Happy Friday everyone! I am currently recovering from my awesome weeklong vacation to Napa Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area and already reminiscing about all the wine I had. I flew into SFO, spent 4 days/3 nights in wine country, and then a full day in the city of San Fran. My Napa travel guide will be up on the blog next week (it’s a good one!), but for now, I’m doing a quick itinerary for San Francisco of what to eat and what to see.
Hotel – The Westin, St. Francis
I love SPG hotels and The Westin is always great. Located right at Union Square in the middle of food, shopping, and great people watching, this was the perfect spot to be. I booked a room in the Tower Building, which is the new and updated part of the hotel.
Breakfast – Blue Bottle Coffee
The breakfast of champions is coffee and Bryan is usually the bean specialist. We both love cold brew coffee and Blue Bottle Coffee is very well known on the West Coast. Luckily there is a shop about 10 minutes away from The Westin, so we took a nice walk to explore. This particular shop is in Mint Square and has a great outside seating area. Their New Orleans iced coffee is what they are known for, and it is super yummy. We had the avocado toast and tandoori chicken salad croissant sandwich, which were both amazing!
Lombard Street, Fisherman’s Wharf, Ghirardelli Square, the Golden Gate Bridge
We took a short ride to the top of Lombard Street, so we could walk down the famous windy roads. From there, it was about a 15-minute walk to Fisherman’s Wharf, which has a ton of seafood restaurants and shops. On the walk, you can get some amazing views of the bay and Alcatraz Island. Unfortunately, we were not able to get on a tour of Alcatraz, so that will have to be for our next trip!
After Fisherman’s Wharf, it’s a quick walk to Ghirardelli Square, which is, your guessed it, the old Ghirardelli factory. Now, it is filled with 3 large chocolate shops, ice cream sundae bars, and coffee shops.
Next stop, the bridge! Ask the taxi/Uber/Lyft driver to take you to the Golden Gate Bridge Visitor Center, which is the first exit right before you actually get onto the bridge. There are tons of outlook points where you can snap some great pictures.
Zara Trench Coat – similar here and here
J.Crew Striped Tunic Top – also available in green
Topshop Jamie high waist ankle skinny jeans
Converse Chuck Taylor ‘Shoreline’ sneakers
Gucci Soho Disco Bag in Beige
Chinatown
I have been to San Fran once before, when I was a little girl, and all I remember was the Golden Gate Bridge and Chinatown. Bryan flew into SFO from Hong Kong, so I was not going to force more dim sum on him. We walked around the stores and I found Good Mong Kok Bakery, which is a carry-out dim sum place. It’s a bit intimidating, basically the Soup Nazi, but dim sum, so figure out what you want and quick! I got 3 shrimp dumplings, 3 shrimp and pork dumplings, 3 chive dumplings, and a pork bun for $8. Literally, it is a dream come true. I also stopped by the famous Boba Guys, known for their matcha drinks. I got one of the specials, called Strawberry Matcha something something, which is matcha tea, milk, and strawberry puree. Amazing.
Dinner
For dinner, we tried Cotogna, an Italian restaurant in the Financial District. Since it was filled with locals, I knew we picked correctly! For pasta, we had the daily special, a ricotta and egg yolk ravioli, which was just one big ravioli, and potato gnocchi with braised pork and sage. For our entrée, we got the roasted lamb, which was really good and I’m not usually a lamb fan! Dessert was sticky toffee pudding and vanilla gelato and chocolate sauce, freshly shaved from a mound of gelato (right at your table!).
On our last day, we stopped by the Painted Ladies before heading off to the airport. Even though It was a quick stop in the City, we visited some awesome places and ate some amazing food. San Fran was fun, easy to get around, and I cannot wait to go back!
Till next time San Francisco!
-Jacqueline
