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A spread of dim sum served in bamboo steamers Bill Addison

Everywhere Worth Eating Between San Francisco and SFO

Why not make a slight detour for dim sum, lobster rolls, or Filipino comfort food?

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Sure, San Francisco International Airport has a whole roster of quality dining options, including a number of outposts from local restaurants. But there’s also nothing wrong with bringing a meal of your own choosing along for the ride — and lucky for hungry travelers, the stretch of cities between San Francisco proper and the city’s eponymous airport presents a bevy of opportunities for excellent eating.

South San Francisco and Daly City lay claim to some of the Bay Area’s best Filipino restaurants, a legitimate dim sum legend, and even a convenient location of California’s most famous fast food chain. Whether you’re looking to enjoy a sit-down meal before your next flight or to pick up dinner on your way back home, plan a pit stop at one of these restaurants between San Francisco and SFO.

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H Mart San Francisco Food Court

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You can both enjoy a pre- or post-flight meal and pick up some snacks or groceries if you plan a pitstop at the only San Francisco outpost of beloved Korean grocery store H Mart. The food court offers a handful of dining options (including LeftWing for Korean fried chicken wings and Paik’s Noodle for, duh, noodles) but the pro-move is to hit up the tiny outpost of Daeho Kalbijim & Beef Soup. You’ll want a crew to take down the enormous braised beef rib stew, which comes absolutely buried under a torched layer of cheese and overflowing with bouncy rice cakes.

Braised short rib stew at Daeho Luke Tsai

Tani's Kitchen

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This family-run diner located in the Westlake strip mall has long been a home away from home for Japanese expats in the Daly City area. At Tani’s kitchen, home-style comfort food is the name of the game: curry plates topped with tonkatsu or a Japanese-style hamburger, assorted rice bowls, and thick-cut tamagoyaki (Japanese rolled omelette) that regulars swear is the fluffiest and tastiest version around. It’s also a good spot to load up on solid, unfussy sushi and sashimi.

Tselogs

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Since 2008, this Daly City standard has been serving garlic fried rice and egg-topped plates of Filipino comfort food by both day and night. You might associate silogs with breakfast meals, but at Tselogs there’s nothing to stop you from ordering sisigsilog made with moist, garlicky shredded chicken for lunch or dinner — and don’t forget a side of tiny lumpia Shanghai, too.

Tselogs

Fil-Am Cuisine

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Hit up this classic Filipino outpost to load up on grilled meat skewers, all served up hot, juicy, and beautifully flame-kissed. The prices are low, and the portion sizes are not to be trifled with. A couple of pork or chicken skewers over pancit or white rice make for a serious meal. Bring cash, and come prepared to wait a while in line.

Pork skewers wrapped in foil from Fil-Am Cuisine Elaine Wu

Koi Palace

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Koi Palace’s reputation — as, perhaps, the Bay Area’s most acclaimed Chinese restaurant — precedes it, as anyone who’s waited in line for two hours for Sunday morning dim sum can attest. Even a couple of decades in, the restaurant still sets the gold standard for all the classics like har gow, rice rolls, and baked char siu bao and the kitchen also slices up some of the finest crispy-skinned roast suckling pig in all the land, if you’re lucky enough to snag an order before they sell out.

Little Lucca Sandwich Shop

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This tiny old-school sandwich shack in South San Francisco is known for serving some of the Bay Area’s biggest sandwiches — literal foot-long, big-as-your-forearm monsters that are about as generous and well-built as a sandwich can be. A “Little Lucca Combo” on Dutch crunch, with extra garlic sauce, might be the Bay Area’s definitive take on a classic Italian combo, and plenty of regulars will make a special trip on Tuesdays and Fridays when the Fish Combo (featuring a cold seafood salad) is available.

The Night Market

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The Night Market is probably the closest any Bay Area restaurant comes to re-creating the look and feel of the kind of night market you find throughout Asia, with a particular nod to the foods and atmosphere of Hong Kong’s dai pai dong — even down to the folding tables and colorful plastic stools. Menu staples include Hainan chicken rice, Hong Kong-style cart noodles, and a Chiu-Chow style congee bar that lets customers choose from among more than a dozen different toppings.

Taqueria San Bruno

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If the Mission-style super burrito is San Francisco’s most iconic original food creation, then Taqueria San Bruno is the closest, most convenient spot where you can snag a truly stellar, and truly gigantic, version on the way either to or from the airport — with planes literally taking off above your head. It bears repeating: These super burritos are comically oversized and loaded with meats (as are the breakfast burritos for that matter, if you’ve got an early flight). The charred carne asada is probably the people’s choice, but the taqueria is also known for serving some of the area’s better fish and shrimp tacos.

Millbrae Pancake House

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Not all that much appears to have changed since this classic pancake house first opened its doors in 1959, and it remains a local favorite for a hearty, affordable American-style breakfast. The thin, crepe-like Swedish pancakes, served with lingonberry butter, are the specialty. Conveniently, if you don’t want to commit to a whole stack, a couple of them come included on the side if you order one of the more ambitious breakfasts — steak and eggs, say, or a big three-egg omelet.

Millbrae Pancake House

New England Lobster Market & Eatery

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The only thing that’ll kill you is the parking situation, which is an exercise in extreme patience at just about any time of day. But once you make it to the front of the line (or, better yet, opt for online ordering), the virtues of this classic seafood market and restaurant are self-evident: maybe the Bay Area’s most convincing version of a Maine-style lobster roll, which purists can order plain, with just a tub of drawn butter on the side. There are also Dungeness crab sandwiches to be had, if you want to stick with a more local crustacean treat. In addition to curbside pickup, there’s also outdoor patio seating available.

In-N-Out Burger

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Yes, In-N-Out is really a SoCal thing. But it’s also the fast food chain that out-of-state visitors associate most closely with California. And the fact that the Millbrae location is so conveniently located, just a single exit up the freeway from SFO, is a big part of why a Double-Double Animal Style — with the fries well-done, please — is so many people’s first and last meal when visiting the Bay Area.

Hollywood Exteriors And Landmarks - 2021 Photo by AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

H Mart San Francisco Food Court

You can both enjoy a pre- or post-flight meal and pick up some snacks or groceries if you plan a pitstop at the only San Francisco outpost of beloved Korean grocery store H Mart. The food court offers a handful of dining options (including LeftWing for Korean fried chicken wings and Paik’s Noodle for, duh, noodles) but the pro-move is to hit up the tiny outpost of Daeho Kalbijim & Beef Soup. You’ll want a crew to take down the enormous braised beef rib stew, which comes absolutely buried under a torched layer of cheese and overflowing with bouncy rice cakes.

Braised short rib stew at Daeho Luke Tsai

Tani's Kitchen

This family-run diner located in the Westlake strip mall has long been a home away from home for Japanese expats in the Daly City area. At Tani’s kitchen, home-style comfort food is the name of the game: curry plates topped with tonkatsu or a Japanese-style hamburger, assorted rice bowls, and thick-cut tamagoyaki (Japanese rolled omelette) that regulars swear is the fluffiest and tastiest version around. It’s also a good spot to load up on solid, unfussy sushi and sashimi.

Tselogs

Since 2008, this Daly City standard has been serving garlic fried rice and egg-topped plates of Filipino comfort food by both day and night. You might associate silogs with breakfast meals, but at Tselogs there’s nothing to stop you from ordering sisigsilog made with moist, garlicky shredded chicken for lunch or dinner — and don’t forget a side of tiny lumpia Shanghai, too.

Tselogs

Fil-Am Cuisine

Hit up this classic Filipino outpost to load up on grilled meat skewers, all served up hot, juicy, and beautifully flame-kissed. The prices are low, and the portion sizes are not to be trifled with. A couple of pork or chicken skewers over pancit or white rice make for a serious meal. Bring cash, and come prepared to wait a while in line.

Pork skewers wrapped in foil from Fil-Am Cuisine Elaine Wu

Koi Palace

Koi Palace’s reputation — as, perhaps, the Bay Area’s most acclaimed Chinese restaurant — precedes it, as anyone who’s waited in line for two hours for Sunday morning dim sum can attest. Even a couple of decades in, the restaurant still sets the gold standard for all the classics like har gow, rice rolls, and baked char siu bao and the kitchen also slices up some of the finest crispy-skinned roast suckling pig in all the land, if you’re lucky enough to snag an order before they sell out.

Little Lucca Sandwich Shop

This tiny old-school sandwich shack in South San Francisco is known for serving some of the Bay Area’s biggest sandwiches — literal foot-long, big-as-your-forearm monsters that are about as generous and well-built as a sandwich can be. A “Little Lucca Combo” on Dutch crunch, with extra garlic sauce, might be the Bay Area’s definitive take on a classic Italian combo, and plenty of regulars will make a special trip on Tuesdays and Fridays when the Fish Combo (featuring a cold seafood salad) is available.

The Night Market

The Night Market is probably the closest any Bay Area restaurant comes to re-creating the look and feel of the kind of night market you find throughout Asia, with a particular nod to the foods and atmosphere of Hong Kong’s dai pai dong — even down to the folding tables and colorful plastic stools. Menu staples include Hainan chicken rice, Hong Kong-style cart noodles, and a Chiu-Chow style congee bar that lets customers choose from among more than a dozen different toppings.

Taqueria San Bruno

If the Mission-style super burrito is San Francisco’s most iconic original food creation, then Taqueria San Bruno is the closest, most convenient spot where you can snag a truly stellar, and truly gigantic, version on the way either to or from the airport — with planes literally taking off above your head. It bears repeating: These super burritos are comically oversized and loaded with meats (as are the breakfast burritos for that matter, if you’ve got an early flight). The charred carne asada is probably the people’s choice, but the taqueria is also known for serving some of the area’s better fish and shrimp tacos.

Millbrae Pancake House

Not all that much appears to have changed since this classic pancake house first opened its doors in 1959, and it remains a local favorite for a hearty, affordable American-style breakfast. The thin, crepe-like Swedish pancakes, served with lingonberry butter, are the specialty. Conveniently, if you don’t want to commit to a whole stack, a couple of them come included on the side if you order one of the more ambitious breakfasts — steak and eggs, say, or a big three-egg omelet.

Millbrae Pancake House

New England Lobster Market & Eatery

The only thing that’ll kill you is the parking situation, which is an exercise in extreme patience at just about any time of day. But once you make it to the front of the line (or, better yet, opt for online ordering), the virtues of this classic seafood market and restaurant are self-evident: maybe the Bay Area’s most convincing version of a Maine-style lobster roll, which purists can order plain, with just a tub of drawn butter on the side. There are also Dungeness crab sandwiches to be had, if you want to stick with a more local crustacean treat. In addition to curbside pickup, there’s also outdoor patio seating available.

In-N-Out Burger

Yes, In-N-Out is really a SoCal thing. But it’s also the fast food chain that out-of-state visitors associate most closely with California. And the fact that the Millbrae location is so conveniently located, just a single exit up the freeway from SFO, is a big part of why a Double-Double Animal Style — with the fries well-done, please — is so many people’s first and last meal when visiting the Bay Area.

Hollywood Exteriors And Landmarks - 2021 Photo by AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

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