San Francisco Eats
This was the second year in a row that we spent the month of August in San Francisco, a city packed with great restaurants.
Old Favorites
We discovered 7 Adams last year and were delighted when we realized that this year, it was right in our neighborhood. It’s a Michelin-starred restaurant that lives up to the hype AND is relatively easy on the wallet (a five-course prix fixe for $87). This year we treated ourselves to dinner twice, the second time with college friends (and fellow foodies) from Los Angeles and New York City.
We lived in San Francisco back in 1989-1993 and have loved Yank Sing ever since. There are many great dim sum places in the city, but Yank Sing is special because they still push carts around the dining room. We brunched there with our kids, and and then returned with our college friends for the wedding couple’s “Happily Ever After Brunch.” We sampled almost everything on those carts, and it was all delicious (though we learned to skip the surprisingly dense siu mai). Unfortunately, they ran out of Peking duck before we could get some. And sadly, Yank Sing closed their Spear Street location soon after we left town.
Oracle Park was still my favorite place for a Dungeness crab sandwich, even though the price at Crazy Crab’z had risen steeply since last year (from $25 to $29).
New Favorites
We loved staying on Fillmore Street, with so many great restaurants nearby. Just a block away was The Progress, another Michelin-starred restaurant that we could afford to visit more than once. Their inventive menu was designed for sharing, so we made sure to bring Danny and Mei with us the second time, to celebrate our wedding anniversary and Mei’s birthday. It was the perfect excuse to try the trout AND the duck. Fantastic.
Also a short walk from our condo was Woodhouse Fish Co., a historic neighborhood spot with fresh, buttery Dungeness crab rolls. They paired perfectly with an icy cold Allagash White, the refreshing Belgian-style beer we learned to love during our summer in Maine. These were more expensive ($35) than the Crazy Crab’z sandwiches at Oracle Park, but the crab was chunkier, and we had table service.
Our friend Roger introduced us to an “old school” restaurant in Chinatown, Hon’s Wun Tun House. He’s been going there for their Hong Kong-style wonton noodle soup since he was a kid. They also had a wide array of delicious dim sum, and the clay pot braised fish with tofu was outstanding. I returned with my Zoom Buddies, and they also gave Hon’s their stamp of approval.
Folks in downtown San Francisco often have food delivered, so naturally we tried it, too (when in Rome…). Our favorite place for ordering in was Dumpling Home. Their pork xiao long bao (soup dumplings) arrived juicy and intact. We tried the pan-fried version for the first time and became converts. And their vegetable dumplings were surprisingly tasty. We tried eating at the restaurant, too, and decided their dumplings were excellent either way. (Dumpling Home has a Michelin Bib Gourmand.)
