San Francisco Restaurants : Expensive Cost

Chez Panisse

Address: 1517 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94709

When Chez Panisse was conceived in 1971, it was the most atypical of restaurants in America, designing its menu daily based on the freshest seasonal and local ingredients. Though this unique approach to food has since gained momentum, Chez Panisse is still one of the most influential proponents of the move towards a more sustainable approach to food. With Alice Waters at the helm, Chez Panisse stays true to its initial vision, serving one fixed price menu daily, based on what is freshest at the moment. Still in its birthplace in a converted house in liberal-minded Berkeley, Chez Panisse retains a feeling of hominess, offering diners welcoming service and superb French-inspired cuisine.

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La Folie

Address: 2316 Polk Street, San Francisco, CA 94109

With colorful flower boxes, large picture windows, and a sunny saffron-colored sign, La Folie exudes a charming Frenchness. Inside, a luminous dining room in warm hues and lush fabrics is an elegant canvas for the presentation of Executive Chef Roland Possat’s French and California-inspired creations. The prix-fixe menu whimsically explores the interplay between tradition and experimentation: classic French ingredients like foie gras, frog legs, and snails mingle with dishes featuring lobster vanilla sauce and oxtail stuffed calamari. While, as its name suggests, La Folie has a playful streak of madness, it is more the result of a masterful and supremely enjoyable mad genius.

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Michael Mina

Address: 252 California Street, San Francisco, CA 94111

With its white marble stairs, towering Roman-style columns, and expansive dining room, Michael Mina is a monument to gastronomy. Its décor, awash in a subdued mauves, brown leathers, and soft creams, manages to be highly modern and chic, while still evoking a timeless, stately elegance. Chef de Cuisine Chris L’Hommedieu, who has had extensive experience working under Executive Chef Michael Mina in the past, expertly executes Mina’s New American culinary vision, presenting decadent prix-fixe menus showcasing fresh ingredients, culinary creativity, and epicurean artistry at its finest. Michael Mina’s namesake restaurant delivers a decadently pleasurable culinary romp in a calmingly demur space, each complimenting the other for a truly memorable and well balanced evening.

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Quince

Address: 470 Pacific Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94133

Under the direction of chef and owner Michael Tusk, Quince is revitalizing a sense of European charm in Pacific Heights. Utilizing only the finest organic, local, and seasonal, ingredients, Chef Tusk creates a new menu each day to exemplify his Italian and French-inspired culinary sensibility. Diners will never experience the same meal twice, but they will always recognize familiar notes of Chef Tusk’s vision. Dishes like the Warm Octopus Salad, the Tonnarelli, and the Devil’s Gulch Rabbit, deliver the classic elegance of fine Parisian fare minus the haute pretense. The ever-changing tasting menu pairs the intricacies of flavors with the vibrancy of wine for another level of delight.

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Bouchon

Address: 6534 Washington Street, Yountville, CA 94599

Bouchon of Yountville comes from the family of Thomas Keller Restaurants and strives to bring the French tradition of cozy, family owned bistros to the area. A dark, intimate interior starts diners off on their quest for traditional French cuisine as they are given a menu that consists of classic dishes. A list of Fruits de Mer, Caviar, and other Hors D’Oeuvres guide guests through a beginning course, leading up to the stars of the meal: Les Plats Principaux. This section of the menu features the French bistro classic, Steak Frites, as well as traditional entrees like Croque Madame and Canard al’Orange. Side dishes have their own menu, resulting in a true build-your-own style of dining. Bouchon also offers patrons an affordable and varied wine list that includes wines from both the United States and France, granting diners a unique French dining experience, no passport necessary.

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