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Anybody from San Fran/Portland and have some pointers?
VirtualVolt
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Me and my family are all going on a vacation to San Francisco and then up to Portland. Anybody know any particularly good restaurants attractions or just cool stuff to do in these cities? I've heard good things about the Mission burrito, but have yet to find an agreed upon good spot to actually get one of those. The trip is loosely planned, and we're playing it by ear, so I'd love some pro-tips.
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How long will you be spending in each location?
Edit: How old is the family and what do you like to do?
Edit2: When will you be going?
4 days in each city
Most of the things I enjoyed the most while I was in the Bay Area were out of the city. Mt Diablo, Muir Woods. If you go south Monterey Bay Aquarium is pretty awesome to spend a day heading to, maybe do Winchester Mansion while down there. People seem to enjoy the Alcatraz and SF Bay boat tours, depending on time of year it's colder than you'd expect. You can also take a ferry to Jack London Square and try Yoshi's for Japanese food and Jazz.
Portland is kind of the land of hipster food. If you think standing in line for an hour to get ice cream sounds fun, you're in for a great time if you go for trendy spots. There are lots of local spots though, Noraneko is a good ramen shop with a pleasant enough casual decor. I can't say much else about Portland. The Rose Garden is nice? Lots of outdoors stuff here but you'd need a true local to tell you details.
What are your interests?
There are tons and tons of great restaurants and bars. And yes salt and straw is fun and good but there will be a long line.
Check out Powells Books on Burnside.
I can give you specific restaurant recommendations if you give me some idea of what your family likes.
I've lived in the Bay Area for almost 10 years and I definitely lean toward letting visitors take in the beauty of the area. I'm normally a museum guy when I'm visiting places, but since I live here I haven't been to any of them. (After all, I can go to one whenever, right?) Since you have four whole days here, you may want to check out the recently renovated SF Museum of Modern Art. We also have some cool science museums. If you have kids, the Exploratorium would likely be a hit. Alcatraz is cool, but depending on when you're coming you may have missed a chance to get a reservation (though I've heard this isn't nearly as hard as it was a few years ago).
As for the trip I normally take visitors on, it assumes a car and goes something like this:
1. Visit Twin Peaks. It's one of those things that's famous for a reason. There will be cars and tour buses milling about, in addition to a horde of tourists. But if you go up earlier in the day before the fog rolls in, it's spectacular. The Pacific on one side, the Bay on the other, with a killer view right down Market Street toward downtown. I've probably been up there almost a dozen times and I haven't gotten tired of it.
2. Get lunch and then drive across the Golden Gate Bridge and get off at the first exit you can and hit up the Marin Headlands. This provides a sweeping views of San Francisco, Angel Island, the Golden Gate (and the bridge that spans it). As the afternoon wears on, you can literally watch the fog envelope the western half of the city. If you're up to walk around a bit, you can see the remnants of the US Military's WWII and Cold War era batteries.
3. Drive back across the bridge (if you have a rental car, verify what their toll policy is because all tolling is automated on this bridge, you can also pay in advance online) and make your way over to the Great Highway. It's literally right on the beach, which you can also visit if you want. On the way are the remains of the Sutro Baths, which essentially was a large aquatics complex from the early 1900's. It's neat.
4. Meet up with Highway 1 and drive down the Pacific Coast, if you'd like to get out of town. The furthest south you'd probably want to go is Half Moon Bay.
Since you mentioned burritos, my preference lies with La Taqueria, however, that is not considered a true Mission-style burrito since it lacks rice. For that, you want their chief rival located a block north, Taquerias el Farolito. Expect lines at either. If you can't tolerate the lines, there's no shortage of taquerias in the Mission, but especially along Mission St. proper between 25th and 16th.
Anywhere you go in San Francisco, if they will take a reservation, make one. Otherwise you may end up waiting at least an hour or not be able to eat there at all.
Din Tai Fung - One of the only gourmet xao long bao (dumplings with soup inside) restaurants you'll find (albeit a chain with locations in LA & Seattle too). Their Beijing & Guangzhou locations had much, much more variety of xao long bao than any of their USA restaurants, but the USA ones were still good.
Cafe Jacqueline - One of the only savory soufflé restaurants in the entire country.
Do not engage the Watermelons.
The drinks ain't cheap, but the outdoor views are spectacular if you're into that sort of thing.
Other than that there's so much to do it's hard to pin anything down. You're better off figuring out what you like to do first, and then narrowing it down from there.
House of Prime rib is highly recommended. One of my favorite "occasion" places to eat. Again, make a reservation now.
If you like pastrami, hit up Tommy's Joynt.
If you like killer hole in the wall schezwan food, check out Spices 2 on Clement and 6th. It's not for everyone, but it's one of my go to spots.
Halu is an awesome little ramen/izakaya joint (decked out in Beatles stuff).
I don't fuck with the Mission very much because it's a nightmare for parking, but I'll give some love to el farolito.
2nd the Bourbon and Branch recommendation. If you can't get a reservation, you can get a drink in the library bar.
Rickhouse, owned by the same company (futurebars), is even better in my opinion.
Rye, on Geary and Leavenworth, is probably my favorite bar in the city. It takes an eternity for them to make a drink but by god it's worth it.
Also have to shout out to 15 Romolo, on Romolo and Broadway. Great, quirky little bar with some really good food.
Shit I could talk about SF bars forever.
It's not my jam so much, but if you're really really really into beer, you should check out Mikkeller Bar. It's a bit too cool for me, but others love it.
If you want to drink in an empty hot tub while old sitcoms spliced with random vintage porno play on shitty old TVs, check out Kozy Kar on Sacramento and Polk. Seriously this place is pretty great.
4505 BBQ near Alamo Square park is really good eats.
OK more bars while I'm thinking of them:
-Alembic on Haight and Cole
-Don't tell anyone about it, but the Black Horse London Pub in the marina is the best. Also it only seats like 8 people.
-Church Key, in North Beach, is another beer nerd bar - I'd totally recommend it over Mikkeller but that's just me.
I don't have a problem I swear.
Oh yeah Le Colonial is pretty cool but be warned the bar can turn into a bit of a shit show at night.
I also got SF bar opinions, but for now I'll second 15 Romolo and point that if you go drinking in North Beach, you then have an excuse to go to Golden Boy afterward. Alembic is one of my top 5 bars anywhere, period, but the new food program is exceedingly meh. Drinks are still fantastic.
The city is very bike friendly.
Apizza Scholls
Ken's Artisan Pizza
Sizzle Pie
Salt and Straws is an awesome ice cream place.
Mutnomah Falls is a slight drive away but worth it.
And no trip to Portland is complete without a trip to Voodoo Doughnut.
If you want to drive out a bit, the Oregon coast is very nice, less swimming, more sightseeing and small-town browsing. Mt. St. Helens National Monument is also an hour and a half away if you want to take in the full frightening majesty of what nature is capable of.
Go find a Sesame Donut or Blue Star
Or just go to Saint Cupcake for awesome cupcakes!
Well, that's not entirely true. The Portland experience is closer to a donut shop where instead of giving you a donut they beat you with a soggy newspaper for nine months. But of the ones you are likely to visit, VooDoo is the better tourist experience.
As far as stuff to do in Portland, I couldn't think of much that wasn't mentioned, but a real eye opener is the Shanghai Tunnel tour. Apparently this sleepy little forest town was also a major hub for human trafficking back in the day. Tunnels under the buildings led to the harbor, where able-bodied men would be forced to work on ships to the orient. I recommend the Ghost Tour, as it starts above ground and talks about what that part of town was like before taking you underground and showing what the tunnel system was like.
Heh
Portland's gone full circle hipster if Voodoo is now the "normal" place to get a doughnut. ;-p
AT&T park is one of the nicest ballparks in the MLB
oh also at some point you need to get a sourdough breadbowl
A special thank you to @ASimPerson and @firewaterword for the recommendation of Taqueria El Farolito, one of the best burritos I've ever eaten. Took some convincing of the family that I'm not crazy and that it's not that bad of a neighborhood, and one really shitty uber driver named Igor, but it was totally worth it. It was so insanely flavorful, now I dunno if I can go back to chipotle the same man.
Here's a list to start with http://firstwefeast.com/drink/10-essential-portland-coffee-shops/
I'd recommend Stumptown or Barista
Try Olympia Provisions for dinner, and maybe Pok Pok for lunch (actually, walking around Division in Southeast will also take you close to Salt and Straw, previously recommended, as well as giving you a fairly representative slice of life in PDX)
There's also a fantastic bar across the street from it whose name escapes me right now which had some really great cocktails.
Dang, now I gotta go back to Portland.
As far as Portland goes, I haven't visited in years, but I really enjoyed the Portland Saturday Market when I was there last. I can also second Screen Door. Still kind of bummed that I never made it to Pok Pok.
I'll start by seconding some of the suggestions I've seen so far.
Screendoor is great, but be prepared to wait.
Pine State Biscuits is super good as well.
Salt and Straw is really good to, especially if they're hosting a guest chef. Sometimes they bomb, but one time I had a baked potato ice cream that instantly became my favorite. I never would have thought sour cream was so good in ice cream.
My favorites for Pizza are:
Lonesome's - Kind of a hipster vibe from an older, somewhat less gentrified Portland. When I first moved here they used to tape mix CDs to the inside of their Pizza boxes and named their pizza stuff like "Dave Hasslehoff vs. a Shark with a Laser" (now they just use French numbers). Extremely good pizza with a lot of unique types. My favorite is the #16. They have interesting specials every week and their "wings" are full-sized, BBQ chicken drumsticks.
Dove Vivi - My absolute favorite pizza. They use a crunchy, cornmeal crust that I haven't seen anywhere else. I'd get a couple slices of the Corn/Sausage pizza and then to the Chef's Choice so you can sample the menu.
Coffee:
That top 10 list that got linked earlier is pretty solid - really it's hard to find bad coffee in Portland. For my money the best cup of coffee in town Coava. They are a full on coffee house in that every cup of coffee is brewed to order. Fred Armisen took Jerry Seinfeld there on Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and after making them wait seven minutes for their coffee, Jerry described it as "a reason to live here".
Heart is excellent but I'd rather walk down to 28th and go to Crema. The coffee is just as good, they have a LOT more food choices and you're more likely to see Stumptown, Coava and RedE beans. Heart uses a coffee machine with a filter, Crema French presses if that makes a difference to you.
My favorite slow-weekend, morning routine is to wake up early, grab a book and walk down to Rocking Frog Cafe. I like to read in their little backyard area that's surrounded by bamboo. They have a decent selection of pastries and a good selection of sandwiches and salads. They also make doughnuts to order there.
On the West side, my favorite coffee place is Coffeehouse Northwest. They use Stumptown beans I believe but they do amazing work with them. Whenever I'm on that side of town I make an effort to drop in there.
Spella Café is this teeny-tiny closet of a cafe tucked into the downtown. Spella beans are sorta rare but they occupy more than few spots in my top ten cups of coffee. It's an interesting experience at the very least.
Do you like tea? Then go to Jasmine Pearl Tea. The ladies who work there are incredibly knowledgeable on all things tea related. Even if you don't think you like tea, they can probably find something you like and you can sample all the teas you want there. They will brew you tiny sample cups to order and you can sample whatever you want. Plus they sell tea soda. If you like cream soda get Dancing Dragon if you want caffeine or Vanilla Rooibos if you don't.
Desert:
Pix - Fancy deserts and a HUGE selection of beer, wine and cider. They have a free movie night every Wednesday too (tonight is King Kong).
Fifty-Licks - Really good ice cream. They make affogatos here too (ice cream drowned in espresso). I had an affogato with coffee ice cream and it was amazing.
Staccato Gelato - A favorite desert place of mine. They have a rotating selection of gelato that they make every day. They also have doughnut holes.
Food:
Tasty and Alder - The best overall dining experience in my opinion. Expensive, family-style, fine dining. The food is goddamned amazing but I've dropped $150 on three people before. They open at 5:30 - I'd get there a little after 5:00 to put your name on the list and then chill at the bar until they're open. If you get there after that there's a good chance you're gonna wait longer than a half hour.
Pacific Pie Company. Desert pies and dinner pies and a nice selection of local beers (there's a nice selection of local beers pretty much everywhere in Portland). One of my personal favorites.
Shigezo Izakaya - My favorite Japanese place. Also right next to the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall and Portland Art Museum.
You want dives? RoboTaco. Big ass burritos, plus burgers and fries. Super good junk food.
Another local treasure: Nong's Khao Man Gai. Was just a food cart, but is now also a restaurant. Excellent lunch place specializing in chicken and rice dishes. Directly adjacent to a new and very excellent ramen place whose name escapes me at the moment.
Right behind Crema is a pod of food trucks featuring Guerro and the Captured Beer Bus. They combine to form a very chill, outdoor dining experience with utterly fantastic Mexican food and a nice selection of local beers and usually one type of cider. I love Guerro so much that just thinking about it has compelled me to go there immediately after I finish writing this. You gotta try one of their tortas. (This is where they ate on that episode of Comedians in Cars though they went to a different cart)
Right down the street is the aforementioned Ken's Artisan Pizza which shares a wall with Bamboo Sushi which is an excellent sushi place.
After you eat you can take a stroll through Laurelhurst Park down on 33rd to help walk off a potential food coma.
I could go on. Honestly you can just roll up and down E Burnside, SE Belmont and SE Hawthorne between about 15th to 35th and find like a million awesome places to eat. Same with rolling north-south on 28th between E Burnside and Gleason or thereabouts. Also N. Mississippi between Skidmore and Freemont.
Edit: For something fun but non-food related: Ground Kontrol Arcade. Lots of retro and new arcade games plus a bar. I love this place because they have a well maintained Dance Dance Revolution machine.
Whiskey Soda Bar, also owned by Pok Pok folks
pok pok is fine and all but as far as I've sampled the best thai in portland is Khun Pic Bahn, which isn't even that far away on SE belmont (and bonus, is built into kind of a neat old victorian)
counterpoint: you gon' wait. Boy you are gon' wait
tbh portland is not really that great a tourist city if you want to do things other than eat/drink at interesting restaurants/bars; waterfront park to skidmore fountain is worth a walkaround, powell's is worth a trip if you like books, saturday market's kinda fun. Timbers games are really fun to go to if you're in the relatively narrow soccer fan demographic.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
In Portland, we hit Tasty & Alder and Powell's on the first night. I got the new Star Wars book, and had the most spectacular Peking duck. It was cooked on some special French oven and, my god, was it amazing. The next day we hit up Voodoo for breakfast. I had a Captain America donut and one called a "Pot Hole", a chocolate donut stick with chocolate frosting and crumpled Oreo cookie on top along with two yellow lines running down the center. I could've died right then eating that thing, I was in heaven. Today was our departure day (delayed lol) so we were kinda winging it. Went to Screen Door for breakfast, saw the line, and went to City State instead. Despite not knowing what we were getting, I had a great ham, egg & cheese sandwich on a biscuit. We also hit Mt. Hood today and swam in a lake with a great view. Honestly I kind of fell in love with Portland and Oregon in a big way. Great city, great people, great natural beauty, would gladly visit again.
Spices 2 is fucking awesome! That Turkish place up the street is amazing too. Really that section of street is just littered with good dining and interesting shopping. Green Apple's a fantastic bookstore, the various grocers and dim sum counters. Even Richmond Republic Drafthouse, which replaced the very missed Haig's, is a great place for beer and burgers and sammiches. I worry about what their arrival means for the neighborhood but damn if their food isn't great.
If you like whiskey cocktails @firewaterword you gotta try Dalva/The Hideout (place mentioned above). Cocktails as good as anything Bourbon and Branch does, easier to get into, and if The Hideout isn't open yet and you're not interested in Dalva's ridiculously affordable happy hour, which includes stuff like Russian River as "Domestic" pints, if you're nice to the bartender they'll make you the whiskey cocktails they normally only serve in the back.
Also is Din Tai Fung all that? That is my local mall but I haven't been yet because of how much awesome dim sum I eat in the Richmond District.
That mall is also half in Santa Clara, half in San Jose. The South Bay is weird.
What's the name of the Turkish place? My buddy and I have a bit of a ritual where we get giant beers at Steins before going to Spices, but I'd be down to check out some other spots. I've been dying to get back to Halu for the okonomiyaki as well. I haven't been in Richmond Republic yet, because it looked a bit SF cookie cutter, but I'll check it out if you recommend it.
Din Tai Fung is really good, but yeah, it's pretty well hyped up. Honestly though the xiao long bao are probably the best I've ever had (better than Joe's Shanghai in NYC, that's for sure). I used to go to Ton Kiang all the time back when my buddy lived across the street, but I feel like it had gone downhill a bit last time I was there (probably at least 2 years or more).
Haven't been to Spices since the makeover but I noticed the new sign.
Burma Superstar/Star (two places, the latter is fusion) are both obviously great. But Mandalay over on 6th and California is better for pure Burmese, and Tanuki is a great Japanese place across the street.
Koja Kitchen is awesome Korean Fusion that used to be in trucks only but they opened up a storefront recently on Clement.
Bitter End is a great no frills divey Irish joint. The food has gone up and down over the years but is on an upswing again, and I love the perch up near the front upstairs. Great place to pass some time.
Hong Kong lounge is a similar experience and quality to Ton Kiang but a very different menu. Try the coffee ribs.
That isn't even all of my favorites in walking distance like the walk-up dim sum/BBQ with the yellow awning (recent fire, will reopen soon if not already), the bakery down on 2nd and Arguello that Bon Appetit just ruined for me by declaring them the best in the US, the Singaporean place, couple other Chinese places, etc.
And if you expand it out a little that neighborhood is positively littered with good food. I'm kind of shocked the gentrification didn't happen sooner.
I avoided it for months out of resentment as I saw it as a sign of invaders, even though it is pretty much made for me. But the girlfriend's brother came in singing its praises one night (they grew up on the same street as the Mummy House), and I tried it, and it was great. Also they have Haig's hummus on the menu so at least the owners respect the neighborhood's history.