With a 20-foot reclining Buddha on the roof it's pretty easy to spot the Bambuddha, a reliably lively restaurant/bar/lounge adjoining the funky-cool Phoenix Hotel. The ultramodern San Francisco-meets-Southeast Asia decor includes floor-to-ceiling waterfalls and indoor/outdoor slate fireplaces in the dining room, and the city's only outdoor poolside cocktail lounge. Affordable and above-average Southeast Asian cuisine is served late into the evening, and a state-of-the-art sound system streams ambient, down-tempo, soul, funk, and house music to a mostly 20-something crowd.

Copyright: Excerpted from Frommer's San Francisco 2009, (c) 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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