I lived in the San Francisco Bay area from 1993 to 1995. They claim that San Francisco has the most restaurants per capita than any other U.S. city. (Could somebody please explain the difference between per capita and per person?)
I'm not sure why I don't know more places in San Francisco for good food as there's got to be quite a few. It's probably because I didn't have a girlfriend while in San Francisco and so I didn't have a reason to try alot of places.
Alta Mira Hotel
This is an old hotel in Saulsalito. What makes it so cool is it's up in the hills above Saulsalito and from their patio they have a spectacular view of the bay looking back and San Francisco and Oakland. Their specialty is their Eggs Benedict which they serve during Sunday Brunch. Check it out.
House of Nanking
This is a very popular very small Chinese restaurant on the edge of Chinesetown near Columbia street. The food is excellent and when I went there there was a line waiting to get in. The place is small and they pack the people in. I'd say they put 30 people in the space for 20. They recently doubled in size so now they put 60 people in the space of 40. One thing they are supposed to be famous for is ordering for you. When we went there were about 8 people in our party and they did order for us. I personally thought that was really cool but then I'm not a picky eater and I like to try new stuff.
La Costena
This is probably the best place I've ever been for Burritos. They're cheap, they're big and they're delicious and they have all kinds of choices. The original is in the back of a Mexican convinence store. You through the store, through a doorway in the back and you come into a room with a Panda Kitchen like display. Behind the display they have about 8 types of meats like Carne Asada, Carnitas, Chicken Mole, Chicken Bistek, Pork Colorado etc. You order a regular Burrito and they grab a big tortilla and then you tell them what to put on it was they walk you down the counter. They've got 4 kinds of cheese including fresh cheese they make there. They've got all the standard extras and then they've got 5 kinds of salsas. You'd sware they wouldn't be able to close the tortilla but somehow they manage.
We call these Burritos the Obilisks of Sublime Terror named after these gun turrets from the game Total Eclipse. Jay Minn of Blam came up with that name and it fit both the turrets in the game and the burritos. One is easily enough for two meals. The really scare thing is that that's only a regular. They have a large using two of those same tortillas. Now that's Terror! Mmm Mmm!
Armadillo Willy's
This is the place for slow cooked pork and beef. Most everything is pretty good. They also claim to be the place that invented the deep friend stuffed jalapeno peppers. They are really good. They use cream cheese which I think makes them better than most places I've had them that use cheddar and jack or mozarella.
The Sticking Rose
This is a garlic restaurant. I like garlic so I tried it out. There is one in LA too but the one in LA is not nearly as cool looking as the one in San Francisco. The thing is though, I went with my friend Rose and we ordered an appitizer which was garlic cloves in butter with bread. You'd spoon the cloves on the bread and then eat it. Well we chowed it all down because it was yummy and then after dinner, for the next 2 hours or so we felt like we were going to pyuk at any moment. Fortunately after about 2 hours we felt all better but that was a close call.