Visit to San Francisco

[rnp0123]

I am from Los Angeles and a frequent poster on our Chowhound. I know that this type of question is posted frequently, I have looked at many of the previous posts, but each request is a little different, so please no "check prior posts you idiot" replies.

My wife and I are going to rendezvous with another couple in San Francisco, October 6-10. They are from New Orleans and we are come Los Angeles, so we all know a little bit about good food. We eat everything, but Italian is about as "ethnic" as they would like to to (i.e.., no Chinese, Japanese, Middle Eastern, etc.). Any suggestions on good places to go would be greatly appreciated.

[mariacarmen]

La Ciccia
Delfina
Delfina Pizzeria
Zero Zero
Gialina
Tony's Pizza Napoletana
Barbacco
Perbacco
Beretta - but NOT their pizza, imo.

and non-Italian, non-ethnic:
Canteen
Range
Bar Tartine
Spork
Foreign Cinema

-----
Gialina
2842 Diamond St, San Francisco, CA 94131

La Ciccia
291 30th Street, San Francisco, CA 94131

Perbacco
230 California St, San Francisco, CA 94111

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

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

Bar Tartine
561 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA 94110

Tony's Pizza Napoletana
1570 Stockton St, San Francisco, CA 94133

Barbacco
230 California St, San Francisco, CA 94111

Zero Zero
826 Folsom St, San Francisco, CA 94107

[Jet]

Hi RNP, I just saw that you also posted about local L.A. Restaurant Seders. As for San Francisco; I lived there most of my life, and all the best restaurants are to be found in the Italian Region of S.F. known as "North Beach". Outstanding Italian Restaurants in North Beach abound of all price ranges, and most have a lot of character. North Beach is just over the hill from Fishermans Wharf & through the Streetcar Tunnel from Chinatown. I'm a big "Foodie", and feel that there is not a lousy choice amongst the Italian Venues in North Beach. I would choose while there, but try to get tickets to the most authentically San Francisco Show Experience at "Beach Blanket Babylon" where the actors wear 6 FT. Tall architectural hats! This requires advance planning & is within the very walkable restaurant region I know & love of North Beach, "Garlic Capital of the Western World"! Enjoy! - JET

[waldrons]

Sorry, Jet, I'm going to disagree with you on almost every point. North Beach does have a few good Italian restaurants, but many of them are bad restaurants that only tourists visit. In fact, of the list above by mariacarmen, only 1 of those Italian restaurants is in North Beach.

I do agree that Beach Blanket Babylon is "only in San Francisco", unfortunately the original poster's trip was in Oct. 2011, so we can only hope they found out about the show.

And finally, I think Gilroy claims the title of "garlic capital of the world" -- if you like garlic, you'll love their garlic festival.