Customer Reviews

Patricia Unterman's San Francisco Food Lover's Guide

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I recently moved within the city limits of San Francisco earlier this year and started soliciting local restaurant recommendations from friends. After trying some places, I soon realized that my tastes and preferences didn't always sync up with my friends, so my collection of restaurant recommendations was not very authoritative. With Patricia Unterman's newly updated 3rd edition of her Food Lover's Guide, I now possess an entire book chock full of authoritative restaurant recommendations. The handful of restaurants I've tried so far based on her book have been fantastic. I even learned where to buy high quality meats and fresh fish in my neighborhood! Only because the author self-admittedly does not fully appreciate craft beers and great BBQ food, the book is just shy of being PERFECT, in my opinion. Get this book and learn about ales and ribs elsewhere.

I've come to trust and rely on Patricia Unterman's recommendations over the years. She is adept at evaluating the entire spectrum of the San Francisco dining scene, from top restaurants to bargain bites.

Her fourth edition book is an excellent SF reference. As a Bay Area resident, I can vouch that her descriptions of the restaurants, markets, and other food shops is on target. There were even a few new finds in the book for me, like the lunch at the SF Art Institute Café.

Not only is there nice background and detailed descriptions of SF restaurants, you will learn about food and drink in the area. I found the artisan sake write up informational. I find sections like the seasonal fish and produce charts very helpful. Both visitors and locals should find this guide useful.

As always, Patricia Unterman captures the flavor of SF.

This is a really handy book to have if you plan to visit San Francisco Bay Area for an extended period of time, or visit the area frequently, or live outside the San Francisco city.

This book covers restaurants, cafe, bars and food stores in the San Francisco and the surrounding area like Marin etc. This book is aptly titled and is a great food lover's guide to this part of the world.

Unterman writes in a relaxed and conversational manner and points out what is good about the restaurant, cafe or store. The book is peppered with recipes from various restaurants and cafes in the area.

The book is handy because it provides the URL, location, phone number, timings and how you can pay (cash, credit card, ATM etc).

This is a great book to have to explore the culinary delights of the Bay Area that has some of the best restaurants and cafes in this country. Forwarned is forarmed....armed with the facts of a particular cafe or restuarant you can boldy walk into a restarant and order your food without feeling intimidated.

It's easy to judge a restaurant guide. Look up a few restaurants you know and like and see what it says. Try that test with this book and you'll be amazed. The author is so spot-on about so many places, even those you thought to be obscure, that you'll scour the book for recommendations of places you've never tried before. A must-have for visitors to San Francisco or those who live there.

I have looked at the full edition and recently bought the pocket edition to take with me on my upcoming trip to San Francisco. I am generally happy with the pocket edition. It covers the basics of what is more lushly detailed in the full edition, with the necessary information at your fingertips. The reason I gave four stars rather than five is that the pocket edition does not map the restaurants for each section as the full edition does. In a book most likely to be toted around for "pocket" use, rather than read at home, maps would seem to be even more necessary. I found the omission unfortunate and surprising.

San Francisco's Food Lover's Guide is a fabulous resource. It proved a real asset to my husband and I on our recent vacation there. Organizing the restaurants by neighborhood and mapping them out was extremely helpful. While we consulted it daily, I wished that it had been updated more recently which is why I only gave it four stars. If properly updated it would easily warrant five stars.

Summary: It's helpful to know of the existence of restaurants (and other food-related businesses), but not necessarily for the "reviews".

The reviews for each listing range from clear and helpful to somewhat vague and slightly misleading (not that it's intentional). The author (a chef/owner/writer) states the book includes only recommendations, regardless of the status of the restaurant or its chef. However a couple reviews within the book seem clearly negative. In light of this, many vague reviews may not actually be recommendations at all. For example, Fleur de Lys (an institution with a famous chef) did not provide the experience I would have expected based on its reputation. After re-reading the review for Fleur de Lys in light of everything, the author may have wanted to include it in her book without actually recommending it. On the other hand, Zuni Cafe (a few blocks from the author's restaurant) had an unclear review but was absolutely amazing. Most reviews that were clearly positive resulted in a positive experience. I gave the book three stars because it was simply difficult to understand what may have been a "recommendation" and what may have simply been a "listing".