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Making my first (ever) trip to San Fran April 16th to visit two of my best friends at Berkeley, and of course to hang out with my main man Louder.
Being as it's gonna be my first time in SF... we will undoubtedly be looking for good places to eat, and things to do. I think there are many TL people from that area, so suggest away!!
a) recommend some good food
b) what can we do while there
**bonus**
c) Anyone who is a lit / poetry geek know of really good underground book stores and stuff? There are very few/none in LA (that I know of) and brand book stores like Barnes and Noble are pretty garbage when it comes to poetry selection (the only modern guy they usually carry is Kerouac, the rest is filled with Shakespeare, Milton, and other English fools).
Thanks!
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how long will u be here for, we should/may do a lan
louder is in SF?
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a. Gordos, Ocean Taq, Kevin's Noodle House, Pancho Villa, Chapeau
b. Ferry building, Union Square, Cliffhouse
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Chinatown! Welcome to the bay area, Duran Parsi. 
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LAN! I live in San Mateo, I know a lot of AMAZING places to eat in the bay area.. you guys like sushi? Ramen Shabu?
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if ur at least a casual baseball fan make sure to stop by pac bell park; it's a beautiful place and only mildly overpriced. also stop by pier39 and get clam chowder and crabs!!!
edit: lol @ crabs... didnt mean it like that. eat crab!!!
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Kevin's Noodle House is gdlk haha. A good place for Korean BBQ is Brother's Korean BBQ on Geary and 5th. Ferry Building is pretty pricy but it's really good, worth a visit imo.
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Clam Chowder bread bowls at Fisherman's Wharf
Ice Cream Factory at Ghiradelli Square
Alcatraz Island night tours if they have them
House of Prime Rib
Garlic Fries at Blondie's Pizza (their pizza kinda sucks btw)
Godly thick and fresh clam chowder/fish&chips at Half Moon Bay(if you want to drive 1 hour south of S.F. that is, and there's nothing else down there anyway)
Metreon (downtown/South of Market)- watch a movie, play mini-soccer on the computerized floor, ice skating next door, top it off with some thai food at the end
Japanese food (either a bar&grill or a all-you-can-eat "sushi boat" place for best results)
that's all i got off the top of my head
may update if i think of more
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On April 04 2010 17:01 Gliche wrote:
Clam Chowder bread bowls at Fisherman's Wharf
Ice Cream Factory at Ghiradelli Square
Alcatraz Island night tours if they have them
House of Prime Rib
Garlic Fries at Blondie's Pizza (their pizza kinda sucks btw)
Godly thick and fresh clam chowder/fish&chips at Half Moon Bay(if you want to drive 1 hour south of S.F. that is, and there's nothing else down there anyway)
Metreon (downtown/South of Market)- watch a movie, play mini-soccer on the computerized floor, ice skating next door, top it off with some thai food at the end
Japanese food (either a bar&grill or a all-you-can-eat "sushi boat" place for best results)
that's all i got off the top of my head
may update if i think of more
OMAHGAWD I MISS HOME NOWW~~~~~~ FROM THE A TO THE YAY~~~~~ GO WARRIORS!
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http://www.ilikeikesplace.com/index.html
IKE'S PLACE for amazing sandwiches
It was featured on Man vs Food. The Doomsday sandwich is the beast $16 sandwich with every meat possible piled on. I forgot what I ordered when I went, but every sandwich is pretty much amazing.
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On April 04 2010 16:40 TheComeback wrote:
LAN! I live in San Mateo, I know a lot of AMAZING places to eat in the bay area.. you guys like sushi? Ramen Shabu?
SANTA RAMEN AND SHABUWAY.
repping san mateo haha
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been a decade since i lived in cali. bit jealous 
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There's several used book stores on Shattuck in Berkeley, mainly Pegasus. It has great selection and while it is very much 'above' ground, I think you might find it to your liking.
http://pegasus.indiebound.com/pegasus-downtown
Enjoy the bay area!
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Woo SF, I'm a native
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I second Gordos. The Metreon area is a great place to visit as well - movies, arcade, ice skating, bowling, mall.
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If you like sandwiches hit up a place called 'witchcraft... very fucking good
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On April 04 2010 18:20 tRi[T]oN wrote:
If you like sandwiches hit up a place called 'witchcraft... very fucking good
'wichcraft was meh when i went
use yelp.com for all things norcal ... very useful
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T.O.P.
Hong Kong4685 Posts
On April 04 2010 17:50 XuZ wrote:
I second Gordos. The Metreon area is a great place to visit as well - movies, arcade, ice skating, bowling, mall.
The best mall is probably the Westfield Shopping Mall in Downtown.
Chinatown the the best though. You could buy live fish, have the guy knock it out with a club, then take it home and steam it.
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On April 04 2010 16:32 Superiorwolf wrote:
how long will u be here for, we should/may do a lan
louder is in SF?
1 week... splitting the time between staying in SF with Louder and Berkeley with my friends (Louder's going on a trip) .
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When I went there, I had clam chowder in one of those bread bowls. Tasted so good D:! So I'd recommend that.
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On April 04 2010 17:26 scyper wrote:Show nested quote +On April 04 2010 16:40 TheComeback wrote:
LAN! I live in San Mateo, I know a lot of AMAZING places to eat in the bay area.. you guys like sushi? Ramen Shabu? SANTA RAMEN AND SHABUWAY. repping san mateo haha
WHOA! r u in san mateo too?!!??
Shabuway in san mateo is so good! Santas is awesome, himawari is great. Shabu Shabu in burlingame is better than shabuway
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Food (look them up on Yelp; Yelp is amazing for SF regions):
Cheap eats (< $15):
Ike's Place (Amazing subs)
Pearl's Deluxe Burger (Amazing burger)
Bakesale Betty's (Fried Chicken sandwich, Oakland)
Saigon Sandwiches (Amazing Vietnamese sandwich)
Rosamunde (Hotdogs)
Golden Gate bakery (orgasmic egg tarts)
Katana Ya (Japanese Ramen)
Henry's Cafe & Deli (Bulgogi sandwich!)
Birite Creamery (get Sam's Sundae, best icecream EVER)
Medium (>$15, <50$)
Yuet Lee (authentic Chinese cuisine, good seafood)
Ohgane (Korean bbq in Oakland)
San Tung (North-Eastern Chinese cuisine, try the dry fried chicken and their dumplings, absolutely delicious)
Swan's Oyster Depot (cheap oysters, try their scallop sashimi, and free kani-miso)
Broken Record (one of my favourite dives, even though it is very far from the city)
Gold Mountain (very good dim-sum, slightly more expensive than its worth)
Little Star (dip-dish pizza)
Pizzaria Delfina (amazing traditional Italian pizza)
Expensive (>$50, expect ~$100)
Sushi Zone (sushi restaurant with fresh fish and Japanese chef; go on Tuesdays and Fridays (?) as that's when the fish is most fresh)
Ruelepic (very good French)
Blue Plate (American food)
Monk's Kettle (amazing selection of beer, try smoked beer with pork chop; heavenly combination)
La Folie (one of the best French restaurants in SF region)
That's what I remember off the top of my head, let me know if you have further questions.
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Clam chowder sold by street vendors in North Beach is such garbage and tourist trap. If you want decent chowder, get it from SF Soup Company, it tastes much better.
If you want good chowders, go to proper restaurants. The sourdough bread is very good though, you can get it from Boudin.
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DO NOT EAT AT PIER 39! I was just in SF for spring break a few weeks ago with some friends, and we got ripped off so badly there. Fisherman's Wharf had some reasonably priced stuff. I also recommend
Great Eastern (Dim Sum, there are no carts though so make sure you read up on your dim sum) and
Zarzuela (Spanish tapas).
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On April 05 2010 07:18 teh leet newb wrote:
DO NOT EAT AT PIER 39! I was just in SF for spring break a few weeks ago with some friends, and we got ripped off so badly there. Fisherman's Wharf had some reasonably priced stuff. I also recommend
Great Eastern (Dim Sum, there are no carts though so make sure you read up on your dim sum) and
Zarzuela (Spanish tapas).
this advice is probably better than mine, i havent been in SF in over 5 years
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Mostly everything's been mentioned, but in Japantown, although most of the stuff there kinda sucks, there's a really good ramen place (sapporo ya?) in the back of one of the buildings.
Ghiradelli Square is a cool place to go also, get some huge sundaes.
Speaking of sundaes I really suggest that you go to Fenton's Ice Creamery in Oakland (on Piedmont Ave) and get a huge-ass sundae. Great stuff, the ambiance is nice (albeit noisy) and your pretty much guaranteed to not finish whatever they give you cause there's just soo much. But it's delicious
Lots of good Korean BBQ places in oakland, theres a whole stretch of Korean restaurants on Telegraph Ave. and they're all pretty damn good. I usually go to Koryo, which is hidden in some weird complex
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Look for crowded dimsum restaurants in Chinatown around noon, any of them... you really can't go wrong with dimsum, even the bad crowded dimsum restaurants are good. My favorite of the dimsum restaurants in Chinatown is the Grand Palace, super cheap food but very noisy, just the way I like it. Heavily recommend Ike's place if you like sub sandwiches.
Cambiums list is pretty damn good, i'd stick with that. I usually go for pretty shady places that serve mounds of food for 5$ so my opinion probably isn't very good for tourist lol.
Theres poetry slams all over the city if you do a little bit of digging (since you mentioned it a bit), the usual tourist traps are... tourist traps but they're good if youre into sight seeing; lombard street, coit tower, fishermens wharf, golden gate, cable cars, chinatown.
To be honest, theres only two main attractions to San Francisco if you're not into sight seeing and thats 1. Shopping and 2. Food.
Edit: Oh and get yourself some Bubble Tea or Thai Iced Tea, I don't know where you're from and if they sell them there but I just moved to canada and its non-existent.
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On April 05 2010 14:18 nMn wrote:
Look for crowded dimsum restaurants in Chinatown around noon, any of them... you really can't go wrong with dimsum, even the bad crowded dimsum restaurants are good. My favorite of the dimsum restaurants in Chinatown is the Grand Palace, super cheap food but very noisy, just the way I like it. Heavily recommend Ike's place if you like sub sandwiches.
This is literally the best advice ever, and it's precisely what I did. I did not recommend this because I thought it might be a little overwhelming for tourists as these places are typically very very dark, greasy and dirty. One keyword I'd like to add is "old people", a place packed with old Asians is guaranteed to be A+ (and dirt-cheap).
Edit: Oh and get yourself some Bubble Tea or Thai Iced Tea, I don't know where you're from and if they sell them there but I just moved to canada and its non-existent.
Which city? There are lots of bubble tea shops near concentrations of Asians.
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On April 04 2010 17:26 scyper wrote:Show nested quote +On April 04 2010 16:40 TheComeback wrote:
LAN! I live in San Mateo, I know a lot of AMAZING places to eat in the bay area.. you guys like sushi? Ramen Shabu? SANTA RAMEN AND SHABUWAY. repping san mateo haha
santa ramen is like the greatest place to eat in the bay area
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I'm in Edmonton, theres not an overflow of Asians but we're not exactly void either, no tapioca for me
Oh and you can check out the Walk of Games at the Metreon if you're going to be around there anyways :p Starcraft has a place in it.
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I have no intention of eating anywhere Asian. I'm just not into any Asian food. I've tried so much, and tried hard to like it, but I just continue to find nothing There are a small handful of dishes I like, but overall, Asian is crap in my book.
I'll be there for training from the 17th through 23rd. I don't think I would be able to do a LAN, but I would not object to a meetup of some sort one evening if it's some place interesting - like a bar or restaurant with a good beer selection
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Also, I'll be in the Westin Market Street, so things easy to reach from there by walking or public transpo would be preferred
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On April 07 2010 02:29 Louder wrote:I have no intention of eating anywhere Asian. I'm just not into any Asian food. I've tried so much, and tried hard to like it, but I just continue to find nothing There are a small handful of dishes I like, but overall, Asian is crap in my book. I'll be there for training from the 17th through 23rd. I don't think I would be able to do a LAN, but I would not object to a meetup of some sort one evening if it's some place interesting - like a bar or restaurant with a good beer selection
Monk's Kettle
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EPT
