SF Must Do's for Melbourne Girl

[bibagirl]

Help! My sisters and I are travelling to SF later this month (staying in SOMA area) for a 5 night stay. We are all in our thirties and love good food, especially places that do simple things well. I have an annoying onion allergy so I have deliberately avoided doing mexican although I hope to get to Tres Agaves for a margarita (or two!). There is really no budget consideration and as far as transport goes we plan to catch cabs if we possibly can...

So far I have booked:
Thursday night - Anchor and Hope
Friday night - Delfina
Saturday night - Nopa
Sun Brunch - Foreign Cinema
Sun night - Cafe Claude
Mon night - ? nothing booked

Any feedback on the above list would be much appreciated...is it balanced? Should I be doing Cafe Zuni or perhaps Marlowe over any of the above? What else should I consider?

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Tres Agaves Restaurant
130 Townsend St, San Francisco, CA 94107

Zuni Cafe
1658 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94102

Delfina Restaurant
3621 18th St, San Francisco, CA 94110

Cafe Claude
7 Claude Lane, San Francisco, CA 94108

Nopa
560 Divisadero St, San Francisco, CA 94117

Foreign Cinema
2534 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94110

[Windy]

There's nothing wrong with your list and the food served at those spots, except for a certain sameness about it. Most of the patrons will be white, upper middle class, and in their 30s too; and maybe the same people at all of those spots. So I'd suggest swapping out a few of them.

Zuni won't add any diversity to the menus. That's a lot of heritage chicken and pork chops, locally grown tomatoes, fancy fries, and divers scallops for one week.

Do hit the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market Saturday morning; it will rival the best markets in Melbourne.

A few more interesting restaurant ideas that you can research with a search on this board: Aziza, Skool, Tajine, Atelier Crenn ($$$ but exceptional food), Off the Grid (food trucks), Commonwealth, Hakka, Spices, Namu, Incanto

For margaritas, try Jack's Elixir on Guerrero and 16th or if you do head out to Aziza, stop in at Tommy's with hundreds of kinds of tequila. The only guarantee at Tres Agaves is that no one there lives in San Francisco; the margaritas are fine.

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Zuni Cafe
1658 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94102

Tommy's Mexican Restaurant
5929 Geary Blvd, San Francisco, CA 94121

Skool
1725 Alameda St, San Francisco, CA 94103

Off the Grid
Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA 94123

Atelier Crenn
3127 Fillmore St, San Francisco, CA 94123

[bibagirl]

Very grateful for the feedback - I suspected I needed more variety!!

Definitely doing the Ferry Plaza Market and will now research your other suggestions..

Will dump Zuni and Tres Agaves...thanks again!!

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Zuni Cafe
1658 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94102

[grayelf]

Having eaten tealeaf salad at the only place in my hometown that has it last night, I can't help but notice that you don't have any Burmese on your list. If that is because of onion avoidance fair enough but otherwise perhaps you might enjoy it and I think it would be possible to exclude actual onions in some dishes (though the crispy fried shallots make me so happy). SF Bay Area has several well thought of Burmese restaurants for your consideration. I find this cuisine quite compelling and interesting, though perhaps you have it in Melbourne...

[Windy]

Good point. I remember a lot of great SE Asian food from Melbourne (well, a lot of laksa), but not Burmese.

San Francisco's Burmese options run from dives (Yamo) to homey (Larkin Express/Burmese Kitchen, Pagan, Mandalay) to popular but more Americanized (Burma Superstar). Since the salads are made to order, they should be able to leave out shallots.

[wolfe]

Burmese restaurants Melbourne. No mention of tea leaf salad at Burma House but favorable reviews by Burmese patrons.
River Kwai Thai & Burmese
Burmese Kitchen
Burmese House

[bibagirl]

Burmese certainly isn't big in Melbourne (every other Asian cuisine is) so will check out your suggestions and slot one in. How do I possibly decide which restaurant to drop? Only wish I was there for longer than 5 nights..

Thanks so much for your advice... can't go past some good local feedback ...

[whiner]

Your Friday and Saturday nights are *brilliant* choices. Bravo.

I would check out Ame. It is expensive but unique and worth it, imo.

[Civil Bear]

Agreed. And I would swap out Sunday brunch at FC for Canteen.

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Canteen
817 Sutter St, San Francisco, CA 94109

[Civil Bear]

How about Aziza (Cal-Moroccan) for Monday night?

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Aziza
5800 Geary Blvd., San Francisco, CA 94121

[bibagirl]

Ooh yes, liking those ideas - Ame and Aziza both look fab. Will check out Canteen. Glad too my Delfina and Nopa bookings get a tick of approval.. couldn't give those two up! Thanks guys..

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Delfina Restaurant
3621 18th St, San Francisco, CA 94110

Nopa
560 Divisadero St, San Francisco, CA 94117