Out to Eat San Francisco (Lonely Planet Out to Eat) [Paperback]

Kim Zetter (Author), Andrew Dean Nystrom (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2001 | Series: Lonely Planet Out to Eat

San Francisco has been scanned for its culinary greats - the famous, the fabulous, the obvious and the obscure. With eyes on the ambience and focus on the food, reviewers present the whole experience in witty, knowledgeable prose.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet Publications; 2 edition (October 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1740592700
• ISBN-13: 978-1740592703
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 4.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,045,119 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

For the past dozen years, I've worked full-time as a freelance writer, editor, photojournalist, bicycle messenger and adventure travel planning consultant.

I've contributed text and images to two dozen Fodor's and Lonely Planet travel guidebooks, and my writing has been translated into a dozen languages. For 2+ years, I was a regular contributor to the syndicated newspaper column, Travels with Lonely Planet. My main area of interest and expertise is adventure and responsible/sustainable travel with a purpose in the Americas.

I graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a BA in Geography and Education. Prior to launching my freelance writing career, I was the senior writer/producer of the Webby Award-winning travel site LonelyPlanet.com.

If I'm not scribbling or shooting photos, I'm probably out scouting new hiking trails, biking to a farmers' market, hunting sublime tacos, cooking up a storm or foraging for wild edibles.

When not out rambling, I advise the National Geographic Society's Sustainable Tourism Initiative and edit and produce the Los Angeles Times Travel website (http://travel.latimes.com), for Tribune Co. and Los Angeles Times Interactive.

I'm based just the other side of Dodger Stadium from Downtown LA, where I garden and inhabit a wild urban pocket with my wife and young son.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The anti-Zagat of San Francisco dining, February 12, 2003

By 

W. Poon (CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Out to Eat San Francisco (Lonely Planet Out to Eat) (Paperback)

For a city which makes its living from tourism and one claiming the highest number of restaurants per capita in the US, San Francisco is surprisingly under-represented when it comes to dining guides. So I am glad to find this (hopefully) regularly-updated series coming onto the scene. While it is by no means the ideal guide to dining out in the City (it is not comprehensive nor authoritative enough), it offers a wholesome alternative to those looking for dining options in San Francisco without resorting to Zagat, another recent but surprisingly successful entrant to the market, with its ridiculous and inconsistent point system. (The fact that the Zagat has become so successful here points(!) I believe to the lack of alternatives I alluded to above.)

So what do I like about the Lonely Planet? It's got pictures, for starters. Pictures convey their own information about a place's ambience, character, and clientele. Plus they make the guide more user-friendly and pleasant to flip through. (Why don't more guides include them?) Second, it devotes a good half-page to every establishment that it covers, doing it enough justice. Third, it doesn't dumb down by resorting to a point system, but gives properly worded descriptions, thereby allowing readers to arrive at their own conclusions rather than having it made for them. Finally, and this is the best part, it groups the reviews by neighborhood - with maps included. This just makes so much more sense than an alphabetical listing. After all, people don't generally make dining decisions based on the starting alphabet of a restaurant's name, but on where they are or want to be at a particular point in time.

Given that it is one in a global series, I was initially worried that the quality of the research wouldn't be up-to-par, especially vis-a-vis residents of the area. But the reviews and selections are surprisingly decent. I don't live in the city myself, so am not the best person to pass judgement on this, but I visit fairly often and find the descriptions to be generally reliable. Kudos to the authors and to Lonely Planet.

What kind of improvements would I like to see in future editions? Extend the coverage beyond the city to cover some of the greater Bay Area. But overall you're off to a good start. Keep the guide current.