San Francisco: What I Did in a Week

San Francisco has long been one of my favourite cities. To me, it’s the perfect blend of cool culture, incredible sightseeing, diverse people, and amazing food. What more could you really want?

Montesacro Pinseria

I’m lucky enough to visit San Francisco pretty frequently with work, and wanted to share some bits and bobs from my most recent trip. Flying in from LA, I had to take my team on a trip to one of my favourite pizzerias ever – Montesacro Pinseria. In fact, I’m wrong to describe it as a ‘pizzeria’. Pinsa is a Roman term to describe a unique flatbread topped with delicious ingredients. It’s actually low-fat, low-calorie, and digestible – just in case you needed an excuse. Montesacro is also the only place in the US to serve these delicious dishes. Boy, am I glad to have discovered it!

I always go for the Maranella – a tasty mix of mozzarella, broccolini, spicy sausage and burrata. It’s so good I never want anything else! As an authentically Italian restaurant, the staff are delightful and the wine list is equally palatable.

Hotel Zetta, San Francisco

We stayed at Hotel Zetta this time around, and it was one of the best hotels I’ve stayed in in the city. Located just off Powell and Market Streets, and right next to the Westfield, it’s in a great location. It also has an awesome bar and restaurant in the lobby.

Johnny Foley’s

As you can probably tell, a lot of my trips to San Francisco focus around food! I’d highly recommend the super tasty and filling prime rib from Johnny Foley’s. It’s freakin’ delicious – and huge!

La Mar

I’ll show you a couple of other places we ate over the few days: La Mar, one of my favourite restaurants in the world! It’s just on San Francisco’s beautiful Embarcadero near the Ferry Building. Owned by a wonderful celebrity chef, it serves the best Peruvian food you’ll taste. Always go for the ceviche, purple potatoes, and tasty cocktails. They also do a cracking Happy Hour that’s pretty hard to refuse!

We stopped off in the Hotel Zetta lobby for a few more cheeky oysters.

Town Hall

When taking out our client, we went to a spot I hadn’t visited before: Town Hall. Famous for its southern food, I had some fried okra and cornbread. For my entree, I had tasty grilled salmon on rice crab perlous, okra, and a butter lemon sauce.

A San Francisco sunset

After plenty of dining out, I had a few hours spare that evening, which also happened to be Halloween. Everywhere I looked there were tons of amazing costumes and outfits! I set out for a view across San Francisco at sunset, so set off in direction of the Coit Tower.

As the sun was setting, there were the most beautiful views of the city.

Coit Tower

There were the most breathtaking pink skies. It was the perfect timing after a slightly sweaty hike up to the top! I loved seeing the sun set behind the Golden Gate Bridge. As night crept in, the twinkling lights of the San Francisco skyline and the iconic Transamerica Pyramid began to appear.

I headed back down to the hotel, past people dressed as hot dogs and Cinderella for Halloween. The next day, we had a few hours to explore before having to head off to the airport.

Union Square

Of course, we had to have a few more oysters from Hotel Zetta! We then went to Union Square. Despite only being the first of November, the Christmas tree was already up. Although it didn’t feel too festive, I’d happily have a Christmas with blue skies, warm sun, and palm trees!

We stopped for a quick bite at the Cheesecake Factory – the angel hair spaghetti with scampi in a creamy sauce was amazing. Of course, we couldn’t leave without a cheesecake. I picked the salted caramel and macadamia nut and it was just as good as I remembered.

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Another great break in one of my favourite cities in the world. What do you like to get up to in sunny San Francisco?