R & G Lounge, San Francisco

Sample Menu

• Appetizer: bird's-nest soup
• Seafood: salt-and-pepper crab. Anthony Bourdain called the crab meat "moist, rich, and oh-so-tasty" when he profiled the restaurant and its signature dish on No Reservations.
• Meat: honey spare ribs, which the Michelin Guide describes as “tender” and “falling-off-the-bone".
• Beverage: lychee martini

While You’re Waiting: Take a look around for any famous faces. Jackie Chan, Michelle Obama, and House Speaker John Boehner have all dined at R&G.

Inside Tips

• Be sure to make a reservation before visiting. Despite having more than 200 seats spread across three floors, R&G Lounge fills up fast.
• Don't worry about nabbing a parking spot; the restaurant offers validated parking at a nearby garage.

Vocab Lesson
Bird's-nest soup: a Chinese delicacy made with actual swiftlet nests. The birds attach these nests to cavern walls using saliva, which takes on a gelatinous texture when cooked in soup. Because the nests are hard to harvest, they're one of the world's most expensive foods.
Lychee: a juicy Chinese fruit with creamy white flesh that surrounds a single seed. Because the sweet taste is affected by canning, it is usually served fresh, though it is also sometimes dried.

While You’re in the Neighborhood
Before: Stopp in at Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory (56 Ross Alley) to see how two women make 20,000 cookies each day.
After: If R&G's 9:30 p.m. closing time is too early for you, head to nearby Rickhouse (246 Kearney Street) for post-dinner drinks. The bar's open until 2 a.m. every day except Sunday.