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Best hotel by the airport in Burlingame? I'm trying to decide between the Marriott and the Hilton. The Hyatt would be my first choice, but there's apparently renovations going on and everyone who's stayed there recently has given it bad reviews because of the noise.
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Mar 4, 2016 05:32
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I'm coming to SF from the UK for four days next week (Wednesday - Sunday). What are some must-sees? I quite like odd little quirky things that don't tend to show up on tourist lists, but since I'm there for such a short amount of time I'm just looking not to miss out on some of that stuff that you just have to see/do in the area.
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Mar 7, 2016 16:33
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Musée Mecanique and the Cable Car museum. The first is a large collection of vintage games, videoscopes, player pianos,. and moving dioramas *that you can play by feeding coins into*. The Cable Car museum is a brief visit, but is all about how cable cars work and lets you see the actual machinery that runs the cables. If you want to take the cable car to the museum, take it from Oh, and make reservations for the ferry to Alcatraz. It's touristy as hell, and once you get there you'll be very, very glad you've gone. Arsenic Lupin fucked around with this message at 20:25 on Mar 7, 2016 |
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Mar 7, 2016 20:20
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Arsenic Lupin posted:Oh, and make reservations for the ferry to Alcatraz. It's touristy as hell, and once you get there you'll be very, very glad you've gone. Do the Night Tour if you can. It's probably too late to book those now but it's awesome as hell and much less touristy. Plus you get to see SF during sunset/at night which is cool and just has a fun chiller creepier vibe.
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Mar 7, 2016 21:28
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Couldn't get the night tour but Alcatraz has been booked. I also heard of a place that does a mac 'n' cheese grilled cheese, which is something I must absolutely eat or die trying. I'm hoping to find some other ridiculously American dish to try, any suggestions? Planning to hit up the Exploratorium and the Academy of Sciences, plus some parks since the weather forecast is looking pretty great.
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Mar 14, 2016 23:10
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Bollock Monkey posted:Couldn't get the night tour but Alcatraz has been booked. I also heard of a place that does a mac 'n' cheese grilled cheese, which is something I must absolutely eat or die trying. I'm hoping to find some other ridiculously American dish to try, any suggestions?
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Mar 14, 2016 23:32
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If you're looking to jump-start a heart attack, Straw serves a burger with glazed donuts for buns.
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Mar 14, 2016 23:36
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I am on foot in downtown San Jose. What's a place with a good beer selection? (Not Gordon Biersch) Food would be a bonus.
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Mar 15, 2016 00:01
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Bollock Monkey posted:Couldn't get the night tour but Alcatraz has been booked. I also heard of a place that does a mac 'n' cheese grilled cheese, which is something I must absolutely eat or die trying. I'm hoping to find some other ridiculously American dish to try, any suggestions? One of the most ridiculously American things to eat is a burrito. This might not be obvious to someone from another country but burritos are an American specialty, and San Francisco is a good place to get one. It should be the size of your head or bigger. Wars are fought over which style is the best, and I don't really want to kick off the grudgematch by specifying a particular one, but if you find yourself in the Mission district by all means eat a giant burrito. Another very American thing is barbeque. Once again it has all kinds of external cultural influence but there is a particularly American tradition. However that's less of an SF thing and more of a south thing... ...if you want a quintissentially San Francisco meal, get yourself a good bowl of clam chowder served in a carved-out sourdough bread bowl. Even more quintessential (e.g., actually invented in San Francisco) but much less touristy would be some nice cioppino. Americans also eat shitloads of pizza, and no, it's not generally the same as pizza in europe. But SF isn't really a big pizza town like chicago. I mean there's plenty of good pizza, it's just not our local specialty thing. I think if you want to eat the sort of west coast fast food garbage that people come here from other parts of America for, you need an In-n-out Burger and a Crispy Creme donut.
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Mar 15, 2016 01:41
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Leperflesh posted:I think if you want to eat the sort of west coast fast food garbage that people come here from other parts of America for, you need an In-n-out Burger and a Crispy Creme donut.
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Mar 15, 2016 02:32
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coronaball posted:I am on foot in downtown San Jose. What's a place with a good beer selection? (Not Gordon Biersch) Food would be a bonus.
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Mar 15, 2016 05:42
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Leperflesh posted:Another very American thing is barbeque. Once again it has all kinds of external cultural influence but there is a particularly American tradition. However that's less of an SF thing and more of a south thing... Arsenic Lupin posted:In-N-Out has terrible French fries; it's all very well to order them animal style, but the fries themselves are badly cooked.
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Mar 15, 2016 09:27
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I have heard in Serious Tones of Voice from People Who Know that there is no "real" bbq in SF or even the whole Bay Area really.
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Mar 15, 2016 16:40
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qirex posted:I have heard in Serious Tones of Voice from People Who Know that there is no "real" bbq in SF or even the whole Bay Area really. I'm sure they have an argument/axe to grind, but imho, the brisket at 4505 Meats is loving DELICIOUS JESUS CHRIST.
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Mar 15, 2016 16:48
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qirex posted:I have heard in Serious Tones of Voice from People Who Know that there is no "real" bbq in SF or even the whole Bay Area really. same but for ramen.
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Mar 15, 2016 16:54
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firebad57 posted:I'm sure they have an argument/axe to grind, but imho, the brisket ... I believe we were talking about "real" barbeque. It's hard to get in and you'll have to wait in line, but Brenda's French Soul Food is amazing. Do have the beignet flight, it's as good as everybody says it is.
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Mar 15, 2016 17:05
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minato posted:same but for ramen.
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Mar 15, 2016 17:17
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zenthursdays posted:If you're looking to jump-start a heart attack, Straw serves a burger with glazed donuts for buns. Yeah, I think Straw would be the perfect place to go to have "ridiculously American" food.
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Mar 15, 2016 17:19
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minato posted:same but for ramen. All of the good ramen is in south bay anyway 
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Mar 15, 2016 18:54
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Toe Rag posted:Yeah, I think Straw would be the perfect place to go to have "ridiculously American" food. That looks like a pretty good place to have what I'm looking for. I've heard a lot about funnel cake so it'd be cool to try some. I'm coming from England so a couple of novelty dishes are a must, and I hear that the Mexican food in SF is amazing so that is definitely on the list, as well as something from Chinatown. Sadly I can't stand fish or seafood so I'll have to give that a miss but I appreciate the recommendations!
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Mar 15, 2016 22:50
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Bollock Monkey posted:the Mexican food in SF is amazing Similarly, I'm pretty sure I've complained in this thread about my quest for fajitas, which are not a "traditional" Mexican dish but which were adapted for Texan tastes. As far as brisket, I like these folks.
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Mar 15, 2016 23:03
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I once ordered a burrito in London, compared to that experience our Mexican food is amazing. I'd recommend tacos over a burrito, that way you can try a several different meats. Places I like in Chinatown:
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Mar 15, 2016 23:29
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Incoherence posted:Probably too late to help, but for future reference: Original Gravity? Exactly where I ended up going. Pliny on tap and a bunch of other great beers too. Ended up closing the place down.
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Mar 15, 2016 23:30
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It used to make no sense to me that the quality of a country's food wouldn't travel very well outside of its home country, because the recipes and chefs can travel, so surely it would taste the same? But every transplant I know says the food tastes better at home, whether they're talking about Brazilian, Indian, Japanese, southern BBQ, etc etc. I figure it's gotta be the quality of the ingredients or some subtle differences in temp/humidity or water quality, and not just some patriotic flag-waving bias. But by its nature it's hard to do a double-blind test to prove it one way or the other.
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Mar 16, 2016 02:27
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minato posted:It used to make no sense to me that the quality of a country's food wouldn't travel very well outside of its home country, because the recipes and chefs can travel, so surely it would taste the same? But every transplant I know says the food tastes better at home, whether they're talking about Brazilian, Indian, Japanese, southern BBQ, etc etc. I figure it's gotta be the quality of the ingredients or some subtle differences in temp/humidity or water quality, and not just some patriotic flag-waving bias. But by its nature it's hard to do a double-blind test to prove it one way or the other.
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Mar 16, 2016 04:43
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There are multiple BBQ traditions in the US. Yesterday someone jinxed me by mentioning Cat's Head BBQ, a North Carolina-ish place in south-west SoMa which I used to work down the street from. I remembered that haven't had any of their brisket in years and it's not fair  Oh, and right around the corner is Pizza Napoletana, which I commonly describe as "literally world class." I mean, maybe all the pizza in Europe is like that but I find it to be a pretty big deal. They put up posters around the bay for its annual reopening like it's a concert or something.
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Mar 16, 2016 04:54
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4505 bbq is delicious. A Mensho Toyko ramen place just opened up and apparently it has a 2-hour wait. https://www.yelp.com/biz/mensho-tokyo-san-francisco-2
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Mar 16, 2016 07:18
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I don't really get the crazy crazy obsession with ramen around here. Especially the Ramen Fest utter fiasco debacle. It's good, especially on a cold rainy/foggy day (which is actually pretty rare lately) but I prefer a good bowl of pho
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Mar 16, 2016 19:11
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Pho is better to eat regularly, for health reasons if nothing else. The best is obviously Pho Y #1 on E Capitol Expressway in San Jose. That being said, don't even talk poo poo on ramen until you've had the Tonkotsu ramen at Orenchi in San Jose. God. So incredible. Get there like 30 minutes before it opens, or be prepared to wait 45 minutes to an hour to get in.
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Mar 16, 2016 20:28
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I don't live in South Bay so I haven't tried that place admittingly. Though I've tried various ramen around SF/East Bay and while good, is not something I'd ever bother waiting in a line for (although I have regrettingly) and a lot of them have long waits for no apparent reason, when instead I can just go to a good Vietnamese place and get seated right away (or close to it) and enjoy a good bowl of pho.
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Mar 16, 2016 21:44
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Overall I've found it's usually never worth it to wait in line a long time, my max is probably 10-15 minutes. I'm sure if I tried to get into State Bird Provisions I'd be OK with a bit of time on the sidewalk but 2 hours for ramen is just stupid even if it is the best ramen ever. One of the best things about SF is that it's so small and tightly packed that if the exact thing you want isn't available there's 10 other great things within 4 blocks. "There's no ramen in SF worth standing on Geary Street 2 hours in the rain" is a fair and accurate statement. "There's no good ramen in SF" isn't. Speaking of pho I've had good stuff at Pho 2000 [good garlic noodles too] and Pho Vietnam.
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Mar 16, 2016 22:13
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Doc Hawkins posted:There are multiple BBQ traditions in the US. Yesterday someone jinxed me by mentioning Cat's Head BBQ, a North Carolina-ish place in south-west SoMa which I used to work down the street from. I remembered that haven't had any of their brisket in years and it's not fair
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Mar 17, 2016 04:16
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See, we really don't know anything about barbecue! (Thank you for the information.)
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Mar 18, 2016 00:59
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Fries at In'N'Out can be good if you get light well-done fries. Their regular fries are only fried once. Get them to fry them a second time and they're awesome: http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/01/the-burger-lab-why-double-fry-french-fries.html Also, Orenchi is good but its waaaaay too salty. Pho 90 is the best pho in south bay, especially if you get the handcut noodles.
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Mar 18, 2016 01:26
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Taima posted:Pho is better to eat regularly, for health reasons if nothing else. The best is obviously Pho Y #1 on E Capitol Expressway in San Jose. Orenchi sucks, get the special pork salt ramen at Santouka.
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Mar 18, 2016 01:49
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Are there any times during the day / week that wait times at Swan Oyster Depot are best? Alternatively, are there any other paper plate seafood counter type places in San Francisco that are good? My wife and I are staying near the corner of Bush and Powell for reference, but we'll be out and about all week.
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May 26, 2016 18:06
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People spazzing out over tonkotsu ramen is just weaboo bacon fetishism. Tonkotsu can be great but there's plenty of other ways to enjoy ramen that don't involve half a liter of pork fat. As far as Swan goes it's busted. You can wait in line an hour with 100% tourists or find somewhere else to eat. I seriously don't know one local who's eaten there in the last 3 years.
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May 26, 2016 18:33
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Ehhh maybe we'll find somewhere else to eat then. Are there any other seafood counter or casual seafood places we should go instead?
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May 26, 2016 19:25
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b0lt posted:Orenchi sucks, get the special pork salt ramen at Santouka. Ok, I will totally do that, always on the hunt for a new place. But Orenchi by no means sucks, so I will assume you're exaggerating to make a point. Maybe you aren't a big tonkotsu guy? Have a favorite banh mi in S. San Jose?
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May 27, 2016 02:36
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Ba Le and Saigon Deli in Oakland are both great for bahn mi. Is the Bay Model in Sausalito worth visiting? What about the Marine Mammal center? I have not spent any time in Sausalito other than taking the ferry and biking back to the city.
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May 30, 2016 07:49
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