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Summary of kosher food options in the bay area:

Restaurants:
(all under hashgacha of the Sunrise Kosher / Vaad Hakashrus of Northern California unless otherwise stated)

San Francisco
Sabra Grill (Chinatown)
L'chaim Foods (not a restaurant, take out / delivery only) currently "Under Orthodox Certification of Rabbi Joel Landau."
Frena BakeryDairy and pareve sambusak, burekas, shakshuka, savory and sweet baked goods
Limonnana Middle Eastern dishes, principally Falafel, Shawarma, and Hummus, and of course, delicious limonnanas.
Hummus Bodega Hummus, Falafel, Middle Eastern in the Richmond district

East Bay
Amba Falafel (Oakland) (Fleishig as of 4/28/14). Pas Yisroel available by request CLOSED
Oakland Kosher (Oakland) Fleishigs. Check for certs on www.restaurant.com.
Cafe 3 at UC Berkeley
Touro Kitchen in Vallejo, CA - http://dining.tu.edu/menu.html

South Bay
Izzy's Bagels (Palo Alto) Pas Yisroel. Some Items Cholov Yisroel, Check the kashrus certificate, Open on Shabbos
Kosher Food Oasis at the OFJCC (Palo Alto) Holy Sushi requires ordering in advance. Walk-in orders are accepted for Caffe Mediterraneum and for many items at Malawach Bar. Please check vendor sites for individual holiday hours. All under the Vaad.
Jerusalem Grill (Palo Alto area)  not Kosher, no Kashrus certification, not Jewish owned (as of Nov.22, 2015)
Pars Kosher Market in San Jose, certified by the Vaad, now has a small eat in section (4 tables, first come first serve) with a short meat menu and ready made hot food. Also lots of kosher groceries.
Stanford University Cafeteria weekday lunches five days a week and dinners Monday - Thurs. General public can pay at Florence Moore Dorm and enjoy the Kosher section. Fleishig (meat) for both meals each day. Flo-Mo, as it is called, is on Mayfield Ave., across from the parking lot of Tressidor.  Finding the dining hall can be a challenge for outsiders but any student will direct you.




Groceries (etc):

San Francisco
CHOUX Bakery - French cream puffs (Haight-Ashbury) Pas yisroel, cholov yisroel. No longer certified kosher / open on Shabbos.

East Bay
Oakland Kosher.
Grand Bakery (Oakland) Pas Yisroel, Dairy items are NOT cholov yisroel. Closing 12/23/16
Berkeley Bowl (Berkeley) has some kosher items.
Costco (Definitely the one in Richmond. I believe this applies to others in the Bay Area, but this is what I know firsthand.) has cholov yisroel cheese and Jack's sausages. (As of August 2014)

South Bay
I believe Mollie Stone's in Palo Alto has a big Kosher selection. there are probably other options there as well.

« Last edited by ninjaleh on January 17, 2023, 12:38:15 PM »

Author Topic: San Francisco/No Cal Master Thread  (Read 199804 times)

Offline MosheP

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Re: San Francisco/No Cal Master Thread
« Reply #200 on: October 27, 2013, 09:03:54 PM »
I'll be in SFO for 24 hours on business. Where is the best place to stay? Daven? Eat?

I'm arriving Monday night and departing Tuesday on the red eye. I have a few meetings Tuesday around SFO and San Jose/Sunnyvale.

TIA

Offline PlatinumGuy

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Re: San Francisco/No Cal Master Thread
« Reply #201 on: October 27, 2013, 09:40:46 PM »
I'll be in SFO for 24 hours on business. Where is the best place to stay? Daven? Eat?

I'm arriving Monday night and departing Tuesday on the red eye. I have a few meetings Tuesday around SFO and San Jose/Sunnyvale.

TIA
Stay in San Jose and drive to SFO as late as possible.
״וזה כלל גדול: שישנא אדם כל דבר שקר. וכל מה שיוסיף שנאה לדרכי השקר – יוסיף אהבה לתורה.״ - אורחות צדיקים

Offline MosheP

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Re: San Francisco/No Cal Master Thread
« Reply #202 on: October 30, 2013, 09:51:34 AM »
Stay in San Jose and drive to SFO as late as possible.

I should have listened to you.

It was a nice quick trip. We davened in the Adath Yisroel  shul in San Francisco. They happen to sell sushi out of the shul/jcc on certian days. See lchaimsushi.com.

Breakfast was at Izzys Bagels in Palo Alto. What a great place. Easily better then the bagel shops around here. They have 15 flavored cream cheeses, a huge assortment of bagels and baked goods, and everything I had was delicious.

We had meetings all day. The last one was right near SFO. We drove back to Palo Alto for Mincha Marriv at Emek Berocho and then dinner at Jerusalem Grill in San Jose. Food was pretty good and ambiance was decent. Pretty much what you'd expect from an out of town place.

We stayed at the airport Hilton priceline at $146 2 hours before we landed. Rented from avis in the airport.

We flew from JFK on UA389. Lie flat business was nice, footbed was verry small. Meal was braised short rib with a farfel side. Tiny portion and served still cold.

Return was on AA18 in First. Although not lie flat seats were much more comfortable than UA.

All in all it was a pleasant quick trip, although I didnt see any of SF.

Offline CPM915

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Re: San Francisco/No Cal Master Thread
« Reply #203 on: December 24, 2013, 01:08:35 AM »
Heading to San Fran and Napa tomorrow for a few days. Made the last minute decision to go for a few days, so didn't get the best award redemption bc flights were expensive.

Staying 3 nights in the Andaz Napa, and 2 nights in the Grand Hyatt San Francisco. First time in the area so plan on going to Hagafen for a tour and tasting, perhaps go to some of the other local wineries to learn a little bit, and maybe do a little biking around the area.

Everything all booked for Alcatraz so looks like we're gna rid the cable cars, ride the GG bridge. Will update on how the trip went.ent

Offline yakrot

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Re: San Francisco/No Cal Master Thread
« Reply #204 on: December 24, 2013, 03:44:39 AM »
I found the northern (big sur) area of the pch to be the nicest there was also a place where elephant. seals are. beached right on the coast near the hearst castle area. I found hearst castle to be nice as well

Offline Dr Moose

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Re: San Francisco/No Cal Master Thread
« Reply #205 on: January 02, 2014, 03:43:28 PM »
Thats goes in the trip report thread
Hey there! I am using DansDeals Forums.

Offline CPM915

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Re: San Francisco/No Cal Master Thread
« Reply #206 on: January 02, 2014, 03:53:04 PM »
I am fairly new to the game and only started reading the forums half a year ago, so I am happy to finally have something to write about. I had never been to San Francisco or Napa Valley, and since my wife(who is a teacher) had off and my busy season (accountant) is coming up, we decided last minute to spend a few days out west. Used 50k Avios for 2 biz class tickets JFK-SFO, and used 50k AA for one biz class and one economy SFO-JFK. Not the greatest redemption, but I didn’t want to use cash, as flights were really expensive.

Got in to SFO at 9:30 PM, and rented a car from Avis. With Preferred, was a very easy process, and attendant allowed me to upgrade to a Mustang for $15/day instead of $30. Drove straight to Napa Valley which took a little over an hour. We stayed at the Andaz Napa in downtown Napa for three nights. It is a Category 5 hotel, so can be booked at 18k/night. However, with my AAA code, I was able to book it the night before we left for $141/night, so I opted for cash. Hotel offers either a valet option for $19/day or free parking in a parking garage around the corner from the hotel. We parked in the free lot as it was very close and hardly took any time(even though for overnight parking you can only park on the 3rd and 4th levels of the garage). Andaz has a bit of a different feel than your average hotel- very hip and trendy. After being checked in on an Ipad and being offered complimentary wine or beer, we headed up to the rooms, which were very spacious. Room had a couch and a desk, and the TV swiveled to face either way. The hotel has an outdoor patio with fire pits, which looked really nice, but which we didn’t take advantage of because it was a little chilly out.

Room had complimentary drinks and snacks- plenty of bottles of water, juice, iced tea, and was filled up every day as the room was cleaned. The only thing non-complimentary was the alcoholic beverages in the fridge. Free Wifi. For breakfast, the hotel’s restaurant had a full menu, but there was also a smaller station offering yogurt and oatmeal. The yogurt had an OU on it, so we made parfaits using the yogurt and nuts and fruit the hotel provided ($4 each). The hotel also had carrot ginger juice which was delicious.

On the first day, we rented bikes and biked from the hotel up Silverado trail, which has wineries every 500 feet on both sides, literally. As it was Christmas, the only winery open was Hagafen, which also happens to be the only Kosher winery in the area (Covenant is in the process of moving and wasn’t open for tours or tasting). No tours were being offered that day at Hagafen, so we just did the tasting.

Then we headed up to Calistoga, about an hour drive, to the Golden Haven Hot Springs and Resort to get a mud bath treatment. This was about 70 dollars for each of us. We have never been to a spa, so decided to try it for the experience. First we sat in the mud bath, which was very hot. It was sort of relaxing, but the smell of the mud was terrible. Then we washed up, spent some time in the Jacuzzi, followed by a warm towel wrap. On the whole, it was a relaxing experience, but I wouldn’t do it again. Maybe others would enjoy it more.

Drove back to the hotel down Highway 29, which is the main highway connecting Napa Valley to the surrounding areas, and also has wineries lining the highway for miles. It was very cool to see winery after winery, including Castello di Amorosa, a castle winery which is a famous winery which we wanted to tour, but ran out of time. There are no kosher restaurants in the area, but plenty of supermarkets, and we brought plenty of food from home
The next morning we woke up early to head to the gym next door to the Andaz, which all guests are offered complimentary access to. Gym was pretty nice and wasn’t too crowded. We then headed back to Hagafen for the 11 AM tour(and another tasting!). The tour was for about ten people, so not too crowded, and we walked to the vineyard, and then to the area where the grapes are processed, and stored in barrels. In terms of understanding the process of wine making, the tour wasn’t incredibly informative, and we left wanting more. The tour itself was free, although tastings were not; different packages are offered ranging from $10 to $20 depending on which wines you want to taste.

We then drove to Oxbow Market, which is a large market with all sorts of produce and specialty foods. Did a coffee tasting at Ritual Coffee, tasting coffees from three different areas of the world. Each cup of coffee was made in front of us with exact measures and extreme care by the barista, who was very knowledgeable and explained his every move and answered all of our questions.
We then headed to the Robert Mondavi Winery, which was very highly recommended. The winery was about a 25 minute drive from downtown Napa. The winery building itself was gorgeous with very pretty grounds and many great picture opportunities. The tour itself was great, giving a history of the winery, a lot of knowledge about the wine making process, and a detailed tour of the winery itself, in which every step of the process was explained thoroughly by a very engaging and funny tour guide. At the end, we sat down at a dining room table for a tasting. Even though we didn’t drink the wine, we still learned a lot from the guide during the tasting.

After Mondavi, we drove 20 minutes to Auberge du Soleil, which is a very expensive hotel (~$800/night), but which also has a restaurant and bar. The restaurant has beautiful views of Napa Valley, and we were there around sundown. We got drinks there and enjoyed the view, although I must admit that I found the view to be a little overrated. Friday morning we drove to San Francisco and returned the car to Avis(as parking is really expensive downtown). Stayed at the Hilton Towers Union Square for Shabbos. Hotel was packed Friday because of a big college football game but it had cleared out a little Shabbos day. Hotel was really nice, and all employees were extremely helpful. We bought food for Shabbos at Sabra Grill, which was a bit overpriced in my opinion. We got the shwarma- which was chicken sautéed with onions- which was pretty good, though expensive. Didn’t offer much in the way of side dishes. Sunday night we went back to Sabra before our flight and were shocked that they refused to make sandwiches at dinnertime. No Shwarma in a pita, no hamburgers- At night you can only buy full entrees, the cheapest of which is $23.00. Guess they can overcharge because they are the only kosher restaurant in the area.
Shabbos day we went to Knesses Yisroel which was a 5 minute walk from hotel. Davening was called for 9 am, but they only got a minyan around 9:15, which was comprised mostly of tourists. Their website says that you can join them for Shabbos meals, but when I called and emailed them many times, I only received a response 3 days later that they were already full. Doesn’t seem like we missed out on much.

On Shabbos afternoon we walked to the Cable Car museum which is free of charge and a must see. While the history of the famous San Francisco Cable Cars is interesting in its own right, the real draw here is that the museum is built around the machinery which runs the cable cars to this very day.
We then walked to Lombard street, known as the “Crookedest Street.” It is an incredibly windy street with beautiful flowers. People line up to see the cars go down the street at a max 5 MPH. Perhaps slightly over-hyped, but it’s worth seeing.
Saturday night took the cable car down to Fisherman’s Wharf and walked around. First time on a cable car. Not so exciting, but you got to do it once.
Sunday we rented bikes from Fisherman’s Wharf from the Company Blazing Saddles and biked over the Golden Gate Bridge. It was challenging at times, but not too bad. If you’re in decent shape you can do it. The total was around 120 for both of us(goes by hour, something like $8/hr for regular bikes). Biked over the bridge to Sausalito, a cute little fishing town which wouldn’t be special were it not on the other side of the Golden Gate. Got some coffee there and took the ferry back to Fisherman’s Wharf, which took about half an hour. Passed Alcatraz, which was the closest we would get to it because tickets for the Alcatraz tours sell out months in advance.

After we returned the bikes, we jumped on to a Hop on Hop Off bus tour(there are plenty of companies which offer them) which we booked through the hotel, which took us on a tour of the major areas of San Fran. It was pretty informative, and interesting to learn about the history of San Francisco’s neighborhoods.
 After this, we headed back to hotel to pick up our stuff, and headed to the airport on a shuttle from our hotel(booked through hotel for $17 each). Because I was flying business, we had access to the lounge, which was a good thing because our flight was delayed three hours.

Offline DP7

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Re: San Francisco/No Cal Master Thread
« Reply #207 on: January 02, 2014, 03:54:32 PM »
Thats goes in the trip report thread

And which thread would that be?

Offline Salty

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Re: San Francisco/No Cal Master Thread
« Reply #208 on: January 02, 2014, 04:02:28 PM »
Master thread of trip reports and trip tips

Offline Ergel

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Re: San Francisco/No Cal Master Thread
« Reply #209 on: January 02, 2014, 04:03:22 PM »
Master thread of trip reports and trip tips
Nope. That thread links to trip reports. This is a great place to post a TR
Life isn't about checking the boxes. Nobody cares.

Offline DP7

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Re: San Francisco/No Cal Master Thread
« Reply #210 on: January 02, 2014, 08:38:11 PM »
Nope. That thread links to trip reports. This is a great place to post a TR

+1. Noobs trying to feel special.

Offline Salty

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Re: San Francisco/No Cal Master Thread
« Reply #211 on: January 02, 2014, 11:26:14 PM »
+1. Noobs trying to feel special.

trying to be helpful.

Offline madopo

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Re: San Francisco/No Cal Master Thread
« Reply #212 on: January 19, 2014, 11:56:51 AM »
Are there any SPG hotels in the bay area that the standard room is suite like, with a living room or something like that (traveling with toddlers)?

Offline mickeyg

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Re: San Francisco/No Cal Master Thread
« Reply #213 on: February 10, 2014, 08:05:11 PM »
Looking for good kosher food in downtown San Fran...im staying at the Parc 55 Wyndham for a conference...
I have nothing witty to write here....

Offline nuko

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Re: San Francisco/No Cal Master Thread
« Reply #214 on: February 10, 2014, 08:23:57 PM »
Was at Sabra grill a couple weeks ago and yuval the owner came running down stairs from roof bleeding and holding his finger. It appeared he lost part of his finger working on roof. Felt really terrible. Please wish him a refuah sheleima next time you go

Offline Dan

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Re: San Francisco/No Cal Master Thread
« Reply #215 on: February 11, 2014, 12:18:05 AM »
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline MC

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Re: San Francisco/No Cal Master Thread
« Reply #216 on: February 11, 2014, 12:45:10 AM »

Alol

Seriously! Pack food in LA... (If you're starting out there)
Even coffee bean in San Fran doesn't have kosher pastries.

Offline Racer7400

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Re: San Francisco/No Cal Master Thread
« Reply #217 on: February 11, 2014, 01:14:36 AM »
nice trip report thanx!! :)

Offline whYME

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Re: San Francisco/No Cal Master Thread
« Reply #218 on: February 11, 2014, 01:49:30 AM »
Looking for good kosher food in downtown San Fran...im staying at the Parc 55 Wyndham for a conference...
The only option around there is Sabra.

You have better options in Oakland and Palo Alto, but it's a shlep.
If you have a car (and you're not going during rush hour) it's probably 10-20 minutes to Oakland. Palo Alto is probably more like 45.

Offline madopo

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Re: San Francisco/No Cal Master Thread
« Reply #219 on: February 11, 2014, 01:32:01 PM »
The only option around there is Sabra.

You have better options in Oakland and Palo Alto, but it's a shlep.
If you have a car (and you're not going during rush hour) it's probably 10-20 minutes to Oakland. Palo Alto is probably more like 45.
Closer to 20-25 min. As you said, DEFINITELY not during rush hour (took over an hr).