10 Great Restaurants in San Francisco

Angler is headed by famed chef Joshua Skenes and offers outstandingly unique seafood dishes combined with a classic raw bar sensibility and earthy surroundings. Here you can enjoy everything from fresh oysters drawn right from the ocean to giant octopus, or even unique dishes like scorpion fish roasted over an open wood fire. The atmosphere is as unique as the menu here, with taxidermied game animals all over the walls. When it comes to side dishes and accompaniments, you can enjoy favorites like Cordyceps mushrooms, fried quail, or radicchio salad.

This spot is a game- and seafood-lover's dream, and every dish has a unique signature flavor to it. It's just a few minutes east of central downtown.

Brenda's French Soul Food offers a unique take on fusion cuisine, blending traditional Southern and Creole with Old World French food for something entirely new. This spot opened in 2007 and features a down-home approach to food with a welcoming, casual atmosphere. The restaurant has several locations, but the original is the best spot to try the soulful and satisfying menu options from homemade andouille (spicy sausage) and étouffée (stewed shellfish) to grillades (beef cutlets in gravy). For dessert, try the classic coffee and beignets.

Vegetarian options abound here as well from cheese grits to cream biscuits. For the vegan set there's Creole potato salad, garlic spinach, and corn succotash. It's right in the heart of downtown San Francisco.

Taj Campton Place offers a unique fusion of California cuisine and traditional Southern Indian fare using farm-fresh veggies, eclectic seafood and game meat, and authentic Indian spices. This Michelin-starred restaurant offers high-end fine dining cuisine that's worth every penny, including such dishes as Maine lobster in a curry broth, slow-cooked lamb with cumin-lime yogurt, snap peas, and basmati rice cooked in a tandoori oven, and tandoori duck with rhubarb and basil.

While the menu is decidedly upscale and focused on elegant service, a brunch service every weekend offers more affordable fare if you want to try it out. Taj Campton Place is just 10 minutes northeast of central downtown.

Fogo de Chão Brazilian Steakhouse is a meat lover's dream, offering all-you-can-eat cuts of meat in a wide range of varieties, all of high quality and prepared to perfection. This restaurant in the heart of the SoMa district offers a classy design and alfresco outdoor patio dining, and makes for a unique destination for that special night out. If you've never been to a Brazilian steakhouse, it's literally all-you-can-eat continuous table service of various cuts of meat from filet mignon to pork tenderloin, chicken, beef ribs, lamb steak, and bacon-wrapped everything.

For what you get, the price is exceptionally reasonable, and it makes for a wildly fun date night. It's right in the heart of downtown.

Sotto Mare offers fresh seafood dishes in the classic California cuisine style with an Italian-American flourish served up in a kitschy, old-school location with a casual vibe. The restaurant is famed for its North Beach cioppino seafood stew. Everything you order here is served up in a huge silver bowl designed for sharing, and the dishes are whipped up with Dungeness crab, shellfish, penne pasta, and spicy tomato broth. Other standards include Boston clam chowder, lobster ravioli, smoked salmon fettuccine, sauteed calamari, and a sauteed prawn and scallop combo.

The prices here are quite affordable and the seafood first-rate. It's an easy drive only 10 minutes north of downtown San Fran.

Acquerello is one of the city's more venerable establishments that offers Old World fine dining with phenomenal Italian cuisine whipped up by talented young chefs. Master chef Suzette Gresham brings some of the hottest up-and-coming culinary talent here to learn how to serve up 3-, 4-, or 5-course meals using fresh seasonal ingredients and such delectable fare as Dungeness crab risotto, langoustine with dandelion greens, and faux foie gras pasta. The dessert menu is just as unique, with choices like bourbon-caramel semifreddo with chocolate and caramel.

This is the epitome of an Old World white-tablecloth fine dining establishment, and a culinary experience you won't forget. It's just 9 minutes north of downtown.

Absinthe Brasserie & Bar in the charming Hayes Valley neighborhood offers a fine dining experience that is a perennial favorite with French brasserie-style cuisine paired with craft cocktails. The interior decor is vibrant and casual, evocative of France in the early 20th century, and the staff is welcoming and warm. Highlights of the dinner menu include the house special French onion soup, Dungeness crab salad, and Niman Ranch beef tartare. Lighter fare is on deck for lunch and includes fusion highlights such as a black truffle cheeseburger and duck confit salad.

Craft cocktails range from standards to house specialties whipped up by master mixologists, and the wine and beer list is solid. It's right in the heart of downtown.

Liholiho Yacht Club offers sophisticated dining with an avant-garde approach and a fantastic fusion of California cuisine based on chef Ravi Kapur's Hawaiian-Chinese-Indian heritage. Located in the Nob Hill neighborhood, the restaurant has been constantly evolving since its opening, so every time you visit you're sure to find something new and delicious as well as favorites and standards like poke and crispy rice onigiri. Enjoy seafood, island favorites, and Indian classics, all infused with a touch you can only get from California-style cooking.

Liholiho Yacht Club is one of the more unique spots in San Fran's culinary scene, which is why it's become such a mainstay. It's located just 10 minutes north of the central downtown area.

Cotogna offers up fresh pasta in a rustic, Cal-Italian fusion setting with a down-home feel that's just like having Sunday dinner at nonna's house. It's located in Jackson Square and shares ownership with some Michelin-starred establishments, but it's far more homey and casual both in price and approach. The food is cooked up on a wood-fired grill and oven that faces the dining room for an open kitchen aesthetic, and the communal tables let you make new friends while you enjoy spit-roasted game meat served with market vegetables and fresh pasta.

A menu highlight is the giant buttery raviolo that splits open to unveil an egg yolk inside. It's just 15 minutes north of downtown.

Aziza is a Moroccan-inspired California cuisine eatery that's a gem of the Outer Richmond area serving up classic dishes paired with a carefully curated wine list. Some of the menu highlights here include beef tagine, hand-rolled couscous, basteeya, avocado and Marash chile, cured ocean trout, short ribs with shakshuka, roasted prawns in harissa and garlic, and other delectable dishes. You can choose to eat in the airy, old-world-influenced main dining room with a lively bar-like atmosphere, or head for a cozier and quiet back room.

The wine list offers selections from all over southern Europe and a few SoCal blends. It's just 17 minutes west of central downtown.