The tasting menu format has gone in and out of fashion at different times in our recent food culture, but it is very much alive and well around San Francisco in 2025.

Restaurants where your only option is a single, often fairly expensive fixed-price tasting menu remain somewhat prevalent around the Bay Area, where there are plenty of well-off people who seek out such experiences for more than just special occasions.

But very often, the best way to experience a chef's vision at a restaurant with an à la carte menu is to opt for the "let us cook for you" tasting menu, which is an even more prevalent feature of menus around the Bay these days, giving diners both paths to choose from. And at some of these restaurants, assuming you're fairly hungry, the chef's menu is generally more economical than ordering a similar number of dishes à la carte.

Below, some of the best of these experiences you can find around the Bay right now.

7 Adams
Since it opened in late 2023, 7 Adams has won a legion of fans for its nightly five-course prix fixe, currently priced at a reasonable-for-2025 $87. As of this summer, chefs David Fisher and Serena Chow Fisher have begun offering a seven-course option for $40 more, allowing for a slightly more indulgent experience, including a caviar starter and an additional protein — a fish course preceding a meat course, instead of either/or. The current menu also includes a to-die-for version of spaghetti all'amatriciana that's not available on the five-course menu, as well as a chocolate semifreddo with corn mousse and cara cara orange. Overall, the place offers an elegant but unfussy take on modern American cuisine, and thankfully doesn't break the bank doing so.
1963 Sutter Street

Burdell
Oakland's Burdell was lavished with praise after its 2023 opening, including being named Food & Wine's Restaurant of the Year last year, and landing the number-one spot on the Chronicle's revamped Top 100. Chef Geoff Davis deserves that praise for reinterpreting soul food through a modern lens — and for simply executing stellar versions of the most comforting soul-food dishes like smothered pork chops and barbecue shrimp. Even Davis's mashed potatoes, which lean more toward Robuchon potatoes, are swoonworthy. The restaurant offers a nightly $95 "family dinner," which features most of the greatest hits from the menu, and typically an entree not available à la carte that night — I had a fried and smothered rabbit with some tomato-braised romano beans that were both excellent.
4640 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland

Ernest
Despite never getting a Chronicle review — until earlier this year, that is — or any initial accolades, chef Brandon Rice's four-year-old Mission restaurant remains a hot ticket for in-the-know eaters about town. Rice has been cooking creative, flavor-packed, chef-y food with global flair all along, and the "Let the Kitchen Cook for You" option remains a steal at $99, typically featuring five or more multi-dish courses. And where else in town will you see a thick-cut Korean-style shortrib on the menu next to a Middle Eastern-inspired barbecue lamb shoulder and a dish of beef tartare over sushi rice topped with salmon roe?
1890 Bryant Street, enter at Florida and Mariposa

Frances
Chef de Cuisine Ricky Chu has been executing things at Frances since it reopened post-pandemic, adding his own spin to executive chef Melissa Perello's beloved and cozy neighborhood spot. The chef's tasting option at Frances is $95 these days, and given that entrees can run you $45, that ends up being a fairly good deal, including a shareable array of the restaurant's most inventive dishes — which are typically in the starter section anyway. The house specialty bacon beignets are back on the menu, along with a seasonally changing dish of daikon cakes — currently featuring mole negro and puffed black rice. Try to make sure one of the soups makes it in the mix — Perello has always been a master of seasonal soups, whether its corn at the height of summer, or parsnip or sunchoke in the fall.
3870 17th Street

Happy Crane
Already a hot table to snag in its new digs in Hayes Valley, chef James Yeun Leong Parry's Happy Crane offers some stunningly executed, deeply flavorful takes on traditional dim sum and modern Cantonese cuisine. While you could easily have a hearty meal of dim sum at the bar, you probably want to opt for the $120 "Happy as a Crane" menu, which includes the best of the dim dishes — including Parry's terrific take on Golden Coin, with coppa and chicken liver mousse — and his great crab rice roll. Also, be aware that if you want the chef's signature Peking duck, you'll need to pre-order that on OpenTable.
451 Gough Street

Mister Jiu's
While the à la carte at Mister Jiu's returned this summer, chef Brandon Jew is still looking to celebrate the banquet culture of Chinatown restaurants with his banquet menu option. The $125 menu centers around Liberty Farms Peking-style duck — with duck liver mousse and some amazing peanut butter hoisin sauce. But you will also be treated with waves of starter courses including wok-smoked eggplant, a scarlet turnip cake with olive-shallot relish, and cheong fun (rice noodle rolls) with manila clams and bok choy.
28 Waverly Place

Penny Roma
Flour + Water's casual sister spot up the street has been rocking an adult dinner party vibe since its opening, featuring a crowd-pleasing menu of seasonal vegetables, seafood, pastas, and Italian-inspired mains. The "Dinner Party Menu" will run you $89 and requires full table participation, but it's a feast to be sure, with four starter courses — typically including the house prosciutto San Daniele with melon — two pastas, and a family-style entree, which is currently a pork chop with green tomato passata and shishito peppers, as well as seasonal desserts. An added bonus is that wine pairings for the whole shebang are only $39.
3000 20th Street

Rich Table
An SF restaurant where you are guaranteed to be delighted by some new flavor combination or mashup of culinary ideas, Rich Table has been one of the city's hot spots for over a decade now — with a new bistro offshoot around the corner now on the way this fall. The "Chef's Picks" menu is currently priced at $125, and will feature an array of the signature snack courses like the sardine chips, and porcini doughnuts with raclette. And in addition to a hearty selection of other dishes, it will also feature one or two of the kitchen's always creative pastas, like a rigatoni with gochujang and peach alfredo, or the signature sea urchin "cacio e pepe."
199 Gough Street

Routier
Lower Pacific Heights denizens are well aware of their neighborhood gem, but Routier still has flown under the radar of local and national critics, despite the excellent work of executive chef John Paul Carmona. The restaurant consistently impresses with its seasonal small plates and a selection of house-made charcuterie that rivals any in the city — don't miss the wild boar and green peppercorn pate. And, in the tradition of routiers in France, the place offers a nightly formule, or prix fixe, now priced at $73, featuring a starter, a full-size main course like duck leg confit, and a dessert.
2801 California Street at Divisadero

SPQR
Chef Matt Accarrino's Pacific Heights ode to modern Italian cuisine now offers an early-evening bar menu, featuring hushpuppies and a jumbo shrimp cocktail, in addition to its regular a la carte array. And, as it has for years, the restaurant offers an extraordinarily impressive pasta tasting menu (now only on Wednesdays and Thursdays), with five divine pasta courses for $62 per person. You will find classics liek Accarrino's risotto primavera, alongside inventive creations like his huitalacoche and ricotta lasagna with marsala mushroom.
1911 Fillmore Street