New On Resy: The Bay Area’s Newest Restaurant Openings

It’s a neighborhood bistro from chef Susan Dunn (Pearl 6101 and Paladar 511) that continues the Golden State’s great legacy of California cuisine, rooted in French traditions.

A pedigreed chef (formerly of Osito, Bar Agricole, and Mister Jiu’s) serves up an intimate tasting menu for just 10 diners at a time. You’ll have to take a leap of faith here in more ways than one — there’s no posted address and no public menu.

What was once Hong Kong Lounge II is now in a new, cozier home, and it’s still the place to go for some of the city’s best dim sum. The food is luckily just as good, so order the pan-fried noodles and shrimp dumplings.

Legend says this is America’s first Moroccan restaurant, and once you see the hookahs, belly dancing, and tagines, that’s one legend you’ll have no trouble believing.

Against the backdrop of Hotel Spiro, pretty much anything looks good. Luckily for Bar Esper, their fisherman stew and wagyu burger would look good in front of a dumpster fire, so everything else is just a bonus.

Approachable, sommelier-led, and comfortable are all of our ideal descriptors for a wine bar — and they all apply to Wine So Cru. Let your server guide you and stay awhile.

A Nob Hill favorite since 2021, this sunny market is about “Mezcal. Mexicatessen. y Mucho Más”… and it is, indeed, “much more.” It’s also a bottle shop, heavy on agave spirits, plus craft rums, whiskies, aperitifs, wine and beer, including Mexican producers. They sell quality Mexican foods, coffee, and an all-day menu at their counter. As a community gathering place, they host drink tastings, chefs table dinners and a mezcal club.  

This Greek newcomer is the more refined but still chill neighborhood sister restaurant to its original, more casual sibling Milos Meze nearby. Sporting an island-worthy space, the menu ranges from gemista (stuffed paprika) and moussaka, to chicken souvlaki and lamb chops. Plenty of mezethes offer a range of dips to savor with house cocktails like a Greek espresso martini spiked with ouzo.  

An Inner Sunset go-to since 2024, Zentarou is an intimate spot offering a little something for everyone, from affordable nigiri tastings to two tiers of omakase menus and plenty of à la carte sushi and small plates, whether takoyaki octopus balls or uni spoons lush with quail egg and ikura roe. A robust sake selection, umeshu plum wines and sake cocktails further enhance the meal. 

Now a little more than a year old, Kenwood’s Stella is a bonafide hit. As an Italian-inflected spinoff of nearby Glen Ellen Star, the stylish destination serves up a constantly changing menu influenced by the best of the season. A full section of the menu is dedicated to mozzarella, the pasta is made fresh in-house, and you absolutely shouldn’t miss the scamorza tartine. Trust us.

Since 2021, Rose Pizzeria is a lauded Cal-Italia destination in Berkeley, named one of the 22 best pizzerias in America by the New York Times in 2024. In March 2026, they opened their first San Francisco location in the Inner Richmond. Owners Gerad Gobel and Alexis Rorabaugh use stone-milled flour, local mozzarella, and tomatoes, and seasonal changing pies include the She Wolf topped with burrata, tomato sauce, garlic confit, olives, capers and Sicilian oregano, or a white Louie-Louie with fennel pork sausage, green onion, pickled jalapeño, mozzarella, cream and pecorino.

Since 2014, Causwells in San Francisco’s Marina neighborhood has been a favorite for quality cocktails and comfort food. This spring, chef-owner Adam Rosenblum and team opened Causwells at Springline in Menlo Park, serving favorites from the original like housemade ricotta on lavash crackers with rosemary honey, their beloved burger, and a banana bread “grilled cheese” sandwich. Co-owner Elmer Mejicanos’ beautiful cocktails are an equal draw in S.F. and thankfully star in Menlo, too.

Opened 2023 above the over-a-century-old Bus Stop Saloon, Left Door is the yin to the iconic sports bar’s yang: a seductive cocktail lounge lined with velvet and leather couches. Under photography art — including Slim Aarons’ iconic tiger rug photo of Mrs. George Cameron — sip classics like Negronis with Arbequina olive oil or roasted pear daiquiris, paired with snacks like cacio pepe popcorn, buttermilk fried chicken, or hot fudge sundaes.

Family-owned Aliment opened in 2013 as a casual Lower Nob Hill hangout for drinks and food. Comfort food is the game here, the menu weaving from buttermilk fried chicken to grilled ribeye with truffle fries. Vegetarians aren’t left behind with dishes like kabocha curry risotto or chickpea “meatballs.” Cocktails stick to the straightforward, including beloved classics like a Corpse Reviver No. 2 or pitchers of margaritas, plus eight beers on draft — heavy on California brews.

Calabash is an Uptown Oakland go-to for Afro-Caribbean and Jamaican fare, also housing a market selling international foods, prepared foods, and baked goods. Alongside soulful dishes like Kingston oxtail stew, jerk chicken salad, ginger butter salmon, and Jamaican beef and veggie patties, the bar makes it a gathering place for conversation around Kingston Rum Punches or cheekily named drinks like Skirt Slides Up (tequila, sorrel, lime).

Zaytoon has been an Albany destination for two decades, with Middle Eastern food in an sunny, all-day space. Brothers Izat and Walid Eliyan named Zaytoon (“olive” in Arabic) because they grew up harvesting olives in family orchards. They share their Palestinian roots with mazza dips, kubba (lamb, beef, pine nut fritters), fried cauliflower in harissa toum, moussaka and grilled kebab platters. They also offer Middle East-tinged cocktails like Arabian Nights, mixing mezcal, sumac, lime, amaro and Campari.

In a giant food complex from the Bon Appetit group on a South San Francisco biotech campus, Camber is in a massive, lofty space with views of the south Bay. It’s an ideal pre- or post-flight stop, as it is evening gathering for Frenchified food from chicken paillard, and croque madames, French onion soup and steak frites, to seasonal fish dishes and ceviches. The LEED Gold certified building houses a glowing bar serving easy sippers like Little Red Bus, mixing rhubarb vodka, strawberry vermouth, Aperol, and spring herbs.

Family-owned Marica has been a Rockridge staple for seafood since 2000. Mushroom toast, spaghetti and meatballs, or honey garlic gochujang Korean pork ribs ensure fun for non-fish eaters. But seafood stars here, whether their signature twice-cooked Maine lobster, Prince Edward Island mussels in lemon Pernod butter broth, or shrimp corn cakes in chipotle butter.