Fillmore

If you’re as obsessed with State Bird Provisions as we are, add Anchovy Bar to your SF roster. This slick, slate-gray space dishes up tasty platters of salty anchovies waiting to be smeared onto toasted ciabatta and topped with crisp radishes and crème Fraiche. This is the spot to dip into with a date or a friend to split grilled oysters, a few variations of those tiny, oily fish, and the unmissable Meyer lemon-miso clams. Images courtesy of Patricia Chang.

Happily situated in one of our favorite San Francisco neighborhoods, goop Lab's Fillmore Street space is a warm blend of modern minimalism and European charm. Created in collaboration with Ronen Lev (the firm also designed our goop MRKT in Nantucket), goop Lab Fillmore feels like the kind of modern Northern California oasis you could live in—especially considering the shelves are stocked with goopy goods for everyone in the family.

This was one of the buzziest openings in the city last year (it's from the people behind State Bird Provisions), and the hype hasn't died down. The dreamy, all-wood, bi-level space has a lot to do with it, and the food changes daily, so there's no getting bored. While State Bird is about tiny plates of dim sum, here it's a unique take family-style: for $65 per person, the table chooses six big dishes from a checklist to share. Thankfully, everyone gets their own dessert.