Six New Restaurants Getting It Right
This season’s restaurants bring an emphasis on food that shows its work
WRITER Daisy Barringer
There’s a certain clarity to San Francisco’s newest restaurant openings: an emphasis on food that shows its work. Not in the way your algebra teacher required, but in batter that’s fermented and fried, eggs set just right, skin crisped over flame. Familiar forms—bistros, pubs, tasting menus, cocktail bars—handled with care, where execution matters more than novelty. The common thread isn’t concept, but how the food is cooked, handled, and eaten.
A WOLF WITH TABLE MANNERS
WOLFSBANE
Wolfsbane marks a welcome return for Rupert and Carrie Blease after Lord Stanley, this time in Dogpatch, with a restaurant that leans into seasonality and texture. Dishes arrive with small moments of ceremony, from tableside pours to playful presentations, without tipping into fussiness. The experience can unfold as a multi-course tasting menu or be approached à la carte, with standout dishes ranging from the beloved buttermilk cabbage with uni bottarga to delicately layered shellfish and carefully handled duck. The room balances refinement and warmth, pairing high ceilings and sculptural lighting with an unhurried pace. The full bar hums without pulling focus, making the whole place easy to settle into.
wolfsbanesf.com
NORTH BEACH, IN GOOD MEASURE
EQUAL PARTS
Tucked into a storied North Beach address long associated with red-sauce Italian dining, Equal Parts feels deliberately out of step with its surroundings, in a good way. The space nods to Mexico City and Tulum through arches, greenery, and warm, natural textures. In the kitchen, Melissa Perfit, a “Top Chef ” alum, leans into seafood-driven California cooking, with dishes like green cioppino with pan con tomate, roasted branzino with brown butter, and lamb ribs finished with tomatillo and mint. Cocktails—built around tequila, mezcal, and house infusions like grilled pineapple or brown butter bourbon—follow suit. Designed for flexibility, it works just as well for a drink at the bar as it does for a full meal. equalpartssf.com
THAT'S RICH—A BISTRO NEXT DOOR
RT BISTRO
If any restaurant in San Francisco needed a spinoff, it’s Rich Table, long one of the city’s hardest reservations thanks to its ingredient-driven cooking and deep attention to detail. RT Bistro, from chefs and owners Sarah and Evan Rich, is the answer: a more everyday place to eat their food, set in a warm, compact dining room that still feels unmistakably Rich Table, without dialing back what makes it special. It feels like a neighborhood spot, even if reservations are already a required part of the routine.
The menu is concise and seasonal, built around crudos, pastas (including an unexpected—but obviously delicious—one-layer winter squash lasagna baked in the wood-fired oven), and a short list of mains that change with the market. The burger, charred over a wood fire and served with triple-cooked fries, was once capped at a dozen a night at Rich Table. Here, you’ll spot one on nearly every table. The dish you’ll keep dreaming of, though, is the porcini donut with Kaluga caviar, and arguably even more craveable than the famous one next door. Save room at the end: The Meyer lemon icebox pie is not to be skipped. richtablesf.com/location/rt-bistro
OLD-WORLD COOKING, HERE AND NOW
LA CIGALE
Photo—Seth Boor
At this tiny Glen Park restaurant, dinner unfolds around an open hearth. Chef Joseph Magidow cooks Occitan-inspired dishes over said hearth for a single communal table, using medieval-style tools, like a flambadou and raclette over flame, and ingredients foraged close to home. There are no reservations, tips, or surprise fees, just a $140 tasting menu that slowly becomes a long procession of dishes, from smoky sausages and hearty stews to beautifully handled duck and seasonal vegetables. It can take patience to get in, but once you do, the experience feels intimate, Old World, and deeply satisfying. la-cigale-sf.com
A PROPER PUB, DOWN TO THE MARROW
DINGLES PUBLIC HOUSE
Dingles Public House brings a proper British pub to Hayes Valley. Tucked into the former Pläj space at the Inn at the Opera, the room feels immediately familiar, with British racing green walls, dark leather booths, quirky artwork, and a glowing fireplace. The menu does exactly what a pub menu should, starting with Scotch eggs with tender whites and jammy yolks, moving through flaky sausage rolls and fish and chips with tartar, curry sauce, and mushy peas, and landing on a deeply rich beef-and-Guinness pie finished with bone marrow. Sundays come with a roast beef and Yorkshire pudding included, as they should. With a proper pint in hand and a bar that encourages a second round, it’s unabashedly English and all the better for it. dinglespublichouse.com
ALREADY ON OUR RADAR
MARIA ISABEL
From the team behind Dalida, Maria Isabel brings a contemporary Mexican point of view to Presidio Heights, grounded in chef Laura Ozyilmaz’s roots along Mexico’s Pacific coast. The menu draws from regions including Guerrero and Sinaloa, moving between seafood-forward coastal dishes and richer, chile-driven plates. Set in the former Ella’s American Kitchen, the space is split between a brighter, lively dining room and a darker, more intimate bar, offering two distinct ways to settle in and introducing a confident new voice to the city’s Mexican dining landscape. mariaisabelsf.com