station:
Duboce & Noe Stop (4 stops, ~15 mins from hotel):
Duboce Park Cafe: Cozy little neighborhood corner place, good coffee and breakfast/lunch food. You can sit at a shady sidewalk table when the weather is nice. The cafe is adjacent to the dog-friendly Duboce Park which itself sits adjacent to a row of handsome Edwardian (Victorian?) houses.
If you walk across Duboce park and then continue a couple of blocks, you'll reach the Lower Haight (different than Upper Haight, which is the hippie Haight-Ashbury part). There are some good places on Haight between Steiner and Fillmore. Memphis Minnie's BBQ Joint for BBQ. Toronado has a huge selection of draft beers.
Cole Valley Tavern: Upscale neighborhood bar and grill in a bustling location. Excellent drinks and food. Menu skews toward well-made comfort food standards. Get a soft-serve cone from their take-out window.
Wooden Coffee House: Third-wave neighborhood coffee-and-laptops place. Decent selection of baked goods. Nice window seating area overlooking the sidewalk/street. There's sometimes a parrot there.
Say Cheese: killer sandwiches plus gourmet goodies and wine shop. Sidewalk benches in front to enjoy your food and people-watch.
Lime Tree: Singaporean/Indonesian. Absolute hole in the wall, inexpensive, lots of UCSF students. Outstanding laksa and Singaporean curry noodles.
Yellow Submarine: Great toasted submarine sandwiches and homemade potato chips.
About 1.5 blocks from Golden Gate Park. An easy walk to the DeYoung Museum, the Academy of Sciences, or the Botanical Gardens. Lots of good food options on 9th Ave. From the Irving and 9th Muni stop, walking toward the park there's:
Arizmendi Bakery. All the baked goods your heart could desire, plus pizza slices that change daily.
Art's Cafe: True neighborhood greasy-spoon diner. Narrow counter, vinyl stools bolted to the floor. Menu is everything you'd expect plus a bulgogi and bibimbap sub-menu.
Ebisu: Hole in the wall neighborhood sushi place. Great and reasonably priced (for San Francisco, at least).
Fiorella Sunset: New-ish neighborhood Italian restaurant. Great pizzas and pasta. Open-air rooftop patio seating on the second floor is great when it's a sunny day. Apparently they have a speakeasy in the restaurant called Bar Noninna.
Underdogs Tres: Mexican cantina/taqueria with bar and seasonal local sportsball on TV. Patio out back.
Tartine Inner Sunset: An offshoot of the original Tartine Bakery in the Mission. All-day dining. Great-quality food. Sandwiches are served on their rightfully famous homemade bread.
um.ma: Killer "fancy" Korean BBQ with a patio in the back.
Enjoy your layovers!
10-23-2023 | 12:31 PM
#43
Gets Weekends Off
Joined: Aug 2015
Posts: 2,595
Likes: 470
From: Guppy Gear Slinger
Hopping on the Muni Metro light rail opens up a lot of options on your SF layover. Muni light rail is safe and modern (at least in my experience), relatively efficient and gets you out of the downtown core to some nicer neighborhood places. If you hit the timing right with Muni, you can be to most of these places 15-25 minutes after you walk out of the hotel.
Put a Clipper transit card on your phone (easy to do, follow the link below) and you're good to go.
https://www.clippercard.com/ClipperWeb/pay-with-phone
From Powell Street station (5 minute walk from the hotel), hop on the N-JUDAH (dark blue) line OUTBOUND toward OCEAN BEACH. It runs underground for a while and then comes above ground at Duboce and Church.
Places along the Muni line that I've discovered over the years, arranged by stop/station:
Duboce & Noe Stop (4 stops, ~15 mins from hotel):
Duboce Park Cafe: Cozy little neighborhood corner place, good coffee and breakfast/lunch food. You can sit at a shady sidewalk table when the weather is nice. The cafe is adjacent to the dog-friendly Duboce Park which itself sits adjacent to a row of handsome Edwardian (Victorian?) houses.
If you walk across Duboce park and then continue a couple of blocks, you'll reach the Lower Haight (different than Upper Haight, which is the hippie Haight-Ashbury part). There are some good places on Haight between Steiner and Fillmore. Memphis Minnie's BBQ Joint for BBQ. Toronado has a huge selection of draft beers.
Carl and Cole Stop (4 stops, ~20 mins from hotel):
Cole Valley Tavern: Upscale neighborhood bar and grill in a bustling location. Excellent drinks and food. Menu skews toward well-made comfort food standards. Get a soft-serve cone from their take-out window.
Wooden Coffee House: Third-wave neighborhood coffee-and-laptops place. Decent selection of baked goods. Nice window seating area overlooking the sidewalk/street. There's sometimes a parrot there.
Say Cheese: killer sandwiches plus gourmet goodies and wine shop. Sidewalk benches in front to enjoy your food and people-watch.
Irving and 6th (5 stops, ~22 mins from hotel):
Lime Tree: Singaporean/Indonesian. Absolute hole in the wall, inexpensive, lots of UCSF students. Outstanding laksa and Singaporean curry noodles.
Yellow Submarine: Great toasted submarine sandwiches and homemade potato chips.
Irving and 9th (6 stops, ~25 mins from hotel):
About 1.5 blocks from Golden Gate Park. An easy walk to the DeYoung Museum, the Academy of Sciences, or the Botanical Gardens. Lots of good food options on 9th Ave. From the Irving and 9th Muni stop, walking toward the park there's:
Arizmendi Bakery. All the baked goods your heart could desire, plus pizza slices that change daily.
Art's Cafe: True neighborhood greasy-spoon diner. Narrow counter, vinyl stools bolted to the floor. Menu is everything you'd expect plus a bulgogi and bibimbap sub-menu.
Ebisu: Hole in the wall neighborhood sushi place. Great and reasonably priced (for San Francisco, at least).
Fiorella Sunset: New-ish neighborhood Italian restaurant. Great pizzas and pasta. Open-air rooftop patio seating on the second floor is great when it's a sunny day. Apparently they have a speakeasy in the restaurant called Bar Noninna.
Underdogs Tres: Mexican cantina/taqueria with bar and seasonal local sportsball on TV. Patio out back.
Tartine Inner Sunset: An offshoot of the original Tartine Bakery in the Mission. All-day dining. Great-quality food. Sandwiches are served on their rightfully famous homemade bread.
um.ma: Killer "fancy" Korean BBQ with a patio in the back.
So many more places to recommend but I'm going to stop now. Enjoy your layovers!
Put a Clipper transit card on your phone (easy to do, follow the link below) and you're good to go.
https://www.clippercard.com/ClipperWeb/pay-with-phone
From Powell Street station (5 minute walk from the hotel), hop on the N-JUDAH (dark blue) line OUTBOUND toward OCEAN BEACH. It runs underground for a while and then comes above ground at Duboce and Church.
Places along the Muni line that I've discovered over the years, arranged by stop/station:
Duboce & Noe Stop (4 stops, ~15 mins from hotel):
Duboce Park Cafe: Cozy little neighborhood corner place, good coffee and breakfast/lunch food. You can sit at a shady sidewalk table when the weather is nice. The cafe is adjacent to the dog-friendly Duboce Park which itself sits adjacent to a row of handsome Edwardian (Victorian?) houses.
If you walk across Duboce park and then continue a couple of blocks, you'll reach the Lower Haight (different than Upper Haight, which is the hippie Haight-Ashbury part). There are some good places on Haight between Steiner and Fillmore. Memphis Minnie's BBQ Joint for BBQ. Toronado has a huge selection of draft beers.
Cole Valley Tavern: Upscale neighborhood bar and grill in a bustling location. Excellent drinks and food. Menu skews toward well-made comfort food standards. Get a soft-serve cone from their take-out window.
Wooden Coffee House: Third-wave neighborhood coffee-and-laptops place. Decent selection of baked goods. Nice window seating area overlooking the sidewalk/street. There's sometimes a parrot there.
Say Cheese: killer sandwiches plus gourmet goodies and wine shop. Sidewalk benches in front to enjoy your food and people-watch.
Lime Tree: Singaporean/Indonesian. Absolute hole in the wall, inexpensive, lots of UCSF students. Outstanding laksa and Singaporean curry noodles.
Yellow Submarine: Great toasted submarine sandwiches and homemade potato chips.
About 1.5 blocks from Golden Gate Park. An easy walk to the DeYoung Museum, the Academy of Sciences, or the Botanical Gardens. Lots of good food options on 9th Ave. From the Irving and 9th Muni stop, walking toward the park there's:
Arizmendi Bakery. All the baked goods your heart could desire, plus pizza slices that change daily.
Art's Cafe: True neighborhood greasy-spoon diner. Narrow counter, vinyl stools bolted to the floor. Menu is everything you'd expect plus a bulgogi and bibimbap sub-menu.
Ebisu: Hole in the wall neighborhood sushi place. Great and reasonably priced (for San Francisco, at least).
Fiorella Sunset: New-ish neighborhood Italian restaurant. Great pizzas and pasta. Open-air rooftop patio seating on the second floor is great when it's a sunny day. Apparently they have a speakeasy in the restaurant called Bar Noninna.
Underdogs Tres: Mexican cantina/taqueria with bar and seasonal local sportsball on TV. Patio out back.
Tartine Inner Sunset: An offshoot of the original Tartine Bakery in the Mission. All-day dining. Great-quality food. Sandwiches are served on their rightfully famous homemade bread.
um.ma: Killer "fancy" Korean BBQ with a patio in the back.
Enjoy your layovers!
10-23-2023 | 01:30 PM
#44
Gets Weekends Off
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 3,042
Likes: 47
From: 767/757 CA
10-23-2023 | 02:21 PM
#45
Gets Weekends Off
Joined: Aug 2015
Posts: 2,595
Likes: 470
From: Guppy Gear Slinger
Car break-ins are the biggest problem round these parts. Violent crime, not so much. Personally I wouldn't park a rental car in a number of SF neighborhoods.
10-23-2023 | 02:55 PM
#46
Gets Weekends Off
Joined: Mar 2018
Posts: 3,628
Likes: 204
Dude you gotta lay off Newsmax. We do have a big homeless problem, no question about it. But 99 pct of them are too far gone on fentanyl to be shooting or stabbing anyone.
Car break-ins are the biggest problem round these parts. Violent crime, not so much. Personally I wouldn't park a rental car in a number of SF neighborhoods.
Car break-ins are the biggest problem round these parts. Violent crime, not so much. Personally I wouldn't park a rental car in a number of SF neighborhoods.
10-23-2023 | 03:02 PM
#47
Gets Weekends Off
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 3,042
Likes: 47
From: 767/757 CA
no kidding… woke blindness. It’s all good until they become the victim… or worse yet a loved one… then they are demanding action. Just look at the activist stabbed to death in NYC a few weeks back… thought it was all good sitting on a park bench at 4am… not so much.
10-23-2023 | 03:42 PM
#48
On Reserve
Joined: Aug 2017
Posts: 192
Likes: 2
https://sports.yahoo.com/20-cities-u...160029176.html
The advice of taking Muni and going west into the neighborhoods like taking the N to Duboce Triangle/Lower Haight or Cole Valley is good advice. Lots of amazing restaurants and the neighborhoods are nice. Downtown/SoMa (where the crew hotels are) is actually not so great for food and has many areas where there is lots of blight.
10-23-2023 | 03:45 PM
#49
Gets Weekends Off
Joined: Mar 2018
Posts: 3,628
Likes: 204
Except it is not. Lay off Newsmax. Here is the top 20 cities in the United States for violent crime:
https://sports.yahoo.com/20-cities-u...160029176.html
The advice of taking Muni and going west into the neighborhoods like taking the N to Duboce Triangle/Lower Haight or Cole Valley is good advice. Lots of amazing restaurants and the neighborhoods are nice. Downtown/SoMa (where the crew hotels are) is actually not so great for food and has many areas where there is lots of blight.
https://sports.yahoo.com/20-cities-u...160029176.html
The advice of taking Muni and going west into the neighborhoods like taking the N to Duboce Triangle/Lower Haight or Cole Valley is good advice. Lots of amazing restaurants and the neighborhoods are nice. Downtown/SoMa (where the crew hotels are) is actually not so great for food and has many areas where there is lots of blight.
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