Noah Smith
· Noahpinion
· 18 августа 2026, 05:21
· ⏱ 46 мин чтения
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Резюме
Noah Smith argues San Francisco's restaurant scene is better than its reputation, and that perceived inferiority to NYC/LA is mostly a function of city size, high rents, and poor intra-city transit. The article is entirely a food guide rather than an investment newsletter, so it contains no directly tradeable market thesis.
•SF's population is 826,000 vs NYC's 8.58 million and LA's 3.87 million, which the author says explains why NYC/LA appear to have more good restaurants.
•The Bay Area totals about 9 million people, slightly more than NYC; Smith says he would pit the entire Bay Area against NYC on food.
•Smith estimates he has eaten at several hundred SF restaurants but that is only about 10% of the city's total restaurants.
•He identifies three SF strengths: pseudo-izakayas (experimental small-plate restaurants), hipster fine dining under roughly $120 per person, and new hole-in-the-wall cheap places.
•Mijoté is named his favorite restaurant, a French-Japanese prix fixe at $84 per person; Mr. Pollo is listed at $49 and called maybe the best value in the city.
•Khao Tiew, his highest yums-per-dollar Thai choice, costs about $30 but requires no-reservation waits of two to three hours.
•Chinese food is called SF's biggest culinary failing despite roughly a quarter of the city being of Chinese descent; good options exist but mid-price Chinese food is scarce.
•Neighborhood verdicts include: the Mission is the best eating neighborhood, Chinatown is the most disappointing, and SoMa is essentially a food desert.