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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 impossibly flaky, line-inducing croissants or off-the-wall cuisine in an over-the-top dining room. 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.

A buzzy bakery worth waiting in line for
The city has gained a destination for flaky, butter-filled croissants: Parachute, a new bakery from the team behind fine-dining restaurant Sorrel. Pastry chef Nasir Armar, who previously worked at two-Michelin-starred Saison, has a special talent for laminated dough, which stars all over the menu. There is a cube of buttery goodness enclosing a tart-sweet passion fruit filling, picture-perfect layers on a pain Suisse stuffed with tomatoes and goat cheese, and a pull-apart monkey bread dusted with cinnamon. The drinks are equally noteworthy, particularly an iced banana and salted cream einspänner. Parchute is the latest newcomer to the Ferry Building, which is becoming the city’s best one-stop shop for excellent food and drink. Just be prepared to wait, as the city’s buzziest bakery often draws a line.

The Mission’s mecca of maximalism returns
When Shuggie’s Trash Pie + Natural Wine (opens in new tab) opened in April 2022, it was less a breath of fresh air than a jolt of positivity. Here was a freewheeling restaurant committed to sustainable pizzas made with upcycled ingredients in a kitschy interior that felt like Vegas in space. But after a while, husband-and-wife owners Kayla Abe and David Murphy felt creatively stifled by all the carbs and repetition, so they closed for July and reopened as simply Shuggie’s. They’ve overhauled the menu and developed offbeat items, including a cacio e pepe “pillow” snowed under with grana padano, tuna crudo that requires a bit of elbow grease (it’s made with off-cuts you have to scrape the meat off yourself), and a bonbon dessert that’s assembled on the back of the diner’s hand and eaten like a caviar bump. In a city that typically seems content to play it safe, Shuggie’s remains fearlessly committed to standing out and taking risks.

A menu that goes beyond pad Thai
More Thai restaurants are taking their menus beyond the ubiquitous dishes. Add Sawaan to the list. The cute restaurant, decorated with pops of yellow and bright blue, opened in July on a quiet stretch of 16th Street in the Mission. Yes, you can get green papaya salad, but the fruit is sliced into ribbons and served with a side of veggies, including cucumber spears and carrots, which is the way Thai diners prefer it. There are also addictively bouncy and panko-crispy shrimp doughnuts with a spicy seafood dipping sauce; drunken noodles with beef balls in a delicate, sweet broth; and fried catfish with floral makrut lime leaves (pro tip: order it with sticky rice). The music is techno, so expect the beats to be bumping.

A spacious Korean American cafe 
Founders Janet Lee and chef Deuki Hong insist that Sohn is not a restaurant. Instead, they prefer terms like “cafe,” “event space,” and “creative workspace.” Regardless of how you describe it, Sohn is undeniably a great place to grab a caffeinated beverage and light breakfast or lunch. Don’t miss the spicy cold noodle salad, made with bouncy buckwheat noodles and gochujang-based sauce. It’s great alongside a breakfast sandwich, served on a sesame croissant, stacked with gyeran jjim (a fluffy Korean-style steamed egg), sweet onion bacon jam, and melted cheese — a messy but delicious way to start the day. Unlike many cafes these days, Sohn is a laptop-friendly space, so you can settle in with a Melona matcha latte while you work. 

A ‘straight-friendly gay bar’ 
They don’t make LGBTQ+ spaces much more chill than Mary’s on Haight, now up and running in the space that used to be the long-running queer bar Trax. The dive’s owners, who wanted to throw the doors open in time for the Haight Ashbury Street Fair, ripped out the carpets but otherwise altered little about the “under-the-top,” almost rainbow-less interior. Starting at noon or earlier every day, they’re pouring mixed drinks for a mixed crowd — plus shots of Fernet and Tito’s vodka — with Jessie Ware and Kylie Minogue on the sound system. (Don’t sleep on Mary’s martinis, either.) Once plagued by closures, the city’s gay scene has experienced a reversal of fortune this year, with several encouraging debuts. Better still, Mary’s on Haight is the latest in a series of venues opening on that world-famous, tie-dye-loving street, which is undergoing a nightlife renaissance.

A true neighborhood joint in Bernal
Precita Social aims to be exactly what it sounds like: a spot for the denizens of Bernal Heights to meet, socialize, and eat. Located on a cozy corner across from Precita Park, it takes over the space that once housed Michelin-starred Marlena, whose chefs moved on to open 7 Adams. Precita Social chef and owner Greg Lutes (who also owns 3rd Cousin up the hill) lets the menu wander wherever he wants. He knows that every neighborhood restaurant needs a burger, but there are also housemade pastas, excellent steak au poivre, and influences from Japan, including a lobster hand roll with uni (Lute’s wife is Japanese). One of the best dishes is pork belly with pole beans and sizzling rice, served dramatically at the table. And desserts are not an afterthought: Don’t miss the seasonal fruit shave ice, made to order on a handcranked machine from Japan.

Elegant, modern Cantonese cuisine in Hayes Valley
In early August, San Francisco welcomed the most anticipated restaurant of the year: The Happy Crane, a modern Chinese restaurant from self-taught chef James Yeun Leong Parry. Fans know Parry as a former Benu chef who launched his successful pop-up back in 2023. But with the debut of his first restaurant, Parry is showing off his love for traditional Cantonese cooking techniques and seasonal, local produce. Early favorites include dry-aged, slow roasted quail served with house-made five-spice powder and his version of char siu made with succulent pork jowl paired with thin slices of apple. Though it’s still early days since The Happy Crane took flight, it seems a safe bet dinner here may be one of the best meals in recent memory. 

The hotter-than-a-Calabrian-chile pizzeria
Good luck getting a table at the pizza spot of the moment. But if you do, you’ll be rewarded with both delicious and quirky pizzas with a nicely charred, New York-crisp crust made from meticulously sourced whole-grain flour from a miller in Washington. Jules, which started as a crazy-popular pop-up, opened in the spring in its forever home in the Lower Haight. Owned and run by Max Blachman-Gentile, former Tartine culinary director, the menu includes everything from a straightforward pepperoni to an excellent summery pie with corn pudding, mozzarella, sungolds, Thai basil pesto, and makrut-lime “shrimp dust.” Yes, there’s salad and crudo and a half-chicken, but you — and almost everyone — are there for the ’za. 

Excellent English muffins and breakfast sandwiches
Leadbetter’s may stem from an English muffin business that started in Portland, Maine, but its bakery in the Castro is brand-spanking new. It is also a family affair. On any given day, baker and owner Jamieson Leadbetter is there rolling out dough and cutting it into rounds for his famous thick and fluffy English muffins, which have a tighter crumb compared to the craggy holes you might be used to. His young son might be working the register, his wife doing the social media. The muffins are available in flavors from apricot-ginger to roasted onion. But there are also turnovers and East-Coast style whoopie pie and thickly frosted cinnamon rolls the size of your head. However, you’d be wise to start your day with their hefty breakfast sandwich made with egg, cheese, and bacon. 

A long-running wine pop-up finds a lasting home
Bar Habibi spent so many years inside Russian Hill’s Bacchus wine bar — five, to be exact — that it became less of a pop-up and more of a residency. Still, owner Bahman Safari is delighted to have found a true forever home just a few blocks away in Nob Hill. Renamed Bar Bibi, it now occupies the L-shaped corner spot that was once home to the long-running Italian restaurant Milano. The move means a more-than-quadrupling in size, allowing Safari to build up a collection of bottles while running a kitchen that serves pan-Mediterranean food, including charred broccolini with peanut sauce and cilantro and “Lunchable Toast” (mortadella, burrata, and pistachios on a slice of Bernal Basket bread). From 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., Bar Bibi cedes the room to Better Half Coffee (opens in new tab), which also made the jump from Bacchus. Sharing the space makes economic sense and amplifies the already-cozy vibes.    

A seafood restaurant that plays up summer’s bounty
Bar Maritime, which opened a few months ago inside the Palihotel, is the rare Union Square establishment with strong appeal among locals, thanks in part to veteran mixologist Larry Piaskowy’s milk punches and riffs on classic cocktails. As of this summer, the companion restaurant, Maritime Boat Club, is open to enhance the appeal. Under the helm of chef Felix Santos — who’s worked at esteemed institutions like Sorrel and Atelier Crenn — it’s a seafood restaurant that emphasizes the glories of seasonal California produce. Bowls of Monterey Bay squid and mussels escabeche share space with artfully plated dishes of heirloom baby corn and broiled Jimmy Nardello peppers. Maritime Boat Club can feel landlocked: It’s dimly lit, almost windowless, and next door to the Stockton Tunnel. But it’s already charting a very steady course.