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Foodnut travels, eats, and tells! We’re based in San Francisco but have flown all over. We document our trip to Peru. Machu Picchu, Rainbow Mountain and a lot of eating in between. Lots of weird eats and unexpected new food finds.
Foodnut travels, eats, and tells! We’re based in San Francisco but have flown all over. We love Thai food and find some of the best in Thailand.
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Hodel’s Country Dining is a home style old school buffet that opened in 1967 and still packs locals in. We were passing through Bakersfield and had this on our bookmark list. The decor doesn’t look like it has changed much nor has the carpet or upholstery. They have several private rooms for Banquets and weekly meetings, which look very popular. Rated 4.4 on Google, 3.8 on Yelp.
Best Vegan Bakery Ratings for Top Rated Cakes, Cupcakes, Pastries Etc in San Francisco Area
Last Update: 2026
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Foodnut travels, eats, and tells! We’re based in San Francisco but have flown all over. We love Chinese food and find some of the best in Hong Kong.
4505 Burgers and BBQ is run by chef and artisan butcher Ryan Farr. Ryan formerly was executive chef at Fifth Floor. They used to have a stand at the Ferry building but have since setup permanently on Divisadero in SF’s Nopa neighborhood. 4505 also has a thriving business in meat snacks and fried pork rinds. We gotten take out several times, last was in 2026.
A better BBQ place is Breakwater BBQ in El Granda. San Francisco’s BBQ pales in comparison with the real deal. Check out the best BBQ we’ve had – Pinkerton’s Houston.
Last Update: 7/4/2025
Where does a San Francisco Foodie eat in New York? Follow our journey and learn from our experiences over several trips.
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Zhangjiajie is an amazing place in the Hunan Province of China. The scenic beauty of Zhangjiajie National Forest Park is unmatched with its sandstone pillars. The movie Avatar was inspired there. Zhangjiajie’s Avatar Mountains are located in Yuanjiajie, Wulingyuan Scenic Area of Hunan Province, China. The area is accessible via Zhangjiajie City. Be sure to pay extra for VIP tickets to cut in line!
Lai Lai is known for top rated Xiao long bao aka XLB or soup dumplings. We’ve been to Yu garden, Jia jia, Din Tai Fung and several other places on past trips, so it was time for a new place.
Top xiao long bao in Shanghai?
Jia Jia Tang Bao (佳家汤包) is a small but popular Shanghai steamed dumpling or Xiaolongbao shop in Shanghai established in 1986. Our first visit was in 2010, then 2014. Our most recent visit was in Summer 2025 when they had moved down the block to nicer location.
Dumplings worth flying across the Pacific Ocean for…
Yang’s Dumpling – Chinese name: 小杨生煎馆 or xiao yang sheng jian guan 生煎包 – is a popular fried dumpling shop serving pan fried pork bun or Sheng jian bao, a Shanghainese Chinese dish. It was formed in Shanghai in 1994 by Mrs. Yang, who still keeps her recipe secret. They have many locations in Shanghai and are opening more all the time even in Austrailia. We dined at the Shanghai Huanghe location nearest to our hotel by People’s Square.
Ike’s Place has been serving sandwiches since 2007 with lines out the door almost all the time. The original location was at 3489 16th Street, San Francisco. It is now a U: Dessert Story.
Back A Yard Caribbean American Grill is a legendary Caribbean American grill restaurant in eastern Menlo Park, right near Highway 101. Locations are also in Campbell, 3x San Jose, It is a hole in the wall located next to a lower class area of Menlo Park. The chef Robert Simpson also runs much more upscale Coconuts Caribbean Restaurant & Bar in Downtown Palo Alto. He learned his trade in Jamaica. Our last visit was for takeout in Spring 2025.
SAINT-JEAN is a plant based bakery and deli in the Jordaan district of Amsterdam. They have a deli across the street. The baked items are stellar, unlike any we’ve had before. Their deli is across the street. Another nearby vegan baker spot that is closeby is Margo’s – Not as exceptional, but they serve nicer sandwiches. No gluten free options here. Prices are great, items would be at least 2-3x in San Francisco.
Why did we dine here? – A Slice of New York is a well-known New York style pizza place in San Jose, not far from Santana Row. The place features some nice New York decor, with subway signs, maps, and the like. Their Sunnyvale location has closed.
Reviews for restaurants, bakeries and other spots we deemed not important enough for their own.
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HK Lounge Bistro in San Francisco’s SOMA neighborhood takes the place of burned down Hong Kong Lounge 2 that was in the Inner Richmond district. This spot opened in 2023.
Be sure to read Foodnut’s Guide to Chinese Dim Sum Lunch
.jpg "Portugal – Restaurant Reviews")
Restaurant reviews and guide from our recent trip to Portugal in 2023. We visited Lisbon and Porto and loved it.
Why did we dine here? – Ramen Parlor is the second location in San Mateo from the legendary original owner of Santa Ramen, Kazunori Kobayashi. It is located one block from the original Santa Ramen, which now houses the very popular spicy ramen oriented Ramen Dojo. Both are owned by Mr. Kobayashi.
We bought an Ooni Koda 12 Gas Powered Pizza Oven and took months to be able to reliably shape, stretch and cook a pizza.
Here are 3 videos to help your turbocharge your pizza making!
Kauai Restaurant Reviews from our visit to the Garden isle in May 2022
Lots of local food trucks and Hawaiian favorites. We did not dine in once! None of these requires reservations.
Checkout reviews of the other Hawaiian Islands
Happy lamb hot pot replaced Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot is a hot pot restaurant in downtown San Mateo, right across from Walgreen’s during the Covid 19 Pandemic. The decor is majorly improved and they use serving robots. Prices have also gone up.
The San Francisco Bay Area has been on shelter in place since March 16, 2020. Restaurants are only allowed to serve to go take out meals. Many have laid off staff and are in danger of closing. 20-40% of restaurants may close.
Where does a San Francisco Foodie eat in Thailand? Follow our journey and learn from our experiences.
Here is a compilation of more casual restaurants, snack places we visited during our 2020 Asia trip. Our goal was to find good eats at reasonable prices, primarily restaurants where locals go. We have no interest sampling cuisine that is done better at home in the San Francisco Bay Area. This is challenging on an expensive ‘island’, full of pricey tourist traps.
Where does a San Francisco Foodie eat in the Singapore? Follow our journey and learn from our experiences.
Here is a compilation of more casual restaurants, snack places we visited during our 2019 Asia trip. Our goal was to find good eats at reasonable prices, primarily restaurants where locals go. We have no interest sampling cuisine that is done better at home in the San Francisco Bay Area. This is challenging on an expensive ‘island’, full of pricey tourist traps.
Santa Ramen has a new owner in 2020.
Santa Ramen is a very popular Japanese noodle Ramen restaurant in San Mateo. Mr. Kazunori Kobayashi sold this location in 2020 but continues to be the proprietor of nearby Ramen Dojo and Parlor. Located in a small shopping mall with a Diddams Ninja Japanese supermarket, Party Supply and JoAnn’s Fabric, the restaurant has achieved a legendary cult following and has long lines at both dinner and lunch times. We have eaten here many times with our last visit in 2020.
Why did we dine here? – B. Patisserie is a new bakery from Belinda Leong. She is a veteran of Gary Danko and Manresa. We couldn’t wait to give her place a try.
Why did we dine here? – Far better Pho than San Francisco! The SGV (San Gabriel Valley) is home to some fine Asian cuisine. We passed by Pho Filet on our last trip and ate there in 2018. Only 3.5 stars on Yelp, but way up there in our books.
Last Update: December 2019
Chicken Rice is a legendary dish at Singapore’s food hawker centers. It consists of chicken cooked in pork and chicken stock, rice with chicken stock, and some vegetables. Dipping sauce is usually a hot chili dip or soy sauce with ginger. Occasionally they throw in a bowl of soup. We read several articles that state that this is the number 1 thing many people miss when they leave Singapore. Chicken Rice is a National dish for Singapore.
We arrive skeptics, but left believers.
We love pizza and finally made the trek to Chicago to find what ‘real’ deep dish pizza tastes like. We find San Francisco’s best cannot compare..
Since 1892, this has been America’s oldest and largest public market. A perfect place for breakfast, lunch or a snack. Get exposed to Amish and Pennsylvania Dutch. A must visit for anyone into food and history! Some vendors close early, so beware. A lot more history to this food market than our Ferry Building.
Our Favorites stores:
Last Update: 2018
Foodnut travels, eats, and tells. We’re based in San Francisco but have flown all over the place. We love Mexican food and find some of the best in Cancun.
We recently finished up our latest culinary tour of Cancun in 2018. Other reviews farther down are from previous trips. Cancun is a world class destination full of great food. Most of the Mexican food was superior to that in the San Francisco Bay Area. The service is on another level here.
Hanoi Vietnam is known for its dynamic street food scene. The language and culture are definitely big barriers to going it on your own. A street food tour was definitely a must.
We took our hotel’s Street Food tour to sample the local restaurants in the Hanoi Old Quarter. This was a fun and useful tour. We dined at several places that we would have been scared to approach ourselves. The guide explained the different types of local food and asked us about specific items we wanted. It lasted about 3 hours, cost $30/per person and included all food and drinks. Cheaper than other tours we saw.
Shanghai Flavor Shop is an inexpensive restaurant in a second rate strip mall. This diamond in the rough is located in sleepy Sunnyvale, and specializes in Shanghainese Chinese cuisine. To the right of this restaurant is the popular Indian Buffet: Sankranti
We like dining at McDonalds at different countries around the world. What interesting items will we find. Our last trip was to Spain. We checked out the local McDonalds in Barcelona and found some interesting items.
Zachary’s Chicago Pizza is a popular pizza restaurant in the San Francisco East Bay that serves Chicago style pizza. They have been packing them in for over thirty years. They serve select individual slices (Sausage, Pepperoni, Vegetarian) and whole pizzas, both thin and stuffed (thick) crust. The thick crust has filling between the layers. They also have half-baked pies and gluten free pies for sale. Our last visit was in Fall 2018.
Last Update: 7/20/2017
Travelling? Here is a Foodie research into Boston.. A list at the bottom shows other restaurants we would try next.
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Best Ramen in San Francisco. Why did we dine here? – Mensho Tokyo SF is first USA outpost of Mensho, an acclaimed Tokyo ramen chain. They have 7 locations in Tokyo and are usually on the short list for top ramen in Tokyo. We waited for the 2-hour lines to die down, before dining here.
We sought to find the Best Croissants in San Francisco. Time to line up bright and early. Ah somebody has to do this right? Here are the top candidates for your consideration..
Why did we dine here? – Shockingly Good! Xian Famous Foods was made famous when Anthony Bourdain featured it on this TV show, No Reservations. The restaurant was recommended to us, so we had to add it to our NYC hit list. They have several locations in New York and Flushing, so we decided to eat at the Chinatown location as we were touring the city. In 2019 we ate at the West Village location.
Taqueria La Cumbre Mexican Restaurant has a location in San Francisco and San Mateo. We tried the one in San Mateo, located near Caltrain. They have everything from burritos to tacos to caldos to plates. The San Francisco location has lines often times. Our last visit was in 2017. The great thing about his place is the parking lot!
There always seems to be a line here! Tartine Bakery, San Francisco serves up legendary freshly baked bread every Tuesday through Sunday at 430 PM. After the Tartine Manufactory opened in 2016, bread is available all day. They are also know for their great pastries and sandwiches.
The Chairman (Formerly Chairman Bao) is a San Francisco food truck that serves Chinese steamed and baked buns with a variety of fillings. These are offshots of Taiwanese Gua bao or bun sandwich. When we were in Taiwan, it was difficult to find this old school dish. Our only Gua bao was ironically at the ritz Shin Yeh, Taipei 101.
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