The Resy Hit List: Where In San Francisco You’ll Want to Eat Right Now
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There’s no question we hear more often: Where should I go eat? And while we at Resy know it’s an honor to be the friend who everyone asks for restaurant advice, we also know it’s a complicated task. That’s where the Resy Hit List comes in.
Consider it your essential resource for dining in San Francisco and the Bay Area: a monthly-updated guide to the restaurants that you won’t want to miss — tonight or any night.
Four Things In the Bay Area Not to Miss This Month
- Celebrate Pride: San Francisco’s biggest party — and the largest LGBTQ gathering in the nation — returns this month. SF Pride events happen throughout June, leading up to the parade on the 28th. Naturally, the Castro is the hub for all things Pride, and restaurants in the neighborhood include Corbin Campbell’s plant-based, Caribbean-inflected tapas place Aíso; Francesco d’Ippolito love letter to Calabria, Poesia Osteria Italiana; and chef Jeremias Guerra’s Pasta Panino. If you lack the energy for the festivities but still want to support LGBTQ-owned restaurants, hit up hit up Brenda’s French Soul Food or Brenda’s Meat & Three in the city, Lucia’s Berkeley and Brenda’s Oakland in the East Bay, or Valley Bar + Bottle in Sonoma.
- Sporting Szn: If you happen to be near Levi’s Stadium, the South Bay and the Peninsula offer a selection of diverse food and drink. For Japanese, reserve at Sushi Ai in Redwood City; for Indian, there’s Garam Mirchi in Santa Clara and Thecha in Sunnyvale; for Korean barbecue, check out Baekjong in San Jose; for Mexican, choose from Copita Tequileria y Comida, Zazil Cocina Mexicana, and El Jardin Tequila Bar in San Jose; and know that Galpão Gaucho Brazilian Steakhouse has an outpost in Cupertino.
- Smash a Burger: Wine Country recently got big burger news, as the team behind Glen Ellen Star and Stella have opened Smash on the Sonoma Plaza, adding to the list of beefy spots with which the Bay is already blessed. In the city, fun takes can be found at The Rabbit Hole, whose smash burger comes with house pickles and gojuchang ketchup, and True Laurel, which dishes up a dry-aged patty melt on pain de mie. In the East Bay, Forge Rockridge does Flannery Ranch beef with provolone and cheddar, while Lafayette’s Social Bird puts Snake River Farms wagyu on a challah roll. On the Peninsula, dip into Causwells Menlo Park for a classic burger with American cheese, while Marin County options include Mill Valley’s Buckeye Roadhouse and Kentfield’s Guesthouse, which makes its version with brisket.
- Go East, Young Diners: Summer is fog season in San Francisco, so those looking for sunshine may want to head east. Across the bridge and through the tunnel, Walnut Creek’s popular Art & Wine Festival takes place June 6-7, but Contra Costa County has several places worth exploring regardless of the date. Va de Vi Bistro & Wine Bar serves great tapas and a wide selection of wines by the glass on a pleasant brick patio in downtown Walnut Creek. In Orinda, the appropriately named Fourth Bore Tap Room and Grill has pub grub, craft beer, and live music. Downtown Danville, meanwhile, is home to Esin and Curtis DeCarrion’s longtime Cal-Med favorite Esin Restaurant (they also own nearby Revel Kitchen), as well as Kaia’s Island Kitchen & Tiki Bar for when temperatures climb to truly tropical levels.
New to the Hit List (June 2026)
The Big Four, Enclos, Jilli, The Lore, Odin, Rose Pizzeria SF.
1. Mister Jiu’s Chinatown
Chinese fine-dining has exploded in the city, with the acclaimed openings of Four Kings, Happy Crane, and Fù Huì Huá, but Brandon Jew paved the way when he opened his groundbreaking restaurant in a historic Chinatown banquet hall 10 years ago. Mister Jiu’s has seen shifts over the last decade — notably, going from la carte dining to a tasting menu-only model before reinstating a la carte last year. Perhaps the best way to experience the cuisine is to book the Peking Style Duck Banquet meal, centered around a Liberty Farm duck roasted whole and served with savory pancakes, peanut butter hoisin, and duck liver mousse. In recognizing Jew’s 10 years of trailblazing, The New York Times recently concluded much the same.
Bonus: On May 9, Mister Jiu’s is hosting another of its star-studded 10th anniversary dinners.
2. Jilli – San Francisco Mission
Korean cuisine is having a moment, as restaurants across America go far beyond bibimbap and barbecue. Take, Jilli, a Los Angeles sool jib (a type of Korean bar that focuses on the traditional, naturally fermented rice wine makgeolli) that opened its first San Francisco location in the Mission District last year. A variety of styles of makgeolli are available, from sparkling to sweet — order a flight to get a full overview — and the tapas menu is designed to complement the beverage, with bites such as shrimp toast with chile vinaigrette, rigatoni alla vodka with kimchi, and the spicy rice-cake soup tteokbokki. The white-walled space and the picnic tables on the patio can get packed, but follow the house rules — “make mistakes,” “lose yourself” — and you’ll have an evening as lively as the microbes in the fermented fare.
3. Carabao Napa
Last June, French Laundry alums Jade and Mathew Cunningham opened Carabao, focused on the cuisine of Jade’s native Philippines and named for the country’s national animal, the water buffalo. The storefront is in a big, unattractive strip mall, but the interior is bright and lively, and the food even more so: Sisig tacos are topped with crispy pork and a runny quail egg; barbecued pork skewers are perfectly charred and garnished with a banh mi–esque blend of carrot, onion, and cilantro; a winter lugaw ginger rice porridge is finished with shaved black truffle. The must-order entrée is the crispy kare kare, a baseball-sized croquette filled with oxtail, floating in a coconut-peanut sauce with tripe.
4. 7 Adams Japantown
It’s no surprise that David and Serena Chow Fisher run one of the best restaurants in San Francisco; after 7 Adams’ late 2023 opening, they came up through some of New York’s heaviest-hitting kitchens, including Jean-Georges and Eleven Madison Park (read more about that journey here). At their Michelin-starred Japantown spot, diners can choose between a customizable five-course set and a more formal seven-course menu, or go big with the chef’s counter, which has just six seats each night for a 2.5-hour meal. The menus change often, depending on available ingredients and the chefs’ inspiration, but expect items like Monterey spot prawns with fermented Fresno chiles, plankton cavatelli, and Washugyu striploin. Check Resy to stay up on 7 Adams’ “Meet Us in San Francisco” series, featuring collaborations with acclaimed guest chefs from around the country.
5. Snail Bar Temescal District
Snail Bar has been a hit pretty much from the day it opened in 2021, drawing big crowds for its fun French-y cooking, natural wines, and cozy vibe. The restaurant underwent a big sea change this January, however, when chef Andres Giraldo Florez announced he was pulling up stakes for the South of France. Successor Zachary Breaux of Left on Madeline, who grew up in Louisiana and Texas, has added a bit of a Creole inflection to his early menus, with dishes such as avocado tostadas with Maggi crema and salsa macha, fried quail with chili crisp, and steak tartare with pork cracklins and blackening spice. But regulars need not fear: staples such as the ham and cheese sandwich and the cashew-miso-butter snails remain.
6. Penny Roma Mission District
Thomas McNaughton and Ryan Pollnow had already established themselves as San Francisco’s pasta gods with Flour + Water. Now, another hit has been firmly established with more casual sister restaurant Penny Roma, just a couple of blocks down 20th Street. The sunlight- and greenery-filled space bounces with a dinner-party vibe, but the food remains serious: Start with amberjack crudo or albacore tartare, then have the proscuitto San Daniele with smoked date and blue cheese before moving on to the noodles. Picking a pasta may seem daunting, but the signature agnolotti dal plin, stuffed with beef, pork, and sugo d’arrosto, is a must-order. Beverage director Sam Bogue keeps the wine list fun and affordable, including the house “Pasta Water” orange wine.
7. Sons & Daughters The Mission
Accolades keep pouring in for Sons & Daughters, so it’s a good thing the place is a bit roomier these days, having moved last fall from its old Nob Hill spot to a larger Mission District space. The intensity that goes into preparing the dishes is dizzying: Mount Lassen trout is cold-smoked over Douglas fir, poached, brushed with pine cone syrup and Meyer lemon zest, and served atop a cream of rose geranium, elderflower, and chervil; an ice cream is made from grilled apples and plated atop an acorn-flour cake with spruce-needle cream and reduced Granny Smith apple juice. With 24 such courses coming, a meal here will set you back $315 – but it remains a nonpareil option for that truly special meal. (And don’t miss the wine pairings.)
8. Odin – Mexican Restaurant and Bar Jack London
At this colorful Oakland institution in the shadow of the Nimitz Freeway, mezcal is less a beverage and more a religion. Even if you think you know a lot about agave, you’ll probably learn something when you order, as the dedicated staff will walk you through flavor profiles, agave types, and growing regions across Mexico to help you choose from the 300-plus bottles on the list, many of them sourced from small farms and collectives. Feeling even more adventurous? Odin also offers sotol, raicilla, and bacanora (and yes, there’s Tequila). The food menu is shorter, but features creative, elevated takes on Mexican standbys: empanadas with smoked trout, mushroom chorizo queso fundido, sauteed shrimp alambre tacos, cardamom tres leches cake. Order a lot — all the more to enjoy your mezcal with.
9. Enclos Sonoma
The best holiday gift of 2024 was the December debut of Enclos, Sonoma County’s most exciting restaurant opening in years. Located in a Victorian house just off Sonoma Plaza, Enclos is owned by Mac and Leslie McQuown of Stone Edge Farm Vineyards & Winery (their wines have a prominent presence on the bottle list) and helmed by chef Brian Limoges, who brought Michelin-level cred from Atelier Crenn, Quince, and Saison. Limoges quickly earned two stars of his own, thanks to an eight-to-10-course tasting menu that sources from Stone Edge Farm’s organic gardens and other local producers. The ever-changing dishes blend French and Asian influences: Monterey spot prawns with nectarine and shiso, Wolfe Ranch quail with artichoke and grilled roses, clam chowder-inspired chawanmushi. It’s a splurge — $295 a person — but this is as fine as fine dining gets.
10. Shuggie’s Mission
Shuggie’s had already established itself as San Francisco’s most environmentally conscious restaurant, thanks to Kayla Abe and David Murphy’s dedication to using food waste — bruised or blemished fruits and vegetables, off-cut meats — at their brightly colored, always-a-party Mission District restaurant. They recently dropped pizza, once their signature menu item, in part because the “Trash Pies” didn’t use as many upcycled ingredients as most of their other dishes. But the remaining dishes are as tasty and creative as ever, with highlights such as a take on steak frites made with beef cheeks and filet mignon trimmings and a peanut butter mousse bon bon assembled tableside, delivered in a space that remains a blast of Technicolor fun. Pro tip: If you really want pizza, Shuggie’s still slings Trash Pies on Sundays.
11. JouJou Jeddah
It feels as if we waited forever for the opening of JouJou, the latest restaurant from Lazy Bear and True Laurel owner David Barzelay, but the French seafooder finally landed in the Design District in early March. Our patience has been rewarded with variety. Want to go big? Look to headliners such as a $125 caviar crêpe and a $71 filet mignon aux poivre. On the other hand, everything on the menu is served a la carte, so you don’t have to sign up for a 15-course marathon. And the bar opens at 4 p.m. allowing walk-ins to snag drinks, bites from the raw bar, and pommes frites. No matter which you choose, you’ll find yourself in one of San Francisco’s snazziest spots, a 6,500-square-foot-space swathed in marble, gold accents, and glass.
12. Sforno Pizzeria Napoletana Hayes Valley
This small Hayes Valley storefront has taken San Francisco’s pizza scene by storm since opening at the end of 2025. The wood-fired oven churns out full-size pies, ranging from a classic margherita to specials like the Patatona, a white pie topped with baked potato, smoked Scamorza cheese, and prosciutto, but the headliner here is the pizza a portafoglio, or “wallet pizza.” A staple in Naples but rare in the States, this is a 13-inch margherita that’s blistered crispy and folded up in a paper, making for a perfect bite on the go. Sforno doesn’t have much seating, so place a to-go order and take your pizza prize across Hayes Street to enjoy at one of the tables in Patricia’s Green.
Walk-ins only. Find more info here.
13. Besharam Dogpatch
As we’ve observed before, Besharam is a San Francisco restaurant like no other. Located at the Minnesota Street Projects arts center in Dogpatch, it’s chef-owner Heena Patel’s paean to the cuisine of Gujarat, an Indian state just north of Mumbai. The menu is fully vegetarian, taking full advantage of fresh California produce, and the flavors are stunningly bold — not a surprise for a restaurant that takes its name from the Gujarati word for “shameless.” For a proper overview, opt for Patel’s $85 seasonal tasting menu, which presently includes three courses: savory bites such as cacio e pepe dhokli and brussels sprouts and onion pakoras; entrées such as vegetable biryani and palak paneer; and desserts including a Shrikhand cheesecake. Bring a group, and tell everyone to come hungry.
14. Nari Japantown
Pim Techamuanvivit was already an international leader in Thai cooking thanks to Kin Khao, but she took things up a notch in 2019 with the opening of Nari, which presents a vision of Thai cuisine through a California fine-dining lens. Nari, located at Japantown’s Hotel Kabuki in a sleek tropical two-story space, has earned a Michelin star and acclaim from pretty much every food publication in America due to dishes such as veal sweetbreads in tamarind-Sriracha glaze, grilled Monterey squid with pork jowl, and Gaeng Moo Chamuang (braised pork belly and collard greens in coconut-free curry). Pro tip: Get an overview by opting for the $125 tasting menu.
15. Rose Pizzeria – SF Inner Richmond
The original Berkeley location of Rose Pizzeria was thrust into the spotlight in 2024, when The New York Times named it one of the the best pizza places in the country. That made Gerad Goble and Alexis Rorabaugh’s tiny East Bay spot a tough table, but it’s now at least a little easier to get your hands on one of their crackly, blistered thin-crust pies, as they opened the doors to their long-awaited San Francisco location in late April. The Inner Sunset space is bigger, and the menu is similar, with a few salads (in particular the spicy Caesar, with Calabrian chile) and starters and a local-leaning natural wine list to go with pies that range from classic Margherita to combos like the broccoli-rabe-and-confit-garlic Green Deluxe. For something a little different, try the Tonda Romana, Rose’s take on Chicago tavern-style pizza.
16. The Lore | Tasting Salon Financial District
Chef Seth Stowaway came to a fork in the road when he closed his Michelin-starred live-fire restaurant Osito last year — and he decided to take both paths. On the one hand, he opened Chicken Fried Palace, a down-home Southern-style diner in the Mission; on the other, he launched The Lore, a hyper-secretive, 10-seat tasting salon in a former night watchman’s quarters above Harrington’s Bar & Grill in the Financial District. The address and menu aren’t publicly listed, but Stowaway shared with us that the cuisine is an outgrowth of his cooking at Osito, with intricate dishes — typically around 20 of them — such as Dungeness crab flan topped with caviar and English pea mousse or oak-grilled New York steak with mole. There’s only one seating a night Thursday through Saturday, so make your Resy before the word gets out.
17. Range Life Downtown
Livermore is home to a still under-the-radar wine region, and deserves a wine country-caliber restaurant to match. Fortunately, Range Life delivers, thanks to owners Bill Niles and Sarah Elliott Niles, who in 2018 brought their experience from Tartine Manufactory and Bar Tartine (among other acclaimed restaurants) to a 19th-century brick building in the city’s burgeoning downtown. Come for farm-to-table California cuisine — Hog Island sweetwater oysters, chickpea-fried GG Farm cauliflower, San Francisco black cod with dashi butter and sugar snap peas, fried chicken with Front Porch Floriani polenta — and stay to indulge in a killer cocktail program (try the Brute Choir, the bar’s take on a mezcal sour) and a wine list that balances the best of Livermore with fun European selections.
18. Restaurant Naides Nob Hill
The latest entry to the Bay’s growing Filipino fine-dining list, Naides opened in the former Sons & Daughters space on Bush Street to much acclaim. Chef Patrick Gabon, a native of the Philippines who worked at Sons & Daughters and at Slovenia’s two-Michelin-starred Milka, offers a tasting menu that zips around the classics of Filipino cuisine, albeit with serious technical and presentational shine. Lumpia here is a canapé of banana miso, pickled jackfruit, and nashi pear; sinigang, typically a savory and sour soup, is served as dainty slices of abalone with a tableside pour-over of dry-aged beef broth. Beverage director Celine Wuu, formerly of Benu, takes equal care with the drink menu, offering both wine pairings and inventive nonalcoholic options, like fermented kiwi juice with galangal-infused celery.
19. Bar Panisse Berkeley
This highly-anticipated bar opening came last winter, taking over the former César space, next to Alice Waters’ California cuisine mothership, Chez Panisse. The cocktail list leans classic — sazeracs, martinis, gimlets — with three local beers on tap and a selection of about a dozen wines, all available by the glass, that leans toward lighter styles from France and Italy. Of course, you want to know about the food: buttery flatbread with a dipping sauce of herb oil and Calabrian chile, a Seven Moons Farm chicory salad with dates and fried sage, shell-on Gulf shrimp with salsa verde and aioli, roasted Fogline Farm chicken with chanterelle stuffing. If you think that sounds like a bar-bite-size approximation of Café Chez Panisse, you’d be right.
Walk-ins only. Find more info here.
20. The Big Four Nob Hill
For the most part, San Francisco’s best new restaurants aspire to the cutting edge, but The Big Four trades very much on nostalgia, right down to its name, a reference to the 19th-century founders of the Central Pacific Railroad. With its dark wood and leather, the ageless-looking space inside the recently reimagined Huntington Hotel seems aimed at a Gilded Age tycoon, and chef David Intonato’s menu sticks to San Francisco steakhouse staples — think wedge salads, shrimp cocktail, cioppino, and char-grilled cuts. The execution is pitch-perfect, though, and when you bite into a charred yet bloody-rare chunk of dry-aged ribeye and wash it down with an ice-cold martini (especially the signature Big Four Martini, a blend of gin, vodka, manzanilla sherry and dry vermouth), you’ll likely acknowledge that the classics are classics for a reason.
