I love San Francisco and I love reading through other people’s travel diaries for some inspiration on an upcoming trip. Here’s a look at what we did on our recent trip to San Francisco:
GRACIAS MADRE
2211 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94110
I was really excited to try out Gracias Madre for some vegan Mexican food. Their entire menu is completely plant-based and I had heard some great reviews so we decided to try them out for dinner.
The area is a little sketchy and it’s not really an area you’d want to be alone in at night. The restaurant is surprisingly large with an open kitchen next to the bar area.
When we arrived they let us choose where we wanted to sit, so we chose the only available table near the host podium. All of the tables seat 6 or more people (or you can sit at the bar), so as service got busier, they started seating people wherever there was room — so you may end up sharing a table with another party.
The menu looked great and I was excited to try everything, but it didn’t really meet my expectations. We ordered the Nachos and the Gordita from the happy hour menu, and they were both good, but barely even warm. The chips for the nachos looked like they were made in house, but they were cold.
For entrees, we ordered the Flautas de Camota and the Tamal, mojado-style (with mole and cashew crema), and a side of the Tempe Chorizo.
I liked some of the flavors and overall it was alright, but it was barely warm and not as good as I was expecting. The Tamal was the hottest thing we had (temperature, not spice) but it still wasn’t worth the hype to us. We probably won’t go here again which is too bad since I really want to support 100% vegan restaurants.
CRYSTAL WAY
2335 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94114
After dinner, we walked to Crystal Way to get some crystals. They have a really nice selection and had everything I was looking for.
I bought a few new crystals — Citrine, Aventurine, Sunstone, Rose Quartz, and Flourite.
I am really setting my intentions on choosing to be happy in my life and being a light this year. I’m really happy with my new stones!
WHOLESOME BAKERY
299 Divisadero St, San Francisco, CA 94117
We went to Wholesome Bakery for dessert and we ordered the 7 Layer Bar which was caramel, coconut chips, brownie chunks, dark chocolate chips, and walnuts, on top of a soft almond cookie with sea salt and more caramel on top. I actually didn’t have any, but my husband said he really liked it.
CITY HALL
1 Dr Carlton B Goodlett Pl, San Francisco, CA 94102
The next day we started out by stopping by the City Hall building for a few pictures. I love the architecture there and the building is so impressive inside. In my last San Francisco Weekend post, we went inside and I posted some more pictures — it’s beautiful in there.
LEGION OF HONOR MUSEUM
100 34th Ave, San Francisco, CA 94121
We spent the rest of our morning at the Legion of Honor Museum. The museum had a lot of interesting exhibits and most are permanent. They have special exhibits that rotate periodically, but we just went through the basic part during our trip.
My favorite pieces we saw were from Monet and Renoir, but everything we saw was cool.
JUDAHLICIOUS
3906 Judah St, San Francisco, CA 94122
After the museum, we uber’d to Judahlicious for a brunch. They have vegan food (and dairy smoothies?).
This place had some interesting items like the “Burmosa” which was a burrito/samosa combo with avocado and other vegetables. We really liked it (and thought it was better than our food at Gracias Madre). We also got the Exodus rice bowl which was good, and a vegan chocolate cake which was fine.
JAPANESE TEA GARDEN
75 Hagiwara Tea Garden Dr, San Francisco, CA 94118
After brunch, we went to the Japanese Tea Garden to walk around. It’s super pretty inside and they have some really neat areas.
We spent some time watching the koi in the little lake. There were so many huge koi swimming around and one of them started jumping up out of the water and looked like it was dancing on top of the water.
DE YOUNG MUSEUM
50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Dr, San Francisco, CA 94118
Our Legion of Honor tickets also gave us admission to the de Young Museum so we went there after the tea garden. There is an observatory tower at the museum and the weather was so sunny and clear that we could see the entire city from the top.
We enjoyed spending time at the museum before resting for a while and then heading over to dinner.
SHIZEN VEGAN SUSHI BAR
370 14th St, San Francisco, CA 94103
We loved Shizen so much the last time we went there, we had to go back. When the Uber dropped us off 15 minutes before they opened, I was so surprised to see a huge line already formed to the corner of the block.
We had tickets to the symphony at 8pm so we were a little concerned that we wouldn’t have enough time to eat and make it to the show. Last time we ate at Shizen, there were just a couple of people waiting at the door, but we were seated right away.
The line kept moving and when we got inside, the whole restaurant was packed but they were taking numbers and would text you when your table was almost ready. They don’t take reservations, so this was the next best thing.
Our wait time ended up being about 90 minutes, so in the meantime, we had some tea and coffee at Four Barrel Coffee until we got the text that our table was ready.
Because we were a little pressed for time, we gave our waiter our entire order at once and asked him to bring out everything as it was ready (no need to do appetizers before entrees) and that was so perfect! We started getting some of our rolls and then our appetizers and more rolls all very quickly.
We ordered the Secret Weapon roll since I had seen on Instagram that it is their most popular roll, Mistaken Identity, Shisho Peppers, Open Invitation, an order of the Spicy Miso Ramen, Gyoza, and two of the Hidden Agenda (my favorite)!
Since everything just kept coming so quickly, we had time to order a dessert which as a chocolate brownie with mint ice cream, bananas and strawberries. Everything was delicious! We love Shizen.
DAVIES SYMPHONY HALL
201 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco, CA 94102
We took an Uber over to the symphony and made it with some time to spare. The concert was so much fun. We saw Beethoven’s Eroica and I’m pretty sure we had the exact same seats as the last time we were there.
The sound is great from anywhere in the room, but I saw someone with little binoculars and wished that I could have had some to watch the musicians playing. While it was intermission, I ordered this pair and now I can’t wait until we go to the symphony again so I can really see them playing their instruments.
LAND’S END PARK
680 Point Lobos Ave, San Francisco, CA 94121
The next day, we headed over to Land’s End Park to hike around and see the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a beautiful clear day, but a little windy so it felt kind of cold. We were there early so there were not that many people there.
Also, since I’ve lost some weight since last time, it was a lot easier for me to walk the trails and not feel tired or out of breath. Yay! We walked so much that I hit my 10,000 steps right away.
GOLDEN GATE PARK
After Land’s End, we walked to Golden Gate Park and spent a lot of time just walking around and enjoying the day. The weather was so nice and there were a lot of people on bikes and running on the paths.
VEGANBURG
1466 Haight St, San Francisco, CA 94117
We took an Uber over to Veganburg for some lunch and I thought it was good there. They are also a 100% vegan restaurant (as you can probably tell from the name). They have burgers and fries and a few desserts.
We ordered two of the Smokey BBQ burger and creamy garlic fries. I thought everything was great. My husband’s favorite thing was the vegan cheesecake.
UNION SQUARE
333 Post St, San Francisco, CA 94108
That afternoon we headed over to Union Square and it was super busy as you’d expect. Union Square is a huge shopping area and there are a ton of tourists there. We walked around and went in and out of some of the stores, including LUSH!
GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE AT BATTERY SPENCER
5702 Conzelman Rd, Mill Valley, CA 94941
The next morning we woke up early to head over to the Golden Gate Bridge to watch the sunrise. It was super cold and windy that morning and even though I wore a lot of layers and had a scarf, I was still freezing.
It was worth it though because the bridge at sunrise was gorgeous and I was able to get an amazing time lapse video using my new tripod.
We had such a great trip to San Francisco! Pin this post on Pinterest to save for trip inspiration later! ♥
