san francisco: the food

i wanted to share the places we ate at and enjoyed while in san francisco.

this is only the very tip of a gigantic iceberg. there were (no lie) at least ten other places i wanted to check out but we were only there for five days. luckily, we didn't have strike out once, which is nice when you're basing your restaurant picks (in a city known for good food!) on a combination of yelp reviews, local magazine articles, blog posts and newspaper write-ups.

i'm not going to go into too much detail about each one; you can see peruse the menus yourself if you'd like. but here are some highlights:

1. hog & rocks. this was the only non-planned place we tried. while we were walking to another restaurant, we passed this one, checked out the menu and decided to check it out while we were in town. you guys. they had egg yolk fries. incredible. the pimento cheese/pretzel was aslo very good.

2. reveille coffee co. the coffee and breakfast items we got here were good. but my favorite thing was the chocolate chip/sea salt cookie that we took with us to the beach.

3. beast & the hare. this was a repeat performance for us. we went here last time we were in town and loved it. we swore we'd go back if we were ever in town again and a year-and-a-half later, it didn't disappoint. the handmade pasta was perfect and they even sent over a complimentary plate of pickled vegetables since we had to wait a little bit for our reservation. completely unnecessary since we were in vacation mode and not on any time crunch, but i thought it was a classy touch.

4. craftsman & wolves. i had a savory tart with ricotta here that blew my mind. we also got a bag of shoyu chocolate caramels that we ate during the trip. so good and a fun twist on my beloved salted caramel.

5. state bird provisions. stop the presses. i did something i never ever (ever) do with this one: i waited in line an hour before the restaurant opened to see if we could get a seat without a reservation. we did. we were here for our anniversary dinner, and without gushing too much, it's safe to say it's probably the best meal i've had in my life. their menu changes constantly, but here are some great images of some of their offerings.

5. 4505 meats. these guys had a stand set up at the market on sunday. their breakfast sandwich was incredible.

6. spikes. this was a few steps from the place where we stayed. this was my favorite coffee we had the whole trip and their breakfast pastries were also top notch.

7. mission chinese food. i'd been hearing about this place for a long time, and since my husband really likes chinese food, we gave it a shot. unique, inventive and low key. i recommend it for sure.

8. the station. another breakfast/coffee place we tried. i ended up liking my husband's breakfast sandwich more than the one i got, but both were really good and i'd go back again.

_ _ _

any places in the bay area you tried and loved?