Six In Season Restaurants
Six summer restaurants worth dining in
WRITER Daisy Barringer
Dining rituals take shape slowly: a weekly burger run after the beach, martinis beneath piano music, sushi ordered before a long afternoon of meetings, a second glass of wine that quietly turns into dinner. This summer’s most memorable openings are already settling into the rhythms of the city, one reservation, line, and standing order at a time.
FINE DINING, LOOSENED UP
RESTAURANT NAIDES
Chef Patrick Gabon and partner Celine Wuu have taken over the former Sons & Daughters space and turned it into one of San Francisco’s most personal new tasting-menu restaurants. Named after Gabon’s mother, the Nob Hill restaurant draws from Filipino flavors and preservation techniques, but sidesteps the more predictable luxury-signifier moves of modern tasting menus.
Instead, the meal feels loose in the best way, more interested in engagement than fine-dining perfection. The pandesal course is interactive and a little messy by design, with chicken liver pâté, sisig-inspired toppings, and sharp atchara pickles layered however you like, while dishes like a clarified sinigang still deliver the bright, sour comfort that makes the original so beloved. The beverage pairings are just as compelling, especially the nuanced nonalcoholic options. The result is a tasting menu that feels ambitious, deeply personal, and far less self-serious than many of its peers.
708 Bush Street
restaurantnaides.com
NOB HILL GETS ITS LIVING ROOM BACK
THE BIG FOUR
Some restaurants are built for discovery. Others are built for return visits. The Big Four has always belonged firmly in the second category, which is part of why its years-long absence left such a noticeable void on Nob Hill. Now reopened inside the restored The Huntington Hotel, the storied dining room has wisely resisted the urge to reinvent itself. The dark wood paneling, deep green booths, glowing brass, nightly piano music, and martinis cold enough to fog the glass are all still here, polished up rather than overhauled.
The menu follows the same philosophy. Classics like chicken pot pie, crab Louie, cioppino, and Parker House rolls remain at the center of things, updated just enough to feel fresh without losing the comfort people came for in the first place. But the real appeal may still be the bar, where hotel guests, neighborhood regulars, and dressed-up date night couples naturally blur into one another over a second martini and another piano standard. In a city increasingly drawn to the new, The Big Four is a welcome reminder of the pleasures of returning to somewhere familiar.
1075 California Street
https://www.thehuntingtonhotel.com/the-big-four/
CATNIP FOR NATURAL WINE LOVERS
FAT CAT & THE MANTIS
Fat Cat & The Mantis brings together two projects that already had devoted followings around San Francisco: Jessica Bell’s Fat Cat Wine Club and Kevin Tang’s Vietnamese pop-up Claws of Mantis. Now settled into the former Outer Orbit space on Mission Street, the restaurant and wine bar feels shaped as much by community as concept, folding natural wine, Vietnamese bar snacks, and a distinctly queer, convivial energy into one deeply charming neighborhood hangout.
The space mirrors that spirit with a light-filled front “catio” for afternoon wine and sunshine, a long U-shaped bar framed by booths and tables, and, of course, plenty of cat tchotchkes. Tang, whose background includes Mister Jiu’s and Nari, keeps the food playful and deeply snackable: crispy rice crackers topped with trout dip, Vietnamese pickles, oysters, skewers, and small plates that work just as well for a full dinner as they do alongside a second glass of wine. The whole place feels colorful, loose, and genuinely delighted by the idea of people lingering together—something San Francisco could use a little more of right now.
3215 Mission Street
fatcatsf.com
THE MARINA GROWS UP (A LITTLE)
LOBALITA
Lobalita arrives in the former Tipsy Pig space with exactly the kind of confidence that feels right at home on Chestnut Street: low lighting, strong cocktails, a packed patio, and a room full of people who seem refreshingly open to talking to someone besides the friends with whom they arrived. From the team behind Bar Darling, Mamacita, and Padrecito, the modern Mexican cantina brings a moodier, more grown-up energy to the block without losing the neighborhood’s appetite for a good night out.
The sprawling space balances dark woods, red diner stools, and one of the Marina’s better people-watching patios, while the menu leans heavily into tequila, mezcal, and snacks built for another round. Cocktails arrive topped with mini elotes, chamoy, mole, or espresso-cinnamon salt; the food follows suit with shrimp aguachile, duck carnitas tostadas, and taquitos wrapped around peanut-coconut mole. Lobalita knows exactly what kind of night people came to Chestnut Street to have … and delivers accordingly.
2231 Chestnut Street
lobalita.com
WORTH THE WAIT ON NORIEGA
MALLIARDS AND TWO PITCHERS BREWING
Maillards and Two Pitchers Brewing Co. feel perfectly suited to the Outer Sunset, where people generally prefer things casual, especially if there’s a good burger and a cold beer involved. Just blocks from Ocean Beach, the Noriega Street taproom pairs one of San Francisco’s most sought-after smashburger operations with the Oakland brewery known for fruit-forward radlers and affordable pours.
There’s almost always a line winding through the bar, but nobody seems particularly bothered by it. People grab beers while they wait, catch up around crowded tables, and keep a casual eye out for an open seat. Burgers arrive wrapped in paper with lacy-edged patties, caramelized shallots, gooey cheese, and beef tallow fries, while the room stays loud, casual, and constantly in motion with trays of burgers and pitchers of beer weaving through the crowd. The whole place captures the version of the Outer Sunset people love most: unfussy, social, and happiest with a burger and beer somewhere near the ocean.
3821 Noriega Street
malliardssf.com
twopitchers.com/oceanbeach
THE ART OF THE LUNCH BREAK
DINING YAMAMOTO
Dining Yamamoto approaches takeout sushi with an unexpected level of care. At the SoMa restaurant, Chef Yukinori Yamamoto, formerly of the Mina Group, prepares chirashi, nigiri, and bento-style lunches with the kind of precision more commonly associated with omakase counters. Delicate rows of fish, carefully arranged accompaniments, tiny soy sauce droppers, and elegantly packed paper boxes make even a weekday desk meal feel surprisingly polished.
Bluefin tuna, salmon, uni, ikura, and sweet shrimp layer across kaisen chirashi over seasoned rice, while nigiri sets include touches like seared tuna, uni-topped scallop, toro, caviar, and truffle soy. The result is sushi that feels luxurious without demanding a special occasion or even more than a lunch break.
167 11th Street
dining-yamamoto.square.site/