PRICE:
Frommer's Very Highly Recommended

Some of the city's best food has been served at this popular Embarcadero restaurant since 1993. Amid the airy main dining room with its open exhibition kitchen, cozy banquettes, mahogany trim, and slate flooring is a sea of diners feasting from a farm-fresh menu put together by Chef Mark Dommen, who has a passion for using only the freshest local ingredients -- they helped establish the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market across the street and now support it by shopping there -- to create highly original dishes. During my last visit, my table was wowed by the truly divine beet carpaccio, shellfish, and seafood sampler (not your everyday platter), and a superb crispy skin pork saddle with fava beans and chorizo broth. Whatever you choose, you're bound to find a perfectly accompanying wine from the "cellar," which has over 500 selections of American vintages. Arrive early to mingle with the spirited corporate crowd that convenes from 4:30 to 7pm for happy hour at the bar -- it's a fun scene.

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

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