Wednesday, January 5, 2011

WE GET REQUESTS:  Via commenter slowlylu:
Thanks again for the fantastic blog. I am currently in some final planning stages of a trip to San Francisco in late February. Knowing that we have some resident San Franciscans I was hoping I could use the blog as a list making device for must eat/do/see things. 
It is just the two of us this trip and we'll have been skiing for a week and a bit beforehand.

No worries if you've got a lot of things to throw but the guide to Seattle and Las Vegas were really good from past years.
My advice starts with two words which have never let me down: Yank Sing. Best dim sum I've ever had.

32 comments:

  1. This is much appreciated, since my big work conference is in May in SF this year--any thoughts from y'all about the doability of tacking on a trip to SoCal thereafter to see some friends and family down there?

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  2. SoCal is an hour by plane.  I did this in August - I usually do this everytime I'm in CA.  I flew into San Diego, did a separate flight on Virgin to SF (just to make life easy) and then flew home from SFO.  Did all of it by public transportation, too.  Totally easy and the extra flight was maybe $100?

    I love the Ferry Bldg downtown.  Great coffee (Blue Bottle!), great restaurants (Vietnamese- Slanted Door or casual food - Gott's) and artisinal food (Cowgirl Creamery!).

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  3. isaac_spaceman11:06 AM

    My San Francisco ends, for the most part, about four or five blocks from the Ferry Building, across the street from which I work, so I'm sorry I can't be extremely helpful.  The Slanted Door is definitely a great place to go for a meal, beloved by locals and tourists alike (reservations required).  For quicker fare, there is a gourmet but cheap Mexican place in the Ferry Building as well.  Venturing out from there, there are approximately infinity good places to get a meal. 

    On things to see, if you have a car and you don't get to the Bay Area much, the one thing I would recommend is Muir Woods.  It will be cold and possibly soggy during the winter, but those trees are the oldest living things on the planet, and there aren't too many places in the world you can find them.  The first time you look up at them, it's incredible.  Normally I would say that going without kids gives you a better range of hiking options, but I'm not sure what the trails are like in the winter.  Even without any adventuresome hiking, though, the one-mile flat loop brings you through some incredible stands of ancient trees.  As a bonus, to get to Muir Woods from San Francisco, you'll cross the Golden Gate Bridge. 

    Incidentally, the GGB, while touristy, is also pretty interesting and beautiful.  If it's a sunny day, you'll get the incredible contrast of the fog rolling over the Marin side. 

    The Presidio has a bunch of neat stuff.  The Exploratorium is neat for kids, but there's also the Walt Disney museum (I've heard it's good; I've never been there), which is more a museum of Walt Disney the man, not Disney the company (though obviously there's overlap). 

    The Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park is incredible.  There are always a lot of kids -- families on the weekends; school groups during the week -- but it really is an amazing place.  And it's right across from the DeYoung, which is an excellent museum, and the Japanese Tea Garden, which is pretty cool as well.  

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  4. It was years ago, but I very much enjoyed my tour of Alcatraz.  Expected it to be cheesy and touristy and awful, but found it incredibly interesting and loved the island itself and getting to look back on the city.  Maybe more people know about it now, but when I was there, that was the first time I'd heard about the whole Native American involvement with the island of Alcatraz (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_Alcatraz) We never made it past the civil war in any of my US history classes in school.

    This thread is going to make me remember how much I liked San Francisco and how it's been too long since I've been back.

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  5. Absolutely agree with Muir Woods and the Presidio. 

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  6. Mike A.12:01 PM

    Big fan of the blog. We never miss this place (http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/6/85032/restaurant/Nob-Hill/House-of-Nanking-San-Francisco) when we visit. Trust your server to order for you.

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  7. spacewoman12:03 PM

    One thing re Alcatraz -- it may be freezing freezing to boat it across the Bay this time of year.  Also, in the summer at least, you need reservations at least a week or so in advance (maybe more; we just found out when we showed up that you couldn't get same-day tickets).  Probably not as much of a problem this time of year, but worth checking in advance if you're interested.

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  8. gigs2612:37 PM

    Eats - La Taqueria in the Mission; Betelnut on Union Street; North Beach Pizza.  And if the Dungeness crab is still good, get some fresh crab at Fisherman's Wharf (or a grocery store - they'll cook and crack it for you, just make sure it wasn't frozen first).

    To do - Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill (beautiful murals inside, and a terrific view outside); Crissy Field (walk along the Bay, stop in at the Warming Hut in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge for a cup of coffee, and go on to the Civil-War-era Fort Point right under the Bridge - dress warm); walk along Ocean Beach (if it's too cold, drive up to Point Lobos, park near the Cliff House and look out over Seal Rocks, or walk down toward Lands End; get breakfast or lunch at Louis').  In Golden Gate Park, go to the California Academy of Sciences and the Conservatory of Flowers (nice and warm on a cold or rainy day).

    Head south of the City to Ano Nuevo State Park to see the elephant seals - guided walks only during the breeding season, but you can make a reservation online. 

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  9. When I was there it was February, but that was more than a decade ago, so climate's probably changed a little since then.  We bundled up and it was fine. 

    I feel obligated to report that that trip was my honeymoon - yes, we went to visit a prison on our honeymoon.  The joke was not lost on us.

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  10. isaac_spaceman12:41 PM

    San Francisco -- come for the views, stay for the seal-on-seal action.

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  11. I'm sticking it the The Man, here, in true San Francisco fashion, by quibbling with Adam's endorsement of Yank Sing.  It may be the standard-setting high-tone dim sum in SF, but I don't think it's the best.  My favorite (with which I'm sure others may have their own quibbles) is Ton Kiang (http://www.tonkiang.net/) out at Geary and 22nd in the Richmond neighborhood.  The food is a fantastic Hakka variety of dim sum, and the area is a pleasantly strollable (old) Russian (new) Asian hodge-podge of friendly but decidedly not tourist-toned SF.

    There are a thousand other things I'd recommend (and maybe 300 of them are bars) but let me add just two more: 

    (1)  Consider taking a looong (sic) afternoon in GG Park, maybe hitting one of the cultural spots, having lunch, and then going on a vision quest to find the BISON PADDOCK, because in what other major US metropolis are you going to find actual ever-lovin American Bison grazing in a pen in a public park? 

    (2)  A pair of bars, hardly off the beaten path but still worth stepping into, are TOSCA and it's dimly-lit neighbor THE ADLER MUSEUM.  These are on the NE side of Columbus just a couple of blocks from the Financial District.  Their charms are difficult to describe in print, but immediately evident upon entry.

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  12. lauri2:01 PM

    I second the Ton Kiang recommendation wholeheartedly.

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  13. isaac_spaceman2:02 PM

    I have a friend whose trekking honeymoon led through Calcutta, where she and her husband got sick.  She was like "Calcutta was really disappointing," and Spacewoman and I were like, "you took a honeymoon to CALCUTTA and you expected what?" 

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  14. If you have the money to splurge, Gary Danko for dinner is one of the best meals I have ever had in my life. Easily $300 for 2 with tip, but worth every penny. I think he got a James Beard nomination this year.

    I second the Alcatraz and Coit Tower, and you should stop in at Ghiradelli for a hot chocolate or sundae if you have a moment. We also loved just driving down Lombard Street every time we were near it. If you are renting a car, do a convertible. Even in the cold, driving a convertible in SF is awesome.

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  15. If you can time your Alcatraz visit for sunset, and you get a clearish day, it can be a really special view of the city.

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  16. Maggie2:37 PM

    And I third it.  Damn - now I want dim sum.

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  17. As a tourist there a couple of years ago, I really enjoyed:
    1. The Pier at Fisherman's Wharf where you can watch all the seals lay around on the docks
    2. Renting bikes at Fisherman's Wharf and riding across the Golden Gate Bridge into Sausalito.  It gave us a chance to see lots of areas we wouldn't have seen by car, and Sausalito was touristy but also really pretty and artsy.  Plus, we could take a ferry back to the Wharf from there.
    3. Legion of Honor museum.
    4. Walking around the Castro.  We saw a movie at a beautiful old movie house there, but I don't know the name.

    We took a boat tour past Alcatraz (didn't go in) and under the Golden Gate, but it was kind of disappointing because it was so foggy that even as we came close to the bridge, we could barely see it.  And even in May, it was too cold on the water to be out on the deck too long.

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  18. isaac_spaceman3:29 PM

    I'm not positive, but I think there currently may be some kind of construction that prevents you from riding your bike across the bridge, or at least requires you (and oncoming bike traffic) to share a narrow space with pedestrians.  There was recently; don't know if it's finished. 

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  19. Watts3:36 PM

    Incidentally, driving over the Bay Bridge was a nail-biting experience for me. (We'd gone up to Paradise, CA to see my grandfather and came back into town on the Bay Bridge on our way to the airport - it's entirely possible we were completely lost and that was completely the wrong route)   A few years later when we were in New Orleans, I flat out refused to go on the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway.

    But Golden Gate was ok.

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  20. Scott4:00 PM

    Do you like to drink?  I cannot recommend the tour and tasting at St. George's Spirits (makers of Hangar One Vodka) enough.  It's in an old airplane hangar (hence the name) in Oakland/Alameda, with views of SF from the tasting room.  Informative, cool place, fun people and atmosphere, excellent spirits.  Not much more you could ask for. 

    Of course, SF is also a great launching pad for wine country, but I suspect if you wanted recommendations for that you'd have asked.

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  21. When I first visited S.F. in 1998, I went to Chinatown and asked a random passerby where I should eat.  I was pointed to a place called Hunan's Home, where I had one of the best meals of my life.  Several years later, my mother and sister went to S.F., went to Chinatown, asked a random passerby where to eat, were pointed to Hunan's Home, having no idea I'd been there, and had one of the best meals of their lives. 

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  22. Upon further review, the place may actually be called Hunan Homes.

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  23. KPetersNM4:27 PM

    SF is one my favorite cities to explore - I lived in the Bay Area for ten years and one of my FAVORITE things to do was play tour guide in the city.  All of the suggestions above are great, but I have a couple to add:
    1.  If you don't want to do the Alcatraz tour, take the Blue & Gold Bay tour.  Leaves from the same place but goes out around Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz, takes about an hour, and the views are amazing.
    2.  Another dim sum option - New Asia - on Pacific Ave in Chinatown.  I LOVE Yank Sink, but if you want to go into Chinatown this is a good spot.
    3.  The Museum of Modern Art is a lovely spot for an hour or two of quiet time and pretty stuff.  Collection isn't huge, but if you are in that part of town it's worth the stop.
    4.  If you are in the Pier 39/Ghiradelli square area, you can also stop in the Buena Vista for an original Irish Coffee (it was invented there).  I'm partial to this place, since it's where my parents would go when they were dating!

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  24. slowlylu4:46 PM

    Thank you all for your fantastic suggestions. I am very much a foodie and do love a tipple or two so will be heading to as many bars/restaurants as five days and six nights allow!

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  25. Philomena Throckmorton6:24 PM

    I absolutely nth the rec for Ton Kiang, and am now craving dim sum.

    If you like that sort of thing, take in a movie at the abovementioned Castro Theatre, which is a fabulous old movie palace with an organ and imaginative programming (www.castrotheatre.com).  For example, I see they are scheduled for a triple feature of Princess Bride, Time Bandits, and Deathstalker this Friday, with Hitchcock coming up next week. (Or you can see TRON: Legacy any night).

    I will agree that the Alcatraz tour is much less cheesy than you might think and offers some spectacular views of the city.

    Museum wise the Legion of Honor and DeYoung are good (DeYoung especially is in GG Park so offers other inducements, like the  BISON PADDOCK).  The Exploratorium and Academy of Sciences are also awesome.

    For natural beauty Muir Woods is hard to beat.  If it's nice you might enjoy Ocean Beach and a cocktail at Cliff House.

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  26. D'Arcy6:42 PM

    What everyone else said.

    Seriously, my best friend moved to Alameda about 10 years ago, so I get out there every couple of years or so. The DeYoung, the Presidio, Pier 39/Fisherman's Wharf, Lombard Street, riding a cable car, Ghirardelli's, North Beach, Chinatown... yeah. Everything you've ever heard of in SF is worth visiting. We also drove through a sketchy neighbourhood (forget which one) at night playing, "Is that hooker a boy or a girl?" (the pretty ones are the boys), and walked through the Castro about a half block behind my friend's boyfriend watching the boys watch him. This summer I had a day in SF after flying all night from Hawaii. My friend took me to get coffee, then to Sausalito, then to a whole bunch of coffee places. There are lots. Oh, and we had wonderful salted caramel ice cream at a little place, it's across the street from a grocery store (I think) with the same name... I'll let you know if I remember or if I can get the name from my friend.

    I love San Francisco.

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  27. D'Arcy6:43 PM

    Bi-Rite.

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  28. Richard Cobeen7:19 PM

    North Beach Pizza in North Beach is now closed.  Try one of the new pizza places that are great: Pizzeria Delfina, Zero Zero, Gialina, Una.  Also want to second the recommendation below of Ton Kiang for dim sum; easily beats Yank Sing.  The hamburger at Zuni Cafe (lunch only) or Marlowe is another must.

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  29. spacewoman7:42 PM

    This is fantastic; we've lived here 3.5 years and haven't been to half these places.  And to think I've already booked a sitter for this Saturday night!

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  30. Is Tommy's Joint on Van Ness still going? God, I loved that place.

    The Exploratorium is 100% worth it. 200% if you have kids.

    There's a sourdough place in the mid-30 piers that I can't give you a name of, but I could walk there if dropped off in the right spot. Same thing with a bunch of places in Chinatown (I worked off of Union Square and would meet friends there after)

    This time of year, the ice rink at the tail of the Embarcadero should be running.

    There's a trampoline/high bounce place near the GG Bridge. Never been, but a friend of mine works there and I would love to go.

    I can't go to LA or SF without a stop by Amoeba. Bundle up and walk down Haight.

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  31. Scott4:39 PM

    To continue with my drinking recommendations, check out the Bubble Lounge if you like Champagne, and RN74 if you want a more conventional, but fabulous, wine bar experience.

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