San Francisco

Senor Sisig started as a roaming San Francisco food truck building a creative Filipino-Mexican fusion menu around sisig — the sizzling chopped pork dish from the Pampanga region of the Philippines — applied to tacos, burritos, and the Mexican street food format in combinations that earned a Bay Area cult following and eventually grew the

The Front Porch on 29th Street in San Francisco’s Noe Valley neighborhood has been one of the city’s most celebrated Southern comfort food restaurants since it opened, serving fried chicken, biscuits, and the slow-cooked Southern dishes that earn a San Francisco restaurant its destination reputation in a city where the competition for the dining dollar

KoJa Kitchen started as a roaming San Francisco food truck building a menu around the Korean-Japanese fusion rice burger — crispy rice cakes standing in for bread buns, filled with Korean and Japanese-influenced proteins and sauces — that earned a Bay Area cult following and eventually grew into a brick-and-mortar brand with multiple locations. It

Show Dogs appeared in Season 18, Episode 1 of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, “Neighborhood Knockouts,” which aired August 26, 2013, as a San Francisco Market Street hot dog and craft beer operation building creative, quality hot dogs with artisan sausages from local producers alongside a serious craft beer list in a Union Square setting that

Pica Pica Maize Kitchen on Valencia Street in San Francisco’s Mission District has been bringing authentic Venezuelan cooking to the Bay Area since it opened, building a menu around arepas — the Venezuelan cornmeal cakes split and stuffed with meats, cheese, and the fillings of the Venezuelan table — that earns a Mission District restaurant

Nopalito on Broderick Street in San Francisco has been one of the Bay Area’s most celebrated authentic Mexican restaurants since it opened as a spinoff of Nopa, building a menu around the regional Mexican cooking traditions — house-made masa, slow-braised meats, and the complex sauces of interior Mexico — that most San Francisco Mexican restaurants

HRD Coffee Shop appeared in Season 12, Episode 3 of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, “You Can Only Get It Here,” which aired May 23, 2011, as a San Francisco SoMa neighborhood breakfast cafe building Korean-Mexican fusion breakfast plates that you genuinely could not find anywhere else — kimchi burritos, Korean-spiced scrambles, and the creative cross-cultural

Broken Record appeared in Season 12, Episode 5 of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, “Southern Flavor,” which aired September 19, 2011, as a San Francisco Excelsior neighborhood pub serving Southern comfort food and bar food with the creative scratch-made approach that earned it a DDD segment. The restaurant has since permanently closed. Quick Facts Restaurant: Broken