By The Editors By The Editors | January 18, 2024 | Food & Drink, Feature, Guides,
Step up your romance with these restaurants in San Francisco.
This spot might just be the city’s sexiest new watering hole. Inspired by the bustling all-day bars of Italy’s Venice, Bar Sprz (as it’s referred to by those in the know) serves aperitivos and cicchetti. Beloved local mixologist Carlo Splendorini is behind the extensive cocktail menu, which features four Negroni variations that pair perfectly with chef Joseph Offner’s savory snacks. Think salt cod spread, flavorful meatballs, oysters on the half shell, imported meats and cheese from Italy, and larger offerings like pasta and pizza. 1 Maritime Plaza, 300 Clay St., Ste. 100
Chef-owner Gay Lee reopened his beloved Japanese restaurant, Akikos, in a gorgeous street-level space at The Avery. Sushi fans will love Lee’s excellent omakase featuring single-line-caught fish flown in from Tokyo’s famed Toyosu market. So what’s for lunch or dinner? Chawanmushi with black truffle, wagyu dumplings with aged Parmesan and shokupan with toro and caviar. 431 Bush St.
Landing a table here requires the kind of months-out planning more common for French Laundry, though the payoff is California comfort cooking: local, seasonal, satisfying and safe. Is Frances worth the wait? The answer is yes; there’s just no guarantee that you’ll get in. 3870 17th St.
If you seek a seafood-centric dining adventure with a conscience for sustainability, look no further. With panoramic views of the bay and an interior with two floor-to-ceiling circular aquariums, Waterbar is an embarrassment of riches. Executive chef Parke Ulrich changes the menu daily to ensure the freshest catches. Mains might include seared wild striped bass or grilled ahi tuna. 399 The Embarcadero
The brick-and-mortar outpost of Jon Darsky’s popular pizza truck centers on a wood-burning oven that turns out extravagantly charred Neapolitan-style pies with crusts as puffy as a baby’s thigh and topped with ingredients such as anchovies and ricotta salata. Though the pizzas are the main draw, don’t skip the vegetable-forward appetizers, which are seasonal and fabulous. 855 Bush St.
Cloistered behind a facade of frosted glass, chef Val Cantu’s elegant 30-seater is the staging ground for his modern, fine-dining interpretation of Mexican cuisine. The counter offers prime viewing of Cantu’s tweezer-manipulated creations: oroblanco granita with Pop Rocks, beef tongue with a quenelle of avocado puree and a ridiculously good foie gras ice cream that comes studded with pear and showered with tortilla chip crumbs. Warning to those who like to choose what they eat: There’s only one 19-course prix fixe option and no printed menu. 3115 22nd Cap St.
Fat, cold oysters and strong, cold drinks and chief among the pleasures offered at the fourth outing from Big Night Restaurant Group. They’re accompanied by a host of updated seafood classics, such as rock shrimp Louie tricked out with fennel and mache, and a New England-style lobster roll stuffed into a brioche bun. The tone, which skews midcentury elegant, is set by the wallpaper, a tableau of palm fronds and tropical flowers that suggest a lost world of martini lunches and Lily Pulitzer garden parties. 568 Sacramento St.
French-born chef Dominique Crenn has made a restaurant devoted to her personal expression, where her combination of craft and invention results in stunning dishes, such as seared Arctic char and asparagus dusted with fennel “snow,” flagged with a fennel crisp and dotted with dollops of vanilla pudding. Service here is sharp and unstuffy, and Crenn’s work is ably backed by pastry chef Juan Contreras. Atelier Crenn in sincere and inspired, but you pay top dollar for a highly unusual experience, one that’s both perplexing and impressive. 3127 Fillmore St.
Fine dining’s old divides, teetering for so long, tumble into rubble during meals at David Barzelay’s Lazy Bear, where cooks take turns introducing dishes and diners are encouraged to approach the kitchen for look-but-don’t-touch primers on what’s going on. For all its choreography, the dinner party format somehow feels organic, the natural outgrowth of an upscale but easygoing celebration. 3416 19th St.
This handsome Michelin-starred restaurant by Bacchus Management Group is the social set’s gathering spot, with dining room walls covered in chocolate brown mohair and chairs covered in faux ostrich. Chef Mark Sullivan’s lunches, dinners and brunches feature seasonal ingredients from Woodside’s SMIP Ranch. The 2,500-selection wine list is a dazzler. 3640 Sacramento St.
A San Francisco tradition since 1908 and a favorite of celebrities, this historic restaurant offers value: great steaks and expertly prepared fresh seafood with excellent service and a one-of-a-kind atmosphere. Chose as one of the 10 best by Esquire and featured in Gourmet magazine, John’s Grill was also a setting in Dashiell Hammet’s The Maltese Falcon. Enjoy live jazz nightly in the upper-level dining room. 63 Ellis St.
Photography by: HELENECANADA/GETTY IMAGES
