Last minute-Dining alone near Powell St.

[dsackton]

I'm going to SF from Boston tomorrow for a conference. After the conference, my husband is meeting me at we have a very intense and exciting food schedule (Aziza, TFL, Ubuntu, Canteen), but tomorrow night before the conference starts, I'll be in SF on my own, and realized I don't know what to do for dinner. I don't think I'm going to want to venture too far from my hotel since I'm not thrilled with wandering around an unfamiliar city alone at night, but if there is nothing good nearby, I could always take a cab. I'm happy to sit at a bar, but I don't drink. Also should be veggie friendly (doesn't have to have tons of veggie options, one good one is all I need :-))

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Ubuntu Restaurant & Yoga Studio
1140 Main Street, Napa, CA 94558

[MeredithR]

Cafe Claude is excellent - right by off Union Square and a favorite among locals and reviewers alike. E&O Trading Company in Union Square is also lovely.

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Cafe Claude
7 Claude Lane, San Francisco, CA 94108

[Littleman]

Boulevard is one of SF's finest restaurant. Go and enjoy yourself. A cab will get you there in 5 minutes.

Boulevard Restaurant @ 1 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 415 - 543 - 6084.
http://www.boulevardrestaurant.com/

[bobpantzer]

Powell Street is a long street stretching from Market Street (at the south end) to the Fishermans' Wharf area (at the north end). There are hotels at several locations along that street. Where are you going to be? Assuming you are in the Union Square area, some options are Scala's Bistro, Cafe de la Presse, a bunch of semi-quaint little restaurants on Beldon Alley (Plouf, Tiramisu, B44 to name a few) and, not too far away, Gitane.

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B44
44 Belden Place, San Francisco, CA 94104

Scala's Bistro
432 Powell St., San Francisco, CA 94102

Gitane Restaurant & Bar
6 Claude Lane, San Francisco, CA 94108

[dsackton]

I am all the way at the South end, at Market Street, right near the Powell St. BART station.

[pauliface]

You are about 4 big blocks (7 if you count the offshoot streets) from Le Charm on 5th near Folsom.. Le Charm is a nice little french spot.

Kuleto's for Italian is okay too, but not stellar.

Farallon is also probably within walking range.

That said, I'd go to Boulevard. Maybe walk there, cab home? It's just up at the end of market street.

Doubt that Benu has a table, but they are new and people are raving, and it's not far from you either.

[Windy]

I love Le Charm, but Fifth is not a pretty walk for someone tired who doesn't know the city.

I'd go somewhere with less complicated food than most of the suggestions in this thread, based on the rest of your trip. Nothing like a weekend in Napa to get me to crave plain rice and roasted chicken.

There's a food court in Westfield Center at Powell & Market, under Nordstrom's where there's a branch of Out the Door (upscale Vietnamese) or quite good vegan Chinese food at Loving Hut. There's also a Straits cafe I've never been to. You could finish off with a Papa Beard cream puff.

For a little more upscale, check out Tropisueño between Market & Mission and 3rd and 4th.

B Bar above Yerba Buena Center has $1 oysters, cocktails, and good bar food (truffle fries). Also a pretty place to sit outside around dusk.

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Out the Door
845 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94103

[pauliface]

Out the Door is great. I almost mentioned it, but backed off because it's in a shopping mall. There are a bunch of other upscale restaurants upstairs in Westfield too, but I have not tried them. Straits does look tasty though.

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Out the Door
845 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94103

[Windy]

It's pretty upscale, as far as mall food courts go. And Out the Door is a real restaurant with table service.

Has anyone been to Straits lately? I ate at the one on Geary a million years ago but have never tried the one at Westfield.

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Out the Door
845 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94103

[bobpantzer]

If you like Indian, which typically has lots of vegetarian options, Amber India is right in that neighborhood on Market just off Fourth. Also, just off Fifth between Market and Mission is Mint Plaza which has Chez Papa, 54 Mint and Thermidor. I mentioned Scala's Bistro previously and that's just a couple of blocks up the hill in the Sir Francis Drake hotel.

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Scala's Bistro
432 Powell St., San Francisco, CA 94102

Amber India
Mission and Fourth, San Francisco, CA

54 Mint
54 Mint St, San Francisco, CA 94103

Thermidor
8 Mint Plaza, San Francisco, CA 94103

[mariacarmen]

Hey Windy, I went to Straits in Burlingame last week - 4 of us shared 4-5 appetizers and they were uniformly bad. The whole place was bad - very much a chain restaurant feel to it - loud, scene-y.... I finally said, let's get out of here - we didn't stay for dinner, went somewhere else. I hadn't really checked it out on CH before we went, but i wasn't the one making the decision. I don't know if it makes a difference that it was in BG as opposed to the one in Westfield, but i was so turned off I won't be finding out.

[mariacarmen]

Great idea re the Westfield Center Out the Door.

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Out the Door
1 Ferry Bldg Plaza, San Francisco, CA 94111

[DavidT]

You should tell us where on Powell Street your hotel is located.

Assuming it is somewhere near Union Square, two options are Scala's Bistro (on Powell) and Fino (on Post, 2 blocks west of Powell). They are both Italian. The former is a large, bustling place and the later is smaller and more subdued.

You could also go to the Search box in the upper right-hand corner of this page and do a search for Union Square.

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Scala's Bistro
432 Powell St., San Francisco, CA 94102

[ChowFun_derek]

A few blocks away on Geary..is one the more upscale veg. restaurants.....MILLENIUM...here's a link

www.millenniumrestaurant.com/