Visiting San Francisco

[noyoudiint]

Hello! Any suggestions for fine dining in San Francisco? Possibly California Cuisine? Visiting San Francisco for the very first time this weekend..

[foodiegrl]

FYI,
There's a gastronomy festival going on at the Ferry Building all weekend, which means the restaurants there & nearby might be busy. (but Charles Phan may actually be cooking at the Slanted Door, too). If you like chefs and want to see demos, head down there. Otherwise steer clear. Also, I know that Judy Rodgers will not be at Zuni all weekend because of the bridge closure. Because of the closure and the three-day weekend, many restaurants will be staffed with their "B" teams on those days, so be sure to set your expectations accordingly.

[Chris Rising]

If your not looking for the best in town, the best suggestion is to pick a neighborhood and pick the best spots there. Russian Hill has lots of great places you can get into. Luella and Tablespoon both serve California cuisine. Antica Tratt. and Frascati with an Italian flair, and Pesce is a good seafood option.

[jinet12]

Go to Tadich Grill...wait if you have to...no reservations...GREAT food

[Cat Chow]

It may be tough, if not impossible to get in ANYWHERE at this point ;) ...however if you adjust your expectations and do a walk up to any of the high end places (early enough) you just may be able to snag a spot at the bar and eat or snap up a reservation that just cancelled. It would help if you target a neighborhood with several of the "fine dining" places you want to hit. Good luck!

[susan robin]

see if you can get into either slanted door or zuni cafe.

[Robert Lauriston]

Slanted Door and Zuni two of the most popular restaurants in town. You won't get reservations for a holiday weekend on such short notice unless maybe you want to eat a very late lunch or a very early or very late dinner.

[Ruth Lafler]

It's a holiday weekend, but the Bay Bridge is closed, which means you won't have as many people coming in from outside the city, which could affect availability.

Noyoudiint, you do know the Bay Bridge is closed all weekend, don't you? A lot of people make travel arrangements these days without ever talking to a person, so sometimes the info doesn't get out.

[larochelle]

Since they spent $500K on publicity, one would have to live under a rock to not know.

FYI - I just opentabled Slanted Door and did not find one single opening for a table of two from today through Tuesday. That doesn't mean it wouldn't be possible to squeeze in, just highly unlikely.

But the bridge closure may not mean less people, just different traffic patterns and slightly different people. People will travel via BART and not stray far from areas around stations. North Bay & Peninsula people will come in to town, thinking it will be less crowded. Traveling City folk will go North & South instead of East. I read a study from last year's closure.

[Carrie 218]

Sure, they spent $500k IN THE AREA but folks living in other parts of the country who have booked a love weekend in the city probably don't know about the closure.

Despite that, I would like to add that my very first visit to San Francisco during a three-day weekend - over a dozen years ago - was way before sites like Chowhound. Since knowing which were the hot restaurants was more a local matter, I arrived with nary a reservation.

With a city that has over 4,500 restaurants, it is unlikely you will be able to find a good place to eat. Sure, you might not get into one of the uber-Chow-worthy places to oft-mentioned, but that does not discount that this is a great eating city and leaving your culinary adventures to happenstance will undoubtedly prove exciting, regardless of reservations.

Post back and tell us what you've discovered!

[Trevallon]

The Giants are out of town this weekend so you may have some luck getting a reservation at a restaurant near the ballpark (and the area won't be too crazy) Jack Falstaff, Acme Chop and Coco500 are some options.

[larochelle]

Wow, that's really vague and last minute. You might want to check out SFGate's Top 100 Restaurants for ideas http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/maps/google/2007top100sf

Check www.opentable.com to see if you could actually get a table at one of our Top Restaurants with such short notice.