Your SF Guide

Curated by a local tour guide. No ads, no fluff—just honest recommendations from someone who shows people around this city every day.

First Time? Eat & Drink Neighborhoods This Week Day Trips

Neighborhoods

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Japantown

The Peace Pagoda rises above the Japan Center plaza, a gift from Osaka that anchors one of only…

4 restaurants 4 things to do
Russian Hill

Everyone comes for the crooked block of Lombard Street, but stay on Russian Hill and you discover hidden…

0 restaurants 1 things to do
Haight-Ashbury

The corner of Haight and Ashbury still draws pilgrims chasing the ghost of 1967, and while the Summer…

1 restaurants 17 things to do
The Sunset

The Sunset spreads west of Golden Gate Park in a foggy grid of pastel row houses that stretches…

2 restaurants 6 things to do
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Where to Eat

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Burma Superstar

Order the tea leaf salad on your first visit. Go for weekday lunch to skip the line. Reservations through Yelp fill fast, especially weekends.

$$ The Richmond Burmese, Asian

Swan Oyster Depot

18 stools at a marble counter. No tables. Anthony Bourdain's favorite seafood spot. Line forms before they open at 8am. Closed Sun-Mon.

Seafood

Papalote Mexican Grill

Get the Triple Threat burrito smothered in roasted tomato salsa. Buy a jar of that salsa to take home. The 24th Street location at Valencia is the original, opened March 1999.

$ The Mission District Mexican

La Taqueria

Order the carne asada dorado style. The griddled tortilla changes everything. The line looks intimidating but moves fast. Go weekdays at lunch to skip the worst of it.

$ The Mission District Mexican
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Things to Do

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Classic

Amoeba Music

Budget at least an hour. The used vinyl section is where the real finds are. Check the staff picks for things you wouldn't find on your own.

$
Classic

Clarion Alley

Scrappier and more punk than Balmy Alley. Between Mission and Valencia, enter from either 17th or 18th Street. The art turns over fast so check back every few months.

free
Classic

Peephole Cinema

One viewer at a time through a peephole in a storefront door on Cortland Avenue in Bernal Heights. The short films rotate regularly. Free, available 24 hours, and takes about two minutes.

free
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Written by someone who actually does this every day

I've been a San Francisco tour guide for years. These aren't hot takes from a travel writer who flew in for a weekend—they're the answers I give people every single day.

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