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Top 9 Restaurants in San Francisco Bay Area

 

By GraceAnn Walden

Food History Tours

 

 

Perbacco

230 California St., near Sansome St.
San Francisco
(415) 955-0663

Cuisine: Northern Italian

Pluses: The housemade salumi, the risottos, pasta with long-cooked pork
sugo

Minuses: It’s downtown, so the look and vibe is corporate. The pork
pate was so-so.

Don’t miss: Again the salumi, the pastas, the duck breast and the lamb
shank.

Prices: Appetizer $8-10; entrees $20-29

Overview: This is not your father’s trattoria. The style is more like a
modern restaurant in Italy, with a sophisticated look that matches the
food. I love lunch here, if nothing else to watch all the movers and
shakers melting over Chef Stefan’s food. I would walk across broken
glass for the duck breast over chestnut polenta. And I have trouble
deciding between the little priest’s, silky house made pasta caps
filled with pork and cabbage, or the wild mushroom risotto.

 

Where to stay: Not all of us have the luxury of living near these fabulous restaurants. For those who love to travel (and we do), a beautiful hotel closeby is the Omni San Francisco Hotel at Nob Hill. Fly into SFO (San Francisco Airport), catch an affordable taxi to your hotel just a short distance away, and get out walking to explore shopping and GraceAnn Walden's tried and true food ratings. The hotel was built as a bank in 1926 and offers an incredible wealth of history and grace. Florentine Renaissance architecture includes Italian marble flooring, Austrian crystal chandeliers and elegance beyond compare.

 

While boat trips around the bay and visits to Alcatraz are top rated, don't miss the wonderful museums in Golden Gate Park. One of our favorites is the De Young Museum. The architecture is unique, and the collections are world class.

 

 

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