Diners' Choice: Best Service restaurants in San Francisco Bay Area

OpenTable

Updated December 05, 2024

Looking for restaurants with the best service in San Francisco Bay Area? You’re in the right place. Each month, OpenTable analyzes nearly 2 million global diner reviews from the past four months. We sort the results by location and category to help you discover new favourite restaurants. It's a great partnership: you reserve, eat, and review. We listen...and deliver the results for all to benefit. Enjoy!

Velvet 48 Wine Bar

5.0

5 (72)

$31 to $50

Wine Bar

Burlingame

About the restaurant

Velvet 48 is a premium wine bar in downtown Burlingame started by 20-year wine industry veteran, Jason Cooper. We offer over 40 wines by the glass, 1100 wines by the bottle, a cultivated beer selection, and a variety of delicious savory and sweet small plates.

We have wines across every price point so there is something for everyone, from the casual wine drinker to the wine aficionado, who will be impressed by a wine collection that houses some of the finest wines in the world. We aim to cultivate an experience for our guests that starts with a complimentary splash of our house label, Velvet 48 Sparkling wine, followed by outstanding service from our Wine Specialists to guide you through our expansive list. We offer a discount of 25% off bottles purchased TO GO.

Due to the nature of our alcoholic license, we are unable to allow anyone under 21 on the premises, including infants.

Thank your for your understanding.

Top review

Barry

Dined on Dec 4, 2024

Always a great time at Velvet 48 - Austin the manager gave me a great recommendation of a Burgundian wine (I typically go Californian Pinot Noir) and I really appreciated him suggesting some new geographies to enjoy!

Sushi Shin - Redwood City

4.9

4.9 (29)

$50 and over

Sushi

Redwood City

About the restaurant

Sushi Shin is an Authentic Japanese Fine dining. Featuring an Omakase menu, which is chef's choice for the most fresh, top quality of fish and seafood. Mostly imported from Tokyo fish market. Other best ingredients from all around the world. Serving Japanese Sakes and bottle Japanese beers. You can experience authentic Edomae-style sushi.

Top review

OpenTable Diner

Dined on Nov 14, 2024

Best sushi in the city, hands down. Incredible service and experience.

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Experience

Sushi Shin Omakase

Auro

5.0

5 (194)

$50 and over

American

Calistoga

About the restaurant

Join us in celebrating Calistoga’s only Michelin-rated fine dining destination, Auro. Our intimate dining space showcases a seasonally inspired, five-course tasting menu by acclaimed Chef Rogelio Garcia and his team. Set against the stunning backdrop of sprawling the Palisades Mountains, this is wine country dining at its finest.

Top review

Bob

Dined on Dec 7, 2024

Great dining experience overall. Several of the courses were outstanding, including the black cod with buttery flesh and perfectly crispy skin. Most dishes had an excellent balance of salt, acid and spice with the occasional misstep such as the item billed as porcini and truffles but was no more than a bean and corn mess. The gnocchi supplement with white truffle needed salt and should have been 4x larger for the price. Shockingly small. Indeed most portions were too small and while I fully understand the desire to make it a tasting experience and serve up lots and lots of tasty small portions, these portions bordered on the obscenely small. But everything was beautifully presented and the service was very good - though not excellent (for example, for these prices, when my glass of water or wine is empty, it’s reasonable to expect that someone will be on it, and here they were at best slow to react). Worth it to try once, but in no hurry to return as no course (other than maybe the black cod) was too memorable.

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Experience

Michelin-Star New Year’s Eve Dinner at Auro

Experience

Savor The Stars - Christmas Day at Auro | Dec. 25

Saison

4.9

4.9 (13)

$50 and over

American

SOMA

About the restaurant

Saison is a two Michelin-starred, open wood fire restaurant under the leadership of Executive Chef Richard Lee, emphasizing the bounty of California’s evolving terroir and its incredible farmers, ranchers, and fishermen and women. Saison is driven by Lee’s dedication to purity and innovation, paired with a Grand Award-winning wine list in a dynamic space where guest and team celebrate an intimate, culture-shifting experience. Chef Lee builds upon Saison’s formidable foundation as the original fine dining establishment in the U.S. to use open hearth cooking, crafting nuanced flavors with intention that are inspired by the culinary diversity of Northern California.

Saison has one of the country’s largest and most remarkable selections of Old and New World wine, with a special emphasis on Burgundy, originally established by Saison Hospitality co-founder and Saison Winery winemaker Mark Bright and now curated by Beverage Director and Assistant General Manager Molly Greene.

Top review

RobertVIP

Dined 1 day ago

Saison is hands down the best restaurant in San Francisco. The quality and innovation, the incredible extraction of flavors from the ingredients, and the attentiveness of the staff cannot be touched by the 3-star Michelin restaurants in San Francisco.

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Experience

Saison Bar

Sushi Hashiri

5.0

5 (216)

$50 and over

Sushi

SOMA

About the restaurant

A progressive approach executed from a deep history of Kappo and Omakase Edomae Sushi. Two of Japan’s historical culinary concepts brought together combining hyper-seasonal ingredients and premium fish selections direct from our private purveyor inside the world renown Toyosu fish market in Tokyo, Japan. Hashiri’s focus is to exemplify its re-evolving cuisine to showcase Japan’s richest seasonal ingredients.

HASHIRI "KODAWARI EDOMAE SUSHI" - $300
Hyper seasonal multi course Kappo & Omakase Edomae Sushi dining experience at the sushi counter.

HASHIRI " OMAKASE EDOMAE SUSHI" - $200
Hyper seasonal Omakase Edomae Sushi dining experience at the sushi counter.

Due to our limited seating and the effort involved in curating our menu with internationally sourced ingredients, we kindly ask for your understanding regarding our cancellation policy. Cancellations or no-shows within 72 hours of your reservation will incur the full cost of the dining experience.

Top review

ShigeVIP

Dined 6 days ago

great experience overall - great service and food!

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Experience

"OMAKASE EDOMAE SUSHI"

Experience

"KODAWARI EDOMAE SUSHI"

Nisei

4.8

4.8 (76)

$50 and over

Japanese

Russian Hill

About the restaurant

Nisei presents a contemporary approach to Japanese American cuisine by combining deep Japanese flavors, refined cooking technique, and Northern California's finest ingredients. The restaurant is a personal reflection of Chef David Yoshimura's unique experience as a Michelin starred chef and second generation Japanese American, or Nisei.

Nisei can accommodate most severe allergies with advance notice, however due to the nature of the tasting menu format, we can not meet all dietary restrictions or aversions. In order to maintain the spirit of our cuisine, the following items can not be removed: Salt, sugar, soy sauce, and egg cooked into items.

All Experience prices below reflect a 20% Service Fee and 8.63% SF Sales Tax applied to the base price of each experience. This Service Fee goes towards paying our employees a livable wage as well as providing health insurance.

Top review

OpenTable Diner

Dined 5 days ago

It was a beautiful experience, so much flavor with a lovely combination of different textures and ingredients. Marvelous service they were all very sweet and nice.

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Experience

Winter Menu Reservations at Nisei

Experience

New Year's Eve at Nisei

Experience

Osechi Ryori

Abrazo

4.9

4.9 (509)

$31 to $50

Spanish

Russian Hill

About the restaurant

Welcome to Abrazo! We are a neighborhood restaurant nestled in the historic and beautiful Russian Hill neighborhood. Chef/Owner Michael Pawliks menu features contemporary Spanish-Californian inspired cuisine, sourcing only the freshest and most traditional ingredients. Abrazo features a lofty 18ft ceiling, a cozy bar, and a private dining room that seats 16. The wine list features the best of Spain's legendary wine regions alongside Napa Valley classics.

We hope to see you soon!

Top review

Marian

Dined 5 days ago

Our dinner was delicious! The ambience and interiors lovely! Service was friendly, quick and informative. We ordered 5 dishes and loved them all. If I was pressed for an improvement it would be to for the piaya to be a slightly larger portion. We had a great time and will definitely return!!!

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4.9

4.9 (1560)

$31 to $50

Italian

Financial District / Embarcadero

About the restaurant

We are offering our food and services in a new way, one that safely creates jobs for our employees, and still provides that quintessential experience only Cafe Tiramisu can.
At Café Tiramisu our pasta, and salads as a takeaway experience with authenticity, carefully selected ingredients for maximum taste and freshness to provide healthier options for all of our customers to satisfy vegan, and vegetarian options! ready to be collected or delivered to you.
Remember to save room for one (or more) of our dessert options.

Top review

PaulVIP

Dined 5 days ago

I have been a customer of this Gem for over 20 years. The food is authentic Italian with a modern creative touch to it. Best of all it is seasonal which gives you something to look forward to every quarter. The clams and mussels come in several broths and it never fails that when I bring a guest they all fawn over it. Service is good and the owners pay close attention to making everyone comfortable. The decor is reminicint of Pompei and one of the owners Pinot will tell you the story of it if you ask. Definately if you want an authentic modern Italian meal, this is the place

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Popular dish

Pappardelle

Popular dish

Tiramisu "Pick Me Up"

Piqueos

4.9

4.9 (1186)

$30 and under

Tapas / Small Plates

Bernal Heights

About the restaurant

RESTAURANT POLICIES :
*NO GUARANTEED ON TABLES LOCATION, Limited to availability.
Outdoor & Indoor seating choice on Open Table is a preference only.
*Tables will be assigned depending in reservation time and table availability.
*Due to Limited tables, every table has a time limit of 90 minutes.
*Punctually is important, we will patiently wait 10 minutes past reservation time, then table will be given away to waitlist.

Fusion Peruvian Cuisine. Artful ambiance. These are the ingredients that create this dynamic San Francisco restaurant, Piqueos. In our cuisine you will find an unmistakable touch of Peru. In every dish the distinct flavors of regional spices come through.

Top review

Pauline

Dined on Dec 1, 2024

Incredible food and ambience. Hidden gem. Also with pup menu!! Will definitely go back.

The Park Street Tavern

4.8

4.8 (538)

$31 to $50

Mediterranean

Alameda

About the restaurant

The Park Street Tavern features Modern Central Mediterranean cuisine.

Top review

MichelleVIP

Dined 3 days ago

The food and service are always excellent. Parking can be challenging since the city of Alameda messed up Clement Ave, but there is a parking lot if you can get a spot in it.

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