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.

Muukata6395 is open every day until midnight, which is excellent news for anyone with the urge to grill Thai barbecue and get soju-drunk after dark. The Richmond spot has a space and tables big enough for whatever spontaneous group you’ve assembled, and is always slightly chaotic and smoky from the tabletop grills (enough to set off the occasional fire alarm). Settle into a stool and get to flipping pork belly, shrimp, and ribeye. The juices from the meats dribble down into the moat-like ring around the sloped grill, so be sure to ladle the remnants into a bowl for one last nightcap.

When we’re looking to spontaneously feed a group as big as a lacrosse team in the wee hours of the night there’s Bay Pocha. This Korean restaurant at the edge of West Portal and Ingleside is open until 1am on weekends and midnight on weekdays and can fit even the largest groups in at their lengthy 25-seater table that spans the entire dining room floor. The portions of their solid Korean comfort staples—like flaky kimchi seafood pancakes, springy japchae, bubbling cauldrons of army stew, and creamy tteokbokki—are huge.

Need some no-fuss french toast and chicken fried steak smothered in gravy at 1:30am? The two-story, retro-style diner is open 24 hours from Thursday through Saturday and until 9:45pm the rest of the week. It will draw you in with red swivel chairs, bright neon lights, and a menu of hearty breakfast classics that never fail to hit the spot. Orphan Andy’s has been a Castro staple since the 1970s, and based on the after-bar crowds, locals, and tourists who continuously pack this joint at the stumbly end of the day—this place will never go out of style.

Beep’s is a decades-old burger institution in Ingleside, so prepare to happily devour a fantastic burger and curly fries after coming up for air from an hours-long Bravo binge—this drive-in is open until 2am daily. We love the simple burgers: they’re cooked to a juicy medium, stacked with just lettuce and tomatoes, and have tangy mayo-based Beep’s sauce dripping out of the sides. Don’t leave without one of their root beer floats, which are creamy, perfect, and the best way to cap a night. 

Operating for over three decades at 16th and Valencia, Panchita’s is where to go for some of the city’s best pupusas—and a filling meal for under $10 at 2am on a Friday. They’re packed with delicious meats and vegetables, and plenty of cheese that oozes out to form crispy edges around the griddled masa. When we head to this counter-service Mission spot, we inevitably end up with a couple of revueltas, a classic mix of chicharron, bean, and cheese, and make sure to add an extra serving of fresh curtido on top before heading out. 

If you find yourself in a wine bar time warp at High Treason in the Richmond and it’s suddenly 11pm, run to King’s Thai Cuisine #2 before they close at midnight. As far as we’re concerned, this is the only Thai spot that’s worth checking out in both a drunken stupor and during the blinding daylight hours. Get a table full of pad see ew and the extra-hot papaya salad to wake you up, and order the crispy chicken wings if you’re looking to meet a deity sometime soon.

The neon “pizza by the slice” sign glowing in the window of Primo Pizza is a beacon of all things cheesy and carb-filled. The NoPa spot, located on a sleepy stretch of Divisadero, has the exact pizzas you’ll want to stuff in your face at 2am, or at the end of the night when you’ve lost your voice to karaoke. They’re dripping with mozzarella, and loaded with meatballs, garlic and buffalo sauce, and other toppings that get messy in the best way. 

Who said donuts were only for breakfast and in-office team meetups? Bob’s Donuts on Polk Street is open 24 hours a day, every day—which comes in handy when you’re closing down Harper and Rye, or some other nearby bar at 2am and need to munch on something. Go plain glazed donut—they're puffy and amazing. But odds are the super dense maple buttermilk bar, or the sprinkled mega donut the size of your face will call to you.

This Korean restaurant in Lower Nob Hill is one of the more fun places on this guide (plus, they're open until 2am Sunday to Thursday, and 4am Friday and Saturday). K-pop music videos are projected onto the wall, pitchers of soju and beer are everywhere, and you won’t even mind having to use your outside voice to be heard—this spot is loud. The food that comes out ranges from solid to great, whether you're sh*tfaced or not. Think sizzling plates of corn cheese, crunchy Korean fried chicken, and spicy tteokbokki that'll make your nose run.

One episode of Love Is Blind turned into you finishing half the season, and now it’s 11pm and you unintentionally skipped dinner. Beeline to Uncle Boy’s. The Richmond counter-service place serves lots of fried things, like chicken “fritters” and french fries, along with chicken, pork, and vegetable lumpia you’ll inexplicably crave at all hours. But you’re here for the standout burgers, which you can get decked out with everything from onion rings to deep-fried bacon to mozzarella sticks and marinara sauce—they hit the spot no matter the time of day. 

Brazen Head is probably the only place in town where you can roll in at 11pm, and gobble up perfectly charred NY pepper steak, some cheesy french onion soup, and marinara-drenched meatballs that are the comfort equivalent of Lenny Kravitz’s blanket-scarf. The Cow Hollow steakhouse has no signage out front and everything we want in a late-night spot that looks like an 1800s Scottish pub: paintings of bearded old men, velvet curtains, a dim red glow, sports bobbleheads for kitsch, and strong cocktails that pair well with stories that begin with, “Back in the day...” No wonder Brazen Head’s been firmly rooted here since 1980. 

Not all late-night spots in this guide rely heavily on a deep-fryer. Horsefeather focuses on lighter, shareable plates. The American-ish dishes at this cocktail bar in NoPa won’t make you fall asleep at the table, like the Moroccan spiced carrots and smoked tuna poke. If you’re after a cheeseburger and fries, they have that, too. Come with a date and admire the plant-filled space over wine or cocktails infused with hojicha. 

This is one of the few places in town where you can stagger in for a burrito at 2am. And El Farolito’s burritos just so happen to be the best in the city. All of the meats at this Mission taqueria, from the al pastor to the charred carne asada, are crisped perfectly on the plancha. Love to get messy? Go for the super quesadilla, overflowing with cheese, drippy meat, and all the standard fixings. 

Toyose is located inside a converted garage, but unlike our third-grade science projects, most of what comes out of this place is actually pretty good. It’s open until 12am weeknights and 2am weekends, and late-night is when you should come here—both because that feels like the right time to eat out of a converted garage and the Korean food they serve is filling and perfect for after you’ve had a few drinks. We like the seafood pancake with shrimp, calamari, and vegetables, the kimchi fried rice, and the kimchi stew.

ABV, open until 2am daily, is a great casual get-to-know-you bar—it’s moody, dimly lit, and will likely suck you in for more than a few hours. When you realize “a quick drink” turned into a late dinner, go for their excellent charcuterie board or the burger topped with secret sauce and white American cheddar. They also have other excellent small plates that sound like they were plucked off the menu from a fancy California cuisine restaurant, like squash blossom tacos and beet-cured salmon toast.

Grubstake looks like a streetcar, which is certainly one reason this American diner in Polk Gulch stands out. The other is that this spot, which has been going strong since the 1960s, caters to the red-eye crowd—serving straightforward burgers, tuna melts, breakfast plates, shakes, and fries until 3am Sunday through Wednesday and 4am Thursday through Saturday. And since this is a late-night spot with greasy-spoon energy, you can slide into a red booth, admire the old mural and fake grapes hanging from the ceiling, and fill up on all things fried.

You’ll smell what’s cooking at Sam’s before you even step foot in the door—burgers are always sizzling away on the flat-top well into the night. The North Beach spot is a simple, almost-too-tight set-up, with a few bar stools down a skinny space. But you’re not here to stay long. Throw back a triple cheeseburger or other fried things like onion rings and corn dogs. Cash only.  

Kowloon Tong has everything you need for a late-night meal: fried food and desserts. The Hong Kong-style cafe in the Richmond stays open until midnight daily serving a long list of crunchy-coated fowl and seafood. Order the popcorn chicken extra spicy, curry fishballs, and salt and hot pepper squid, as well as some of the otherwise hard-to-find Hong Kong desserts. We like to keep the fried streak going with crispy thick-cut toast with condensed milk and peanut butter. For something slightly less heavy, you could always get a bowl of black sesame tong yuen or the grass jelly with grapefruit and mango purees.

Big Apple Pizza N Grill in the Tenderloin brings true NYC energy to SF, making juicy, extra-cheesy bodega-style chopped cheeses until 3am on weeknights and 5am on weekends. But like any late-night spot, expect some chaos—orders can take 30 minutes, and you’ll likely have to wait on the sidewalk. You can save yourself a few minutes by ordering a slice of the ready-made pizza instead.