Sensei’s Poker Dojo

Some friends and I have compiled this list of restaurants and bars and neighborhoods. If you’re in town and looking for some delicious food or a good place to grab a cold one, but don’t like touristy bullshit, then you are in the right place! If you have suggestions on things to add, let me know.

Restaurants:
Suppenkuche (German, Hayes Valley) – fantastic German food (and beer!). The meatloaf is excellent if you can’t decide on anything else.  Filling brunch (with beer, of course) on weekends.
Sushi Bistro (Sushi, Inner Richmond) – Very good special rolls, try the one with baby lobster (C-2)
Zushi Puzzle (Sushi, Marina) – Also good and creative special rolls and lots of unusual fish
Sushi Domo (Sushi, Hayes Valley) – Pretty simple but very good, and across the street from my apartment
Sushi Hunter (Sushi, North Beach) – All you can eat for 20 bucks, and good quality too. All you can drink hot sake for 10 bucks more, too, though the Rogue Brewpub is across the corner so you might save your thirst for that.
Rotee (Indian, Lower Haight) – Very flavorful and well-spiced indian food, a step above the standard
Flippers (Burgers, Hayes Valley) – great burgers and some other options too
Marcellos (Pizza, Castro) – best delivery pizza in the city, if you’re in a place they’ll deliver to. Get the meatballs.
Memphis Minnies (Barbeque, Lower Haight) – you probably didn’t come to SF for barbeque but if you get a craving for sweet tea, this is the place. The BBQ is very good too!
Little Chihuahua (Mexican, Central Haight) – best burrito in the city, in my opinion, and thats saying a lot.
Morty’s Deli (Sandwiches, Civic Center/Tenderloin) – if you’re in the neighborhood this friendly place makes a great sandwich
Rosamunde Sausage (Sausages, Lower Haight) – grab a sausage or two and head next door to Toronado for a beer, but watch out for the moody grill-master (remember to tip or face his wrath)
Shanghai Dumpling King (Chinese, Outer Richmond) – Hole-in-the-wall chinese restaurant with most dishes under $5.  Amazing food and great for a dirt cheap meal for sharing.  Very close to Ocean Beach. Get the soup dumplings!
Big Lantern (Chinese, Upper Mission) – Our go-to Chinese delivery place, the food that we get delivered from here is usually better than the food you get sitting down to eat at most chinese restaurants. You can eat there too, if you like.
Ted’s Markets (Deli, SOMA) – Best deli-style sandwiches in town.  Pretty cheap, very fast!  Get the Dutch Crunch roll.
Lahore Karahi (Indian, Tenderloin) – It’s the closest you can come to a Pakistani guy’s home-kitchen in SF.  Very cheap, very good, BYOB.  Less westernized than Rotee.
Genki Crepes (Crepes/Tea/Japanese convenience store, Richmond) – Great spot to come for bubble tea and a crepe. If you’re into weird Japanese consumer goods, bonus!

Bars:
Toronado (Lower Haight) – delicious/big/rare beers
Zeitgeist (Upper Mission) – kind of a grungy biker bar but has good beers and a sweet patio out back. Excellent burgers and other grillables, too.  Good for afternoon/evening beers if the weather is good
Buckshot (Inner Richmond) – not special in terms of drinks, but has skeeball and pool and darts and some other games
Knockout (Lower Mission) – has a very enjoyable bingo night on Thursdays
Place Pigalle (Hayes Valley) – our neighborhood bar. has plenty of couches, good beers on tap, pretty good music (usually) and a pool table.
The Phonebooth (Outer Mission) – Hipster heaven, but great atmosphere and where else can you smoke inside these days?
Rogue Brewpub (North Beach) – great beer selection and a fun trivia night on Thursdays
The Homestead (Mission) – Awesome old pre-earthquake (the real, turn-of-the-centruy one) bar.  Peanuts are free and the shells go on the floor. 

Neighborhoods:
Mission: Great for mexican food, bar crawling, thrift-store shopping, and hipster-watching.
Lower Haight: Kinda grungy but densely packed with restaurants and bars.
Haight-Ashbury: Full of hippies old and young. Worth seeing for sure, but an afternoon walk along Haight street will show you everything you need to see.
Castro: Really, really gay. A pretty cool neighborhood nonetheless, there are some good restaurants and such there too. Worth seeing.
SOMA: newest part of town, full of trendy lofts and the new breed of yuppies. Pretty unremarkable otherwise.
Sunset: Primarily a residential neighborhood, not really any reason to go here unless you’re leaving the park and need a place to eat or something.
Richmond: Same as Sunset but north of the park, tons of Asians here if you’re into that sort of thing.
Hayes Valley: Used to be an overpass but an earthquake knocked it down, now its an upcoming and trendy place with lots of shopping and good places to eat. Convenient to most of the rest of the city, too.
Marina: The place where all former frat boys and sorority girls who live in SF live. Nice weather, though!
Civic Center: City hall, some other government buildings, and some opera/ballet houses, but nothing else that interesting.
Tenderloin: The sketchiest part of the city, full of crackheads and weirdos, but also some pretty damn good Indian restaurants.
Nob Hill/Russian Hill: More affluent part of town, and on top of a hill. Probably worth passing through, but I can’t think of anything much worth staying for.
North Beach: Lots of good italian restaurants and gelato places, and the Rogue Brewpub. Also, the City Lights bookstore is worth spending some time in.
Fisherman’s Wharf: Super touristy, and not much substance. But there are sea lions!  Ferry to Alcatraz (buy tickets 1+ weeks ahead of time!) from here.
Chinatown: Also touristy, but there is some good chinese food here (duh)