San Francisco Restaurant Week, the city’s now twice-yearly celebration of its must-vaunted restaurant scene, is upon us once again. Right on the heels of Oakland and Berkeley’s respective Restaurant Weeks, the spring edition of SF’s event runs from April 4–13. And so bargain hunters once again find themselves sifting through the hundreds of prix-fixe meal deals that are on offer from a dizzying 227 restaurants.
Luckily, I’ve already scoured the menus and even busted out my graphing calculator. I’ve done the hard work of identifying the best values and the most interesting specials. Here, then, are 10 of my favorite SF Restaurant Week deals this year.
Abacá
2700 Jones St.
With its fine dining sensibilities and hyper-focus on little-known regional dishes, Abacá is easily the Bay Area’s swankiest, most ambitious Filipino restaurant. While the Fisherman’s Wharf spot is running both a brunch deal and a dinner deal for Restaurant Week, for the best value you might as well go whole hog with the $75 dinner tasting menu — a $10 savings off the usual price. It’s a splurge, but Abacá is known to go all out with its tasting menus: Highlights from this version include Dungeness crab hot and sour soup, sisig fried rice (a signature going back to chef Francis Ang’s early pop-up days) and a zhuzhed-up version of beef pares featuring a big marrow bone.
Azalina’s
499 Ellis St.
In a similar vein, the Bay Area’s only Malaysian tasting menu restaurant will stay true to its usual five-course pre-fixe format, but at a discounted rate: $75 per person instead of the usual $89. In keeping with Azalina’s typical approach, this month’s menu takes the diner on a tour of Malaysian cuisine’s various cultural roots — an Indian-inspired tamarind venison chop, a spicy Mamak fish dish and a pandan egg tart that nods to Malaysia’s Chinese influences.
Chao Pescao
272 McAllister St.
This colorful Cuban-Colombian spot is running a couple of different specials, but I’m especially fond of the $35 lunch deal, which includes a crescent-shaped fried empanada, a choice of entree and a dessert. For a $5 upcharge, the ropa vieja plate — normally $27.50 by itself — seems like a particularly good value.
China Live
644 Broadway
I love the idea behind China Live’s $25 bian dang (like a Chinese bento box), which it’s offering as a lunch special exclusively for Restaurant Week. I always appreciate a meal that lets me sample a little bit of this and that instead of forcing me to commit to one big entree. These “boxes” do come with a choice of main dishes like sweet-and-sour pork ribs or claypot mapo tofu, which normally sell for just under $25 by themselves. But they also include a sampler of small bites — a long potsticker, a couple of different vegetable sides and a Mandarin brownie for dessert — and a choice of beverage.
Damansara
1781 Church St.
I’d gladly swing by this cozy Malaysian spot in Noe Valley for a $35 solo dinner of laksa and crispy pork belly — a $40 value. But if I were coming with a group? I would 100% splurge on the $90 dinner for two, which includes the saucy, spicy whole chili crab dish the Chronicle’s food critic just named “one of the best in SF.”
Gumbo Social
5176 3rd St.
Let’s keep this simple: $15 for a cup of gumbo and half a po’boy? Yes, please!
Lily
225 Clement St.
In terms of pure value, this upscale modern Vietnamese spot in the Richmond District is offering one of the best $35 lunch deals if you maximize your order — say, the duck confit egg rolls and the heritage BBQ pork noodle bowl, with a mango sinh-to to drink. According to my back-of-the-napkin math, that’s a $53 value.
Nippon Curry
3347 Fillmore St.
One of my favorite local Japanese curry chains, Nippon is offering a $15 lunch deal during weekdays only: $15 for a curry plate with katsu, chicken katsu, karaage or potato croquettes, plus a free side of veggies. (Any one of those curry plates normally sell for $19 on their own.)
Palette Tea House
900 North Point St.
This Ghirardelli Square dim sum house has a sweet three-course lunch deal for Restaurant Week: $35 for a “treasure basket” of some of its most popular dim sum items, including the “typhoon”-style crispy har gow, your choice of main course and a Portuguese egg tart for dessert. If you choose, say, the Iberico pork cha siu entree, that would normally run you $30 all by itself.
Piglet & Co
2170 Mission St.
For Restaurant Week, this sleek Taiwanese fusion spot in the Mission has put together a $75 tasting menu that features several of its greatest hits: the luo buo gao salad, the charred savoy cabbage and the confit pork belly. Personally, I’m most excited about the Hawai’ian butter mochi–inspired nian gao for dessert. Add it all up, and this is probably a $95 meal at full regular menu prices.
