What Food Is San Francisco Known For? (+ Where To Find The 16 Best Restaurants)
Want to know what food San Francisco is known for? We’ve got you covered with everything you need to know, plus where to find these foods!
San Francisco is known for a wide variety of cuisines.
In particular, there are a few standouts that most visitors make a point to try.
The top 3 must try foods in San Francisco are:
1️⃣ Sourdough bread bowls with clam chowder
2️⃣ Chinese food from Chinatown
3️⃣ Italian food on Columbus Ave.
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What Food Is San Francisco Known For?
One food San Francisco is known for is sourdough bread bowls, especially from the Boudin Bakery.
You’ll especially want to try clam chowder in a bread bowl.
Chinese food is also popular in San Francisco due to their world famous Chinatown.
About half of all locals of Asian descent in San Francisco are Chinese because it was such a popular immigration point back in the 1800s, so obviously there would be great Chinese food here.
Lastly, another food San Francisco is known for is their Italian food.
If you take a stroll down Columbus Ave you’ll find all the best Italian restaurants in town.
Where To Find All The Best Foods San Francisco Is Known For
This list consists of some of the best restaurants in all of San Francisco.
It’s broken down by neighborhood and includes Pier 39, Columbus Ave, Chinatown, Embarcadero, plus some miscellaneous sweets and treats!
I can definitely say we enjoyed trying all of these places over the course of one week in San Francisco.
Consider this your complete food and drink guide to the city of San Francisco!
Best Restaurants On Pier 39
Also known as “Fisherman’s Wharf”, this is probably the most popular tourist spot in all of San Francisco.
This is where every restaurant serves clam chowder in a bread bowl, where the sea lions are always out sun bathing, where the aquarium is, and where many bay cruises depart from.
1. Biscoff Coffee Corner
If you’ve ever flown on an airplane, you’ve probably had a Biscoff cookie.
At the Biscoff Coffee Corner, you get a FREE Biscoff cookie with every coffee!
It’s usually pretty cold down at the pier, so a hot chocolate or a coffee here is a must.
2. Crab House
If you’re looking for a nice, upscale dinner, Crab House is the place to go.
The clam chowder here is different than anywhere else.
Since it is the “Crab House”, the clam chowder is topped with crab meat!
Since I am a pasta lover above all else, I also had the crab and shrimp fettuccine.
This one is made with fresh tomatoes, garlic, mushrooms, white wine, parsley, crab meat, and a creamy butter sauce.
3. Trish’s Mini Donuts
Some mini sugared donuts and a hot chocolate are perfect for a cold and rainy day in San Francisco.
These are always served hot and fresh too!
4. Wipeout Bar & Grill
Even though this is a super touristy spot, they do have a unique menu item that we did not come across anywhere else in the city.
We tried the Teriyaki Chicken Big Wave Bowl and the Sizzling Shrimp & Steak Big Wave Bowl.
The teriyaki chicken bowl had coconut rice, sauteed veggies, and grilled pineapple.
The shrimp and steak bowl had veggies, ginger, garlic, cilantro, basil, light soy sauce, and coconut rice.
Both are labeled as gluten free and they’re under $20!
Best Italian Restaurants On Columbus Ave
Consider Columbus Ave to be the Little Italy of San Francisco.
This street runs from the wharf area, diagonally to the Transamerica Pyramid in the Embarcadero / Financial District.
We walked this street almost every day to get where we needed to go and noticed so many restaurants we wanted to try.
So we went to as many as possible and honestly all of them were amazing.
5. Caffè Macaroni
This place keeps pretty busy, so you’ll want a reservation.
We were able to make a same day reservation when we visited.
When we have Italian food for dinner, we usually splurge to pair it with some wine.
The wine on the left is a Chianti and the right is a Merlot.
For dinner, we had the Maccheronata Al Forno, which is a baked pasta with tomato, ricotta, and mozzarella.
We also had the Spaghet E Purpet, which is spaghetti and meatballs neopolitan style, with beef and pork.
We were way too full after dinner for dessert, so we took a couple back to our room instead.
For dessert, we always love a good Tiramisu.
I think the other dessert was a special of the day and it was some sort of lemon-y cake.
6. Calzone’s Restaurant
We stopped in here for lunch one day while there was a torrential downpour.
They have a cute little outdoor space along the sidewalk that is under an awning.
For our appetizer we tried the Italian Potstickers, which had sausage on the inside and was covered in a soy rice vinegar.
Our entree was the Crab Melt Panini with a side of their soup of the day.
The crab melt had avocado, red onions, and monterey jack in it.
The soup was a Lentil and Bacon Soup.
7. Mona Lisa Ristorante
This was another great dinner similar to Caffe Macaroni.
I started dinner with a glass of wine and JP started his dinner with a salad.
Dinner also came with a complimentary basket of bread and olive oil and balsamic vinegar for dipping.
For dinner I had Spaghetti Bolognese and JP had Penne Alla Salvatore, which is baked penne in a tomato sauce with spicy Italian sausage and fresh mozzarella.
8. Tony’s Pizza Napoletana
This place was packed the entire time we were there.
I think we waited about 30 minutes or so for a table and this was a pretty late dinner after we went to Alcatraz.
Their menu is massive with virtually every type of pizza you could possibly ever want.
Many of them are award winning!
We decided on the Di Lucca Classic Italian Pizza.
This one is a blend of California tomatoes, sea salt, rosemary, sliced avorio mozzarella, basil, garlic, and olive oil.
This is also a good vegetarian option.
All Classic Italian pizzas here use vine-ripened tomato sauce and a hand tossed rustic medium crust.
We also shared a meatball sub because it just sounded so good.
Our whole trip was cold and rainy, so we had lots of comfort foods.
But here was my favorite part of the meal.
The wine!
The chef created their own “Super Tuscan Red Blend” wine that is available by the glass for dinner.
We also bought a bottle to take home with us!
This wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Sangiovese, Merlot, and Syrah.
The label is Gemignani and it’s out of Napa Valley.
By the glass is $15 and the bottle is $60.
It was actually the most expensive wine you could get by the glass.
One thing I loved about this restaurant was that the wine list had descriptions of every single wine so that you can actually find a wine that sounds good to you.
For dessert, we had another tiramisu!
Best Restaurants In Chinatown
San Francisco’s Chinatown is a must-visit.
It’s right in the middle of everything, so it would actually be hard to go to San Francisco and NOT visit Chinatown.
9. Chinatown Restaurant
This restaurant seemed massive.
They had downstairs dining rooms, upstairs dining rooms, and even balcony dining, which is what we did.
We started with some hot tea and a cute little complimentary sampler plate.
It had nuts, apple slices, grapes, and 2 pot stickers.
For our main course, we stuck with our staples, Beef Chow Mein and Pork Fried Rice.
We also ordered some Shanghai Soup Dumplings to round out our meal.
For dessert we got these complimentary scoops of ice cream.
10. Hon’s Wun-Tun House
We stopped by here on our way to an Escape Room for a quick little snack.
We thought we’d be starving after and wanted to get something small with the little bit of time we had.
Hon’s Wun-Tun House looked really popular, so we went in and just got an order of potstickers and some hot tea.
JP wanted to go back for dinner and try even more things, but we never made our way back to this spot.
Best Snacks and Treats Around San Francisco
These are some miscellaneous spots that don’t really fit into the other neighborhoods, but are still must-try places in San Francisco
11. Ghirardelli at Ghirardelli Square
You can’t go to San Francisco without going to Ghirardelli Square.
And you can’t go to Ghirardelli Square without going to Ghirardelli.
Literally.
There are 3 locations at Ghirardelli Square!
We were feeling snacky, so we shared a brownie sundae.
Mostly because I don’t really eat ice cream, being lactose intolerant, so JP eats the ice cream and I eat the brownie.
12. Insomnia Cookies
This chain is starting to pop up all over, but they’re just so good we had to stop in.
I had been seeing posts on Instagram about a new stuffed cookie they had that was supposed to be super chocolate-y, so of course that’s what I got.
I think JP’s cookie was something with peanut butter.
13. San Francisco Zoo Pizza
This one is a little more than a snack, but if you split it with somebody, then it’s a snack.
For a zoo, I was very impressed with their pizza.
It had so much flavor and was hot and fresh.
So if you go to the zoo and you’re hungry while you’re there, this pizza is what you should get!
Best Restaurants In The Embarcadero & Financial District
This is kind of a mix of the Embarcadero and the Financial District.
To me, they’re practically the same area, so we’re going to group them together.
14. Fish & Farm
This restaurant was just downstairs from our hotel, so one night JP ordered an Old Fashioned and some Crab Cakes to bring up to the room.
We weren’t hungry enough for dinner but still wanted to eat something before bed, so this was a great convenient option.
15. Ozumo
We featured their Santana Row location over the summer and they have what is now my favorite dessert of all time.
We loved it so much, we went two days in a row the first time we tried it.
So when I learned they had a San Francisco location, we obviously built it into our schedule.
At this point we’ve sampled quite a bit of their menu, but still found some new things to try.
I went with the Tokyo Gyu bento box.
This came with robata grilled wagyu new york strip steak, miso soup, rice, cucumber salad, and asparagus.
JP went with a couple sushi rolls.
The red one is the Ozumo roll and the green is the Bucho roll.
The Ozumo Roll is ozumo signature unagi, snow crab roll topped with tuna sashimi, avocado, unagi sauce and spicy aioli.
The Bucho Roll is an ebi tempura roll topped with snow crab, avocado, tobiko, and yuzu aioli.
Dessert is the Choco Chan.
This is a warm valrhona chocolate cake with Japanese whisky and banana ice cream.
This dessert is always the perfect temperature and just melts in your mouth!
16. The Melt
We saw a few of these locations as we made our way around town, and knew we just had to try it.
I absolutely love all things mac and cheese.
It does not matter what form.
One night, we didn’t want to go out and just wanted something quick and easy.
We remembered Melt was around the corner, so JP picked some up for us.
Little did we know, there is actually a Melt location in Irvine that we may have actually visited years ago.
But that’s okay, because now we know we can still have this meal whenever we want at home!
So first, of course I got a tray of mac n cheese because why not?
Then we both tried our own sandwiches.
As much as I just wanted to get the mac n cheese grilled cheese, I decided to try something different.
So instead we had the steak and cheese melt and the patty melt with some french fries.
If you like cheese, pasta, and bread, this is the place for you!
Where to Stay in San Francisco
Club Quarters San Francisco is located in the Financial District, just on the cusp of the Embarcadero.
It’s about a block or so away from the Transamerica Pyramid, which makes for an easy way to always find your way back each night.
This hotel is in walking distance to pretty much every restaurant listed above (except for the San Francisco Zoo).
It’s affordable, clean, pretty, and centrally located!
You can see a full walk-through of our room here in this video on our YouTube Channel!
👉 Click Here To Book Your Stay At Club Quarters San Francisco Today!
Fun Things To Do in San Francisco
Beyond enjoying all the delicious food San Francisco is known for, there are some world-class attractions to see here too.
➡ The Walt Disney Family Museum
The Walt Disney Family Museum is located atop The Presidio with the best views of The Golden Gate Bridge.
It takes you through Walt Disney’s childhood, animation years, the creation of Disneyland, his family life, and then his lasting legacy.
➡ Alcatraz Island Night Tour
There are plenty of boat tours that take you up to Alcatraz to see it up close, but the best one you can do is the night tour that takes you inside the prison.
You’ll take a self guided audio tour, attend ranger talks on your topic of choice, plus explore areas of Alcatraz that are generally closed to the public.
➡ Muir Woods National Monument
Just on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge is Muir Woods National Monument.
It has an easy walking trail, with plenty of options for longer hikes if you choose.
➡ All The Best Attractions In San Francisco To Visit
For an all-inclusive list of all the best things to do in San Francisco, we’ve got you covered.
Conclusion: What Food Is San Francisco Known For?
From the clam chowder sourdough bread bowls, to the authentic Chinatown restaurants, and the world-class Italian restaurants on Columbus Ave, there are so many great foods that San Francisco is known for.
