Top New Restaurants in San Francisco 2023

Top New Restaurants in San Francisco

“A recipe has no soul. You, as the cook, must bring soul to the recipe.”

-Thomas Keller

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👩🏻‍🍳 Living near San Francisco has its benefits. Food for one. The cuisine in San Francisco is some if not the best the world has to offer. And every year we head out to try the hottest new restaurants in San Francisco. This list is comprised of the top 10 best new restaurants in San Francisco heading into 2023.

San Francisco is home to almost any cuisine you could possibly think of. The iconic “city by the bay” contains many different neighborhoods, each with a very different vibe. From an upscale multiple-course meal to a quick slice of pizza, the San Francisco food scene truly has something for everyone.

This list contains an eclectic assortment of the best restaurants in San Francisco for all of your different culinary moods.

San Francisco is only 7 miles by 7 miles, so there can’t be that many different restaurants to choose from, right? Wrong! San Francisco has one of the most diverse collections of restaurants in the United States. Sounds intimidating? Never fear! We’ve compiled a list of the 10 best new restaurants in San Francisco to help you choose where to eat.

Make sure to bookmark this page for your next trip to one of California’s most famous cities!

1. Bar Sprezzatura

TableOne Hospitality’s second San Francisco venture brings an Italian oasis to the One Maritime Plaza office tower in FiDi. It’s a California-ized version of a Venetian bacaro, a traditional bar that serves wine and small plates called cicchetti. The beverage list leans into the theme with Italian wines, spritzes, and updated classics including an entire section of negroni riffs. To pair, explore chef Joseph Offner’s menu of savory bar snacks and larger plates including delicate beet-filled casunziei and sepe al nero starring light-as-air whipped Biancoperla polenta.

2. La Société

A team of Mina Group alumni struck out on their own with TableOne Hospitality earlier this year and in August brought a new French restaurant to the ground floor of the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Downtown SOMA. Chef Alexandre Viriot came through some star French chefs’ kitchens and now aims to give French bistro classics a California twist. For example, duck a l’orange stars Sonoma County’s Liberty Ducks, while pork pate gets paired with Jimmy Nardello peppers. Over at the bar, look for a deep selection of French wine and Chartreuse, which can also be enjoyed via tableside service.

3. Kin Khao

After a pandemic-era pop-up in the Dogpatch that ended earlier this year, chef-owner Pim Techamuanvivit has finally reopened her extremely popular Thai restaurant Kin Khao. The spicy wings, tiny jars of mushroom har mok, and coconut-scented green curry are reinstalled on the ground floor of the Parc55 hotel, just a couple of blocks away from Union Square — and it’s all just as appetizing as ever.

4. AFICI

Prix fixe is the name of the game at Afici, the fine dining restaurant from executive chef Eric Upper and the team behind Alexander’s Steakhouse. After cooking wagyu for years at Alexander’s, the chef is branching out with a selection of fresh pasta and entrees that use less-common cuts — think wagyu beef tongue served with tomato gastrique or tangled up with rosemary fettuccine. The four-course menu costs $125 per person, with the option for luxe supplements including caviar and wagyu charcuterie that’s cured in-house.

5. Birdbox

he Instagram-famous sandwich known as Claude the Claw landed near Oracle Park with the opening of Birdbox, the fast-casual chicken restaurant from the couple behind Michelin-starred Birdsong. It’s a straightforward menu of fried chicken sandwiches, fried chicken boxes, and sides such as fries and cornbread. In addition to takeout and dine-in options, there are also options for delivery so you can get that sustainably sourced chicken brought right to your front door.

6. Al Carajo

Chef Javier León has permanently parked his formerly mobile food business at 3224 1/2 22nd Street in the Mission. Al Carajo serves Mayan-inspired cuisine including ceviche Yucanteco, chicken tinga quesadillas, and birria pizza for lunch and dinner every day except Monday.

7. Damansara Co.

Tracy Goh found a permanent home for her Malaysian pop-up Damansara in Noe Valley, opening her first petite restaurant in mid-October. There are no reservations and just a few small tables so you’ll need to be patient if you want to be rewarded with small plates like cereal and salted egg fried chicken, sticky barbecue pork sandwiches, and the spicy noodle dish laska, either meat or vegetarian.

8. Delfina Restaurant

After taking a years-long break spurred by the pandemic, Delfina is back in action on 18th Street — and the more-than-20-year-old restaurant has a fresh new look. Co-owners Annie and Craig Stoller are proud to show off a new bar and a new private dining room, where fans old and new can get a taste of the restaurant’s pioneering Cal-Italian cuisine. The spaghetti pomodoro returns to the menu, of course, along with mortadella pizza, porcini and cippolini spiedi, and dry-aged duck breast from Liberty Ducks.

9. Rad Radish

Adriano Paganini, the restaurant mastermind behind hits including Wildseed and Super Duper Burgers, strikes again: In August, Paganini’s Back of House restaurant group opened a new vegan restaurant called Rad Radish in Hayes Valley. It’s meant to be a more casual answer to Wildseed, serving grain bowls, salads, and meat-free sandwiches for either dine-in or to-go. Beverage options include organic wines and low-ABV cocktails, which can be sipped in a space splashed with groovy murals.

10. Tenderheart

There’s a new all-day restaurant open on Market, specifically on the ground floor of the new LINE hotel, perched on the corner of Market and Turk. Chef Joe Hou, who comes to the Bay Area after growing up back East, says he’s blending Northern California ingredients with influences from his Chinese American identity and the result is dishes such as sweet and sour quail, bone-in lionhead meatballs, and kampachi crudo made with fermented black bean. Cocktails including the New Fashioned (rye, bourbon, banana, winter melon, Sfumato amaro) come from experienced Bay Area barman Danny Louie.

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