<p>My H is working on a project in SF and goes out pretty often, staying in a company apartment. Since my kids aren’t at home and I’m not working much anymore, I’ve gone with him. I would add one more vote for Slanted Door. It’s Vietnamese with a French flavor to it. I think you could have a great meal and easily avoid soy.</p>
<p>Another place that I really liked was a vegetarian Mexican restaurant called El Farolito. It’s on Mission St. </p>
<p>Also went to Gary Danko–pricey but the food was excellent.</p>
<p>Is the US Restaurant still around? (Google says “yes”). That is where we used to go for some great inexpensive Italian… back in the 4th quarter of the 20th century… sigh. I used to take the cable car to work. :)</p>
<p>If you’re a foodie even a little bit, go to the Ferry Building. Oh my goodness, that place is filled with deliciousness. It has food stalls for every yummy food purveyor you can imagine. I’m particularly fond of Cowgirl Creamery. There is also a meat seller, whose name I forget, near Cowgirl, that sells yummy meat pies. Oysters, produce, bread (try Acme), chocolate, pastry, really everything you can imagine. It’s Pier 1, I think.</p>
<p>My D liked the menu for Dosa. She also would like to try the Slanted Door since she has not been to the Embarcadero area even though she has lived in the city 7 months.
It’s hard living in a city with great food when you work long hours and pay a fortune in rent.</p>
<p>Mom60…also try the Ferry Building Farmers Market on Saturdays (or Tues or thurs.). Lots of cuisines offered as well as some of the best fruits/veggies/cheese/fish/meat/flowers, etc. that can be found. </p>
<p>Has your D been to Off the Grid at Fort Mason? Every Friday, a food truck “extravaganza”. Sinfully good street food…but go early, it’s quite popular.
Many ethnic cuisines, desserts, meats, sandwiches, etc., much of it organic…
scroll down on this link
[Off</a> the Grid SF » Fort Mason Center](<a href=“http://offthegridsf.com/markets/fort-mason-center]Off”>Events)
to see some of the vendors</p>
<p>So this is the key. Many of the restaurants people are recommending here would be a bit pricey for a young person on a tight budget. You might want to treat your daughter to one or two of these as a splurge the next time you visit. But on a practical level, she needs to find a few places she likes & can afford that are accessible from where she works and lives, and you might want to explore some of these with her, too. A great thing about SF (and also the East Bay) is that you can find great food at just about any price point. In particular, there are tons of inexpensive, authentic ethnic eateries–Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Mexican, you name it. </p>
<p>I’d suggest exploring by ethnicity and by location. If you/your daughter look at restaurant rating sites like TripAdvisor or Yelp, you can search by type of food and/or by neighborhood. I don’t always agree with these online ratings, but they’re a pretty good starting point. You’ll find, for example, that while the Slanted Door gets generally positive reviews for the food and the ambience, many online reviewers say there are as good or better Vietnamese restaurants that are much cheaper; a lot of what you’re paying for at a place like the Slanted Door is the location and the decor, which is fine for established upper-middle-income households, but for a young person in her first job on a tight budget in a pricey city, a less expensive but tasty and authentic neighborhood Vietnamese place might be a better bargain. I haven’t lived in the Bay Area in some time so I can’t offer specific suggestions, but the next time I have occasion to visit I’ll spend some time on Yelp and TripAdvisor exploring my options. (I am, by the way, an older, established, upper-middle-income type, but I’ve never gotten over my lifelong habit of searching out the tasty, inexpensive and authentic ethnic bargains).</p>
<p>Bclintonk- the suggestions are for when we visit. We are planning on paying. On her own she never eats out. She is one of the most frugal people I know. Which is one reason we want to treat her.</p>
<p>Glen Park has one of the best Pizza spots in all SF!
[url=<a href=“http://www.gialina.com/]Gialina[/url”>http://www.gialina.com/]Gialina[/url</a>] Try the Atomica pizza with eggs! They also have pasta, but the pizzas are so interesting, I haven’t tried pasta. Abundant salads. Oh, and I was drooling over the dessert pizza the next table got…looked absolutely sinful.
Small place, always busy, go early.</p>