The kind of food pictures you can only take in San Francisco…

So the honest to God truth is that I go to San Francisco to eat.

I may say that I'm going for a business meeting, or a birthday, or (like recently) a friend's launch party, but at the end of the day I really go for the food.  I lived in the Bay Area for about ten years, and once you know of the incredible produce and ubiquitous farm to table fusion restaurants, you really can't forget.

And so when planning a trip to San Francisco, it's usually the case that I have lunch and dinner reservations times three before even getting to booking my plane ticket.  But despite my quick trigger finger when it comes to OpenTable, I have never managed to get a table at Frances.

Adding insult to injury, just about every conversation I have had about food in San Francisco this year has somehow lead to Frances.  And of course rave reviews.  So while I remained shit-out-of-luck in the reservations department, my boyfriend actually loves eating at bars (as opposed to tables) so we skipped lunch and high-tailed it to the restaurant at 4:45 p.m.  When we arrived at 5:03 (that is, exactly three minutes after the doors opened) there were four open seats left at the bar.  And once we sat at two, it took less time to fill the remaining seats than our water glasses.

I'm not going to lie, it was a hard hustle getting a table at Frances.  And while most of these hyped about places usually don't live up to the hype, at the risk of making it even harder to get a table, I would say Frances is the real deal.