Ethos
Stonington Harbor Light Connecticut Foliage Forecast 169 towns, seven state driving routes

Stonington Harbor Light — Jonathan Ralton, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Steakhouses in San Francisco: Eleven Rooms and a Van Ness Spine

San Francisco Steakhouses, California

Part of Steakhouses

Pictures from San Francisco Steakhouses

See all 1 photos →
Van Ness Avenue looking north at night

Eleven rooms on this page, all of them inside the city, and no South Bay page pulling the mass south the way Korean barbecue's did. Three sit on one avenue: Harris' at Van Ness and Pacific, the House of Prime Rib two blocks down at Washington, Ruth's Chris further south at California Street. Three more take the Financial District and the waterfront — the Vault inside a bank vault at 555 California, 5A5 on Jackson Street, Epic Steak on the Embarcadero facing the Bay Bridge. The rest are scattered by genre rather than by street: an Argentine asador in the Mission, a churrascaria on Market Street, a second one in SoMa, a Michelin-starred wagyu room on Division Street, and a surf-and-turf house on Lombard. Three Union Square rooms are published on the Union Square guide and linked below.

  1. Van Ness at Pacific. Look in the window before you go in — the aging cooler is the restaurant's front door argument.

  2. 1906 Van Ness Avenue. One dish, and the roasts are carved at the table from stainless carts.

  3. 1601 Van Ness Avenue. The southern anchor of the three-room Van Ness run.

  4. Concourse level, 555 California Street. You eat inside the building's original bank vault.

  5. Jackson Street, Jackson Square. The name is the beef grade, and the beef grade is the menu.

  6. 369 The Embarcadero. Ask for the water side; the Bay Bridge fills the window.

  7. Division Street, Design District. Eighteen counter seats over the coals, and a Michelin star above them.

  8. Lombard Street, Marina. Surf and turf as a genuine proposition rather than a menu heading.

  9. Mission Street at 21st. The asador is the point, and the Guacho is sized for two.

  10. Market Street at Gough. Fourteen cuts over mesquite, and the service does not stop until you say so.

  11. 201 Third Street, SoMa. The second churrascaria on the page, with a butcher counter inside it.

The Van Ness spine

Three rooms on six blocks of one avenue, and they are the closest thing this city has to a steakhouse row.

Harris' Restaurant holds the corner of Van Ness and Pacific, with a dry-aging cooler set into the storefront window so the beef is the first thing you see from the sidewalk. Ann Lee Harris opened it in 1984 in the old Grison's Steakhouse space, according to the restaurant's own history, and Michael Buhagiar has been sole owner since 2018.

Two blocks south at 1906 Van Ness, the House of Prime Rib carves roasts at the table from stainless carts, to whatever thickness you ask for. Joe Betz bought the restaurant in 1985 and ran it for four decades; he died in 2025 at eighty-six, and the room he built is still trading on the avenue.

Ruth's Chris takes the southern end at 1601 Van Ness, the city's outpost of the national chophouse chain.

The Financial District and the Embarcadero

Three rooms east of the hill, one of them literally inside a bank.

The Vault Steakhouse opened in October 2025 on the concourse level of 555 California Street, in the original bank vault of the building, with chefs Ryan Cerizo and Jason Halverson running it and a piano playing every night. 5A5 Steak Lounge is a few blocks north on Jackson Street in Jackson Square, working Japanese A5 wagyu — the grade the room is named for.

Epic Steak sits on the water at 369 The Embarcadero, a dining room turned to the Bay Bridge and Treasure Island. Executive chef Parke Ulrich came across from Waterbar next door and applies the same restraint to prime dry-aged beef that he did to fish.

The Marina, the Mission, Market Street and the Design District

Five rooms with no cluster between them, each one carrying a different genre.

Bobo's is on Lombard Street in the Marina, where dry-aged Prime steak shares the table with Pacific Dungeness crab and there is garaged parking underneath the room. Lolinda is on Mission Street at 21st, an Argentine asador whose wood-fired grill gives every cut its char; the house calls its prime bone-in ribeye for two the Guacho.

Espetus Churrascaria is at 1686 Market Street at Gough, where fourteen signature cuts come round on skewers grilled over mesquite charcoal and the rodízio keeps coming until you turn the card. Fogo de Chão runs the same service at 201 Third Street in SoMa, with a butcher shop selling ready-to-grill cuts on the way out.

Niku Steakhouse is on Division Street in the Design District and holds a Michelin star. It dry-ages in house at an adjoining butchery, serves Japanese A5 and American wagyu, and seats eighteen at a chef's counter over the coals under executive chef Dustin Falcon.

Union Square, published on its own guide

Three of the city's fifteen steakhouse rooms stand within four blocks of Union Square, and all three already have place pages on the Union Square neighborhood guide.

Morton's The Steakhouse is at 400 Post Street, Alexander's Steakhouse at 165 O'Farrell Street with its wagyu program, and ABSteak by Akira Back at 124 Ellis Street, a Korean-inflected steakhouse that qualifies here on the same ground as any other beef room. A room is published once on this site, so this page names them and links to the guide that carries them.

Alfred's Steakhouse is a different room from Alexander's and is not on this page: its trading status could not be confirmed, and an unconfirmed room is left off rather than hedged.

Frequently asked questions

What makes a room a steakhouse on this page?
Steak has to be the menu's center of gravity, plus the beef-centric genres — churrascaria, Argentine parrilla, Japanese wagyu counter, Korean-style beef room. That admits Espetus and Fogo de Chão, Lolinda's asador, and the wagyu rooms at Niku and 5A5. It also decides what stays off: the Brazen Head in Cow Hollow is a continental public house with escargot, French onion soup and one signature pepper steak, which is a restaurant that serves a good steak rather than a steakhouse.
Why are Morton's, Alexander's and ABSteak not listed as rooms here?
All three qualify, and all three already have place pages on the Union Square guide. A room is published once on this site, so this page names them in prose and links to the guide that carries them. That is three of the city's fifteen rooms accounted for elsewhere, which is why eleven are published here.
Is Alfred's Steakhouse the same room as Alexander's?
No. They are two different restaurants with similar names, and the survey checked them separately. Alexander's Steakhouse is counted and published on the Union Square guide. Alfred's could not be confirmed as trading after 2020, so it is excluded outright rather than published with a hedge.
Why is there no South Bay or Peninsula section?
Because the city holds the count on its own. Fifteen rooms sit inside San Francisco, which is enough for a page without reaching down to Santa Clara or San Jose. That is the opposite of what the Korean barbecue survey found, where the South Bay pulled hard enough to need a page of its own.
Which room is inside a bank vault?
The Vault Steakhouse, on the concourse level of 555 California Street. The dining room is the building's original bank vault, and the restaurant opened there in October 2025.
Ethos

What travelers think

👍 0
👎 0

Log in to react.

Connected pages

Same region