23 great wine restaurants in San Francisco 2026
Whether you are visiting San Francisco or living there, this guide is for you, wine lover!
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![Acquerello, a restaurant in San Francisco, USA.]()
Phone: +1 (415) 567-5432
Address: 1722 Sacramento Street NEAR VAN NESS &, Polk Street, San Francisco
Sparkling Wine List of the Year International Open 2026
Two-Michelin-starred Acquerello, opened in 1989, is one of San Francisco’s most mature cellars, and one of its most charmingly old-school dining rooms. As they say on their website, “we believe that refined luxury is always in style.” Expect white table cloths, quiet jazz music, captains in sharply tailored suits and tableside preparations of elevated Italian cooking. It’s the sort of place you can take your grandmother, but also that date you’d really like to impress. The cellar has been built painstakingly by the Paterlini family over the last 30-plus years with a focus on the wines of Ita...
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![Interior of Café Vivant, Menlo Park, California, USA.]()
Phone: +1 650-557-2244
Address: 720 Santa Cruz Ave, Menlo Park
Newcomer List of the Year International Open 2026
In the 21st century, it’s not often new wine lists debut at over 3,000 selections. The working capital commitment to such a collection of wines verges on financially suicidal and requires very deep pockets with big ambition. Daniel Jung and Jason Jacobeit, friends and business partners with serious restaurant wine chops have assembled one of the most spectacular wine lists to debut in America in the last five years. After gaining decades of New York City restaurant experience, they opened a retail shop together in Manhattan in 2020, and Café Vivant is their first foray back into restaurants. T...
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![Verjus, a restaurant and wine bar in San Francisco, USA.]()
Phone: +1 (415) 944-4600
Address: 550 Washington Street, San Francisco
The Tusks (Quince, Cotogna) have rebirthed their French-bistro-cum-wine-bar and arguably, this is better than the 1.0 version. Housed in the same space it was previously, the seating and service is a bit more no-nonsense than its original, more whimsical iteration. The kitchen has leaned a little more into plated dishes, and it’s much easier to make a substantial meal, with a raw bar alongside your more traditional wine-bar fare of charcuterie and cheese, as well as some, as they say in French, plats. The wine list is substantial, and focused almost exclusively on French wines, some of which...
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![Prelude, a restaurant in San Francisco, USA.]()
Phone: +1 (415) 375-8041
Address: 333 Battery Street, San Francisco
Newcomer to the Embarcadero neighbourhood, Prelude brings a fine-dining approach to the cuisine of the American south-east. While you can go for the tasting menu, there’s also a more approachable à la carte menu. The wine list focuses on diverse wines from the US, as well as more classic offerings like well-matured Bordeaux and Burgundy. [Editor's note: Morgan Harris MS, Star Wine List's San Francisco & California Wine Country Ambassador is also Head Sommelier at Prelude.]
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![Cotogna, a restaurant in San Francisco, USA.]()
Phone: +1 (415) 775-8508
Address: 490 Pacific Avenue, San Francisco
San Francisco is awash with casual Italian restaurants, but very few of them are as good as Cotogna. Located in the same Jackson Square building as Quince, Cotogna is the much more casual Trattoria-style restaurant. The pro-tip here is that while the default list at Cotogna is a two-sheeter of adventurous and well-curated Italian and California wines, you can also ask for the much larger Quince list, as they share a cellar. This offering includes plenty of big boy collector wines, but also grower champagnes, mature Nebbiolo from more obscure appellations in Alta Piemonte, and gems from the mor...
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![Lazy Bear, a restaurant in San Francisco, USA.]()
Phone: +1 (415) 874-9921
Address: 3416 19th Street, San Francisco
Chef David Barzelay’s restaurant redefines fine dining as a vivacious dinner party; Lazy Bear does Michelin two-starred dining unlike anyone else in San Francisco. The cooking is precise, technical, and flavourful, while being relentlessly inventive. A certain fun-at-all-costs energy extends to both the wine list and the pairings; wine experiences here have a certain madcap energy focused on making sure you have the very best, no matter what order or circumstance it might come in. On top of a substantially-sized award-winning wine list, served in all the very best glassware, there’s also num...
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![Palm City, a restaurant in San Francisco, USA.]()
Address: 4055 Irving Street, San Francisco
Palm City, in SF's Outer Sunset neighborhood, is the sandwich shop of your dreams. While Palm City deserves plenty of praise for their daily rotation of massive, made-to-order sandos offered with a thoughtful selection of sides and snackables, the unusual choice to make an investment in wine really pays off for this venue A very carefully curated selection of grower Champagne, new-wave California, and farming-focused European wines are available for just a notch over retail markups. Dine in, or take your lunch to go for a picnic in Golden Gate Park. A great one-two punch if you plan to go take...
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![Heirloom Cafe, a restaurant and wine bar in San Francisco, USA.]()
Phone: +1 (415) 821-2500
Address: 2500 Folsom Street, San Francisco
Nestled in a cosy corner of the characterful Mission District, Heirloom Cafe has sleepy SF neighborhood bistro vibes in spades. An à la carte menu focused on seasonal, northern Californian produce executed with French techniques is often combined with a more structured pre-fix menu (although, whatever you order, try not to miss the signature Epoisses burger on an English muffin). The wine list is an eclectic mix of sought-after European, farming-focused small production wines (often at a reasonable price, and with some bottle age) as well as fully mature California wines; regardless of your ta...
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![Copra, a restaurant in San Francisco, USA.]()
Phone: +1 (415) 873-0795
Address: 1700 Fillmore Street, San Francisco
Special Jury Prize International Open 2026
Contemporary southern Indian food, specifically the cuisine of Kerala, is the focus at Copra. A sunny, eminently Instagrammable dining room brings, as the kids say, vibes. The substantial, though not exhaustive, wine list clearly shows a love for hand-crafted and farming-focused, artisanal production wines. What a wine list should be alongside a cuisine that comes from a culture that doesn’t produce wine is always an interesting challenge, and Copra answers this beautifully by providing a compelling list of deeply flavourful wines that won't overwhelm, or undermine the flavours on the plate.
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![Saison, a restaurant in San Francisco, USA.]()
Phone: +1 (415) 828-7990
Address: 178 Townsend Street, San Francisco
One of the Bay Area's iconic fine dining restaurants, Saison began as a pop-up in 2009, eventually transferring to its lofted dining room inside a landmarked building in 2012. During this time, the restaurant built a capacious cellar of Cchampagne, mature red and white Burgundy, northern Rhone red, as well as cult California Cabernet; the list is currently around 2500 selections. The main culinary event is a long-form tasting menu restaurant of second wave California cuisine; there is a slightly shortened (and more affordable) experience in the restaurant’s bar lounge. Given the setting, one...
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![Quince, a restaurant in San Francisco, USA.]()
Phone: +1 (415) 775-8500
Address: 470 Pacific Avenue, San Francisco
Sparkling Wine List of the Year International Open 2026
San Francisco institution Quince is owned and operated by Chef Michael Tusk and his wife and long-term FOH majordomo, Lindsay Tusk. The menu features Californian cuisine at its finest: inspired daily creations from produce sourced directly from their own Fresh Run Farm, produced with Chef Tusk’s extensive experience with regional Italian cuisine. The three-star Michelin-rated restaurant offers an eight to ten course menu with optional beverage pairings in the main dining room or an abbreviated seasonal tasting menu in a more casual salon area. The restaurant was fully renovated in 2023 and fea...
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![A16, a restaurant in San Francisco, USA.]()
Phone: +1 415 771-2216
Address: 2355 Chestnut Street, San Francisco
A16 draws a mix of neighborhood patrons and international visitors to Chestnut Street in the Marina District with its James-beard-Award-winning wine list centered around the grapes of Southern Italy and an assortment of handmade pizza and pastas to match. The space recently underwent some remodeling, but the special atrium at the back of the restaurant remains a favorite hideaway for lunch, dinner, and wine events.
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![Angler, a restaurant in San Francisco, USA.]()
Phone: +1 (415) 872-9442
Address: 132 The Embarcadero, San Francisco
With dramatic views of the Bay Bridge, there are few more handsome places to drink wine in San Francisco than Angler. And man, there’s a lot of wine to choose from. At 3000 selections, this Michelin-starred venue has the sort of maximalist American wine list, usually the domain of restaurants opened somewhere in the latter quarter of the last millennium, that you almost never find. It runs to over 150 broadsheet pages, and there’s truly something for everyone, with a keen balance between old-school collectables and new wave, farming-focused, cutting-edge selections. Nominally, the list focus...
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![Absinthe, a restaurant in San Francisco, USA.]()
Phone: +1 415 551 1590
Address: 398 Hayes Street, San Francisco
Absinthe opened two decades ago just a stone’s throw from San Francisco’s Civic Center and quickly set the tone for the increasingly wine-friendly Hayes Valley we know today. This is one of the few restaurants in town where the best time to pop by sans reservation is actually around 7pm due to the odd ebb and flow of individuals attending nearby performances in the evenings. My preference is to tuck into a small table in the bar area at any hour (they offer continuous service throughout the day for most of the week), where one may enjoy smaller portions of bistro classics with a special bottle...
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Phone: (415) 685-4860
Address: 22 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco
Walking into the minimalist interior of three-star Michelin restaurant Benu, one gets butterflies anticipating the performance that is about to unfold. The restaurant, situated near Yerba Buena Park, received the James Beard award this year for Best Wine Program — recognition long overdue in the minds of those who have had the pleasure of experiencing the restaurants hallowed wine list or Wine Director Yoon Ha’s congenial pairing menu in the last decade since the restaurant opened. After a meal at Benu I started seeking saké for my caviar (rather than Champagne) and craving sour fruit beers w...
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![Californios, a restaurant in San Francisco, USA.]()
Phone: (415) 757-0994
Address: 355 11th Street, San Francisco
Family-owned Modern Mexican restaurant Californios now occupies the former Bar Agricole space in San Francisco's SoMa district. The sleek, spacious new digs come with a lushly planted interior courtyard, a new liquor license, and enough space in the cellar downstairs to hold the restaurants 3500-bottle collection. At this Michelin-rated restaurant, the bold and the elegant intermingle around traditional Mexican flavors creatively applied to fresh local ingredients. (Editors note: Californios has moved to a new address - we will soon add fresh photos.)
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![Che Fico, a restaurant in San Francisco, USA.]()
Phone: (415) 416-6959
Address: 838 Divisadero Street, San Francisco
On the northern border of Western Addition’s NoPa (North Panhandle) neighborhood, restaurant Che Fico offers northern Italian cuisine through the lens of California with a special nod to “Cucina Ebraica”, the Jewish-Italian culinary heritage. One may enjoy their meal at either a broad table in a softened industrial dining space or in the buzzy, dark bar area near the entrance.
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![Foreign Cinema, a restaurant in San Francisco, USA.]()
Phone: (415) 648-7600
Address: 2534 Mission Street, San Francisco
Foreign Cinema is a spacious, award-winning restaurant in the middle of the Mission District. The local institution has been luring locals and tourists alike with ample open-air seating in the interior courtyard, movies in constant rotation on a giant screen, and a menu focused on California ingredients through a creative Mediterranean lens. A sizeable, well-curated wine list provides just as much incentive to drop in.
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![Kitchen Istanbul, a restaurant in San Francisco, USA.]()
Phone: +1 (415) 753-9479
Address: 349 Clement Street, San Francisco
Best Medium-Sized List of the Year International Open 2026
Chef, owner and sommelier Emrah Kilicoglu re-vamped the business during the pandemic, turning what was once a quiet neighborhood spot into the must-go destination among the city's wine cognoscenti. As impressive as the selections are on the list, be sure to ask for what gems he might be hiding off the list. Here you'll find the same inspired and quirky approach to wine (especially Burgundy and the Rhône) as you do across town at the equally cult destination the Morris – no coincidence as the Morris' Paul Einbund was instrumental in Kilicoglu's introduction to the broad world of wines. The...
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![Nopa, a restaurant in San Francisco, USA.]()
Phone: (415) 864-8643
Address: 560 Divisadero Street, San Francisco
Nopa has become a food industry darling at its corner spot in the center of NoPa’s lively Divisadero corridor. For over 10 years now, wine professionals citywide have made it their ritual to unwind in the late evening at Nopa over urban rustic cuisine (yes, absolutely seasonal and locally sourced) and a glass (or bottle) of something to suit any mood and preference.
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![Spruce, a restaurant in San Francisco, USA.]()
Phone: +1 (415) 931-5100
Address: 3640 Sacramento Street, San Francisco
This Grand-Award-winning institution has been open now for over a decade, providing culinary refuge on a stretch of Laurel Heights otherwise occupied by mostly design stores and daycares. Spruce sources ingredients locally, mostly from their own dedicated organic farm. It’s possible to have the tricked-out classical service experience in the restaurant’s spacious dining room, where members of the highly-trained wine team are just waiting to geek out with you over a bottle from deep in their over-2,500-bottle list.
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![The Morris, a restaurant in San Francisco, USA.]()
Phone: +1 (415) 612-8480
Address: 2501 Mariposa Street, San Francisco
Having worked previously as beverage director at Frances and with a hand in other restaurants in the Bay Area over the last two decades, Paul Einbund now pours his extensive expertise into his own passion project. The Morris, named after Einbund’s father, sits in a sturdy, vintage corner spot in a quiet, somewhat industrial quarter of the Outer Mission en route to Potrero Hill. Entering this space, one passes between an open kitchen and a transparent wine room with bottles — Einbund’s babies —stacked to the ceiling.
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![The Progress, a restaurant in San Francisco, USA.]()
Phone: +1 415 673-1294
Address: 1525 Fillmore Street, San Francisco
The Progress sits in the middle of the Fillmore ‘Jazz’ District of Western Addition, immediately adjacent to its big (but little) sister restaurant, State Bird Provisions. Here, one may order à la carte dishes to be eaten family style. One should definitely plan to come en masse to The Progress, not simply to share a barbecued half duck or harissa-grilled lamb, both sourced from local farmers, but to crack into accomplished sommelier Adam Robins’ excellent list.
