Hi Lo Northern California BBQ
BBQ eludes me. Even as a committed omnivore, BBQ never took hold of my culinary longings until I went to Hi Lo, the sleek, airy, unabashedly San Francisco style barbecue place across the street from sister restaurant Hog and Rocks. There, I fell in love. I think Hi Lo is the best restaurant to open [...]
Read More →b. Patisserie
I am obsessed with b. Patisserie, a new bakery/cafe in my lower Pacific Heights neighborhood. I sit at the computer inventing excuses to walk over. When I’m out, and pass within two blocks of its pearly white facade and big front windows, I start talking to myself. If I dropped in every time, I’d be [...]
Read More →Ramen Shop
Leave it to Chez Panisse alums to turn a ramen shop into a farm to table experience. The noodles, made daily on site, possess provocative chewiness. Ramen Shop broths, cooked entirely from scratch, conjoin clarity and depth. The pristine garnishes–pork, egg, greens–are radiant with color and flavor. This is ramen at its purest yet most [...]
Read More →Hakkasan
Cecilia Chiang, who in 1968 mounted the first upscale, northern Chinese restaurant in America called The Mandarin, and ran it for 23 years, perpetually complains about the dearth of Chinese restaurants in San Francisco that have gracious service, appointments and decor. So when Hakkasan, the new, high-end Chinese restaurant from London opened, we went right [...]
Read More →Chez Panisse Downstairs
A revolution of sorts swept though the bastion of California cooking when long time chefs Jean-Pierre Moulle and David Tanis left their alternating bi-annual posts of downstairs dining room chef at Chez Panisse. Many of the restaurant’s loyal patrons–the Chez Panisse family–were concerned. Jean-Pierre Moulle, a 37 year veteran, represented the institutional memory of the [...]
Read More →The Corner Store
The Corner Store, an ebullient new pub and restaurant located on the partially hidden southwest corner of Masonic and Geary, has deep local roots. One of the two owners, the chef and a multitude of investors grew up in San Francisco and hung out together since they were in kindergarten. The eventual crew worked around [...]
Read More →Bar Tartine
Six years after it opened, Bar Tartine, the restaurant offshoot of Tartine Bakery, has become Hungarian at dinner and Scandinavian at lunch. Both meals are fantastic–original and luscious. The lunchtime Danish sandwich bar was created when Bar Tartine expanded into a space next door and installed bread ovens. There, Chad Robertson bakes whole grain northern [...]
Read More →Ken Ken Ramen
During the recession, the idea of opening a successful restaurant changed. Instead of raising seven figure capital from investors, passionate cooks with a dish or two they loved to make figured out new ways to get them to the public–pop ups, restaurant sharing, food stands at farmers’ markets, food trucks, community kitchens. They invoked the [...]
Read More →Boot and Shoe Service
To sustain a no reservations policy, a restaurant must be very popular and very good, not just in the kitchen but in the front of the house, too. Nothing aggravates hungry people more than uncertainty, and how the peckish are handled from the moment they walk through the door determines whether they will flock back. [...]
Read More →Chili House
Paul Kwan, my Clement Street insider, turned me on to Chili House, a new Sichuan/northern Chinese restaurant in the inner Richmond, and a relative of Z & Y, a Sichuan place in San Francisco’s Chinatown. The chef at Chili House worked at Z & Y, and apparently the ownership is the same. However, Chili House [...]
Read More →Subscribe to the Newsletter
Unterman on Food - 6 issues for $35. Each issue consists of current, independent reviews of restaurants, food and travel articles from long time restaurant critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner, Patricia Unterman.
To subscribe, send a check for
$35 made out to
Unterman on Food
320 Hayes Street
San Francisco, CA 94102