Bay Area Intel for Tourons

[Tamburello Rouge]

I cannot believe that nobody has mentioned Tu Lan.
That is some straight OG SF ish.

I’m not about to send some tourist (no offense AFSA) to 6th Street, bomb ass Pho or not. Much better options in the city.

[dookeyXXX]

I’m not about to send some tourist (no offense AFSA) to 6th Street, bomb ass Pho or not. Much better options in the city.

In the 13-odd years I lived in SF I never had a problem visiting 6th Street...

And dang if a buddy of mine didn't just remind me of Edinburgh Castle, where you can get a pint and fish&chips delivered from Picadilly around the corner.
Another OG SF standard.

[MontuckyFried]

Just boarded the last train. Woops. Went to Zuni. Food and service was freaking outstanding! Supremely good recommendation. Enjoyed their bar too.


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[MontuckyFried]

What's NOT recommended tho? Walking from the train station to Market via 5th. After waiting forever for our Uber driver who ended up bailing on us and the queue was way too long, I thought screw it. I'll just walk. Not THAT far, right? Well, I was right that the distance was no biggie. Way underestimated the skeeziness of the stretch, though. Woops! Got an Uber (successfully this time) on my way back and he was like "You did WHAT?! That area's pretty dangerous man." Haha. You guys got some serious issues, SF. Lol. Saw some pretty damn erm... "interesting" things along the journey. The kick ass food made it totes worth it tho! But yeah. Just don't go that way.

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[BS720]

Glad the food worked out. We ate as a family near there the other night. My 6 mo old was not feeling the restaurant anymore, so she and I walked down to sit outside Zuni and have a Sauternes while wifey settled the bill. That place is pretty fun. I have a 74 hour schedule this week, nights from here to Wednesday. I'd be glad to show you around otherwise...

[jorion]

Zuni’s a great move. Super classic but still relevant. I haven’t been in years but cook the roast chicken recipe on the regular at home. RIP judy Rodgers.

If you had walked market to 4th st to Caltrain you probably wouldn’t have felt sketch. But at least you didn’t take 6th st. Honestly I wouldn’t say that zone is “dangerous,” there’s just a lot of people with mental illness, substance addictions and everything that comes with it. When I do hear of serious crime it’s usually in the mission, which has some of the highest rents and most nightlife in the city.

Dooks, sorry to bum you out, but tosca was taken over by some famous nyc restaurateurs a few years ago and is now Kevin Durant’s favorite place to have dinner. No more secret card games in the back room. At least they apparently kept everything aesthetically the same; I haven’t been since the change.

But specs and Vesuvio are still as you left them. Tu lan closed for a while for some kind of gnarly sounding health violations, but is open again.

[MontuckyFried]

Zuni’s a great move. Super classic but still relevant. I haven’t been in years but cook the roast chicken recipe on the regular at home. RIP judy Rodgers.

If you had walked market to 4th st to Caltrain you probably wouldn’t have felt sketch. But at least you didn’t take 6th st. Honestly I wouldn’t say that zone is “dangerous,” there’s just a lot of people with mental illness, substance addictions and everything that comes with it. When I do hear of serious crime it’s usually in the mission, which has some of the highest rents and most nightlife in the city.

Glad the pick we made last night has a pretty unanimous stamp of approval! Definitely going to pass forward the recommendation to others. Good rec, guys. All this local expertise you all have been giving me thus far has been solid stuff!

Yeah, guess I shoulda taken 4th, but no harm done so all is well. At least I got to experience the "real" 2019 SF! Lol. Was gonna take the subway from the nearest station, but bums were flocking in/out of there, it was so utterly filthy, and I only peered in to see what it was looking like down there and was like "nope! I'll just walk." I seriously don't know why the hell the city has allowed the vagrants to utterly take over the place at night. It's bizarre. I've been all over the world, and never seen anything quite like what I witnessed last night. 3rd world places I've been to have nothing on SF! Saved my coworker from accidentally stepping in a steamy log in the middle of the sidewalk on Market. Puddles of piss all over. While, I tried my best to just be cool, glad I was on my toes as one very tall, very big young dude who was stumbling toward us, no shirt, just BAM! Passed out and slammed hard onto the sidewalk, flat on his back. Out cold and sprawled out. I thought the dude had OD'd or something, so was fixing to call for some medical help, when he all of a sudden sprung back to life, popping straight up and right to his feet, but this time he was ready to brawl, swinging wildly at everyone around him and yelling at us all. Uber driver told us, "Yeah, there's this guy who's always drugged out and likes to just clock random people around him. He hits someone like every night and has brutally beaten people before. Guy's got super strength when he's hopped up." That may have been him. Either way, this wasn't exactly on the back streets or anything. This was RIGHT by the Twitter headquarters on Market Street in a well lit area.

Not to get too negative or anything as I really had a great time overall last night, but it's just hard to overlook what I saw. Seems the city could really benefit with some Rudy Giuliani style treatment. I won't cunt this thread up with political stuff, though, so I'll save that for a future polyass thread. Haha.

Headed to Monterey today! That should be a nice change in scenery.

[Tamburello Rouge]

Sounds like you got a good taste of the city. Pro tip for Monterey - don't eat right on Cannery Row. Everything there is overpriced, mediocre and too touristy. If you just go up a few blocks you can do much better. Sea Harvest on Foam Street is pretty good.

[jorion]

I lived a few blocks away from there for seven years and still work out of an office a couple blocks from the Twitter building for part of the year. Honestly I’ve never feared the locals. It sucks that SF isn’t able/willing to do much more for a lot of peeps that are suffering from substance abuse and mental illness beyond containing them to that zone where the services for them are located, and it’s not fun to be around, but I don’t really think sending people to jail for being homeless so tourists and tech people feel better about the world is really the answer.

I *loved* it when tech people moved into condos in my old hood - literally surrounded by rehab centers, homeless shelters, food banks and needle exchanges - and then proceeded to complain on nextdoor about how unfair it was that the city used *their* neighborhood as a containment zone.

But yeah, I saw a lot of weird shit in soma and I’m happy to have moved to a hood where the daily urgent alerts on nextdoor are about lost dogs and amazon package thieves.

[bobz]

What's NOT recommended tho? Walking from the train station to Market via 5th.

Should have taken the light rail. Glad everything worked out though!

[mcski]

Jorian, what hood do you live in now?

Glad Zuni worked out well! That is definitely different intel about the place than what I've heard in the last couple years of it being beyond its sell by date

I kind of prefer the remaining seedyness to any future disneyfied Guiliani version of SF. Most of the complainers are more recent transplants for sure. Just watch a couple old episodes of Streets of SF and you can see how gentrified everything already is too a nauseating degree. Not a fan of the sidewalk and muni toilets, but there isn't really much real danger on 5Th or anywhere soma or downtown. And maybe gross but def not 3rd world

I def miss the old tosca. That was true old school sf until late 90s

Glad it worked out. Lots of great suggestions in this thread

[MontuckyFried]

Sounds like you got a good taste of the city. Pro tip for Monterey - don't eat right on Cannery Row. Everything there is overpriced, mediocre and too touristy. If you just go up a few blocks you can do much better. Sea Harvest on Foam Street is pretty good.

Great tip! Had probably the best fish and chips I've ever had. Fresh caught local fish and reasonably priced to boot. Thanks man. Now to see what's up at the aquarium.





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[Supermoon]

I’m living vicariously through this thread this week and am going to check a lot of this out in the near future.

[jorion]

Sea Harvest looks cool! We ate in Monterey a year or so ago and didn’t really know where to go. My gf and I are pretty good at researching legit places in advance but didn’t have success for that meal.

mcski, we live in Parkside/outer sunset near the zoo now. A couple blocks away from sunset ave, hence using mlk to get to the Richmond/presidio/ggb since you can’t make a left off of Lincoln at 19th.

[jorion]

The change happening everywhere in the city hasn’t hit this corner very much. It’s great. Lots of neighbors left who grew up here. Mostly Chinese and Filipino with some Irish-Americans and crusty surfer dudes. As long as I’m in SF I hope I can stay in this area.

[powpig]

I was born in SF and grew up in the burbs but don't really get down there too much anymore, usually just to ballgames or sometimes a show, going to the Masonic for the 1st time on Sun.
Lotsa interesting suggestions here, most I've not surprisingly ever heard of. I usually stick to Tommy's Joint or a mission burrito or Brandy Ho's is an old family favorite but was a bit disapponted last time we went.
I went to a show at the Warfield a couple of years ago and it was super disgusting down there, quite the overpowering piss stench in that neighborhood.
We used to hang out at the Wave Organ on the Marina by the St Francis Yacht Club, great place to smoke out w/ a few beers on a blustery eveing.

[old goat]

Just boarded the last train. Woops. Went to Zuni. Food and service was freaking outstanding! Supremely good recommendation. Enjoyed their bar too.

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Friend of mine started Zuni after working at Chez Panisse. She's catering and teaching in Sacramento now. She lets me sharpen her knives. I'm good at that.

One thing I've found about traveling--while I like to eat well, and especially kinds of food I can't get where I live--I don't want to spend too much time eating and drinking or otherwise being indoors. I want to be outdoors, walking the streets, seeing the sites, maybe going to a museum but not for too long, just long enough to see the best stuff (I'm partial to the dutch Masters). In other words I don't spend time in a strange city the way I would spend it at home (which currently means sitting in a lazy boy all day watching DVD's and Neflix while I try to heal.)

[billyk]

SF really needs to invest in more public bathrooms downtown. A lot of the bathrooms in businesses are for customers only, and some are even pay toilets. A lot of these guys don’t have any other options.

[billyk]

Wasn’t there a fast food Mexican chain called Zunis? That’s what I thought you guys were talking about until I did the google. This place looks nice. Have to try it if I get the chance.

[jfost]

Sounds like you got a good taste of the city. Pro tip for Monterey - don't eat right on Cannery Row. Everything there is overpriced, mediocre and too touristy. If you just go up a few blocks you can do much better. Sea Harvest on Foam Street is pretty good.

You're crazy, thanks to you he's going to miss Bubba Gump's Shrimp Company!!! Just like Hooters, but with seafood and no tits!

[riser4]

SF really needs to invest in more public bathrooms downtown. A lot of the bathrooms in businesses are for customers only, and some are even pay toilets. A lot of these guys don’t have any other options.

That would just encourage the homeless to hang around more. :sarcastic_eyeroll: Seriously. How about instead of the city wanting the homeless to fuck off and die, they actually score a win win by improving the lives of the people who have nowhere else to go AND the city gets to be clean(er) for the tourists and tech bros. Our society is so fucked up. Thanks a shit ton Ronnie Raygun and all of your illegitimate idealogical hell spawn. This isn't limited to SF.

[Ottime]

Glad the pick we made last night has a pretty unanimous stamp of approval! Definitely going to pass forward the recommendation to others. Good rec, guys. All this local expertise you all have been giving me thus far has been solid stuff!

Yeah, guess I shoulda taken 4th, but no harm done so all is well. At least I got to experience the "real" 2019 SF! Lol. Was gonna take the subway from the nearest station, but bums were flocking in/out of there, it was so utterly filthy, and I only peered in to see what it was looking like down there and was like "nope! I'll just walk." I seriously don't know why the hell the city has allowed the vagrants to utterly take over the place at night. It's bizarre. I've been all over the world, and never seen anything quite like what I witnessed last night. 3rd world places I've been to have nothing on SF! Saved my coworker from accidentally stepping in a steamy log in the middle of the sidewalk on Market. Puddles of piss all over. While, I tried my best to just be cool, glad I was on my toes as one very tall, very big young dude who was stumbling toward us, no shirt, just BAM! Passed out and slammed hard onto the sidewalk, flat on his back. Out cold and sprawled out. I thought the dude had OD'd or something, so was fixing to call for some medical help, when he all of a sudden sprung back to life, popping straight up and right to his feet, but this time he was ready to brawl, swinging wildly at everyone around him and yelling at us all. Uber driver told us, "Yeah, there's this guy who's always drugged out and likes to just clock random people around him. He hits someone like every night and has brutally beaten people before. Guy's got super strength when he's hopped up." That may have been him. Either way, this wasn't exactly on the back streets or anything. This was RIGHT by the Twitter headquarters on Market Street in a well lit area.

Not to get too negative or anything as I really had a great time overall last night, but it's just hard to overlook what I saw. Seems the city could really benefit with some Rudy Giuliani style treatment. I won't cunt this thread up with political stuff, though, so I'll save that for a future polyass thread. Haha.

Headed to Monterey today! That should be a nice change in scenery.

OG Rudy could help maybe. Still, that shit was rough and took a little too much edge off NYC. New School Rudy is just crazy talker and would fit right in on that street.

[MontuckyFried]

OG Rudy could help maybe. Still, that shit was rough and took a little too much edge off NYC.

While I hear that a lot, and do miss a bit of that old school gritty charm, I have to admit that hands down I'll take 2000's NYC over 1970's NYC if you gave me a one-way time machine and said pick one.

So, sure. While I can run around at night in downtown San Francisco as a well-traveled man with some decent street wits about him, there's no way in hell I would feel comfortable with my wife and children in those late hours. It can get downright spooky out there on some blocks and BART stations.

EDIT: Sorry. I really meant to reserve comments of mine like this for PolyAss. I don't want to be a 'Negative Nancy' in this thread, and will try to keep it limited more to good touron info and positivity from here on. SO much cool stuff to see here, so will focus on that. Thanks.

[MontuckyFried]

I'm headed back into the city today to get check out Alcatraz and the Golden Gate bridge. Got my ferry ticket, so all set on that front. Should I get lunch in China Town today? I'm the mood for some badass Chinese food today. Thinking about just driving up there and finding a parking garage today since traffic's light and I don't wanna have to take the train back tonight. That took forever last time since I missed that last "baby bullet" Caltrain. Just as you guys warned me about. Haha.

[jorion]

Z and Y has really great Sichuan food on Jackson. It’s in a lot of guidebooks so there are often a lot of tourists and long lines, but the food is legit. If you’re solo you won’t wait long anyway.

You’d also be near the ferry building farmer’s market which goes until 2 today. That’s one of the top things I take visitors to in SF. You can park in the four embarcadero garage and get validated parking at a stall out front even without buying anything.

Street parking is somewhat available but expensive over there. Just don’t leave any bags in your car ever. If you have a hatch with a screen don’t use it as that is just as likely to provoke a break-in.