It is no exaggeration to say that in San Francisco you can eat whatever you want, whenever you want. Culinary standards are among the highest in the world and not especially expensive. In the city, eating is the culture and every budget will buy a wide range of excellent foods. Whether it's for basic daily sustenance or for a special social occasion, people who live in the city spend more per head on dining than the inhabitants of any other US city - an average of $2500 each per year. Swarms of tourists inflate these figures, but it's enough to support a mass of restaurants, sandwich shops and cafés that line every street. Fast food is available everywhere but somewhat frowned upon, and also a little pointless when you consider the alternatives available.
Matters are further improved by the fact that California is one of the most agriculturally rich - and health-conscious - parts of the country. Locally grown fruits and vegetables, abundant fish and seafood and top-quality meat and dairy products all find their way into San Francisco kitchens. All you need to do is enjoy it. Lighting up after a fine meal, however, could prove difficult. State law decrees that there is no smoking in any restaurant - legislation that is being extended to bars and all public places.
Even if it often seems swamped by more fashionable regional and ethnic cuisine, traditional American cooking can be found all over the Bay Area.
California Cuisine, based around "the cult of the ingredient," is raved about by foodies - and rightly so, especially in Berkeley, its acknowledged birthplace and home to a not-to-be-missed "Gourmet Ghetto." Basically a development of French nouvelle cuisine, utilizing the wide mix of fresh, locally available foods, California Cuisine is a healthy and aesthetically pleasing alternative, which doesn't fool around too much with the ingredients themselves.
In San Francisco, more restaurants - even moderately priced ones - foster close relationships with individual growers and farmers than most anywhere else. The produce basically comes straight from the fields into the restaurant, resulting in fresh portions and, quite often, very high prices - not unusually $50 and up a head for a full dinner with wine. At some bistro-style places, however, or even bars of high-end restaurants, you can do much better pricewise. To whet your appetite, starters include such dishes as cracker-crusted pizza with shrimp and arugula, seared ahi tuna salad with wontons and wasabi lime aioli, grilled goat's cheese wrapped in grape leaves, and gratin of crab and sea urchin.
San Franciscan chefs being the innovators that they are, it's standard procedure to combine culinary styles - Asian with French, for example - and it is often very difficult to categorize restaurants ethnically. Rather than stay rooted in one tradition, most chefs utilize the myriad variety of talent and produce available in the Bay Area, creating something peculiarly San Franciscan.
Mexican food is so common it often seems like (and historically is) an indigenous cuisine. Certainly, in the Mission district you can't go more than a couple of doorways without encountering a Mexican restaurant. What's more, day or night, it's the least expensive type of food to eat; even a full dinner with a few drinks rarely costs over $10 anywhere, except in the most upmarket establishment.
Other ethnic cuisines are plentiful, too. Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese food are everywhere, and can often cost as little as Mexican; Japanese is more expensive and more trendy, sushi being worshipped by some Californians. Italian food is popular everywhere, above all in North Beach, but can be expensive once you leave the simple pastas and explore exotic pizza toppings or specialist regional cuisine. Ultra-thin-crust pizzas fired in a wood oven are the most recent rage, and are often reasonably priced even in the more expensive joints. French food, too, is widely available, though always pricey - the cuisine of social climbers and power-lunchers. Indian restaurants, on the other hand, are thin on the ground and often very expensive - though the situation is slowly changing for the better, with a sprinkling of moderately priced outlets, particularly in West Berkeley.
Not surprisingly, health-conscious San Francisco also has a wide range of vegetarian and wholefood restaurants, and in general, it's rare to find a menu anywhere that doesn't have at least several meat-free items.
The Bay Area restaurants outside San Francisco during the week cater more to the locals and less to tourists. Therefore exploring the many eateries will provide an authentic taste of neighborhood foods. The breakfast- andbrunch-oriented cafés and diners are full of character, though they rarely take reservations and do command a line of anxiously hungry customers awaiting seats.
Finally, remember also that the vineyards of the Napa and Sonoma valleys are on the city's doorstep and produce prize-fighting grapes that are good - and cheap - enough to make European wine growers nervous. Quality wine is a high-profile and standard feature of most San Franciscan restaurants.
In The Rough Guide listings, the restaurants are arranged by neighborhood and thereafter by ethnic type. The Following is just one example of the many places to eat in The Rough Guide to San Francisco.