One of my favorite parts of the day when I travel for work, besides the moment I get back to my hotel room, is dinner. During conference days, breakfast is usually quick and early, while lunch is typically either a snack or horrendous convention center food. I love researching spots for dinner, where I can decompose from the work day and just enjoy the food. During my most recent work trip to San Francisco, I dined at three amazing restaurants and cannot recommend them enough.

Liholiho Yacht Club
Liholiho Yacht Club fuses together Californian technique with the flavors of Chef/owner Ravi Kapur’s native Hawaii. Wrapped around a giant, open kitchen, the restaurant is known for strong cocktails, shareable plates, and near-impossible reservations. We were a bit early for our reservation, which filled up almost immediately the moment they opened on Resy, so we had a beer across the street. The walk-in line was down the block!

To start, we split the Duck Liver Mousse, with banana bread, pineapple pink peppercorn, and celery ($5 each) and the Poppyseed Steam Bun, with beef tongue, tare glaze, LYC kimchi, and miso aioli ($10 each). The standout was definitely the Duck Liver Mousse, which was absolutely divine – smooth and savory.

For my main, I opted to be a bit more adventurous and try the Swordfish Katsu, with Russian dressing, gherkins, radish, and caper butter. I had never had fish Katsu before and this was fantastic. The swordfish was actually one of the most moist pieces of swordfish that I have ever had. It was tender, moist, and its usual mild flavor took on the caper butter sauce very well.

For dessert, we split the Baked Hawaii – orange chiffon cake, coconut POG sorbet. I am a huge Baked Hawaii fan – and also a huge POG fan – so this was a delight for me. I loved it.

Ernest
Ernest is located on an industrial corner in the Mission, in a mostly unlabeled building that’s easy to miss if you’re not looking closely. The dishes are seasonal and subject to change depending on what’s good at the market. There are clear Asian influences throughout the menu, with examples like a carbonara-like lo mein noodle dish and their kalbi-marinade grilled ribs. They encourage you to treat the menu family-style and order a bunch of dishes to share. Since we’re all indecisive people, we opted to do the $97 per person “Let the Kitchen Cook for You” tasting menu. We received 11 out of the 19 savory dishes on the menu, with some of the missing items being the more expensive dishes like wagyu beef, uni, and caviar.

We all agreed that our favorite dishes were from the first course – Bluefin Tuna Tostada, Sushi Rice with Ikura and Raw Beef, and Crab Rangoon Dip.

Honorable mentions went to the Lo Mein with Green Garlic and Aged Parmesan as well as the Grilled Pork Ribs with Kalbi Marinade and Banchan. We also thoroughly enjoyed the Park House Rolls with House Butter.

Mensho Tokyo
My last dinner in SF was at Mensho, the American spin-off of a Tokyo standout ramen brand. Founded in Tokyo in 2005, Mensho has won numerous awards in Japan for best ramen. It is also featured in the Michelin Guide for restaurants to visit in San Francisco. The wait times for Mensho are often at minimum 30 minutes, with wait times going up to an hour on weekends during prime time. It is well worth the wait though!

I had the Tori Paitan, which is packed with springy, chewy noodles and tender duck chashu in a luxuriously creamy broth. This was absolutely amazing. The broth was so creamy and thick, with just the right amount of saltiness. Each bite was packed with so much flavor. I highly recommend adding on extra Ajitama!