San Francisco Bay Area: Your favorite things to do or places to go

[chiachu]

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I am not much of a club guy anymore, so can't really help you out there. I do like Mighty

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Good call El D

[El Diablo]

Kurt: "I could go on for a page about the eats in this neighborhood, so ask if you're interested." Yeah, would love to hear about your favorite places there. Taj Mahal is great for cheap Indian, Pakwan is good for even cheaper. Chai Yo is good for cheap Thai. Lots of other good cheap Vietnamese, fish and chips, etc. there. Some nicer restaurants around there too. What are some joints you like?

steel: " She is straight Newport Beach girl so dive bars are really out of the question." You might want to take her out on Chestnut/Fillmore/Union street for the Marina yuppie ex-frat-boy/sorority-girl bar tour. Tons of places around there on Chestnut and Union and on Fillmore between Chestnut and Union. Also a number of places in the Mission and in North Beach which are not quite like that but also fun and nice. Savoy in North Beach is always fun. Kell's is a blast - more of a fun, post-college party bar atmosphere - highly recommend it. Lot of good recs in Kurt's post. Describe in a little more detail what type of places you think would be ideal. As for Tenderloin bars, it's a little sparse in the middle. There are a number of high-end swanky bar/lounge places - Slide, Redwood Room, Rye, Ambassador, etc. and a number of really divey places. But not much in the middle. Oh, Swig is probably a good choice if you don't want it to be quite so pretentious.

[El Diablo]

c,

The Ramp, Zeitgeist, Pier 23, Americano. Four very different places that are all great when it's sunny. Zeitgeist and Americano can get pretty packed quickly on nice sunny days, though.

[KurtSF]

Hey, we're neighbors. Nice bars in the TL, eh? Well, there's the ones I mentioned:

Rye (@ Geary & Leavenworth) Concrete box with loud music and awesome drinks. Hip.

Ambassador (Geary & Leavenworth) Club feel, rather upscale, maybe a line, good looking crowd.

Speakeasy (O'Farell & Jones) Quiet with fancy drinks, speakeasy theme, by reservation only. Could be romantic.

Le Colonial (Taylor & Post, down Cosmo alley, in the middle of the block) Fancy French/Vietnamese restaurant with bar upstairs. They have a list of entertainment on their website. Really stylish. Super cool.


And many others:

Swig (Geary between Jones and Taylor) A no-cover dance club. It mostly sweeps up the tourists that want to dance and don't want to pay the cover at Ruby Skye a block away, but it can be fun. Kinda a meat market.

Bambuda Lounge (Eddy & Larkin) Super-hip SF lounge. Everything from tables, to beds, to a nice patio, DJs, and topped off with tasty and strong drinks. Nice place.

Red Room (Sutter & Jones) A bar with everything inside being red. Kinda a one trick pony, but its suave and the drinks'll get you loaded.

Lush Lounge (Polk & Post) Low-key gay bar. Might catch sight of some trannys leaving Divas across the street. Was super cool when they had live music, but now its just a nice mellow place to get a drink. Fruity cocktails, especially. There's a cool punk bar called Hemlock across the street too, but that might not be your friend's kind of thing.

Edinburgh Castle (Geary between Larkin and Polk) Brit-style pub, a real Guiness, Harp, fish and chips kind of place. There's a hidden room upstairs where they have rock bands play. Fun.

Clift (Geary & Taylor) Hotel bar, real chic decor and real high end. Wouldn't be surprised to see a celebrity in here. Access will be the issue. The doormen get real uppity about who they let in later in the evening when its crowded, saying hotel guests only, but if you look good enough or maybe grease him a little you can probably get in, or just go early and hang around until it fills up. Swank.

[KurtSF]

Edit to above. What I referred to as Speakeasy is actually called The Anti Saloon League. My bad.

I'll try to do some TL eats if I get the chance.

[jbird]

I didn't read through the whole thread, but I used to love going over to Sam's in Tiburon on a beautiful Saturday. Sit outside and sip cocktails while looking across the Bay at the city. I miss that [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[FastPlaySlow]

There's a place on West Portal called Submarine Subs. They make some really good deli sandwiches. My personal favorite is a super (large) pastrami, everything on it with avocado. It's about $8.

[Mano]

Things my wife and I do every trip to San Francisco:

Get drinks at the Beuna Vista - Irish Coffee when it's cooler, Martini's when it is warmer.

Eat at Scoma's - love the Clam Chowder.

Go to the Farmers Market.

Get an Ice Cream at Ghiridelli's

Walk through Chinatown and go through dozens of flea-market type shops and jewlery stores with mostley the same crap. Find a divey chinese food place there and try it out.

Spend an hour looking at all the Scotch in the liquor section at the cannery, and pick out a bottle I have never tried before.

Eat at my wife's favorite restaurant Spiazzo Cafe


Go to northbeach for some good Italian food.

Wander down Fisherman's Wharf

Eat Dim Sum at Yank Sing.

[Scorpion Man]

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Eat Dim Sum at Yank Sing.

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It's not cheap, but this is by far my favorite (not too fancy) business lunch in SF.

[turnipmonster]

quick question: I am thinking of taking my wife to sf for her birthday weekend in july. many of the hotels on expedia are 2-3 blocks from union square, is this an ok area to stay? I'm mainly interested in easy public transportation access, and not a super ghetto area.