The Best SF Food Blogs You Should Be Following (That Aren't Eater)

Eater SF is fine. It's fast and seemingly covers everything. But if you want the opinion of someone who actually eats in this city every week and has skin in the game (not a well-staffed editorial machine), you need to know these sites.

Tablehopper

Marcia Gagliardi has been writing about San Francisco restaurants since 2006. Her weekly newsletter is considered required reading by the city's hospitality industry. Chefs, sommeliers, and restaurant investors subscribe all the same. She's opinionated, locally connected, and invested in SF's restaurant scene in a way no national publication can replicate.

What makes Tablehopper different: she writes about closures as honestly as openings, and she's been around long enough to track how the city's dining culture has actually changed. If a restaurant is quietly struggling or a kitchen has turned over, she'll say so. Find her at tablehopper.com.

Food Gal

Carolyn Jung is a James Beard Award-nominated food journalist who has covered the Bay Area dining scene for decades. Her blog (foodgal.com) is more personal than most (you get a real sense of her palate and her standards), and she covers a wider geography than just SF, including the Peninsula, East Bay, and South Bay.

She's also one of the few food writers in the region who covers home cooking and local food producers alongside restaurant reviews. Good for people who don't limit their food life to dining out.

FoodNut

One of the older food blogs still active in SF, FoodNut has been running since 2008. The approach is focused and opinionated: they're looking for the best, not the newest or the most Instagram-worthy. Their pizza rankings alone are worth saving. Find them at foodnut.com.

Bon Appétit's Local Coverage

When Bon Appétit covers SF specifically (usually in their regional roundups and 'Best New Restaurants' features), the picks tend to be genuinely considered rather than trend-chasing. Not a local blog, but worth following for when they do Bay Area pieces.

The Bold Italic

The Bold Italic covers SF culture broadly, but their food content has always been community-sourced and locally rooted. Less about formal reviews and more about the culture of eating in this specific city, ranging from the debates about burritos, the arguments about sourdough, the rituals around dim sum. Accessible at thebolditalic.com.

Bay Area Foodies Tribe

Not a traditional food blog, but a warm and friendly group chat with a constant flow of honest recommendations and reviews. Hear from people who are seasoned vets in the Bay Area and even newbies with a fresh lens on things. The Bay Area Foodies Tribe also organizes for regular meetups at local spots and food festivals. Make sure to join in on the fun by joining the group chat!