The best American restaurants San Francisco & Bay Area

With its surfboards, hanging shark and colorful cheap cocktails, it's a bit of a surf bar cliché. Without surfers, of course, since we're at Pier 39, a sort of small shopping mall doubled with a series of restaurants, all set on the water's edge, and it's mostly families and tourists. That said, you can sit outside, which is always nice, and enjoy a bowl of tuna chunks and a plate of fried fish with good fries. Drake's IPA beer is also tasty.

This restaurant opened in 2015 and has quickly become one of the city's most popular original addresses. Chef Ravi Kapur, a native of Oahu, draws from the Hawaiian culinary tradition to bring you the delights of his island, adding touches of Asian cuisines; Korea, Japan and India thus often come together with Honolulu flavors. Kimchi beef ribs and grilled octopus are among the biggest hits on the menu. The bar also serves hibiscus and mescaline cocktails.

If you want to try one of the most typical dishes in North America, stop by Smoking Pig BBQ. Their ribs are renowned throughout the city for being the best. The barbecue sauce that coats them is simply marvelous, and the whole thing is as fatty as it is unforgettable. But you'll also find delicious chicken burgers, bacon burgers, cheese burgers... A kind of fast-food like you find on every street corner, but of much higher quality. For meat aficionados only, of course.

This California-based Thai cuisine brand has several restaurants in the state (including one in San Francisco). The Berkeley address is particularly elegant, with Asian-design furniture focusing on wood. On the menu, you'll find daring and delicious proposals: for starters, tom yum granita; for main courses, crab pad thai, beef with yellow coconut curry, volcano cup noodle with braised pork... All accompanied by equally refined creative cocktails.

A quintessential Californian address that only exists in Oakland, with character. Serving both fine cocktails and Mexican-influenced gourmet plates. It's a busy restaurant by day and a lively bar by night. We love the floor, the refreshing chick-yellow and water-green colors, and the sunny bay windows. The à la carte menu features simple, affordable dishes, with veggy, vegan and gluten-free options, prepared with a variety of toppings (seeds, etc.). Brunch at weekends.