San Francisco: Land of a Thousand Brunches

I recently went to eat some food – uh, I mean, visit some friends – in the Bay Area. Kidding, of course my friends are first priority, but obviously any time you”re visiting San Francisco you would be doing yourself a disservice if you didn”t take advantage of its awesome culinary scene.

One thing SF does really well is brunch. Not only brunch, but boozy brunch (and honestly why are you going out to brunch if you”re not planning on drinking?), particularly mimosas. Search SF Yelp for “bottomless mimoas” and you”ll get over 100 results. Preach! No self-respecting bruncher is gonna stop at just one mimosa, let”s be real.

Just as mimosas are an integral part of brunch, eggs benedict is the brunch dish to beat. It”s indulgent without being completely devoid of nutritious ingredients (eggs! They”re good for you!), and it”s just a liiittle too complicated to want to cook at home on a regular basis, so you feel justified paying $13 for someone else to whip up that hollandaise. When getting brunch in the city that overflows with brunch, where to find the best benedict? Here you go:

Radish is an adorable café in the happenin” Mission neighborhood. I wouldn”t call it a hidden gem – don”t get me wrong, it”s definitely a gem, but it”s not exactly hidden. Its food and atmosphere are so fun that it”s become a well-known place to grab a bite to eat. The restaurant space is cute, the servers are some of my favorites in the city (seriously – they are on top of it, and super nice to boot), the mimosas are flowing, and the menu is legit.

I got the Fried Green Tomato Benedict (see above) – two perfectly poached eggs nestled on top thick slabs of fried green tomatoes and tasso ham, topped with a flavorful, just-spicy-enough Creole hollandaise. (I added avocado, because come on, this is me we”re talking about.) This dish was California fresh meets Louisiana soul food and every bite of it was better than the last, especially after breaking the yolks of those perfectly poached eggs. Not to mention that the accompanying potatoes were some of the best I”ve ever had (and usually I ignore breakfast potatoes because I think they”re boring) and the bottomless mango mimoas were obviously the way to go – $13 per person and I had about 7, so that”s a damn good deal. You can also get regular (non-mango) bottomless mimosas for $10, so pick your poison.

Next time you”re in the Bay Area, GO! to Radish. Brunch is served Wednesday-Sunday, and you can even in case you don”t want to wait for that  first sweet, sweet mimosa to hit your lips.