Note: There may be affiliate links below, if you decide to purchase something after clicking on the link, we could receive a small commission, at no cost to you. You can read more in the Disclaimer.
We spent a summer weekend in San Francisco, enjoying the beautiful views and dining on delicious food. Our main reason for going to the city was to attend the Immersive Van Gogh exhibit, but rather than just driving to the city and returning for the day, we opted to spend the weekend.
San Francisco is just far away enough that we don’t go there that often, so when there’s an opportunity to go it’s always fun to spend more time and enjoy this photogenic city.
We stayed at the Hyatt on Embarcadero along the water front in the Financial District. I used a Hotels.com reward night for one of the two nights. I love this perk of using Hotels.com, which is explained in this post 5 Travel Benefits for Saving Money and Time.
View of the elevators from the 10th floor
Built in the 1970’s the Hyatt’s architecture is a distinctive modern cement structure that steps up on one side. Inside, the lobby is open from the floor to the ceiling of the hotel and is one of the largest in the world. As you go up and down in the glass elevators you can get a good view of the lobby.
We checked into our bay view room with a stunning view of the iconic Ferry Building and Bay Bridge. After spending some time settling into our bay view room and admiring the view, we took a peek at our friends’ room, they had a room with a balcony, which is on the stepped side of the hotel and had a different view that looked north with a view of the pyramid shaped TransAmerica building and Coit Tower between the Embarcadero Center buildings.
It was time to start our food tour, so we went across the Embarcadero to the Ferry Building where there are all sorts of restaurants and food stores. During these COVID times and on a Friday evening not everything was open but there is coffee, ice cream, wine bar, oyster bar, burger place, a bakery and more!
Ferry Building Wine Bar
We had time before our dinner reservations so we stopped at the Wine Bar. A glass of champagne and catching up with friends was a nice way to spend the start of the evening.
Dinner reservations were at the Tadich Grill, the oldest restaurant in California. I had always wanted to go there as they’ve been making cioppino - a seafood stew created in San Francisco - for decades. Tadich Grill is very old school and when you walk in it’s like you stepped back in time.
Tadich Grill, the oldest restaurant in California
Tadich Grill interior
We had a great time starting with when trying to order a cocktail my husband asked a question about the Bourbon drinks and the waiter said he knows what to order for him and he’ll surprise him with a cocktail. I asked about a gin drink as well, and ended up with an Aviation, a drink I’d never had before and was a pretty purple color due to some creme de violette. It was a tasty aperitif to start out the meal. My husband ended up with a Sazerac, which took us some time to figure out as we kept thinking it was more like an Old Fashioned due to the strong orange flavoring.
My friend and I ordered the cioppino. We were given bibs to protect our clothing from the red sauce. The large bowl of seafood in a colorful broth with large pieces of garlic bread was truly amazing. The herbs and spices in the zesty sauce went well with the fish and seafood. There were scallops, mussels, clams and different pieces of fish like halibut and salmon. It was a feast!
Tadich Grill’s famous cioppino
My husband got a seafood stuffed pasta with a creamy sauce on top and my friend got the Salisbury steak, which we thought was savory and delicious.
We enjoyed this experience of dining at this historical restaurant in the Financial District and there was more to come!
A night cap at the bar in the lobby. Sitting and enjoying the ambience of the modern hotel lobby.
The Hyatt’s lobby with a sculpture called Eclipse
The night time view from our room includes the lights that were originally a temporary art installation on the Bay Bridge. Everyone liked it so it’s now a permanent thing. It’s mesmerizing and you can sit and watch the display for hours!
Night time view of the Ferry Building and the Bay Bridge
Saturday morning breakfast was at the Farmer’s Market at the Ferry Building. Many vendors set up in the morning to sell their products, whether grown or hand made, along with food stands. One of the most famous ones is the Roli Roti truck and it is where we headed first. It was parked in front of the Ferry Building and there was already a line when we arrived. Luckily they just started serving so the line moved along quickly and we were soon ordering a porchetta sandwich and some roasted potatoes.
You can see the rotisserie on the truck turning the logs of porchetta and whole chickens. Underneath the meats, catching the drippings are the potatoes roasting.
The log of porchetta ready to be sliced
Porchetta sandwich from the Roli Roti truck
There were benches nearby where we sat to enjoy the sandwich. Afterwards we got ice cream from the Bi-rite truck and wandered around the colorful stands stopping to purchase wild mushrooms, Gouda cheese from the Pt Reyes Farmstead Cheese Co., and even pastries from the Downtown Bakery & Creamery (from Healdsburg in Sonoma County) - they have the best donut muffins, a nice rich flavored muffin covered in cinnamon sugar.
Farmer’s Market at the San Francisco Ferry Building
After tucking our goodies back in our rooms at the hotel, we set out to walk along the Embarcadero. This wide road, which also has old fashioned street cars running on it, takes you along the piers where you can see boats of different sizes like tug boats, dinner cruise boats, and others. We walked past the Exploratorium, which is a hands on science “museum” at Piers 15.
One of the old street cars running along Embarcadero
We walked onto Pier 7 walked out to the end for some good photo opportunities. After walking along the Embarcadero for almost a mile we turned back. If we had kept going we would have eventually reached Pier 39 where there are lots of shops and restaurants.
View from Pier 7 with the pyramid shaped Transamerica building
View from Pier 7 with Coit Tower in the distance
By this time we were getting hungry and it was lunch time. So we stopped by Coqueta, a Spanish tapas-style restaurant on the water front. We didn’t have reservations and the wait for a table was 2 hours! Luckily they had an opening for 4 coming up in the bar, so we were able to sit down and order food in the outdoor bar. We enjoyed a cocktail - margarita with salt foam - and various small plates of food. We ordered the cheese and meat board with manchego, goat cheese, iberico ham, and chorizo. Trumpet mushrooms, a calamari slider and croquettes were the other small plates we ordered. This would happily tide us over until dinner time!
Coqueta’s margarita with salt foam
Platter ofr meats and cheeses at Coqueta
Bocadillo Calamari at Coqueta
The fog rolling away from San Francisco downtown buildings
What was the weather like? Normally on a summer day in San Francisco, the weather is something to pay attention to. We had warm jackets for the morning expecting that it would be very foggy and cold. But for the first morning, the fog burned off before mid-morning and we had the warm sun shining down on us with a beautiful blue sky. Then we wished we had on t-shirts and a hat. These days you never know what kind of weather you will get and dressing in layers is probably the best solution.
The main reason we came to the city was to attend the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit. We had to get ourselves to the exhibit location at the other end of Market and Van Ness. We planned to take an Uber, but when I ordered one, the time for the XL size Uber to get to our location kept changing and getting longer and we were running out of time since we had to get to the exhibit by our ticketed entrance time. We decided to take a taxi that was waiting in front of the hotel and this turned out to be the best decision!
The taxi driver knew where we were going as he was very familiar with the city. He could also drive down Market in the Taxi and Bus lane, so we were able to arrive right on time. The fare was also cheaper than taking Uber. Who knew? It’s just a crazy time right now due to the pandemic.
The Van Gogh Exhibit was incredible. Sitting on the floor soaking in the projected pictures that moved and lit up the walls and floor along with the accompanying music, really did immerse you in the art. The exhibit cycles through every 35 minutes. We came in mid-way through a cycle and then at the end of that cycle when a lot of people got up to leave, we moved locations to the other side of the room away from the door where we could watch it from the beginning. What a great experience! If you like art and appreciate Van Gogh’s art then I highly recommend this exhibit!
A scene from the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit
After we left the exhibit we had to get back close to the hotel for our restaurant reservations at another place in the Financial District. We tried Uber again, but the same thing happened where the wait time kept getting longer. We tried to see if any taxi’s came by and there were none. We even tried to call to order a taxi but the strange voice mail system made it difficult. My friend realized we were near the Muni Metro subway station, and a train was coming in a few minutes. We went down the stairs, got tickets at the vending machine and went through the turnstile just as the train showed up! It took us straight down Market Street a block from our hotel. The train was empty and only a handful of people got on when we did. It turned out to be a great way to travel!
The Wayfare Tavern
This night, our dinner reservations were at the Wayfare Tavern, Tyler Florence’s restaurant in an old historic building right by the pyramid shaped Transamerica Building. We were seated in front of the quaint fireplace in the cozy dining room area near the open kitchen. The first things they drop off at the table are the popovers, air-filled eggy breads that you can eat with the soft sweet butter. These are heavenly!
The Caesar salad has some of the best dressing I’ve had in a long time. The other appetizer at our table was the seasonal corn soup with a bacon fritter. The dish to order here is the fried chicken. It’s famous for a reason, the herb flavored crispy coating of the chicken that is also fried in oil with the herbs give it another dimension of flavor.
Wayfare Tavern’s fried chicken
We were so full after eating all the chicken but after seeing a waiter walk by earlier with a chocolate mousse, we had to get one to split. It had berries on top and chunks of chocolate brownie pieces in the bottom of the cup. It was a great end to the meal.
The chocolate mousse for dessert at the Wayfare Tavern
This was turning into an indulgent weekend with all the great food. It was nice to be able to go to a restaurant again and enjoy delicious food. Something we missed during the shelter in place times of the pandemic.
The next day was Sunday, the last day of our fun San Francisco weekend. We decided to have brunch somewhere before we left to go home. A quick search on the OpenTable app for a restaurant nearby showed a place called La Mar Cebicheria Peruana. We happened to walk by it previously and there were delicious smells emanating from it, so we booked that for a late morning brunch.
We woke up Sunday morning to a fog-less sky and caught the sunrise. It was a beautiful sight as the orange orb rose up behind Treasure Island and the Bay Bridge. It promised to be another unusually warm San Francisco summer day!
San Fracisco summer sunrise
After a leisurely morning packing and checking out, we went to the restaurant. La Mar Cebicheria Peruana is a Peruvian restaurant along the water way next to Pier 3. We sat outside under a covered patio with a view of the water and boats docked alongside the pier. This restaurant doesn’t have a “brunch” menu so we ordered off the lunch menu and got various types of ceviche including a vegetarian one. The sauces on the fish and vegetables were so delicious, we really enjoyed eating them.
For the main we had ordered a daily special of a whole Petrale Sole. The fish was cooked to have crunchy skin on the top and bottom with crispy bits of garlic and capers on top. There was a salsa verde and limes to use on the fish along with an intriguing bowl of coconut rice with some hominy mixed in.
This was the best fish I’ve ever had! We were all exclaiming over the flavors of the fish. The crispy skin was to die for!
Tres leches cake is never something to miss, so we split a serving of it and it did not disappoint. Creamy cake soaked in sweetened milk it was just the right thing to polish of our last meal in San Francisco for the weekend!
Do you live near a big city that you seldom visit? Think about spending a night or two there to explore and eat some good food! In these pandemic times when people are traveling less, driving to a big city or other location nearby - like the coast or mountains - and spending a few nights will give you the opportunity to still get away for a mini vacation!
