Exploring San Francisco, Part 2: Food

January 16, 2016

I visited San Francisco over Winter Break and in the second and last part of my San Francisco posts, I wanted to share a tiny selection of the diverse assortment of food available in the city of hills.

I went to a great South Indian restaurant, Udupi Palace, in the Mission District that had a surprisingly wide array of actual South Indian food. Their bisi bele baath (South Indian rice dish) is an authentic taste of south Indian food and rare to find. Their dosa and utthapam (pictured below) are decent, and served in traditional earthenware.

My Favorite Restaurants

  • Toss-up between B Street and Vine Grillin San Mateo (slightly south of the SFO airport) and Curry Up Now: Indian Street Food (2 locations – one in San Mateo and one in San Francisco)

I could go on forever about the merits of both these places.

I’ll just say B Street and Vine has a creative bruschetta combination plate (see title photo for this blog post) that serves as a full meal and simultaneous taste explosion, along with a wide array of sandwiches, salads, and drinks.

  • Curry Up Now does full justice to the misused concept of fusion food – mixing authentic Indian food with Mexican flavor in a casual, quick-serve ambiance good for on-the-go or sit-down meals.

My Future Restaurants

Below are a few food recommendations I received but did not have time to go to – for next time!

  • Indian: Dosa,Pakwan
  • Thai: Marnee Thai
  • Bakery: Boudin Cafe
Published on January 16th, 2016Last updated on January 20th, 2021