Best of The Hit List San Francisco
The 10 Restaurants That Defined San Francisco Dining in 2024
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We asked our contributors to the Resy Hit List to share their top dining experiences in their cities this year — to choose 10 restaurants that define the state of great dining right now. Welcome back our Best of The Hit List for 2024.
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Call us biased, because we are, but we think the Bay Area in 2024 is home to the greatest dining landscape in America. Our argument is simple: If you accept that diversity = deliciousness, and add that to the fact that nearby farms produce some of the best produce possible, then give those products to a talented pool of chefs, something special happens. From Michelin stars to casual counters, we’ve got it all.
High energy Jaliscan-Californian. New wave Parisian bistronomy fare. Powerfully delicious Indonesian Texas barbecue. Some of the most soulful fried chicken on the planet. The following 10 restaurants represent what dining can and should look like — old and new, high and low, and everything in between, and captures what dining in the Bay Area looked like this year.
1. mijoté Mission District
We’ve said this before and we’ll say it again: If there’s one restaurant where we wish for a monthly standing reservation, it’s Mijoté — chef Kosuke Tada’s counter is the closest you’ll come to dining in Paris’ new-wave bistros without hopping on a plane (which makes sense, because the Japanese chef cooked at some of the best spots in France). The menu is set with optional — but recommended — supplements, the wine is natural, and the restaurant is housed in an old sushi spot. Sit at the wooden counter and watch the chefs frantically run back and forth from the kitchen, carving meats like a show and saucing plates tableside — it’s such a good time.
2. Loló Dolores Heights
This high-energy Jaliscan Californian spot originally opened on 22nd street in 2007, and we’ve been regulars on repeat since. The reason Loló still resonates is that they care about what matters: good service, good food, excellent cocktails and fun natural wines. They aren’t after accolades (even though they deserve them all) and they don’t buck to trends (in our eyes, they’re the trendsetters). Go and get everything in taco form. Get half orders if you want to try more. Grab a cocktail — it’s one of the best bar programs in the city, with an array of agave-based spirits you’ve likely never tried before. And be reminded why this combo is quintessential San Francisco.
3. Minnie Bell’s Soul Movement Fillmore
As the name implies, Minnie Bell’s is so much more than a restaurant. Chef Fernay McPherson is a Fillmore native and a La Cocina alum. She started her business in 2010 with catering, and opened inside the Emeryville public market in 2018, but the goal was always to open up in the neighborhood she grew up in, and serve her community. She finally did it earlier this year, and it’s a glorious thing to see. All her soulful fare hits hard — some of the best mac ‘n’ cheese in life; beautifully bitter braised greens, um, for the health; and lights-out, ethereally crispy. juicy, rosemary-studded fried chicken.
More info here.
4. 7 Adams Japantown
What we appreciate most about 7 Adams is that they’re making fine-dining accessible. Not everyone has hundreds of dollars to blow on fancy multi-course meals. But wife-and-husband duo Serena and David Fisher offer their five-course Michelin-starred fare for $87 — that’s less than $18 a plate, which is the cost of a burrito these days. That’s right, for less than five burritos you can eat at a Michelin-starred restaurant! But the other thing to know is that for each course you get to pick, so bring a partner and order it all: the scallop and the velouté to start. All the pastas (get the supplement!). The cod and the collar. And all of Serena’s sick desserts … she cut her culinary teeth doing pastry at NYC’s Eleven Madison Park, after all.
5. Bar Jabroni Lower Haight
From the folks that brought you hoagie heaven Palm City in the Outer Sunset came a second child on Haight Street. Instead of paper-wrapped missiles, they tapped talented chef Robert Hernandez (formerly of Octavia) for a menu to match their bright yellow wine-filled bar. Hernandez doesn’t just put out cheese and charcuterie on a plate—take one look at the ‘gram and you’ll see the intricacy and finesse that goes into each plate: mixed green salad with yuzu ranch, squash, avocados, and boquerones is a thing of beauty, while ricotta gnudi with mushrooms duxelles will keep you warm in SF winter. Pair with something interesting and different from their wine list, like a still wine from Champagne or an eastern European red.
6. Friends and Family Uptown Oakland
Some people follow sports and can tell you random facts, like who the starting quarterback was for the ’49ers in 1994. (Steve Young, duh.) Since food is our sports, chefs are quarterbacks, and restaurants the teams. So when Blake Cole, owner of Oakland cocktail haven Friends and Family, picked up talented State Bird Provisions alum Gaby Maeda, it was basically a road to the culinary Super Bowl. OK, OK, but Maeda has serious chops and is making what we believe to be the best food found in a cocktail bar in the Bay Are at the moment. Read this and prepare yourself; thank us later.
7. Pizzeria da Laura Berkeley
One more sports analogy: legendary pizzaioli Tony Gemignani and Laura Meyer are like centers Steve Yzerman and Sergei Fedorov for the Detroit Red Wings back in the ’90s when the team was super good. Just as the Red Wings won Stanley Cups, the duo won world pizza championships. But when Meyer, Gemigniani’s right-hand-pizza-woman for years, opened up her shop to do her own thing, it was clear it would be special. Her forte at her Shattuck Ave. storefront is squares — of fluffy Sicilian, crispy cheese-crusted Detroit, and thin-for-the-win grandma styles. And if you’re into classic New York pies, she does those exceptionally well too, also available by the slice, because she understands real East Coast gestalt.
8. Fikscue Craft BBQ Alameda
What happens when Texas-style barbecue meets the powerful flavors of Indonesia? Husband-and-wife duo Fik and Reka Saleh, both from the island nation, have answered that question deliciously. Indonesia: Fik does all the meats, staying true to traditional Texas barbecue with a simple salt and pepper rub on his brisket, which gets slowly smoked over wood until juicy and tender; Reka makes all the sides — but instead of coleslaw and pinto beans, you’ll find things like nasi goreng (Indonesian fried rice) and a heady rendang made with Fiks’ brisket. Fikscue is only open on the weekends, and there’s always a line, which can start as early as 8 a.m. But this is an emblem of the new wave of American barbecue.
More info here.
9. Sons & Daughters Nob Hill
Of all the fancy-pants fine-dining, multi-hour, multi-course tasting menus in San Francisco, Sons & Daughters is our favorite at the moment. And yes, it opened in 2010, but it got a breath of new life when both John Wesley and Harrison Cheney took over and gave the menu a new Nordic touch. Wesley went on to open Kiln in Hayes Valley (another of our other fave tasting menus), while Cheney took over the kitchen last year. The kid is young, hungry and very talented — he helped the restaurant gain two Michelin stars. His food has both flair and finesse, it’s light yet flavorful, packed with ferments and garums. It’s small, intimate, dimly lit, and, in our eyes, the best in the city for this sort of dining.
Call 415-994-7933 for more info.
10. Azalina’s Tenderloin
Azalina Eusope, a La Cocina alum, continues to show San Franciscans the full breadth of what Malaysian cuisine can look like when seen through the eyes of an ingredient-obsessed chef. “Chef” might not fully define her talents: She’s a fifth-generation Malaysian street-food vendor — her father had a small noodle stand for 55 years, and her grandmother was also a vendor. Clearly, food is in her DNA. The format a Azalina is a tasting menu that changes every four weeks, with each dish inspired by the Indian, Chinese, Mamak, and Malay dishes Eusope grew up eating. It’s dynamic, personal, and pretty much unique among American restaurants.
