San Francisco Restaurant Guide - Downtown/ Union Square

E&O Trading Company is located in the heart of downtown San Francisco just a block off Union Square. This exciting restaurant is perfect for fun cocktails, a romantic dinner or a gathering with friends and family.

Guests feel welcomed the moment they step foot into this top San Francisco establishment. Located in Hotel Adagio, this adventurous restaurant and bar will satisfy your taste buds beyond any expectation. With décor like no other restaurant in San Francisco, Cortez features cool rich earth tones, creative wall hangings and stimulating ceiling ornaments.

Delicious seasonal California cuisine in small and large plates, ideal for sharing, is featured at Daffodil Restaurant, located on the ground floor of the Orchard Hotel. A large wine list compliments the tasty edibles on the menu, with recommendations for parings accompanying each entrée.

In the fall of 1998, First Crush opened their doors and immediately became one of San Francisco's favorite rendezvous spots for couples, friends, and colleagues looking for a restaurant that can truly accommodate any and all occasions. The stylish yet unpretentious street level restaurant offers a lively setting perfect for an early get together amongst friends or an intimate late night snack, glass of wine or sharing a scrumptious dessert with that special someone. First Crush offers a seasonal changing menu offering the freshest ingredients available. The restaurant takes pride in the extensive wine list, offering a large selection of both classic family California wineries as well as up and comers.

Chic, calm and quietly comfortable — where locals, visitors and corporate diners go for a perfect afternoon or evening of warm hospitality. The menu at Vignette is seasonal, concentrating on the best quality products from local farms and small growers.

Famous for serving sizzling steaks all around the world, Ruth's Chris has a great reputation for serving aged, corn-fed USDA Prime steaks and for providing first-class service. Offering a fabulous selection of savory appetizers, delicious entrees and scrumptious homemade desserts, Ruth's Chris Steak House in Downtown San Francisco is a restaurant for everyone to enjoy. Online reservations are suggested.

Santorini Restaurant offers bold, bright Mediterranean cuisine and a warm atmosphere just one block from San Francisco's Union Square. Shoppers can stop for lunch in the inviting dining room, or relax after a busy day of retail therapy and enjoy one of Santorini's many happy hour specials. An ample wine menu includes offerings from Italy to California, reflecting Santorini's all-encompassing Mediterranean aesthetic. Serving classic Mediterranean and American food for breakfast, lunch and dinner, Santorini caters to the droves of hungry tourists, shoppers and locals flooding Union Square for a day of work or play.

The best of surf and turf come together at this warm and eclectic San Francisco restaurant in the lobby of downtown's Hotel Nikko where a Japanese spirit meets Saloon Town. The prime aged beef, flown in from Chicago's Allen Brothers, is served alongside the zangy and fresh sushi, made at Anzu's sushi bar. The protein overload pairs perfectly with Anzu's inventive Saketinis and Sakeritas.

Modern Asian. San Francisco's Cliff Hotel and its signature Redwood Room define the sophisticated pen where chic San Francisco urbanites play. The ornate etched mirrors and dramatic interior set the mood for people watching and whet an appetite for the adjacent Asia de Cuba's cutting edge Asian fusion cuisine.

The Campton Place hotel's restaurant, Campton Place, is a quiet gourmet and has been revered by award-granting wine swillers and fine diners looking for a classic and romantic atmosphere, elegant tableside service and a varied fine dining menu. Conde Nast went so far to say in 2000 that the Campton Place Restaurant has the best hotel food in the United States.

Urban Tavern is located 460 feet above the ground atop the beautiful Hilton San Francisco offering breathtaking, panoramic views of the City and featuring Mediterranean cuisine in an elegant, but relaxed atmosphere.

The prices are pared down at this mellow version of Beverly Hills' The Grill, an icon of Los Angeles chic in the 1980s. The Daily Grill serves large portions of traditional grill recipes, like Meat Loaf with mashed potatoes, Joe's Special (a San Francisco original) and excellent Cobb Salads, all at skinny prices. San Francisco's Daily Grill is located a half a block from Union Square and San Francisco's best shopping.

450 Post Street, 94102. Union Square

French Californian. On the fifth floor of the sleek SOMA's Hotel Palomar, the Fifth Floor is a seasonal ode to distinctive French Californian adaptations, and also boasts an award-winning wine list and an inspiring pastry team. The zebra carpet and hip décor bring a chic aspect to the elevated service.

After a destructive fire in 2000 that left the Fleur de Lys a charred shell, this downtown San Francisco restaurant went back to the drawing board and fully renovated their downtown San Francisco location. The new dining room (more beautiful than ever) is a red, rich and chandeliered space, a luxe setting for caviar, French cheeses and four course gourmet dinners including meat, game, seafood and a new emphasis on vegetarian options.

Once the awe-inspiring carriage entrance to the turn-of-the-century Palace Hotel, today, the domed stained glass ceiling and crystal chandeliers arch over what is now San Francisco's Garden Court restaurant. In addition to its magnificent Victorian-era aura, The Garden Court is most notable for its Sunday brunch and distinguished afternoon tea.

A large cafe and bar area fronts a spacious dining room featuring whimsical sculptures and an open kitchen. Service is professional and fast, permitting an excellent meal before a nearby performance. Try lobster and shrimp ravioli in a lobster-sorrel sauce or chicken braised in pinot noir with mushrooms, smoked bacon and onions.

Reasonably priced and inventive Japanese cuisine and fusion-style sushi is the draw at this Union Sqaure restaurant. From fresh Manila clams steamed in sake to Teriyaki dinners to rice dishes to noodles, this Japanese restaurant has much more than excellent Sushi Nigiri rolls. The a la carte menu with bacon-wrapped salmon filets and yakitori marinated scallions is full of tasty bargains.

Italian American. Established in 1908, John's Grill is a landmark San Francisco restaurant, both for its hearty, by-gone era Italian-fusion grill comforts as much for its museum-esque vibe and memorabilia glorifying the Grill's feature in Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon.

You're starving, you're shopping your buns off at Macy's, Nieman's and Ann Taylor. What to do? Hit the bustling trattoria filled to the rafters with gorgeous people, killer decor—lots of spun copper and blown-glass tchochkas—and serious pastas (delicious and affordable). Also to-die-for raviolis and tons of olive oily foccacia. There's a smart little espresso annex next door too, where you can load up on pastries.

Californian. Located in the Theatre District's Warwick hotel, La Scene San Francisco restaurant has a flair for the dramatic with portraits of famous San Francisco performers adorning the walls. Part of an international network of hotels, La Scene cuisine caters to an eclectic palate grounded in California.

Indochine. Located in a quaint, stand apart building on a side street in San Francisco's theatre district, Le Colonial feels like a French chateau in a romanticized colonial Vietnam era (the outdoor seating feels like a lush Saigon sidewalk café). The bar features live jazz and palm fronds while the service is upscale and the cuisine fresh and inventive.

Masa's, located in the Vintage Court hotel, Union Square's boutique ode to Napa Valley wines, offers a colorful France meets the World fusion cuisine with standouts like steamed lobster under leaves of sweet and sour vinaigrette-braised turnip and rack of lamb with a pinot noir sauce. The prix fixe menu is $75 and includes a range of appetizers, entrees and desserts all served in an elegant setting (where jackets are required for men).

Michael Mina's culinary holdings have grown to eight restaurants but his eponymous San Francisco restaurant is the flagship. Mina's inventive, multi-course menus highlight different ingredients prepared several ways. Located in the Westin St. Francis hotel on Union Square, the dining room is as elegant and refined and the food.

Vegetarian and vegan cuisine isn't just for protesters anymore. San Francisco's Millennium, located in the Savoy Hotel, features a completely animal-free menu and serves artfully presented and deliciously gourmet vegetarian cuisine that spans the culinary gamut from Black Bean Feijoada to Carrot Lasagnette in an classy dining room open to dressing up or down. Wild mushrooms and chickpeas are common, saffrons and chutneys spice up veggie concoctions and the dessert menu includes dairy-free delights such as Vanilla Cinnamon Sorbet and Bananas Flambe. Millennium also takes eco-friendliness to a new level with a selection of organic wines.

Located in downtown San Francisco's luxury Pan Pacific Hotel near Union Square on the fashionable Post Street, the JW Marriott's Level III is a perfect pre-theatre fine dining locale. With a Pacific Rim menu, the Pacific Restaurant and Bar's ambiance is also pacific with live piano music, a crackling fire and indoor fountains.

A playful San Francisco restaurant for contemporary Asian cuisine, Ponzu, located in San Francisco's Theater District downtown near Union Sqaure, attracts both a bar crowd and a dining crowd looking for creative cocktails and bold and bright entrees and appetizers that take tastes from Thai, Malaysian, Japanese, Chinese, and Vietnamese ingredients and cooking styles. The three illuminated 125-gallon salt water tanks back the bar and lend to the slick and fun ambiance.

Wolfgang Puck's original NorCal outpost continues to garner rave reviews and industry accolades thanks to the culinary prowess of Steve and Mitchell Rosenthal. Luckily they spend as much time churning out innovative Californian cuisine as Puck does branding pizzas.

Popovers with strawberry butter and chicken consumme start of every meal at this grandladies-who-lunch stop at the top of Neiman Marcus. Lobster salads and unhurried butternut risottos are enjoyed in a gilded setting for half the price of a DKNY top.

Just a half a block from Union Square, Scala's Bistro is bustling with Old World ambiance, from original murals and a warm atmosphere done in deep, rich tones to a pan-Mediterranean menu. The open kitchen pours out aromas from Italy, Spain and France while the service is just as warm as the decor. After dinner, Harry Denton's Starlight Room is the place for a cocktail on the twenty-first floor of the Sir France Drake hotel overlooking downtown San Francisco's city lights.