The Hot List: Our favorite restaurants and bars in SF right now

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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 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.

A Din Tai Fung competitor arrives at SF’s hottest mall
For years, Taiwanese chain Din Tai Fung has set the standard for xiao long bao. But with the opening of Supreme Dumpling at Stonestown Galleria, XLB lovers no longer have to settle for subpar dumplings or suffer a drive to Din Tai Fung in Santa Clara. Supreme Dumpling, based in Washington state, has a similar, though smaller, menu than its international competitor and, importantly, beats it handily on price. Order the classic pork-and-shrimp soup dumplings or the Szechuan spicy variety, which will leave your mouth pleasantly tingling. Round out the meal with cucumber salad, pan-fried pies filled with garlic chives, and a bowl of braised beef shank. 

The sourdough bagels San Francisco deserves
If you want the quality of a Parisian baguette in a bagel body, then get here, stat. Last year, baker Noah Orloff launched his pop-up in the Outer Richmond by demonstrating insane dedication — grinding wheat via stationary bike, then hand-delivering bagels citywide by bike. The secret is that he allows his dough extra time to naturally ferment, which makes for bagels with airy chew and a crackly crust. They are technically “sourdough” but not necessarily sour. Bones, which opened in mid-June in a permanent to-go space in Noe Valley, has a short menu that includes your usual bagel with lox, cucumbers, capers, dill, and cream cheese; there’s also a popular bagel dog (available after 11 a.m.) and Four Barrel coffee. But purists will find that luxuriating in a bagel, untoasted and eaten over the sink, sesame seeds raining down, is all that is needed.

A rare Colombian restaurant
Pacifico, which started as a La Cocina-supported stand behind the Ferry Building, offers Colombian cuisine with Peruvian and Californian accents. Husband-and-wife team Daniel Morales Vallejo and Laura Gelvez have locked in a one-year residency at B-Side in the SFJAZZ Center, serving dishes like the Corrientazo Pacifico, a rotating, meat-and-four “executive lunch” that’s a bargain at $20. With cocktails and an egg-forward menu, Pacifico is superb for both weekdays and weekends, despite its muted, poured-concrete vibes. Tropical gems like Cartagena-style whole fried fish with house-made coconut shrimp sauce and halibut ceviche with rocoto pepper leche de tigre carry the day. Oh, and there’s a semi-secret menu, too. Shh.

Fresh seafood from one of SF’s favorite chefs 
The Ferry Building continues to establish itself as one of the city’s hottest dining destinations with the debut of Nopa Fish, a seafood market and counter-service restaurant from Laurence Jossel. The Nopa chef’s petite menu stars, naturally, seafood of all kinds, including smoked trout, wild Pacific tuna, and tiny bay shrimp. You can’t go wrong with an order of fish and chips made with flaky local rockfish served with a mountain of cumin-dusted fries and a heap of pickles. There’s also a bowl of “pristine” raw fish served over prized Luna Koshihikari organic rice and a duo of crispy latkes that arrive buried under pickled beet hummus and McFarland Springs trout. For those looking to cook at home, a small case displays tender scallops, littleneck clams, and fish collars. 

A new generation of lesbian bar
Since we wrote about Rikki’s, the new Castro bar for women who love women, fans of the San Francisco Valkyries, and craft cocktail aficionados, we have been unable to manage a return visit (not for lack of trying — the line is just too long!). Named for pioneering SF lesbian bar owner and athlete Rikki Streicher, it’s a lavender-hued restaurant and bar — and unlike at nearby gay sports bar Hi Tops, nearly every patron appears eager to cheer on the games. Rikki’s is part of a trend: Lesbian bars were on the verge of extinction in the U.S., but the explosive growth of women’s professional sports is fueling their second act. Throw in the fact that Rikki’s opened in the boys’ club that is the Castro, and its smash debut is all the sweeter. 

SF’s first dedicated makgeolli bar 
With Mexican restaurant Incendio, Bar Brucato, and Jilli opening on South Van Ness Avenue in recent months, an often-overlooked street in the Mission is suddenly popping. Jilli, in particular, is a unique-in-SF project, an outpost of an L.A. Korean restaurant that serves clever mashups like jja jang poutine and rigatoni alla kimchi vodka alongside the obligatory small plates like popcorn chicken. The star of the show is makgeolli, the slightly effervescent, milky-white fermented rice wine that’s poured from teapots into metal saucepans. It runs to the sweet side; if you’re down to explore, there are $40 flights of four pours. “Drink responsibly reckless,” Jilli’s puckish tagline goes, and with dishes like gochujang pork jowl that’s cooked sous vide for 24 hours, then roasted over charcoal, we can get behind that. 

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.