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Old 10-27-2011, 10:42 AM
 
484 posts, read 819,728 times
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Yes, we are in a "golden age" of dining at the moment. The new, young chefs are apparently redefining and sophisticating California cuisine. GQ ran a story a couple of months ago stating that SF is at the top of the pack among all US cities.
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Old 10-27-2011, 11:52 AM
 
Location: Oakland, CA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hsw View Post
Arguably world's best food region for affluent, health-conscious workaholics

Major cos. like goog, aapl, etc have much better cafes in-house for workers than any major financial cos. in NYC or oil&gas cos. in TX, either in-house or avail in nearby areas, for cheap, healthy bkfst/lunch

And when yuppies drive back to SF from their jobs in SV, face a fairly good choice of cheap, healthy dinner spots w/valet pkg and convenient to yuppie residential areas of SF...very civilized vs NYC's ThirdWorld crap where rests lack valet pkg/pkg garages...and ironically, if one seeks unhealthy comfort food, SF has far better deep-dish pizza or burgers avail in yuppie areas of town than do NYC or Chic or Dall/Hou

Doubt any mom&pop "ethnic" restaurants or food trucks anywhere pass basic criteria of food safety....likely safer, more healthy grub exists at any Chipotle or In-N-Out

Rest of SF is a tourist industry slum...and tourists anywhere in world tend to eat whatever junk seems affordable/exotic/familiar vs their crappy food from their daily lives in Podunk...
Yes, I agree out of the 4 cities I have lived, LA, NYC, SD, it is SF which has the most healthy options. I don't feel as guilty dining out here because everything seems to be less greasy in general and while still loaded with sodium, not quite as bad as the other aforementioned cities. For instance, you can always see a dominant amount of fat/oil in the Pho soup at the Vietnamese joints around LA- but here, the oil seen in the Pho bowls is much less and yet it still tastes good- the focus is more on fresh ingredients I think as you can tell the quality of the vegetables is better and you can taste the difference in the noodles and I do think they are lighter on the MSG amount in comparison.

And overall, there are just more different restaurants which which offer healthy choices like turkey burgers for instance and vegetarian options.

My routine is to dine at home on the weekdays with healthy home cooked meals and then dine out on the weekends, every week, so I think if I was living in LA, NYC or SD right now I'd be much fatter.
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Old 10-27-2011, 11:58 AM
 
Location: South Korea
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Compared with Chicago, portions in SF are about half the size and twice as expensive. A filling meal for $10 in Chicago would be $20 in SF. Chicago also has a ton of good to great diners, you don't see many in SF, there's some in SF but most aren't all that good. SF has a wider range of ethnic food but has less Indian food. I find that Chinese food and Indian food in SF is not that great. There's a lot of great Japanese places in SF where you can get good katsu curry or whatever but I rarely feel really satisfied with the sushi I get in the Bay Area.
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Old 10-27-2011, 12:11 PM
 
Location: Oakland, CA
1,148 posts, read 2,984,668 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by legal_eagle View Post
Yes, we are in a "golden age" of dining at the moment. The new, young chefs are apparently redefining and sophisticating California cuisine. GQ ran a story a couple of months ago stating that SF is at the top of the pack among all US cities.
Oh yeah, here is the article

I will enjoy seeing how much further this tide of dining goes- I've got my spork and knife ready and am ready to eat away.

Last edited by mini_cute; 10-27-2011 at 12:42 PM..
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Old 10-27-2011, 12:16 PM
 
Location: Oakland, CA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gone down south View Post
I don't know if you'd call it a "Golden Age", but SF dining is going through a pretty bright spot now.
There's a lot of interesting, challenging, well thought out restaurants out there right now - but of course if you're not a hard core foodier you'd never even notice.
Yeah, I feel like there are new restaurants opening all the time and since I only dine out 2 times a week I won't be able to try them all if this rate continues (though I am not complaining =) ). I think the food scene right now is very innovative, creative and healthy. As for the comfort food joints, not so many. Although for comfort food I do like Hard Knox Cafe in Dogpatch.

Looking forward to Wo Hing General Store of the famed Charles Phan opening in the Mission. Now that is an interesting concept- Asian street food but made a little more gourmet. I want to try their take on congee and Dan Dan noodles.

I also want to add that one of my native NYCer friends came to visit and at first she thought the food in NYC is better. But by the time the weekend came and we went to Off the Grid, which she was impressed with (she says they don't have that there at least not on the level that it is here) and I took her to Hard Knox Cafe, she changed her mind and says the food in SF is better.

On an unrelated side note, she says this is what is better in SF:

- the food
- the men (she thought there were hot guys everywhere, even guys who work behind the stands at the farmers markets- not that they are not worthy of admiration just I usually am not looking when I am shopping for produce)
- the laid back pace of life if that is what you want
- physically fit people (she was impressed by how there were people jogging everywhere)
- more stylish dressing on Asian women
- the weather

Last edited by mini_cute; 10-27-2011 at 12:24 PM..
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Old 10-27-2011, 12:18 PM
 
Location: Oakland, CA
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Originally Posted by mayorhaggar View Post
Ok, just wondering. I could see some local governmental office or chamber of commerce thing paying people to drum up interest in things like biking legislation or condos on a site like this.
Haha, well glad you are staying wary of such things mayorhaggar
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Old 10-27-2011, 12:32 PM
 
Location: Oakland, CA
1,148 posts, read 2,984,668 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mayorhaggar View Post
Compared with Chicago, portions in SF are about half the size and twice as expensive. A filling meal for $10 in Chicago would be $20 in SF. Chicago also has a ton of good to great diners, you don't see many in SF, there's some in SF but most aren't all that good. SF has a wider range of ethnic food but has less Indian food. I find that Chinese food and Indian food in SF is not that great. There's a lot of great Japanese places in SF where you can get good katsu curry or whatever but I rarely feel really satisfied with the sushi I get in the Bay Area.
Yeah, I agree there aren't so many great diners here in SF. Like I don't really dig Mel's that much. I think there were more a decade or so back. When I came to visit SF, I remember stopping at a couple of all-American diners which were charmingly owned by old Chinese folks.

I tried Red's Java House on the Embarcadero simply because Anthony Bourdain made a visit there. I ordered what he ordered: chili cheese fries (good) and double burger - no beer like he got. Well all I can say is that that stuff was pure MAN FOOD!!!

Yes, while SF has a lot of Chinese restaurants and Indian perhaps, they aren't stellar. I think this is due to the Chinese flight to the suburbs. I think the peninsula is becoming ever-more Asianized as affluent Chinese prefer to live there than in the city. Many wealthy older Chinese-Americans actually like living the typical American dream of large house in a quiet, safe suburb, big yard, big luxury cars, and shopping trips to the mall- and most of all they are big on their kid's education so moving to a city with great schools (not something SF excels in) is a no brainer for them. As such, they take their money with them to the peninsula and so the good Chinese restaurants follow. Same thing with the Indians too I suspect. This phenomenon also occurs down in the LA area- the absolute best and reputed Chinese restaurants are actually in the suburbs east of Los Angeles city- Monterey Park, San Gabriel, etc. And interestingly, this also seems to have occurred in Vancouver, BC as the suburban city of Richmond is where the good Chinese food is at- not in the downtown/Chinatown area of Vancouver.

Hey, where do you get good Japanese katsu curry in SF? I haven't identified my go-to spot for that yet.

I haven't found good sushi in SF either- maybe it was due to the Japanese getting removed and interned at camps back in the day? Or like if you want to have good sushi in the city, you have to pay big $$$$.

Last edited by mini_cute; 10-27-2011 at 12:47 PM..
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Old 10-27-2011, 01:21 PM
 
Location: South Korea
5,242 posts, read 13,043,351 times
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Best katsu curry I've had at a fair price is either Osakaya in Japantown which is a sit-down place or Muracci's on Kearny downtown which is takeout though they have like 4 stools. There's always a line at Muracci's but they get your food out pretty fast.

A good diner in SF is It's the Tops on Market by Valencia, really good pancakes. Best pancakes I've had in the Bay Area though are at Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe which is in the middle of the desolate warehouse zone in Emeryville.
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Old 10-27-2011, 04:30 PM
 
Location: Oakland, CA
1,148 posts, read 2,984,668 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mayorhaggar View Post
Best katsu curry I've had at a fair price is either Osakaya in Japantown which is a sit-down place or Muracci's on Kearny downtown which is takeout though they have like 4 stools. There's always a line at Muracci's but they get your food out pretty fast.

A good diner in SF is It's the Tops on Market by Valencia, really good pancakes. Best pancakes I've had in the Bay Area though are at Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe which is in the middle of the desolate warehouse zone in Emeryville.

Thank you! Look forwarding to trying them out. Although one of the Tops on Market reviews on yelp.com scared me- they ordered toast and one of the pieces had a bite already taken out of it.
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Old 10-27-2011, 04:33 PM
 
Location: Oakland, CA
1,148 posts, read 2,984,668 times
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Hmmm, relevant article on the best pizza joint in USA Today just came out:

Great American Bites: Is the USA's best pizzeria in San Francisco? - USATODAY.com
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