The Best Brunch Spots In SF

Published 1 day ago• 9 minute read

The salsiccia pizza with an egg at Piccino

photo credit: Melissa Zink

If you believe weekends should be spent absorbing as much maple syrup and prosecco as you possibly can, you're in the right place. This guide is filled with our all-time favorite San Francisco brunch spots. And while you’ll have to deal with a line and crowds at some of them, they’re all worth the wait. Looking for bottomless brunch, high tea, bakeries, or breakfast? We've got guides for those, too.

Unrated: This is a restaurant we want to re-visit before rating, or it’s a coffee shop, bar, or dessert shop. We only rate spots where you can eat a full meal.

The casual Potrero Hill spot with diner-style charm is breakfast royalty, and everybody knows it. Which is why there will be a line to get a seat inside the well-lit space. Do you know how crowded Warriors games are when LeBron is in town? Getting a table at Plow is like that. Everyone is here for the french toast, fried egg sandwiches, and scrambles with sides of bacon and crispy potatoes. But one of the best things you can get here is the lemon ricotta pancakes.

If you tend to wake up on the later side of brunch for this city, El Mil Amores is your spot. This Mexico City-style cafe in the Mission serves their entire breakfast and lunch menu all the way until 5pm, making it the perfect place to meet up with a group of friends that can’t agree on a common wake-up time. Expect hearty platters like the CDMX plate with a mix of chilaquiles, soft scrambled eggs, and pillowy concha french toast—it's ideal for those who can’t decide between sweet and savory.

There are clearly plenty of phenomenal brunch places in SF. But brunch spots where almost everything is made from scratch? You’ll only find that at Early To Rise, a daytime spot in NoPa with one of the best bagels in town. Extra thick slices of bacon are cured in house, fluffy donuts get rolled through sugar and filled with earl grey cream, and pancakes arrive drenched in tangy blueberry syrup. The airy space, which is made up of about 75% window, is usually packed—just know that there are no reservations, so you’ll probably have to wait for a table.

If the sun rays coming through the huge skylight at Abacá don’t jolt you awake, the food certainly will. This upscale spot does weekend-only brunch full of Filipino classics with the sour, salty, and sweet flavors dialed up. There’s tocino slabs covered in a zippy pineapple marinade, an incredible ganache-crowned banana bread, and ensaymada french toast topped with hollandaise, bacon, caviar, and lime juice, which is simultaneously ultra-light and richness personified. A meal here is stellar, and will make you forget you're in a Fisherman’s Wharf hotel near where the tacky souvenir fleeces roam.

The classic Cantonese dim sum staples at this Richmond restaurant are some of the best in the city. Steamers loaded with plump and meaty siu mai, plates of wiggly XO noodles, and mounds of fried sticky rice fill every table in the big carpeted dining room. There will likely be a line here, especially on weekends when everyone in town wants to prematurely get over the Sunday scaries with a spread of baked, steamed, and pan-fried dishes. But things move quickly, so snag a paper number and wait your turn with the crowds.

Located in the Richmond, this Turkish spot feels like a homey den with brick walls and window sills that are filled with a hodgepodge of found glass, bird feeders, and plants in mismatched pots. The menu is short, but it doesn’t matter because there’s one correct order here: the two-person Turkish breakfast spread of creamy scrambled eggs with chewy sujuk, pita, feta, olives, nutty muhammara, sweet hazelnut spread, fresh fruit, and kaymak with honey.

Piccino’s Presidio location is the ideal place to take a load off after a morning stroll through Lovers’ Lane. Their massive dining room is filled with natural light, cushy leather booths, and barn wedding-esque floral arrangements. Relax and split flaky scones with fresh fruit jam, endive salads, and other seasonal dishes with produce from their very own farm. Just to be sure to throw an egg on one of their thin-crust pizzas—this is brunch, after all.

The dining room at this Outer Sunset spot looks like a beachside Airbnb ran into a lumber yard. Spending a morning in this wood-covered space just blocks from the ocean is an ideal pastime. Their brunch menu, which covers everything from breakfast sandwiches and sticky buns to chia bowls, is worth getting out of bed early for. Never leave without the dutch pancake, a fluffy behemoth loaded with berries, pecans, and a glob of housemade ricotta.

With raised ceilings, Restoration Hardware-esque light fixtures, and a long, blue-tiled bar, Aziza feels more like a luxury resort on the outskirts of Marrakesh than a brunch spot in the Richmond—with gorgeously plated food to match. Try the spiced lebni yogurt that’s loaded up full of berries and granola or the beghrir pancakes with bee pollen that arrives on a plate resembling an inside-out shell. If you’re looking for something a little more savory, try the the shakshuka with a jellied egg so perfect it looks like a movie prop.

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Rise & Set is a cheery morning hangout spot in Nob Hill that gives brunch staples Thai and Australian twists. Anyone going all in on savory should stick with the appropriately named “Big Breakfast,” a microwave-sized platter piled with halloumi, a fried portobello slab, eggs your way, avocado, and more. And it should be illegal to leave the premises without the fluffy brioche toast topped with a thick squiggle of thai tea custard.

Kitchen Story in the Castro is one of the best spots in the city for weekend bottomless brunch. We’re not sure what makes the brown sugar, pepper, and cayenne dusted bacon “millionaire’s bacon,” but we’re glad we don’t have to be an actual millionaire to eat it. Go with friends, sit outside, and drink eight to 10 mimosas if you want to.

At night, the heated outdoor patio, twinkle lights, and movie playing on the big white wall in the back makes Foreign Cinema feel like a romantic drive-in theater. During the day, sunlight floods the Mission patio and makes it a bright, breezy place to have croque madames big enough for four, crispy potatoes you’ll be talking about for weeks, and homemade Pop Tarts that rival store-bought. Movies won’t be playing on the wall, but you won't mind—the sunshine, the french toast, and Bloody Marys make Foreign Cinema a brunch spot to keep in your back pocket for any occasion.

Mymy is a Nob Hill spot that labels itself as a coffee shop, but in reality it’s one of the hottest places for brunch in this part of town, as anyone who’s waited in their long line can attest. The menu spans the trusty list of brunch classics like benedicts, omelets, and french toast, but the bouncy lemon cottage cheese pancakes and not-too-greasy corned beef hash are the move. And on days when this corner of California St. isn’t a wind tunnel testing lab, the outdoor tables are a great place to sip one of the five mimosa options, like the always-refreshing guava.

Provided that you have infinite patience and nowhere else to be, getting a table for brunch at Tartine Manufactory will be the best thing you do all weekend. The pastries are fantastic, the egg sandwiches and salads are stellar, and the space resembles a friend’s wedding at an organic farm in Napa. They also have a mini coffee shop inside with pastries and fresh sourdough to-go if you can't bear the wait.

Going to The Front Porch for brunch is never the wrong choice, especially when you can get a table on their minuscule front patio that often sits right in the sun. This place on the border of the Mission and Bernal Heights makes Southern food like chicken and waffles, chicken fried steaks, and powdery beignets with a tart raspberry sauce. Everything here is so good (and hearty) it might inspire you to walk it off and then loop back to the red checkerboard-lined dining room for a fried chicken dinner.

This Arab bakery in the Mission is an expert in all things oven-baked—and that mastery is on full display during brunch. The shakshuka in a fiery tomato and red pepper sauce is excellent, as are any of the mana’eesh with crispy, golden brown edges. In the sweets department, they also have a daily rotation of pastries, plus a chocolate chip halawa cookie we’d dash across Valencia blindfolded for.

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This counter-service restaurant in Bayview is where to roll up with a group, plop down with some beignets, and get powdered sugar in unspeakable crevices. Our favorite dish here is the caramelized shrimp over grits dotted with thick chunks of bacon, but they also do great chicken and waffles and biscuit sandwiches.

Brunch is only available at Piglet & Co on Sundays, but make the necessary rearrangements to your schedule and get here—it’s our favorite time to visit the Mission restaurant. The daytime menu at this Taiwanese night market-inspired spot is just a lot of fun, especially when enjoyed under the swinging red paper lanterns and big pig head mural on the wall. Think milk bread french toast zhuzhed up with strawberries and a scoop of boba, or breakfast burgers teetering high with a fried egg, brown sugar bacon, and a golden hash brown.

When you’re in the mood for brunch, but not in the mood to spend an hour of your precious time fighting for your life for a table, Tastebuds is your most straightforward option. The Richmond restaurant is a counter-service spot doing soul food-inspired staples, like shrimp and grits and omelets. But you’re really here for the chicken and waffles, which feature perfectly breaded tenders over a buttermilk waffle so light it could float. Get in, eat your fried chicken, and get out, with plenty of time left in the day to become one with the couch.

Do yourself a favor and get the brunch burger at Causwells. If that’s a little too much for 11am, the rest of the morning menu isn’t super long but has everything you need: cocktails, eggs, salads, and a buttermilk biscuit side that is a necessity. Causwells is one of the more packed places on weekends in the Marina, with a bunch of outdoor tables that are usually full, too.

The French bistro in Cole Valley is a brunch staple thanks to their "miracle" pancakes and crispy home fries. The service is friendly to both humans and animals, and there's a nice heated back patio to enjoy your casual meal in. The only problem: Zazie doesn't take reservations. So, similar to many spots on this guide, expect to wait.