Exclusive or Not? Testing 7 SF Hot Spots

The Slanted Door is one of the toughest reservations in town, or is it?

By Meesha Halm

For all its greatness as a food capital, San Francisco’s dining scene is a totally different animal than New York or LA. Unlike those cities, where exclusivity is like a badge of honor, owners of San Francisco’s hottest properties pride themselves on being accessible to all. Anne Stoll, half of the dynamic duo that runs Delfina, Pizza Delfina and Locanda, some of the city’s most coveted spots, sums it best when she says, “We strive to be inclusive,” adding, “Turning away people is not what we like to do.”

Indeed, many of the top spots don’t take reservations or leave a big percentage of seats open to accommodate walk-ins. However, despite all those egalitarian good intentions, dropping into the city’s top spots on a weekend night at the last minute isn’t really an option. We took a close look at some of San Francisco’s most in-demand seats to see just how easy it is to get in the door, with or without reservations. Are these spots as exclusive as we think? Read on to find out, and let us know what your top strategies are for scoring tough tables in the comments.