These days, it takes an awful lot for a San Francisco restaurant to fly under the radar. Professional food writers, bloggers and dilettantes hunt for secret gems with the doggedness of a search-and-rescue team. So how can you account for Peña Pachamama, a charming and unique North Beach restaurant that has plugged along for more than a decade without attracting notice? Read More

‘Can’t a little restaurant have its chance at being themselves, without people’s expectations and desires [messing] up the whole damn thing?” Someone wrote this on my first negative review, as part of a lengthy comment that boiled down to: “Hey, at least they’re trying!” Company, a new restaurant on the Mission-Noe fault line, is certainly trying. Though the sterile name may seem like an afterthought, the owners are putting a lot of sweat equity into their menu.   Read More

I love introducing The Chubby Noodle to new friends. “Who knew you could get such good food in a dive bar?!?” they ask. I smile and nod, imagining I look wise (but possibly just self-satisfied and smug). So upon bringing some newbies there recently, I was surprised to find a very limited menu — no ramen! — and a meal that fell shy of my high praise. Our server told us things had been chaotic, and wasn’t sure what the future held. Say it isn’t so! Read More

Critics typically avoid pop-ups; who wants to review a restaurant that might never return? I once reviewed a Caribbean pop-up in Berkeley, only to learn the cook left for Jamaica a week later. Fool me once. OK, fool me twice. I want to review Sneaky’s BBQ now, with full knowledge that it could disappear into the fog.   Here’s the abridged Sneaky’s story: Part-time rocker Ben Thorne, a Maine native with no barbecue experience, inherited a smoker with his friend Pat Wachter. They self-schooled for many moons, transforming from “comically inept” to smoker savants. Read More

Let’s say you work in the Civic Center. If you are daring, lunchtime reveals an embarrassment of low-end Vietnamese, Burmese and Thai. But for the nervous-minded “clutch my pearls” crowd, the funky neighborhood offerings might possess a bit too much, ah, character. This review is for the second group. Marching orders: Enter the Asian Art Museum, subject your bag to a frisk and nab a cute chopstick sticker at the front desk. Don’t look at any art, freeloader; that sticker is only for eating. Read More

Outside Harlem and the Deep South, combining fried chicken and waffles used to reliably provoke a double-take and a snicker. Now it’s become another trendy plaything for chefs to riff on, and for luxe travel magazines to feature in roundups: “City’s best chicken and waffles for under $40!” But Auntie April’s Chicken and Waffles started serving its house specialty long before Dixie and Twenty Five Lusk subbed in quail for chicken, before anyone might suggest your waffles could be made with quinoa. Read More

My friend Mike insists on bringing out-of-town relatives to Loló, though he’d list other restaurants as his favorites. I’ve got a few theories why. First, it’s sophisticated but unpretentious, a place for Midwestern visitors to feel comfortable (maybe even cool). Next, it’s in the Mission, a neighborhood your auntie probably learned about on the Food Network. And, most importantly, Loló is a great intro to San Francisco’s insistent playful spirit. Read More