Richmond District Restaurants

Consider Fiorella your neighborhood red sauce joint, elevated with a dose of San Francisco polish. The classics—like meatballs, marinara pizza, and Little Gem salad—dominate the menu. But for Friday night takeout, we can’t resist the Sicilian spiced roast chicken with salsa verde and herby roast potatoes. Oh, and the make-at-home Margherita kit. When it comes to dining in, the wallpaper makes any wait worth it: Speckled with portraits of famous San Franciscans, it adds a quirky design edge to the otherwise streamlined space. Images courtesy of Grace Sager and Edna Zhou.

“A Hakka-style restaurant at night, by day this is a nice place to relax over some Cantonese dim sum. You can’t go wrong here with anything that has shrimp in its name, as well as the foil-wrapped chicken, chicken feet, crab claws, and sweet fried sesame balls. Lots of non-Chinese diners are fans, but many of Ton Kiang’s dishes still manage to remain authentic. Service and prices are good, and it tends to be quieter here than in most Chinese teahouses. Lines can frustrate, especially on the weekends, so try to arrive ahead of the rush, which is also when parking is less of a hassle.” —Carolyn Phillips

There are only four tables, so weekend waits can get borderline unbearable but the pizzas here are some of the best in the city. Is you absolutely can't stick around, grab a pie to-go and come back often, the offering changes weekly according to what's in season.