10 Quirky Restaurants in San Francisco

Eating in San Francisco is not a problem. There are nearly ten thousand restaurants, bars, eateries in the city. The confusion of peoples has turned the city into a real gourmet paradise: here, at the same intersection, traditional American, Asian and Italian restaurants can coexist, and the aroma of all oriental cuisines combined will be heard from around the corner. The Forum has compiled a guide to San Francisco restaurants that boast an unusual atmosphere, unique views, and history.

The Stinking Rose: By The Law Of Garlic

During flu season, this restaurant must be prescribed by doctors as a preventive measure for the virus. What dish can you add garlic to? In this restaurant, you will be told that it is for anyone. Moreover, they do it here. Garlic in salads, appetizers, soups, and even desserts and coffee. Garlic ice cream and even garlic coffee are surprisingly tasty.

In the restaurant, a report on the purchases of garlic for the current month is being posted for everyone to see. Just imagine: a small establishment buys half a ton of this product every month! And, yes, you will be surprised, but after visiting the “Fetid Rose” (this is the translation of the name of the restaurant), the garlic spirit will not come from you. What is the trick is difficult to explain.

If you sit at a table in the center of the hall, then perhaps spy on the chefs who conjure over the dishes. Personal advice: if you want to sit in a cozy and romantic atmosphere, book a table in one of the booths that are hidden behind the main hall and are very extravagantly decorated.

Where: 325 Columbus Ave, San Francisco, CA 94133

Book a table: (415) 781-7673

Working hours: 11.30-22.00

Cliff House: Dinner with Ocean View

Book a table with ocean views and grab a plate of mussels and a tomato fish stew with crab and clams. While the chef is conjuring over the order, take a walk along with the two floors of the restaurant and carefully examine the photographs on the walls. If you conclude that the whole Hollywood has been here, then you won’t be mistaken – there are more than half a thousand autographed photos of celebrities.

The history of the restaurant began in 1858, and each waiter will willingly tell you about the fire, and about ghosts, and about the legends of the House on the Rock. If you are not in the mood for dinner at a table with a white tablecloth and want something more democratic, go straight to the second floor. There is an inexpensive bistro here, and the views of the yachts, the sunset, and the resting seals and pelicans are just as good. Personal tip: There’s no better place for Sunday brunch in San Francisco.

Where: 1090 Point Lobos Ave, San Francisco, CA 94121

Book a table: (415) 386-3330

Working hours: Monday-Saturday 9.00-21.30, Saturday 8.30-21.30

Buena Vista: coffee for aesthetes

This is not a myth, not a legend, but a historical fact: in 1952, it was in this cafe that the recipe for Irish coffee was restored and returned to the world. Irish coffee was invented by Irish bartender Joe Sheridan in 1942 in Foynes, County Limerick. Despite the fact that Foynes was considered a village, there was a large seaport here, through which the route from the United States to Europe lay. Ernest Hemingway, Eleanor Roosevelt, and other celebrities loved to relax in the bar of the village. The bartender Sheridan from the airport restaurant, wanting to cheer up the freezing passengers, began to add good Irish whiskey to the coffee with cream.

In 1945, the airport was closed, and with it the restaurant. A few years later, the owner of the Buena Vista cafe, American Jack Coppler, was sitting with his friend, food critic Stanton Delaplane, over a cup of coffee, enjoying the beautiful view of San Francisco (hence the name of the cafe) and recalled that very Irish coffee at the village airport. Then friends came up with the idea to revive the recipe. For several months, Coppler fought with cream that did not want to stick to the surface of the coffee. As a result, Coppler and Delaplane flew to Ireland, found Sheridan, brought him to San Francisco, where he taught him how to make his own specialty coffee.

To get a taste of history even more delicious – order bread pudding or carrot cake for coffee. These sweets work out especially well here. And if you warn that half of the cream is added to your bread pudding, your figure will be grateful, and the taste of the dessert will not suffer.

Where: 2765 Hyde St, San Francisco, CA 94109

Book a table: (415) 474-5044

Opening hours: 9.00-2.00

Empress of China: Chinese Roof Garden

It’s hard to imagine that you can find a restaurant overlooking the city in San Francisco’s Chinatown. That is why the “Empress of China” has earned a place of honor in the top 10 ForumDaily: this is the only Chinese restaurant in San Francisco on the roof, and even in the garden.

Only panoramic views will remind you that you are in a metropolis. And they are quite worthy from this point of Chinatown: to the tallest building in the city – “Transamerica” ​​(260 s, 48 ​​floors), to the financial district, to the Coit Tower, which stands on Telegraph Hill. Despite the look of a million-dollar and waiters in ties, the prices on the menu are very affordable.

Where: 838 Grant Ave, San Francisco, CA 94108

Book a table: (415) 434-1345

Opening hours: 11.30-22.30

Foreign Cinema: oysters instead of popcorn

It is risky to come to this restaurant for dinner without booking a table. Instead of a cinema, you can find yourself in a museum of modern art. The fact is that the restaurant has two halls and a courtyard styled as an old cinema.

Films are shown in the courtyard, exhibitions of contemporary artists, photographers, and sculptors are held in one of the halls, the second hall is just a bar where you can while away the time, waiting for a table at the movie screen. Therefore, if you are guaranteed to want to watch a movie at dinner, it is better to reserve a table in advance and clarify what is offered in the movie menu.

Well, and in the restaurant menu, special attention is paid to oysters. For a beginner, this will be a surprise, for a gourmet – good news: there are 12 types of oysters to choose from. Don’t like oysters? Personal tip: Tunisian duck breast with spinach. You will definitely not go wrong.

Where: 2534 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94110

Book a table: (415) 648-7600

Working hours: Monday-Friday 17.30-22.00, Saturday-Sunday 11.00-14.30, 17.30-22.00

The View: a city in the palm of your hand

From the 39th floor of the Marriott Hotel, the whole city will be in full view. This is the main and, perhaps, the only feature of the restaurant. You don’t need to be a great connoisseur of fine cuisine to understand that such establishments are designed for tourists, and not for the regular audience. Therefore, the menu will not delight gourmets with either content or prices. But taking a cocktail and snuggling up on the sofa is a great idea!

The restaurant opens at 16:00 and is open at 01:00 Sunday to Wednesday and until 01:30 Thursday to Saturday. Panoramic windows in two rooms allow you to see the whole of San Francisco and, depending on the weather, to see what is happening outside of it. There is no higher and more panoramic restaurant in the city.

Where: 39, 780 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94103

Book a table: (415) 896-1600

Working hours: Sunday-Wednesday 16.00-1.00, Thursday-Saturday 16.00-1.30

Urban Putt: Tea Party on the Golf Course

A golf course in the middle of San Francisco? It will be called nonsense by anyone who does not know about the existence of a restaurant-golf club. In addition to food and drinks, the restaurant’s menu includes a golf course.

Experienced tip: Order a large pizza, head downstairs to the holes and take a lunch break from time to time. Don’t plan anything for the evening, because mini golf can be so overwhelming that you will spend the whole day in the restaurant. The set of holes is constantly replenished and updated, and options for difficulty levels will satisfy both beginners and pros.

Where: 1096 S Van Ness Ave, San Francisco, CA 94110

Book a table: (415) 341-1080

Working hours: Monday-Friday 16.00-24.00, Saturday-Sunday 11.00-1.00.

Forbes Island: restaurant on the water

You don’t have to worry about parking – there is simply no parking here because the restaurant is located on the water. Guests are delivered to the houseboat by a boat that departs from Pier 39 on the San Francisco waterfront. The first question asked by gourmets suffering from seasickness – does it feel sick here? In fact, slightly. Therefore, if you do not tolerate the sea and the rocking, go to lunch only on a fine day, book a table not on the terrace, but in the hall, and immediately order snacks – the rocking is not so felt on a full stomach.

The table must be booked in advance. And not only to be picked up from the shore and taken to the table. The curiosity restaurant is a great success and is often closed for private parties. The restaurant celebrated its anniversary last year: in 1975 it was launched by the designer of floating houses, Tor Kidu. True, initially it was an advertising model of a residential building. Guests, potential buyers, were fed, watered, and persuaded to buy a house. But a year later, there was a tendency: the same people came to the house, who was very attracted by lunch on the water but were not at all interested in buying a floating house. Then the owner hired a professional team of chefs and turned the house into a floating restaurant with fine dining.

Where: 39 Piers, San Francisco, CA 94133

Book a table: (415) 951-4900

Working hours: 17.00-21.00

Cigar Bar & Grill: we smoke

When a smoking ban was introduced in California bars and restaurants in 1995, the tobacco industry was predicted, if not extinction, then huge losses. But smokers have not changed their gourmet addictions and still dutifully go out for a smoke break on the street. But there is a place in San Francisco where it is perfectly legal to smoke. True, not cigarettes, but cigars. Moreover, it is not necessary to buy them on the spot, you can come on your own.

Quite modest on the outside, the establishment is stylish and bright on the inside. It is also the only one in the city where indoor smoking is allowed. You can smoke cigars at the bar, at the billiard tables, and in the hall listening to jazz. By the way, the reputable Californian jazz radio station KCSM calls this bar the best place to listen to jazz.

Where: 850 Montgomery St, San Francisco, CA 94133

Book a table: (415) 398-0850

Working hours: Monday-Friday 16.00-2.00, Saturday 18.00-2.00, Sunday – closed

Opaque: lunch in total darkness

An experiment meal is categorically unsuitable for those who are claustrophobic or afraid of the dark. Lunch takes place not just in a dark room, but in pitch, complete, one hundred percent darkness. The only place where the lights are on is the restroom. The waiter escorts into it and back to the table.

The unusual atmosphere dictates its own rules. For example, strong alcohol is not served at dinner in order to avoid excesses, because a tipsy guest may have an aggravated fear of the dark or an aggressive desire to turn on the light. At the entrance, you will be strictly asked not to turn on your mobile phones, to take off the backlit watch from your hand, and not to light your meal with a lighter. Violators may be asked to leave the establishment in all seriousness.

Where: 1500 Sutter St, San Francisco, CA 94109

Book a table: (800) 710-1270

Working hours: Wednesday-Saturday 18.30-23.30, Sunday-Tuesday – closed

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