When is SF Restaurant Week 2026?

Spring runs late April to early May. Fall runs October. Exact dates published on sfrestaurantweek.com.

Are the menus worth it?

For the top tier on this list, yes — kitchens that normally charge $90-150 a head doing three courses for $65. For mid-tier places that already do $35 menus, less so.

How early do I need to book?

The popular spots release Restaurant Week reservations 2-3 weeks before the start. Set a reminder.

SF Restaurant Week 2026: the spots actually worth booking | rifio

San Francisco Restaurant Week is one of those things that's either a real bargain or a marketing gimmick depending on where you book. Half the participating restaurants are doing what they always do at the same price, slapping "Restaurant Week" on the menu, and counting on you not to notice. The other half are running properly discounted prix fixes from kitchens that normally cost twice as much.

This is the actual list. Which to book within the first hour of menus going live, which to skip, and what the math actually looks like.

The math

A $65 three-course at Nopa, Rich Table, Octavia or Liholiho is a real deal. The same dinner off the regular menu would run $90-110 with two glasses of wine. You're looking at 30-40% off a kitchen at the top of its game.

A $65 three-course at a place where dinner usually costs $70 anyway? That's not a deal, that's a regular Tuesday with extra steps.

Book the second menus drop

Nopa, Rich Table and Octavia release their Restaurant Week menus 2-3 weeks before the event starts. The 7pm slots for Nopa go in under an hour. Set a reminder. OpenTable is the source of truth — sfrestaurantweek.com links to it.

State Bird Provisions is the wildcard. Their Restaurant Week menu is actually a slightly modified version of their normal dim-sum-cart situation, served as a fixed sequence. You get most of the hits. And it's the one time of year you can walk into State Bird without booking three weeks out.

The brunch tier

Foreign Cinema's $45 Restaurant Week brunch in their courtyard is, sus though it sounds, the best brunch deal in the city all year. Pop's sausage, hand-cut fries, the cocktail flight. Two of you in for $90 total before tip is wild for what you get.

Marlena's brunch deal is the under-the-radar one. They added it last year and it didn't fully sell out — book it.

Skip these

Anywhere chain-adjacent. Anywhere where the regular menu is already $35 and they're running a $35 Restaurant Week. Anywhere advertising "exclusive Restaurant Week dishes" — those tend to be the kitchen using up freezer inventory.

Specifically: most of the Embarcadero hotel restaurants, the chain steakhouses with downtown locations, and any participant that doesn't list its menu publicly before the week starts. If they won't show you what you're paying for, you don't want to know.

Off-the-list bonus

Sons & Daughters does a Restaurant Week menu that is, on paper, the cheapest entry into a tasting menu kitchen in the city. $65 for three courses from a place that does a $145 tasting most nights. The room is small (24 seats) and the booking goes within ten minutes of release.

How to track new additions

The official Restaurant Week site lists participants but doesn't flag new additions or last-minute openings. Rifio's SF listings tend to pick up the chef residencies and one-off Restaurant Week dinners — places like Tartine doing a one-night pop-up, or a guest chef at Octavia. Worth checking the day before if you want to see what's shifted.

The general pattern: book the top tier early, skip the chains, treat brunch as the secret weapon, and don't bother with anywhere whose normal menu is already in the $35-50 range. Save the discount for the kitchens you'd otherwise never afford.