Heading to San Francisco, recommendations?

[smh]

The girlfriend and I are planning a long-weekend trip to San Francisco for mid-January. We'll have the Lonely Planet in hand, but I'd love to hear any recommendations from Raggers on where to eat and drink, things to see, neighborhoods to check out, and even where to stay as we are currently without a hotel reservation.

Thanks!

[kucer]

Hotel Triton is a great boutique hotel right at the gates of Chinatown. Bjork and Ray Davies (separately) stayed there when we were there back in 2001. They had a free happy hour in the lobby that was fun.

http://www.hoteltriton.com/

[chingon]

Rose Garden Inn in Berkeley for hotel.

Papalote in the Mission for NorCal mex.

Heidrun Meadery in Point Reyes for the greatest hangover of you life.

Richmond/Golden Gate park for "walking around drinking/eating" day.

[chrizow]

we've stayed at hotel nikko in the financial district and it was cool. nice views. we had some kind of great, online deal. it's obviously geared towards japanese travelers, which is awesome. the sushi place in the hotel was the best i've ever had. we also stayed at the Elements, which was basically a hostel in the mission district. the price and location were right, though it's pretty spartan. nice view from the rooftop bar!

toronado - divey bar with great beer selection on haight. the "food menu" is for a sausage joint next door, which will "deliver" to you.

bourbon and branch - "speakeasy" in a hidden location that requires reservations and a password. the cocktails and ambience are great and worth the cheesy speakeasy/password cliche (esp. if you like bourbon - the bourbon list is like 10 pages long!).

foreign cinema - restaurant in the mission, which projects foreign films on a wall inside in a courtyard type area. very cool and urban space and good food.

hog island oyster co. - if you like oysters, go here. the ferry building is kind of cool too, and you can dine outside on the water.

ritual - great coffee.

mission chinese - go here. wait in line. do it. maybe the coolest place ever.

coolest neighborhood for us was the mission. very gentrifying/hipster area, but the on-the-ground experience is a bustling latino neighborhood. the main north-south streets are valencia and mission, and the side streets between them contain wonders as well. every block is basically 75% mexican restaurants/stores/wig shops/lucha libre mask stores/etc., 25% cool bars/restos/cafes/shops. the hipster quotient is higher on valencia than mission. get off at the mission/24th stop and walk around. lots of great taquerias and "mission" style burritos.

chinatown is a trip and worth going through.

i find the financial district / union square to be very urban and bustling, but kinda bland in a michigan ave kind of way.

north beach is a cool neighborhood. historically italian, so lots of pizza and italian restaurants, but it's mostly just a dense, cool urban neighborhood. the famous City Lights bookstore is great. we had a slice of pizza at some random little place and it was 100% better than any pizza in KC.

walking along the entire length of the haight is kind of entertaining, but kind of predictable too. lots of hippies and weirdos, incense stores, record stores, etc. basically the archetype for "counterculture" neighborhood. the Zam Zam is kind of a cool little bar on haight, probably hasn't changed in 40 years.

[chrizow]

we also went to a bar called Amnesia (or something) on Valencia, which a server at foreign cinema recommended. it was pretty cool. a small, dark, bordello-type space with live music. the night we were there we saw a great "gypsy jazz" type band. worth checking the calendar.

[cknab1]

Not surprising you had a hard time remembering the name.

[brewcrew1000]

I would not stay in Union Square/Financial District if I were you, its super overrated and there isnt a lot of great restaurants in the area and its full of bums. I think this Hotel called Metro Hotel in Lower Haight is a great place to stay and you can get your own little apartment at this place for like 120 a night, i believe its the 1010 page room but they have other rooms for really cheap, its a younger crowd in the place. Also, there is a great dive bar called the Page right across the street.

If you stay at the Hotel Metro you will be close to everything and the N Juddah Metro Line is super close which will get you anywhere you need, plus you will be in walking distance to the Mission District, Haight Asbury and The Castro.

http://www.metrohotelsf.com/

[chrizow]

you should also look into airbnb. for what you might pay for a cheap hotel room, you can rent someone's entire apartment in a cool neighborhood. we did this in sonoma and had a great time.

[TheBigChuckbowski]

you should also look into airbnb. for what you might pay for a cheap hotel room, you can rent someone's entire apartment in a cool neighborhood. we did this in sonoma and had a great time.

Yeah, we did this and stayed in Lower Haight. It wasn't necessarily super cheap but it was cheaper than hotels and it was nice being in an actual neighborhood whereas hotels usually aren't. Did the same thing in Seattle and Vancouver and was totally worth it.

[bbqboy]

http://www.sfgate.com/art/article/Photo ... 081951.php