5 San Francisco Spots to Try Right Now

Heading to San Francisco? The Golden City has one of the country’s most vibrant food scenes, with new hot spots cropping up weekly. To help you wade through the myriad dining options, we’ve compiled a list of five restaurants and bars to check out right now. Some are tried and true, others are trendy and new, but all will contribute to one satisfying weekend of eating.

Classic Cocktails: Comstock Saloon

Named after the Comstock Lode, the 1859 discovery of silver ore that led to San Francisco’s population boom, the Comstock Saloon is set in a 1907 saloon space and plays up its Old West history. Try the Cherry Bounce, made with the juice from house-brandied cherries.

New Restaurant: Volta

This French Scandinavian brasserie from Umberto Gibin and chef Staffan Terje of Perbacco offers a dinner menu featuring pastis-simmered escargot, veal sweetbreads with truffle jus, Swedish meatballs with lingonberries and marinated strawberries with caramelized fennel. Bonus: The space is as beautiful as the food.

Classic Cuisine: Tadich Grill

The oldest continuously running restaurant in California—and third oldest in America itself—this venerable fish house started as a Croatian-operated coffee stand in 1849, right at the beginning of the Gold Rush. Four words: Clark Gable ate here.

New Restaurant: Mensho Tokyo

For ramen lovers, Mensho Tokyo is a must-stop. Its owner, chef and self-titled “ramen creator,” Tomoharu Shono, has several similar spots in Tokyo, but this is his first restaurant in the United States. Trust us when we say that chef Shono’s piping-hot deliciousness (such as the Organic Shoyu Ramen pictured here) will, well, bowl you over.

New Nightspot: Whitechapel

This whimsical new joint in the Tenderloin offers more than 100 juniper berry-based cocktails. What’s more: The interior looks like an 1890s London Underground station. And the pub grub? British by way of Bombay.