Cotogna is always good, and usually not too hard to get in. I also love Kin Khao. And don’t forget about Zuni, always a delicious meal.
La Ciccia, Zuni, Perbacco, Uma Casa, Acquerello, Commonwealth, Monsieur Benjamin, The Morris, Wayfare
Monsieur Benjamin
Sorrel (downside, can be a bit noisy, try to get a non communal table seating if possible but you will have to contact the restaurant after making a booking on Resy)
Californios (it’s now $170 + fees, a bit higher than your budget but well worth it)
Sushi Yoshizumi San Mateo, basic course (will run $155 + 20% service charge + tax) so it’s higher than your normal range at the end even without drinks except for tea, but it’s very good.
Birdsong, Nico, Commis shouldn’t be too hard to book either. There’s also Angler but I’ve heard mixed things from people (though it depends on what you order it is still rather casual despite the pedigree).
Mr. Jiu’s is quite casual so I figured that was not a big concern.
@beam what do you mean by “classy”?
Californios was my first choice but the moment they opened their reservation/tickets for march, the date I am going to be there was sold out. We loved our last visit to Californios last year and I dream to go again.
Will check out those others.
Hard to define “classy” for restaurants, guess they don’t have to be formal, but I suppose the food quality should be high and the service and and the environment have to be friendly, convivial, yet, there should be some degree of refinement about the place. Californios is a perfect example.
Consider Maum in Palo Alto, even though it’s outside of SF, heard good things from trusted friends. At least it’s different and it’s not the same as Benu, but in the vein of very Korean influence driven cuisine / fine dining style.
Informal restaurants with sophisticated food and polished service are definitely a thing in the Bay Area.
Maum is $175 per person before drinks, 20% service charge, and tax. Palo Alto is 40 minutes to an hour from SF depending on traffic.
When we go out for a special dinner I want the wine to go with it. Driving home an hour in the dark after drinking doesn’t work for us.
Was trying to decide on where to do lunch the last day in the city and very glad we choose here. We were running late for the reservations and you can’t call the restaurant to let them know, period. I did try to reschedule on Open table after we had missed our lunch time, and you can. I thought it might not let you reschedule after your reservation time had come and gone, but you can.
When we arrived, the host said he could see we had rescheduled and that was the only way you could let the resto know you were going to be late.
We had a very young waiter who seemed indifferent to our time constraints - we needed to leave by a certain time. Luckily, there was a manager? who helped out and was very good about keeping us on schedule.
Stealing the menu.
Chicken liver muesli - this was excellent and very original.
Lobster with yuzu cream. Fantastic!
Salad with a side of pork. All delicious.
I got the hake with squid ink. Excellent flavor.
Husband got the beef and bone marrow. He loved it.
We got this dessert, the cheesecake! Amazing.
Would happily return!
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Looks like in situ in closing down