10 Unusual Restaurants in San Francisco

Eating out in San Francisco is not a problem. There are almost ten thousand restaurants, bars, and snack bars in the city. The mixture of peoples has turned the city into a real paradise for gourmets: here, at one intersection, traditional American, Asian and Italian restaurants can coexist, and from around the corner the aroma of all oriental cuisines combined can be heard. The Forum has put together a guide to San Francisco restaurants that boast unique atmosphere, unique views and history.

The Stinking Rose: the law of garlic

Where: 325 Columbus Ave, San Francisco, CA 94133

Order a table: (415) 781-7673

Average bill: $50

Openning time: 11.30-22.00

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

In the restaurant, a report on garlic purchases for the current month is 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 “Stinking Rose” (this is how the name of the restaurant is translated), you will not have any garlic spirit coming from you. It’s difficult to explain what the trick is.

If you sit at a table in the center of the hall, you might spy on the chefs working their magic on the dishes. Personal advice: if you want to sit in a cozy and romantic atmosphere, book a table in one of the booths, which are hidden behind the main hall and are very extravagantly decorated.

Cliff House: dinner overlooking the ocean

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

Order a table: (415) 386-3330

Average bill: $70

Openning time: Monday-Saturday 9.00-21.30, Saturday 8.30-21.30

Book a table with an ocean view and grab a plate of mussels and tomato fish stew with crab and clams. While the chef works his magic on your order, take a walk along the two floors of the restaurant and carefully look at the photographs on the walls. If you conclude that all of Hollywood has been here, you won’t be wrong - there are more than half a thousand photographs with autographs of celebrities.

The history of the restaurant began in 1858, and every 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 to dine 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 view of yachts, sunset and resting fur seals and pelicans is no worse. Personal tip: There's no better place for Sunday brunch in San Francisco.

Buena Vista: coffee for aesthetes

Where: 2765 Hyde St, San Francisco, CA 94109

Order a table: (415) 474-5044

Average bill: $15

Openning time: 9.00-2.00

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 invented the Irish bartender Joe Sheridan in 1942, in the village of Feynes, in the county of Limerick. Despite the fact that the Faunes was considered a village, there was located a large seaport through which the route from the USA to Europe lay. Ernest Hemingway, Eleanor Roosevelt and other celebrities loved to relax in the village bar. The bartender Sheridan from the airport restaurant, wanting to cheer up the freezing passengers, began to add good Irish whiskey to 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 Kouppler, was sitting with his friend, restaurant critic Stanton Delaplane, over a cup of coffee, enjoying the beautiful view of San Francisco (hence the name of the cafe) and remembering that same Irish coffee at the village airport. Then the friends came up with the idea to revive the recipe. For several months, Kouppler fought with the cream, which did not want to stay on the surface of the coffee. As a result, Kouppler and Delaplane flew to Ireland, found Sheridan, brought him to San Francisco, where he taught him how to make his signature coffee.

For an even tastier taste of history, order bread pudding or carrot cake with your coffee. These sweets work especially well here. And if you warn them to add half as much cream to your bread pudding, your figure will be grateful to you, and the taste of the dessert will not be affected.

Empress of China: Chinese Roof Garden

Where: 838 Grant Ave, San Francisco, CA 94108

Order a table: (415) 434-1345

Average bill: $17.50

Openning time: 11.30-22.30

It's hard to imagine finding a restaurant with a view of the city in San Francisco's Chinatown. That is why “Empress of China” has earned an honorable place in ForumDaily’s top 10: it 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 the views from this point in Chinatown are quite worthy: to the tallest building in the city - “Transamerica” (260 meters, 48 ​​floors), to the financial district, to the Coit Tower, which stands on Telegraph Hill. Despite the “millionaire” look and the waiters in ties, the prices on the menu are very affordable.

Personal tip: If you don't know what to order, go for the $17.50 Princess Lunch. It includes soup, several types of meat, rice, wontons and tea with sweets.

Foreign Cinema: Oysters instead of popcorn

Where: 2534 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94110

Order a table: (415) 648-7600

Average bill: $30

Openning time: Monday-Friday 17.30-22.00, Saturday-Sunday 11.00-14.30, 17.30-22.00

Coming to this restaurant for dinner without making a reservation is risky. 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 patio, stylized as an old cinema.

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

Well, the restaurant menu pays special attention to oysters. This will be a surprise for a beginner, but good news for a gourmet: there are 12 types of oysters to choose from. Don't like oysters? Personal tip: Tunisian duck breast with spinach. You really can't go wrong.

The View: city on the palm

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

Order a table: (415) 896-1600

Average bill: $15

Openning time: Sunday-Wednesday 16.00-1.00, Thursday-Saturday 16.00-1.30

From the 39th floor of the Marriott Hotel, the entire city will be at your fingertips. This is the main and, perhaps, the only feature of the restaurant. You don’t need to be a great connoisseur of haute cuisine to understand that such establishments are designed for tourists, and not for the regular public. Therefore, the menu will not please gourmets either with its content or prices. But grabbing a cocktail and cozying up on the sofa is a great idea!

The restaurant opens on 16: 00 and runs 01: 00 from Sunday to Wednesday and until 01: 30 from 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. Above and more clearly there is no restaurant in the city.

Tip: do not wait for the evening, come straight to the opening. Firstly, there are more chances to occupy the table with the best view as soon as possible, and secondly, the view of the daytime city is no worse than at night, and it is quite possible that a photo of the sunset can be sold at auction someday.

Urban Putt: Tea on the Golf Course

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

Order a table: (415) 341-1080

Average bill: $ 15 and $ 12 per game of golf

Openning time: Monday-Friday 16.00-24.00, Saturday-Sunday 11.00-1.00.

A golf course in the middle of San Francisco? Anyone who doesn’t know about the existence of a restaurant-golf club will call this nonsense. In addition to food and drinks, the establishment's menu includes a golf course.

The advice of experienced: order a large pizza, go to the lower floor, to the holes and from time to time take a break for lunch. Do not plan anything for the evening, because mini-golf can be so tight that you will spend the whole day in the restaurant. The set of holes is constantly updated and updated, and options for difficulty levels will satisfy both the novice and the pro.

Forbes Island: restaurant on the water

Where: 39 Piers, San Francisco, CA 94133

Order a table: (415) 951-4900

Average bill: $75

Openning time: 17.00-21.00

You don’t have to worry about parking - there simply isn’t any here, because the restaurant is located on the water. Guests are transported to the houseboat by boat, which departs from Pier 39 on the San Francisco waterfront. The first question that gourmets who suffer from seasickness ask is whether they get seasick here? To be honest - slightly. Therefore, if you do not tolerate sea and rocking well, go for 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.

Table must be booked in advance. And not just to be taken from the shore and taken to the table. The wonderland restaurant is a great success, and it is often closed for private parties. The restaurant celebrated its anniversary last year: in 1975, it was launched by the designer of floating houses, Thor Kidd. True, it was originally 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 trend: the same people came to the house, who were very attracted to lunch on the water, but were not at all interested in buying floating housing. Then the owner hired a professional team of cooks and turned the house into a floating restaurant with exquisite cuisine.

Cigar Bar & Grill: they smoke here

Where: 850 Montgomery St, San Francisco, CA 94133

Order a table: (415) 398-0850

Average bill: $ 20, entry price $ 10

Openning time: Monday-Friday 16.00-2.00, Saturday 18.00-2.00, Sunday - closed

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

The establishment is quite modest on the outside but stylish and bright on the inside. In addition, it is the only one in the city where smoking is allowed indoors. You can smoke cigars at the bar, at the billiard tables, and in the hall while listening to jazz. By the way, the authoritative Californian jazz radio station KCSM calls this bar the best place to listen to jazz.

Opaque: Lunch in total darkness

Where: 1500 Sutter St, San Francisco, CA 94109

Order a table: (800) 710-1270

Average bill: $50

Openning time: Wednesday-Saturday 18.30-23.30, Sunday-Tuesday - closed

The experimental meal is absolutely not suitable for those who suffer from claustrophobia or are afraid of the dark. Lunch takes place not just in a dark hall, but in pitch, complete, 100% darkness. The only place where the light is on is the restroom. The waiter escorts you in and back to the table.

The unusual atmosphere dictates its own rules. For example, at dinner they do not serve strong alcohol, in order to avoid excesses, because the drunken guest may become aggravated with the fear of darkness or have an aggressive desire to turn on the light. At the entrance, you will be strictly asked not to turn on mobile phones, remove the illuminated watch from your hand and do not shine a lighter on the meal. Violators may seriously ask to leave the institution.

You will have to take the waiter's word that in a black-black room on a black-black table, black-black food is exactly what you ordered. The most interesting conclusion that you will make during lunch is that our taste buds work in tandem with our eyes, and without the support of vision, it is sometimes difficult to guess what you are actually eating.

See also:

New York's top 10 restaurants with breathtaking views

Top 10 restaurants in the USA, accessible only by appointment

10 restaurants with a twist in the capital of California

Go to the page ForumDaily on Facebook to keep abreast of the latest news and comment material.