9 Destination-Worthy Hotel Restaurants in San Francisco

Check in here, even if it’s just for dinner

by Lauren Saria Updated Mar 6, 2023, 1:10pm PST

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by Lauren Saria Updated Mar 6, 2023, 1:10pm PST

All too often, hotel restaurants count on a somewhat captive audience of weary travelers to fill their dining rooms. But don’t let that fact deter you from any of these dining spots. In fact, some of San Francisco’s most beloved Thai food can be found on the ground floor of a skyscraping hotel, and one of the city’s most exciting French dining options also hides inside a hotel just off Market Street. If you’re looking for the best of the best of the city’s hotel bars, we’ve got a list for that, too — which includes legendary spots like Tonga Room, Dirty Habit, and Charmaine’s. Here, we present the most reliable hotel restaurants across San Francisco.

Health experts consider dining out to be a high-risk activity for the unvaccinated; it may pose a risk for the vaccinated, especially in areas with substantial COVID transmission.

Abacá

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After popping up across the city, chef Francis Ang landed his modern Filipino restaurant Abaca inside the Kimpton Alton Hotel in Fisherman’s Wharf. The sun-soaked space with yellow accents and plenty of plants makes a fitting backdrop for a menu that takes classic Filipino dishes including lumpia and pancit, and reimagines them through the lens of seasonally driven California cuisine. Don’t skip the sisig fried rice and ever-changing selection of barbecue sticks. Cocktails similarly borrow ingredients from southeast Asia, such as ube, bittermelon, and buko pandan.

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2700 Jones St, San Francisco, CA 94133

(415) 486-0788

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Terrene

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1 Hotel San Francisco on the Embarcadero offers what it describes as sustainable dining at the property’s signature restaurant Terrene. The restaurant serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner with menus that emphasize ingredients sourced from within 100 miles of the restaurant. Perhaps what’s most notable is the restaurant’s spacious outdoor patio and stylish interior, wrapped in warm neutrals and lush plants.

8 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94105

(415) 278-3777

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The Garden Court

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The glamorous Garden Court inside the Palace Hotel is more than just an eye-catching space — it’s a San Francisco landmark. The move is to head here for afternoon tea service when you’ll have ample time to take in the marble pillars and Austrian chandeliers while snacking on pastries, tiny sandwiches, and, of course, tea. There’s also a three-course prix-fixe lunch starring light fare such as salad, soup, and lobster ravioli. Reservations are available via OpenTable.

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2 New Montgomery St, San Francisco, CA 94105

(415) 546-5089

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La Société Bar & Café

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This modern French restaurant comes from TableOne Hospitality, the spinoff restaurant group led by Patric Yumul, Mina Group co-founder and former president. Tucked inside the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Downtown Soma, the restaurant takes familiar French fare including moules-frites and French onion soup, and gives them the NorCal treatment — think fat Saltspring mussels served with duck fat fries and soup infused with roasted bone marrow and capped with melted Comté cheese. Executive chef Alexandre Viriot comes to the kitchen after cooking at high-end restaurants all over the world, so there are nontraditional and seasonal influences throughout the menu, too.

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50 3rd St, San Francisco, CA 94103

(415) 974-6400

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Kin Khao

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You’ll barely even register that this restaurant is in the Parc 55, until you have to go down the winding hallway to find the bathroom. Get a creative cocktail at the bar, or sit down for a dinner of very excellent Thai food. Expect creative, off-the-beaten-path offerings here; whatever you do, don’t miss the “pretty hot wings” that are tangy, sour, and spicy, and come with a hot towel for swabbing down the mess.

55 Cyril Magnin St, San Francisco, CA

(415) 362-7456

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The Cavalier

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From the party-makers behind Leo’s Oyster Bar, the Cavalier gives Hotel Zetta a slightly British vibe. A clubby, pubby interior with black and white tile is a great place to grab a craft cocktail, or order fish and chips, lobster bisque, or a ribeye steak tartare. Duck into Marianne’s for a more intimate, and cool, cocktail experience.

360 Jessie St, San Francisco, CA

(415) 321-6000

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Tenderheart

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The trendy Line Hotel landed in mid-Market in late 2022, bringing with it a number of food and beverage options including Tenderheart, the hotel’s casual all-day restaurant. Chef Joe Hou previously cooked at Angler and Le Fantastique and draws inspiration from his Chinese American upbringing for the menu, which offers plates including salt and pepper cauliflower, sweet and sour quail, and roasted duck with duck fat fried rice.

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970 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94102

(415) 523-9797

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A white plate with fried quail over thin slices of fermented pineapple.

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La Bande

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Spanish tapas and fizzy aperitifs are the name of the game at this groundfloor restaurant at the San Francisco Proper on Market Street. So while you’d want to hit Villon, the stunning jewel box of a restaurant for seafood towers and dry-aged New York strip steaks from chef Jason Fox, La Bande lets diners build their own spread from a selection of small plates including spiced olives, crispy potatoes, and garlic shrimp.

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1100 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94102

(628) 895-2039

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KAIYO ROOFTOP

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This tropical rooftop oasis comes to SoMa from the team behind Cow Hollow’s Kaiyo. As at its sister spot, the rooftop restaurant and bar specializes in Nikkei cuisine, which blends Japanese and Peruvian flavors and techniques into plates where creamy Japanese scallops swim in a sweet-sour passion fruit leche de tigre, and a surf-and-turf sushi roll is made with crunchy shrimp tempura and a layer of torched and thinly sliced beef. Cocktails almost lean into tiki territory with a list favoring tropical ingredients and dark spirits.