Places to eat in San Francisco

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Samovar is a local Artisanal Tea House that serves and sells organically grown teas from around the world and they have three branches (at the Castro and Zen Valley) but their most popular branch is here at the Yerba Buena Gardens. Inside the Samovar Tea House here in yerbua buena is like a new age ambiance and the music is a smoothing house and lounge music too. They offer an assortment of international organic teas from around the world like the chinese Pu'er, the Indian Chai, the Taiwanese Oolong, the Japanese Macha and more. They also offer tea themed food motifs specials from $ 25 or more like the Japanese zen tea plus food and they put them into bento like boxes to serve. Prices here are on the high side since the stuffs are artisanal.

According to Their Website:

Unusual Business

Here at Samovar Tea Lounge, it’s never simply business as usual. For us, serving highest quality teas and sumptuous complementary cuisine is an art and a vehicle for the greater good. Making people feel good, feel healthy and attain happiness is our bottom line. And, challenging as it is, seeing our guests beam with joy and express their heartfelt gratitude is worth all the effort. What we do is an expression of our values, the high ideals and essence of the tea experience, and we thank you for joining us.
Slow Down and Sip Some Tea

Let your cup of tea lift you above the daily grind, filling you with calm and vitality. Let this infusion of pure water and carefully picked leaves connect you to the farmer who cultivated the tea harvest, the Samovarian who brewed the pot, and to your breath in this moment. Listen to your heartbeat and look around. Who do you care about? Who cares about you? What else matters? Not much actually. Can you slow down enough to see your life and touch the world and those people you love?

Favorite Dish: hot teas are served in small or medium glasses or for large groups, in pots and costs $ 4 for a small cup and $ 10 for large pots. Iced Teas are in large and tall glasses and costs $ 6 and above. Other foods like the salmon quiches costs $ 15.

Opens:

Sun-Wed: 10am – 8pm
Thur-Sat: 10am – 9pm

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Not all conventions at the Moscone Center San Francisco offer free lunch but some do. Free Food usually means lunch boxes supplied by large caterers and once you have your convention badges, included inside are usually lunch stubs that are marked per day and once you enter the dining area, you present it to the server and you can choose your sandwich (hey they usually give large sandwiches and are mostly roast beef or roast chicken or roast pork or just plain ole vegetables for vegetarians) and your drinks (sodas or Iced Tea or Water) and a salad. You can only get one per person.

the catering service of Moscone is: Savor SMG

according to their website:

San Francisco's premier large-scale catering and event services company. For over 20 years, we've built our reputation on providing great experiences and world-class food at The Moscone Center and throughout the Bay Area. Think of SMG as your resource to help turn any event, whether a quick business luncheon for two at any of our specialty concessions, or a thousand-guest gala into a truly successful experience.

Favorite Dish: The sandwich is filling and the salad is ok, hey it's free so no need to complain!

Opens at lunch 11:30 am to 2:00 pm. on convention days

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Jolibee here in fourth street is now closed since November 30 last year unfortunately, the nearest branch will be at Daly City or at the Food Court of Tanforan Mall in San Bruno.

Jollibee began as an ice-cream parlor in 1975 in the Philippines. However, founder Tony Tan Caktiong soon saw that sandwiches and burgers offered more potential, so he studied U.S. fast-food systems and revamped his concept before incorporating Jollibee in 1978. Shares of the parent company, Jollibee Foods Corp., are traded publicly on the Philippine stock market.

Jollibee officials like to characterize the chain's menu as American fast-food favorites "prepared with an Asian-Pacific flair." What that means, is that many of the offerings feature more spices and a "slightly sweeter" flavor profile than that of their traditional counterparts.

Jollibee is to the Philippines what McDonald's is to America. They've since opened up quite a number of locations in the States. If I'm correct, this location in Daly SOMA may have been the second one after Daly City. Before they opened up one in Vallejo (which is no longer there for some reason)

Favorite Dish: Much of Jollibee's success at home and abroad is tied to the greater variety of foods found on its menu compared with the bill of fare at many quick-service chains, company officials have said. Along with soft drinks, fries and burgers - including the best-selling double-patty Champ and pineapple-bacon-and-cheese topped Aloha - Jollibee sells fried, bone-in chicken, all-beef hot dogs, spaghetti, rice-based JolliMeals, such as Salisbury steak, and a turnoverlike peach-mango pie.

Jolibee Hot Dog at $ 2.50, Jolibee Chicken joy 3 pieces at $ 6.00, Pearl Coolers Buko Pandan and Ube (Purple yam) at $ 2.99 each, Halo Halo at $ 4.99 (in the Philippines, pearl coolers are products of Greenwhich Pizza and Halo Halo is the Product of Chowking of which are sister companies of jollibee, I don't know why they mix their products here in the states in jolibee). Food is awesome (for a Pinoy palate). But unlike the one in daly city wherein parking is Adequate, Here parking is Nonexistent! (unless you want to park Near Metreon where parking rates are atrocious! see my view lounge marriot tips!)

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Attending a convention at the huge Moscone Center will make you hungry the more so if the convention starts at 7:00 am and you're an eager beaver making the most of your buck at attending conventions early. Don't worry as there are several food stalls located inside the sprawling Moscone Center where you can buy fast grub if you don't want to walk outside to Fourth Street or Third Street or at Zeum or Metreon to grab a bite. The food choices are limited and the prices are a little bit on the high side but if don't want to miss the action inside the convention, then you can just get your nourishment at these food stalls inside.

Favorite Dish: the choices here are limited like assorted sandwiches and subs and croissant breads, Biscuits, Muffins and some pastas and salads. Coffee, Tea and Sodas and Juices. Sandwiches starts at $ 8, coffee starts at $ 4 and salads at $ 7. Bottled water at $ 3.50.

Opens: 8:00 am to 5:00 pm everyday

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The Villa Florence Hotel maybe a small boutique hotel in Union Sqaure but it's star Attraction Packs a mean Punch and that is the Kuleto's Italian Restaurant, Located at the Front area in Powell Street. Kuletos is one of the more popular restaurants in the Union Square area even tough the price here is above average as this top-notch contemporary Italian restaurant focuses on regionally farmed produce (californian), fresh meats, and seasonal fish. They also have a large selection of both Italian and Californian Wines by the glass or Bottle. Accented in dark wood and white marble, and anchored by a 40-foot-long antipasti bar, Kuleto's attracts a lively, local pre- and post-theater crowd as well as tourists and locals hanging out at the Union Square Area.

Favorite Dish: They have a rather long lists of Pastas and Antipasti plus lots of italian salads with prices of the salads from $ 13 to 29. The Pastas are also wide and My favorite is the Tagliatale Pasta with Dungeness Crabs at $ 24.99 and order (small servings). Wines will go from $ 10 to $ 25 a glass depending on the variety and vintage year.

Hours:

Mon-Thu 7 am - 10:30 pm

Fri 7 am - 11 pm

Sat 8 am - 11 pm

Sun 8 am - 10:30 pm

Hankering for Hawaii? Stop by Hukilau for a taste of the Islands and some of the aloha spirit. Started by three guys from Hawaii who were homesick for plate lunches, Hukilau now has restaurants in San Francisco, San Jose, and Palo Alto.

This is not the place for a quiet, intimate conversation. It's lively and noisy, with lots of laughter and music, but it's a good place to get together with friends. It's family friendly, too -- there were three infants near us, but that didn't bother us, because the adults in the room made more noise than the babies did.

The food is probably not the same as da kine you gon' get at Tutu's house in Honolulu, but it's still "onolicious" (ono = yummy in Hawaiian) and much better than anything else you'll find on the Mainland. Enjoy live Hawaiian music in the evening -- see website for schedule.

Favorite Dish: I had the Sunday special, a traditional Hawaiian plate lunch, which was so huge that I took half of it home and had it for lunch the next day: lau lau (white fish and pork steamed in spinach-like taro leaves), kalua pig (tender, shredded roast pork), a cup of lomi lomi salmon, two scoops of rice, and a scoop of macaroni salad. I thought I'd died and gone to Island heaven.

Dessert was included in the special. That day they were out of haupia (a jello-like coconut pudding) but substituted a dense chocolate brownie topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and drizzled with chocolate sauce. Decadent!

They also have burgers, sandwiches, salads, saimin, and Sunday brunch dishes on the menu. Drink choices include guava and pineapple juices, and local and imported beers.

We were literally too full to eat dinner that night. We'll be back. . .as soon as we're hungry again!

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Of course, Virtualtourist's extensive list of restaurants in San Francisco doesn't include the one I dined at. Somehow I feel I'm outside the mainstream and probably happy to be that way.
So, where did I eat? A place called Pier Market no less, unquestionably one of the finest on Pier 39. I say that, not having eaten at any other place on the pier, but reflecting on my experience here.
They also give you the history of the place, something I'm passionately interested in. Turns out Warren Simmons was looking for a waterfront location for his Tia Maria chain of restaurants and he came upon a decrepit Pier 39, resplendent with old refrigerators and worn out motor vehicles. However, as people with vision know, it's not what's before you, it's what you envision it might become. So, in spite of intense bureaucratic opposition and a pile of skeptics, Pier 39 opened for business in 1978. The rest, as they say, is history.

Favorite Dish: I had a pasta seafood dish which I loved because they didn't, unlike other places I've eaten, scrimp on the seafood and overdo the pasta.
They also had had forewarning of my coming as a bib was immediately brought out once I'd ordered; someone had obviously seen me eating elsewhere and was trying to save my clothing.
Rosemarie had a fish dish that was lovely and fresh and left me envious.
I have to say, that of all the dishes I saw, it would be hard to single one out.
This place gets my thumbs up for quality, service and taste.

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one of my favorite asian fast food cum take out shack, the Korean Sorabol and this fast growing korean dining and takeout place started it's operations here in the city in 1979 and now has branches in the whole of California and Nevada areas and the korean food here is not as strong as the Korean food in South korea as they tweaked it a little and took out the spiciness a bit to make it for palatable to the american palate. This branch of theirs at the Emporium in Westfield Mall in Market street is one of the most packed places in the food court since the korean food and barbacues here are really awesome!

Favorite Dish: the sweet korean beef spare ribs and the spare ribs combo will cost you $ 11 an order and the other combos like the Beef Bulgogi and Chicken will cost you $ 10 an order and for a single viand with rice will cost you $ 7 (plus the servings are large as you can see at my pictures).