Where To Eat Out During the Holidays: San Francisco
San Francisco Restaurants
A16
This energetic Marina restaurant features chef Nate Appleman’s superb Southern Italian dishes—most notably his ethereal pork-and-ricotta meatballs. Groups of six or more can order special holiday menus a week in advance in November and December, choosing from dishes meant to be shared family-style, like porchetta, whole roasted duck and cannoli stuffed with fresh ricotta and served with cocoa nibs and candied orange peel (from $40 per person).
Plus: San Francisco’s Newest Tastemakers
The Dining Room at the Ritz Carlton
The Japanese-French sensibility of chef Ron Siegel (an F&W Best New Chef 1999) yields dishes like grilled Kobe beef accompanied by mirin-scented rice. The restaurant will offer a six-course prix fixe Christmas Day tasting menu, including foie gras with a spicy huckleberry compote and grilled lobster accented with shiso leaf ($175).
Open Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Spruce
This idiosyncratic Presidio Heights spot from Mark Sullivan (an F&W Best New Chef 2002) is accented with chocolate-mohair walls and oversize faux-ostrich chairs. As much as 80 percent of the produce that goes into his contemporary American dishes comes from the restaurant’s own farm. Spruce will be serving a four-course prix fixe Christmas Eve tasting menu that includes truffle-roasted guinea hen with braised Belgian endives.
Open Christmas Eve.
Yank Sing
This excellent dim sum house not only serves impeccable minced Kurobuta pork dumplings on the traditional rolling carts, but also offers amazing sliced Peking duck in steamed buns.
Open Christmas Eve and Christmas Day until 4 p.m.
Zuni Café
San Francisco’s much beloved Zuni Café, overseen by chef Judy Rodgers for more than 25 years, is famous for its simple, impeccably executed dishes like the Caesar salad and the roast chicken for two.
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