What to do while visiting the Bay Area? (San Jose, San Francisco: home, neighborhoods)

[Do a Barrel Roll]

So this time next week, I'm taking a vacation through the West Coast, making stops in San Fran (along with Oakland, Berkeley, and perhaps San Jose). I'm not against touring anything that are considered "tourist sights," but I tend to get bored with the typical spots in about an hour. I want to know some of the more interesting places within San Francisco to check out. To make it easier, I would like to know the following:

-Some of the more quirky and interesting neighborhoods that has a certain character to it? The neighborhoods that have that distinguishable flavor, whether it's a hipster, gay, or a certain ethnic.
-Some of the best local eateries that locals swear by? The kind of food doesn't matter, as long as it isn't nationwide corporate crap (although I will make an exception to In-N-Out Burger and Jack in the Box, as I have never been to either one in my life).
-I'm a young dude with who likes to enjoy himself especially at night, so any great nightlife spots that aren't snooty, down to earth, and aren't averse to guys who are out of town and want to have some fun would be great.
-How about some of the places to check out in Oakland, Berkeley, and San Jose? Any particular spots I should check out in order to get the unique feel and taste of the respective town (as well as eateries, sites, and bars for the following cities as well).

Thanks in advance for the suggestions. Looking forward to my visit!

[bmw335xi]

The majority of people in the Bay Area write and read yelp.com religiously. I have some recommendations I can give you, but you should also search this site for additional places. I use it for finding new restaurants, bars, lounges, or clubs.

1)
Marina District - Chestnut Street, Marina Green, Crissy Field
Telegraph Hill - Coit Tower, Wild Parrots
North Beach - Little Italy, Washington Square, Red Light District, Fisherman's Wharf
Chinatown - **********
Nob Hill & Union Square - Shopping, Union Square Park, Cable Cars
Haight-Ashbury - Weird stores, Hippies, Panhandle (Park)
Golden Gate Park - Museums, Buffalo, Ocean Beach
Twin Peaks - 360 panoramic view
Castro - Home of the Gays
Financial District - Embarcadero
Russian Hill - Ghiradelli Square

2)
R & G Lounge - Chinese
Osha Thai - Thai
Harris - Steak
Burmese - Burma SuperStar
Lahore Karahi - Indian
Sotta Mare - Italian
Vietnam (Broadway) - Vietnamese
Indonesia - Indonesian
Great Eastern - Dim Sum

Meh that's enough, I love the food in San Francisco!

3)
There's a lot of places, I'd use yelp.com to decide a place for your taste. I have my favorites, but I always went with friends.

4)
I don't know much about San Jose and Oakland. However, Solano St in Berkeley has a lot of great restaurants. China Village is really great and authentic. University Blvd in Palo Alto also has a lot of great restaurants and outdoor cafes. I'd also check out Marin County such as Sausalito. If you like hiking, Mt. Tamalpais is great.

[lmk1707]

Here are a few suggestions for an Oakland night near public transportation - you obviously won't be eating/drinking in all places, but you might want to check out a few before settling on one where you'd want to hang for awhile:

Jack London Square, have a drink at the First & Last Chance Saloon and follow it up with dinner at Bocanova (on the pricier side, Panamerican tapas) or Everett & Jones for more affordable BBQ. JLS is about a 10 minute walk from the 12th St. BART station, or you could take the ferry from the ferry building in SF.

Rockridge, drinks at Ben 'n' Nicks or The Graduate if you're into dives, eat at Wood Tavern (pricey), Oliveto (pricey), or Zachary's Pizza (inexpensive). Lots of other misc. shops and boutiques, also.

Uptown, dinner at Flora (pricier), Plum (pricey), Luka's (inexpensive), check out a show at the Fox Oakland (renovated art deco building) or Paramount Theater. Trappist bar if you like Belgians. If you're in Oakland on the last Friday of the month, you'll probably enjoy Art Murmur, which is where everyone gathers to drink, eat, and look at art studios.

In Berkeley, for food check out the Gourmet Ghetto neighborhood (Shattuck, north of downtown), Triple Rock Brewery for pulled pork and beer, and the bars on Shattuck like Jupiter and Beckett's.

[jovial gent]

As far as food goes....dungeness crab is in season now and really tasty....be sure to get some of that wherever you go.....

jack in the box and in n out are fast food, both of them get their meat from the same suppliers (and where hence part of the same massive beef recall a few years ago)

[mayorhaggar]

Downtown Berkeley is a great place to wander around looking in bookstores and for places to eat, just get off at the downtown Berkeley BART and wander around. Telegraph is nearby and has a lot of old hippie stores. There's a Brazilian place I think called Cafe Brazil in downtown Berkeley that has really great and pretty cheap food, they have an outdoor roadside stand selling food and a small indoor sit-down place. I love their tri-tip sandwich.

bmw335's post is a good start for stuff to do in SF. If you're in Fisherman's Wharf, which is very touristy, you could check out the In n' Out which I think is the only one in SF, or you could check out the various seafood restaurants around there.

If you're in downtown Oakland you could go to Lake Merritt, it's pretty nice.

[ecvMatt]

Umm, come to Fairfax, since it is your namesake. Three awesome bars, two of which usually have live music. Lots of fun people, very little pretense. Good food, good music, strange people(in a good way!)

[04kL4nD]

I grew up in Fairfax County. Fairfax proper actually

The suggestions so far are great. Anywhere is less boring than NOVA imo

[Nineties Flava]

Yea I got a couple.


One of the best BBQ places in the bay area that nobody knows about is Mack's on laurel st. in San Carlos. The ribs are some of the best you'll have in CA period. The root beer's good too lol

The best Thai place is called Soi 4 Bangkok Eatery on college ave in Oakland. Its easily accessible by going up to the Rockridge BART and then walking 3 blocks down college away from the 24 overpass that the BART's built into. Try anything on their menu... I've only been twice but its by far the best Thai I've had and I've been to my fair share of thai places. Make sure you get the Thai iced tea.

Zachary's pizza is right up the street from Soi 4 and is one of the best pizza places in the bay area. I recommend only ordering their deep dish. Two other excellent pizzas are in Cheeseboard Pizza in Berkeley on Shattuck ave and Tony's Napoletano in SF on Stanton st.

And forget about Jack in the Box. In N Out >>>>> any fast food burger chain in the area. Just make sure that you use their "secret menu" ie ordering a "three by three" (three patties and 3 cheeses) or whatever combination you can think of because their food is really light. There's an In N Out in Fisherman's Warf of SF and after that the closest one is on hegenberger in Oakland.

Its hard to list more because there's a ridiculous amount of restaurants around here. You can find virtually anything you can think of.



As for stuff to do/see, there's tons of museums. Here's a couple notable ones:


Chabot Space and Science Center (Oakland)
The Planetarium (SF)
Tech Museum (San Jose)
Oakland Museum of California (Oakland)
African American Museum & Library at Oakland (Oakland)



As I'm sure you know there's tons of sports teams in the bay area, which include:

The Warriors (Oakland)
Raiders (Oakland)
The A's (Oakland)
The Giants (SF)
49'ers (SF)
The Sharks (SJ)

etc.


If you're a music fan there's TONS of great record stores around here, the most notable being Amoeba, Rasputin's, Street Light Records and the Record Man. There's tons of Rasputin's around the bay but there's only 2 Amoeba's (one on Haight st. in SF and one on Telegraph in Berkeley) one Street Light (San Jose) and one Record Man (on El Camino Real in Redwood City). If you're into vinyl, Record Man's the way to go... they have well over a million records of all genres. Otherwise, The Amoeba in SF is well worth your time.


Streets in the bay area you should see at some point during your trip include:


Haight St. (SF) (by Golden Gate Park)
Telegraph Ave (Berkeley)


^Those will give you an idea of what hippie culture was like back in the 60's. Whatever you do though, don't use the People's Park bathroom in Berkeley. Only take pictures of it.



Thats all I can think of right now.

[lmk1707]

I'd add the Legion of Honor, MoMA, and deYoung to the museum list. I think Legion of Honor is my favorite, partially for being in such a beautiful space.

[sav858]

The CA Academy of Sciences has always been one of my favorite cultural institutions to go to in the Bay Area. And while you're there you can explore the rest of Golden Gate Park.

If you have a car I would drive up to some cool look out spots like Twin Peaks, the Oakland/Berkeley Hills off Grizzly Peak Blvd. Also great views on the Marin side of the Golden Gate Bridge.