Lay your best itinerary for only 1 full day (next Monday) in San Francisco. This wasn’t initially a planned trip but plane tickets will cause us to detour for one full day of lunch, dinner, nightcap then Breakfast before heading out. We probably will have dinner before the flight out as well, but for this excercise I’d love to hear what you’d attempt with only one full day in the city.
Oh if you have a favorite spot to stay for the night I’d appreciate that too.
Not a local, but we were there 2 weeks ago. We stayed at Omni on Calif Street (2 blocks to St Mary’s and 2 blocks to Tadich Grill). We loved the hotel and the location.
Dinner at Gary Danko was solid–very good food and terrific service.
Dim Sum lunch at Great Eastern was great. We went early to beat the lines.
Thirsty Bear Brewery was fun.
SFMOMA is a great museum.
We love strolling in Chinatown.
Since this is a wine forum, I’d skip all that other stuff and do a walking wine shop tour: Starting at Ferry Plaza Wine Merchants, up to Flatiron, jaunt over to K&L, short walk to Wine Club, longer walk to Arlequin, then if you’re energetic, down to tiny (but excellent and eclectic) Dig Wines. Between the walk and shopping at each stop, that should kill most of the day 
If you want more ordinary stuff, let us know any special interests, food, etc.
Even if I only buy one bottle at each shop it’s going to make walking tough, and I don’t like just looking at wine. My current thoughts are:
Lunch in Chinatown, trip to City Lights or other great book store? Trying to get into Benu for dinner (but have Zuni as backup, nightcap at ???, Tartine for breakfast.
I always have good luck with Omni, so I’ll check that out Scott, thanks
Robert, I should have had the TIC emoji in there
If you want an early dinner, one option is to line up at the door for Rich Table, and grab a counter spot. I think they open at 5:30, but people will start lining up half an hour or more before that.
Thanks Alan that wasn’t really on my radar, they do have a 5pm which is early, but I realize I’m begging at this point. Would you do the tasting menu? Lots of reasonable cool stuff on the wine list for sure.
Any opinions on foreign cinema? Is state Bird possible as a walk up…is it worth it?
PM me and I’ll give you Alan’s address. You can TP his house. It’s fun for the whole family.
Can you at least wait until I get cleaned up from the last visitor?
Robert, menu would be up to you. We’ve always just ordered a la carte. And yes, they do have a good list, usually some good BTG options as well. Foreign Cinema is excellent, though I think i’d pick Rich Table first. State Bird is a puzzlement for me, about half the dishes are great, the other half just ordinary or miss the mark.
Haven’t been to Foreign Cinema.
We’ve been to State Bird twice. On the first visit, the food was spectacular. The second time, the food was merely pretty good.
Rich Table has been excellent each of the three times we have been there.
Hong Kong Lounge II has great dim sum and is now our favorite. Yank Sing is a San Francisco institution.
Alright I think I’ve narrowed down to
Very early at Rich Table
Late at The Progress or foreign cinema
We’ve never done Chinese in SF so what’s the call for lunch in ChinaTown?
R&G Lounge is the tourist destination that is actually decent, though pricey. If you want similar Hong Kong Cantonese style food that’s as good, in a grungier setting, but closer to North Beach for dessert/espresso at the Italian cafes afterwards, try Yuet Lee.
If you want Sichuan (aka spicy), Z&Y does it credibly.
Dim sum? President Obama placed a lunchtime to-go order at Great Eastern back in 2012. He didn’t partake at Z&Y, though there are pics of him shaking hands right outside of Z&Y.
Do NOT go to House of Nanking, unless you want the same syrupy sweet sauce on just about everything you order. Tourists love this place, for some reason.
I like R&G the best of the Chinatown options. Great eastern is pretty mediocre.
Pass on the Progress. Good food but kind of boring. Foreign Cinema is solid and interesting setting. If you do choose to go to R&G, go downstairs where the locals eat. Disclaimer though is most of the Chinese food in Chinatown is mediocre and old school.
Thanks for the continued tips all. Obviously the crab at RG but are there any other can’t miss dishes? Do you need a lunch Reservation or can you walk in at 2?
No need for lunch reservation @ R&G, especially if you’re going to walk in at 2PM.
There are folks who love the R&G Special Beef dish. YMMV…
The black cod/sea bass there is really good; im also fond of the duck, which is among the better ones I’ve had in the Bay Area since hunan homes closed.
I loved that place and used to eat there often when I worked in the neighborhood.
Hunan Home’s closed…is this really recent? There are Yelp reviews from earlier this month, and no indication they’ve closed.
We used to always do Tosca for an after-dinner drink. I don’t like the vibe as much after the redo/update, but its still a pretty cool spot.
The one in the peninsula did, Los Altos.