7 ms·

as someone who's lived in SF for years this is all very true. Food is expensive and a lot of it's designed to be instagrammed. There are definitely some great

as someone who's lived in SF for years this is all very true. Food is expensive and a lot of it's designed to be instagrammed. There are definitely some great spots but not that many and really not that diverse (lacks middle eastern, greek, british, American bbq, spanish) Nightlife is horrible, bars pretty much close at 1am, hardly any live music, gender imbalance, and not much density so it often just feels "dead" in a lot of places the weather is ok. there's usually a few hours per day where it's pristine but quickly gets too cold/windy. And it's too uncomfortable to eat outside for dinner. Public transit is unpleasant and slow, so most people who can afford it resort to 100% rideshare. And having your own car here is also a pretty bad experience (though some people would say this is a feature not a bug) Petty crime is high. My friends regularly have to deal with car break-ins. (yes the same person would have multiple break ins in a single year, and no they don't keep anything in their car) It's hard for me to speak to the culture, most of my network is in tech, and most people I know intend to leave at some point. Living in a city that people don't plan on living in for very long does not create a very good community or culture. I live here because this is where my job is and where my friends are, but I want to leave pretty badly. I just don't really have anywhere else to go, if not my home country

wcfields 6y ago
> Nightlife is horrible, bars pretty much close at 1am, hardly any live music, gender imbalance, and not much density so it often just feels "dead" in a lot of places As a southern Californian, I can attest to this. It's pathetic that our bars have last call at 2am (effectively many close at 1:30a). There's been push after push to get last-call to 4am like it is in NY but they never go anywhere in the state legislature.
- WWLink 6y ago
  I think it's silly that they even close. What's the point? Can someone enlighten me on why bars and stuff close at 1am? Thanks!
  - asdff 6y ago
    Politicians don't want to go against MADD, and business owners might not want to expand payroll to staff those hours where people are far more likely to get either violent or violently ill.
    - daotoad 6y ago
      Because the best way to reduce drunk driving risk is to force everyone out of bars at more or less the same time. Back in my teens and twenties I found myself intervening, with varied levels of success, to prevent drunken trips to the store because "beer-o'clock" was nigh and it was the last chance to obtain more alcohol. It's always seemed crazy to create a sudden spike in the number of impaired drivers. What I'd like to see is a comparison of statistics from areas with early last call laws and other jurisdictions with later last call or no restrictions. It would be great to move past what feels good and use some actual data to make a our policies.
  - Cthulhu_ 6y ago
    In the UK they pushed for pubs to close much earlier. The effect was that people would start drinking earlier and more (at home), and binging because stuff closes earlier. TL;DR it backfired.
  - globular-toast 6y ago
    Drunk people tend to get sick, fight and break things which has a huge public cost.
    - WWLink 6y ago
      Yeah, but they could do that any time of day! Especially when you close bars at 1am and send everyone drunk onto the street at the same time.
      - globular-toast 6y ago
        They don't, though, do they? They do it at night.
stbtrax 6y ago
I'm not sure what you're comparing it to, SF is known to have a world-class food scene. There are multiple examples all of the things you listed(except maybe british but who wants that?), as well as things that you don't find in may other cities: burmese, cambodian, laotian, peruvian.
- opportune 6y ago
  SF does have some very nice restaurants, but the vast majority are nothing special and quite over-priced for what you get IMO. And the very nice restaurants are so expensive they're not the thing you go to more than once a month unless you're very wealthy.
- sandworm101 6y ago
  >> SF is known to have a world-class food scene. Exactly. It is known to have a scene. It is a great place for people who like to go to restaurants. For people who like good food, not so much. I remember going to a tea tasting in SF's chinatown while at a conference there. My friend (a local) asked if we had such good tea in Vancouver. The shop owner who was serving us interrupted: "They do. My brother has a shop there. He sent me this tea."
  - mrgordon 6y ago
    Really not sure what your point is here. Name cities in North America that have 10+ legitimate Burmese restaurants. If you want to try good Burmese food, it really helps to have local Burmese restaurants. The last time I was at a Burmese restaurant in San Francisco, the waitress told me a lot of the staff was in Burma for the month finding new flavors and ideas for recipes. In most cities there is no chance that the wait staff at your local ethnic restaurant is actively going back to Burma every year to get new recipes and ingredients. Since you mentioned Vancouver, I searched for Burmese food on Yelp. Only 7 restaurants total come back total. 2 are "Burmese / Thai / Malaysian" Asian fusion places Three of 3 are a generic Asian chain called Noodlebox that has one item called "Burmese naan" 1 is a Thai restaurant with one "Burmese curry" dish 1 is a Vietnamese restaurant that mentions its near one of the Burmese / Thai / Malaysian fusion restaurants So Yelp has 7 total Burmese restaurants in Vancouver, not one of them is actually Burmese, and almost all of them don't even have Burmese dishes (where is the tea leaf salad? Burmese naan doesn't count) So you can act like San Francisco is just known for having a food scene, but when you don't even have access to many of the same world cuisines in other cities it is hard for me to take you seriously when you say its not a place for people who like "good food." You know the majority of American produce is grown in California? Do the vegetables get better when they're shipped for a few days to the east coast?
dragonwriter 6y ago
> There are definitely some great spots but not that many and really not that diverse (lacks middle eastern, greek, british, American bbq, spanish) I've personally had great examples of all of those except Spanish in SF (and that exception may be because I've never sought out Spanish in SF.)
- mrgordon 6y ago
  Piperade is a destination for Basque food
throwawaywrench 6y ago
>Nightlife is horrible, bars pretty much close at 1am Serious question. Are there many night clubs and any day clubs? I was last out so late/early quite a few years ago but in most (possibly all?) Australian cities there are night clubs that were open through the night until 6am. I can recall one place in Melbourne that opened at, I think, midnight and didn't kick people out until 10am. There were also a few day clubs in Sydney and Melbourne, which are like a night club but not opening until night clubs are just closing. Personally, I've not been to San Francisco. I'm just staggered that given the cities fame the night life is so constrained.

wcfields 6y ago

> Nightlife is horrible, bars pretty much close at 1am, hardly any live music, gender imbalance, and not much density so it often just feels "dead" in a lot of places As a southern Californian, I can attest to this. It's pathetic that our bars have last call at 2am (effectively many close at 1:30a). There's been push after push to get last-call to 4am like it is in NY but they never go anywhere in the state legislature.

WWLink 6y ago
I think it's silly that they even close. What's the point? Can someone enlighten me on why bars and stuff close at 1am? Thanks!
- asdff 6y ago
  Politicians don't want to go against MADD, and business owners might not want to expand payroll to staff those hours where people are far more likely to get either violent or violently ill.
  - daotoad 6y ago
    Because the best way to reduce drunk driving risk is to force everyone out of bars at more or less the same time. Back in my teens and twenties I found myself intervening, with varied levels of success, to prevent drunken trips to the store because "beer-o'clock" was nigh and it was the last chance to obtain more alcohol. It's always seemed crazy to create a sudden spike in the number of impaired drivers. What I'd like to see is a comparison of statistics from areas with early last call laws and other jurisdictions with later last call or no restrictions. It would be great to move past what feels good and use some actual data to make a our policies.
- Cthulhu_ 6y ago
  In the UK they pushed for pubs to close much earlier. The effect was that people would start drinking earlier and more (at home), and binging because stuff closes earlier. TL;DR it backfired.
- globular-toast 6y ago
  Drunk people tend to get sick, fight and break things which has a huge public cost.
  - WWLink 6y ago
    Yeah, but they could do that any time of day! Especially when you close bars at 1am and send everyone drunk onto the street at the same time.
    - globular-toast 6y ago
      They don't, though, do they? They do it at night.

stbtrax 6y ago

I'm not sure what you're comparing it to, SF is known to have a world-class food scene. There are multiple examples all of the things you listed(except maybe british but who wants that?), as well as things that you don't find in may other cities: burmese, cambodian, laotian, peruvian.

opportune 6y ago
SF does have some very nice restaurants, but the vast majority are nothing special and quite over-priced for what you get IMO. And the very nice restaurants are so expensive they're not the thing you go to more than once a month unless you're very wealthy.
sandworm101 6y ago
>> SF is known to have a world-class food scene. Exactly. It is known to have a scene. It is a great place for people who like to go to restaurants. For people who like good food, not so much. I remember going to a tea tasting in SF's chinatown while at a conference there. My friend (a local) asked if we had such good tea in Vancouver. The shop owner who was serving us interrupted: "They do. My brother has a shop there. He sent me this tea."
- mrgordon 6y ago
  Really not sure what your point is here. Name cities in North America that have 10+ legitimate Burmese restaurants. If you want to try good Burmese food, it really helps to have local Burmese restaurants. The last time I was at a Burmese restaurant in San Francisco, the waitress told me a lot of the staff was in Burma for the month finding new flavors and ideas for recipes. In most cities there is no chance that the wait staff at your local ethnic restaurant is actively going back to Burma every year to get new recipes and ingredients. Since you mentioned Vancouver, I searched for Burmese food on Yelp. Only 7 restaurants total come back total. 2 are "Burmese / Thai / Malaysian" Asian fusion places Three of 3 are a generic Asian chain called Noodlebox that has one item called "Burmese naan" 1 is a Thai restaurant with one "Burmese curry" dish 1 is a Vietnamese restaurant that mentions its near one of the Burmese / Thai / Malaysian fusion restaurants So Yelp has 7 total Burmese restaurants in Vancouver, not one of them is actually Burmese, and almost all of them don't even have Burmese dishes (where is the tea leaf salad? Burmese naan doesn't count) So you can act like San Francisco is just known for having a food scene, but when you don't even have access to many of the same world cuisines in other cities it is hard for me to take you seriously when you say its not a place for people who like "good food." You know the majority of American produce is grown in California? Do the vegetables get better when they're shipped for a few days to the east coast?

dragonwriter 6y ago

> There are definitely some great spots but not that many and really not that diverse (lacks middle eastern, greek, british, American bbq, spanish) I've personally had great examples of all of those except Spanish in SF (and that exception may be because I've never sought out Spanish in SF.)

mrgordon 6y ago
Piperade is a destination for Basque food

throwawaywrench 6y ago

>Nightlife is horrible, bars pretty much close at 1am Serious question. Are there many night clubs and any day clubs? I was last out so late/early quite a few years ago but in most (possibly all?) Australian cities there are night clubs that were open through the night until 6am. I can recall one place in Melbourne that opened at, I think, midnight and didn't kick people out until 10am. There were also a few day clubs in Sydney and Melbourne, which are like a night club but not opening until night clubs are just closing. Personally, I've not been to San Francisco. I'm just staggered that given the cities fame the night life is so constrained.