Want breaking Bay Area food news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here to receive Off Menu, where you’ll find restaurant news, gossip, tips, and hot takes every week.

For anyone prepared to ask us, “Where should I eat tonight?” here’s our answer: the Hot List, our opinionated guide to the top restaurants and bars in San Francisco right now. Some of the picks are new and noteworthy; others are rediscovered favorites. All are worth your while, whether for an elegant cocktail and a cheese-soaked burger or some of the Bay Area’s best — and most creative — barbecue. We’ll update the list at the top of every month.

For more restaurant recommendations, check out our series Eat Here Now. 

And if you’re ready to raise a glass, let Swig City be your guide.

Comfort food — with a dash of luxury
You’ve got big shoes to fill when you take over the space that once held the beloved Universal Cafe. Nevertheless, husband-and-wife team Parker and Caroline Brown took the plunge, opening a restaurant that’s as committed to providing a quality audio experience — including rotating nightly DJs — as it is to serving top-notch comfort food. Parker, a veteran of the now-closed Michelin-starred restaurant Aphotic, leads the kitchen, but this time his work is tweezer-free. His casual approach reflects his Chicago roots — that is, if cheese fries came with caviar, as they do here. Among the best dishes are gnocchi with short rib and giardiniera (think Chicago beef) and fish with butter beans and salsa macha. If you want to ball out, there’s a $35 gluttonous burger with a side of bone marrow.

The ultimate downtown dining experience 
Star chef Tyler Florence opened Wayfare Tavern nearly a decade and a half ago and moved the downtown restaurant to a grandiose new home earlier this year. Fans can rest assured that many of the most popular qualities remain the same: There are still hot popovers at the start of the meal, which will be enjoyed in a room that feels like a very fancy hunting lodge. The steak tartare, served with a golden egg yolk at its center and house-made potato chips on the side, is as excellent as ever, as are the doughnuts, which should absolutely never be skipped. The food may not wow you, but Wayfare 2.0 is still elite downtown dining. 

A hidden gem in the heart of Hayes Valley
Longtime San Francisco food lovers may know the name Luke Sung, the chef who made waves in the early 2000s with his Cal-French restaurant Isa. Well, as of May, he’s back in action, this time cooking small, French-inspired plates at Kis Cafe, an under-the-radar wine bar in Hayes Valley. Sung teamed up with family friend Eric Lin to open the neighborhood-focused spot in the former Petit Crenn space. The wine list is packed with Old World selections — white Burgundy, Lambrusco, and, yes, Champagne — priced at less than $20 a glass and $75 a bottle. Pair it with chicken liver mousse spiked with cognac, grilled hangar steak, or a bowl of mussels in fragrant white-wine sauce.  

Elegant cocktails and flavor-packed Thai-Japanese cuisine
San Francisco’s swankiest new cocktail bar is tucked away on the ground floor of a SoMa office building. Bar Shoji is the shochu-soaked counterpart to Cafe Shoji, a coffee and matcha counter that’s become a popular caffeine stop for downtown workers during the day. The food and drinks come from Ingi “Shota” Son and Intu-on Kornnawong, established talents known for, respectively, sushi and Thai food. Elegant cocktails include the Kabosu, a riff on a margarita starring the rare Japanese citrus for which the drink is named. Even better are the Thai- and Japanese-inspired dishes, like uni and amaebi donburi, halibut cevich in tom kha sauce, and the highly Instagramable fondue burger. 

The spiritual successor to 2024’s viral sushi spot
All-you-can-eat-and-drink sushi, sake, and hot pot for $19.95? Really? Such a happy-hour deal is indeed possible at the aptly named Party Pig, which opened a few weeks ago in a former chain pizzeria space on Geary Boulevard, repurposing the old salad bar to hold a galaxy of items to dunk into broth. Owner Kevin Chen, who operated the Mission’s much-missed all-you-can-eat sushi sensation Ko until it closed in February, believes a larger space in a better location is the key to success. Be aware that Party Pig has rules: a 90-minute time limit, restrictions on how much patrons can order per round, and charges for uneaten food. But it is unquestionably time to party.

Indo-Tex barbecue arrives in SF
Five years after its delivery-only debut and 18 months after its transformation into a downtown Alameda halal barbecue restaurant, Fikscue has brought its Indonesian-Texan smoked meats to Chase Center. Having softly opened in time for the Golden State Valkyries’ first exhibition game in May, husband-and-wife team Fik and Reka Saleh are serving brisket and Dino Ribs in a limited capacity (as in, only during Warriors and Valkyries home games) for now — but if wait times at the mothership are any indication, weekend lines may reach 90 minutes. Definitely don’t skip the batagor, vegetarian fried dumplings with peanut sauce.

The city’s first “interactive darts” bar
Augmented-reality pub games are the draw at the former Osha Thai location, which has been repurposed into an Art Deco gastropub a stone’s throw from Moscone Center. But the food and drinks are the real bull’s-eye at Golden Eye Social. Beyond the six lanes of electronic darts, customers will be dazzled by upscale fare like bone marrow with caper gremolata ($18) and seven-layer tuna tartare ($22) gilded with chive sour cream and marinated salmon roe. On the cocktail menu are some impressive offerings, all $15, like the Combination Finish, a gussied-up gin gimlet with a slice of cucumber wrapped around the glass. This might be Giants fans’ new stopping point en route to Oracle Park.

One of the city’s most exciting new restaurants
How do you sum up a restaurant that’s both a total scene (the Warriors’ own Draymond Green is one of the owners, after all) yet totally heartfelt? The music (Bad Bunny and bachata) is up, the lights are low, and the menu is a mashup of Ethiopian and Dominican cooking — a reflection of the heritages of the other two owners: Guma Fassil and chef Nelson German. Get the humble Meski platter (greens, beans, veggies, plantains, plus injera for sopping), but also order the pretty tiradito, starring cured salmon with berbere and blood orange, plus a light bath of chile-spiked passion fruit. Feel free to wear that strapless dress: This is a place for stepping out.

A new way of doing dinner and drinks
SF-based Brucato has been making small-batch amaros for a while now, but this spring, it opened the doors for both distillery tours and dinner. The restaurant — Bar Brucato — is small and cozy. Of course, the cocktails are great. But the kitchen also serves a delicious and comforting menu. The likes of sunchoke toast; house-made spaghetti with mackerel, sultanas, and pine nuts; and octopus with Iacopi Farms butter beans are all part of Brucato’s dogged California ethos. The next release? A gin, steeped with bay laurel and Meyer lemon, called Mission, a nod to the hood. 

An unexpected new contender on a North Beach party block 
This Green Street bar and taqueria is adjacent to its sister business, the historic Columbus Cafe. But the two watering holes couldn’t be more different. Whereas the former is a grungy dive, Next Door, with its arcade games and plants, has a surprisingly family-friendly vibe. That’s intentional, says co-owner Zak Kennedy, who hopes parents looking for a casual meal of asada fries and quesabirria will wander in and stay for a margarita or two. In a sea of Italian joints and crowded bars, it’s just the kind of destination the neighborhood needed.

A Bayview legacy lives on 
Vanessa Lee never thought she’d own a restaurant on Bayview’s Third Street corridor. But the city should be grateful she does. Lee opened Smoke Soul Kitchen in April after years of honing her catering skills. She calls the food “soul fusion,” her spin on classics like fried chicken, shrimp and grits, and mac ’n’ cheese. The homey little restaurant, which took over the home of soul food institution Auntie April’s, is open only for brunch and lunch, but consider yourself warned: After eating a plate of Lee’s classic fried chicken and sweet-cream waffles, an afternoon nap may be required. 

A second act from two unexpected industry pros
Margherita Sagan and Sheryl Rogat — the women behind the original Piccino, which opened almost 20 years ago in Dogpatch — seem to be just getting started. In March they debuted a second Piccino, taking over the massive space formerly occupied by Sessions at the Presidio. The menu will be familiar to Piccino lovers, with seasonal pizzas like stinging nettle with braised leeks, delicious and simple pastas, and entrees like a fish of the day with spring morels and horseradish. For a last-minute night out, grab a seat at the bar; for a sunny-day brunch, request the big patio and enjoy the surrounding nature. Get ready for more: A third Piccino will open next year on the waterfront near Sausalito.

Turkish food hits Mission central
This corner of 18th and Valencia has experienced a few iterations. The space that formerly housed two pizzerias (Flour + Water and Yellow Moto) is now home to Anatolian Table, focused on Turkish and Greek food. Now the oven is being used for pita; the thin flatbreads are actually rather pizza-ish but come with the likes of ground lamb and kasseri cheese or eggs, feta, and za’atar. Yes, there is hummus and falafel, but more interesting is the grilled octopus and butter beans. Brochettes are prominent, as well as manti, the delicious little Anatolian meat dumplings.

The beloved pho joint is back
The chicken pho is flowing again. Turtle Tower opened in mid-March right next to Tadich Grill in FiDi, and while “improved” is in the eyes of the beholder, the second coming of the Vietnamese restaurant has definitely been spruced up. At the new restaurant — unlike the original, on a funky corner of the Tenderloin — plants line the brick walls, and there’s uplighting. Owner Steven Pham stands behind the counter making fresh spring rolls and papaya salad while servers precariously navigate the long restaurant with bowl after bowl of steaming noodle soup. Every diner in sight seems to be elated.

A nontraditional neighborhood bistro 
It might sound strange that the signature dish at a French-inspired restaurant is sashimi. But Cache, a newcomer to the Inner Sunset, doesn’t adhere to your steak au poivre expectations. Though Cache bills itself as a bistro, the menu offers ample non-French fare, including surf-and-turf crudo, quinoa in green curry, and that eye-catching sea bream sashimi, plated with head and tail intact. The cacophonous dining room is a stylish backdrop for a dinner date, making Cache a buzzy addition in a neighborhood that’s not exactly known for destination dining.