Restaurant Recommendations

Last updated: 7/31/2024

Table of Contents

San Francisco

• Boichik Bagels: The clear winner of the Bay Area bagel game; easily competitive with New York bagels (no matter what New Yorkers will tell you), although you pay for the quality ($3 a bagel or so). They’ve even available frozen in some Bay Area grocery stores.
• Schlok’s Bagels & Lox: The number two bagel place in San Francisco, though again, you’re paying for quality. Conveniently, Schlok’s is located on one end of the the Wiggle, about a block away from the Panhandle.
• Saap Ver: Probably the collective favorite of my group of friends. Saap Ver has a lot of less-common, northeastern-style Thai food, but personally I vouch for the house-special pork belly fried rice or the duck curry.
• Saigon Sandwich: Not the best banh mi in the Bay Area, but at $4 (cash-only!) it’s probably the best value-for-money in the city.
• Yarsa Nepalese Cuisine: The second best value-for-money in San Francisco and the restaurant I always end up ordering for parties when we can’t decide what to get. Twenty bucks buys you spicy chicken chilli momos, fantastic mango lassi, and a heaping pile of garlic-cheese naan, and there’s a wide variety of vegetarian options too.
• Aaha Indian Cuisinse: The third best value-for-money in San Francisco. Fifteen bucks gets you flavorful, spicy biryani that’s big enough to share with two.
• Señor Sisig: The hype has long since died down for this Filipino fusion food truck, but I’d argue it’s underrated at this point. It’s pricey, but a French-fry-filled sisig burrito is an only-in-California experience.
• Reem’s: Reem’s is fantastic — I like the za’atar mana’eesh and the labneh — but I mostly come here for the minty-fresh Damascus lemonade, which is one of my favorite drinks in the world.
• Kin Khao: Michelin-starred contemporary Thai in a tiny corner of a downtown Hilton by local-culinary-hero Chef Pim Techamuanvivit. For a Michelin-starred restaurant, it’s not too crowded (you can get 8pm reservations on two days notice), not too pricey (usually in the $40-60 per person range), and has a reasonable range of vegetarian plates (about a third of the menu). They’re famous for the rabbit green curry, where an entire rabbit leg is dipped in mild green curry, but the real standout is the mushroom hor mok, where you ladle mushroom-curry-in-a-jar over crispy rice cakes.
• Oren’s Hummus: The hummus here is lovely, but what keeps me coming back is the fluffy, soft-as-a-cloud white pita - sometimes I order extra to freeze for my own meals at home. Unfortunately, they’ve significantly cut portion sizes since the pandemic, so it’s not as good a deal as it once was, but I still often find myself bringing out-of-towners around.

Vancouver

• Raisu: My usual anniversary spot. They’re best known for their tonkatsu teishoku, where panko-breaded tonkatsu is served alongside a carefully-chosen set of sides. They also often have special set menus for holidays like Valentine’s.
• Ramen Danbo: A Japanese chain specializing in Fukuoka-style hakata ramen with a handful of locations in North America. They’re my favourite purveyors of my favourite style of ramen; I once patiently waited in line at Danbo over an hour in the snow wearing only a hoody and didn’t regret it for a moment.
• Miku: A waterfront restaurant specializing in blowtorched aburi sushi, making for a perfect date night location. They also have a sister restaurant, Minami, serving similar fare.