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Marina residents—and, judging from the crowds, everybody else—gravitate to this lively trattoria, named for the autostrada that winds through Italy's sunny south. The kitchen serves the food of Naples and surrounding Campania, such as burrata (cream-filled mozzarella) with olive oil and crostini and crisp-crust pizzas, including a classic Neapolitan Margherita (mozzarella, tomato, and basil). Among the regularly changing mains are chicken meatballs with fennel and salsa verde (green sauce) and rock cod, scallops, and clams in acqua pazza (literally, "crazy water"). A big wine list of primarily southern Italian with some California wines suits the fare perfectly. The long space includes an animated bar scene near the door; ask for a table in the quieter alcove at the far end. Reservations are easier to snag midweek.

Hiro Sone and Lissa Doumani, the celebrated duo behind the acclaimed Terra in St. Helena, have brought their passion for exceptional dining to their first San Francisco restaurant, Ame. The menu showcases seasonal New American cuisine utilizing fresh ingredients from local purveyors, including an assortment of sashimi, crudo, tartare, ceviche and other raw treatments. An extensive offering of ultra-premium sakes and an expansive list of handcrafted wines from around the world artfully complement Ame’s menu. Located at Third and Mission streets within The St. Regis San Francisco, Ame offers a chic dining experience with rich, dramatic décor. Ame also features flexible private dining space that seats up to 34 people.

Two of San Francisco's top restaurant celebrities—chef Nancy Oakes and designer Pat Kuleto—are responsible for this high-profile, high-priced eatery in the magnificent 1889 Audiffred Building, a Parisian look-alike and one of the few downtown structures to survive the 1906 earthquake. Kuleto's Belle Époque interior and Oakes's sophisticated American food with a French accent attract well-dressed locals and flush out-of-towners. The menu changes seasonally, but count on generous portions of dishes like roasted quail stuffed with sweetbreads, chanterelle bisque with pan-seared ricotta gnocchi, and wood-grilled extra-thick pork chop with roasted Lady apples. Save room (and calories) for one of the dynamite desserts, such as butterscotch-almond apple tart Tatin with cinnamon ice cream. There's counter seating for folks too hungry to wait for a table, and a Kobe beef burger at lunchtime that lets you eat with the swells without raiding your piggybank.

Decorated in celadon and ivory with stately columns and a vaulted ceiling, this elegant space, inside the Westin St. Francis Hotel, is a match for chef Michael Mina's highly refined fare. His three-course prix-fixe (multiple choices for each course) includes a trio of tastes on each plate—for example, three preparations of pork for a first (terrine with foie gras, belly pork with frisée and quail egg, short ribs bourguignon with forest mushrooms), or of chocolate for a dessert (white chocolate and rose panna cotta, s'mores, chocolate ice cream with lavender and shortbread). Folks who prefer one taste rather than triple bites can opt for one of Mina's signature dishes, such as black mussel soufflé or lobster potpie. Deep-pocketed diners can splurge on a six-course tasting menu. Diners who want to taste Mina's food but not squander next month's rent can stop in at the swanky Clock Bar, across the lobby, where the same kitchen turns out lobster corn dogs, lamb panini, and black truffle popcorn, all nicely partnered with some of the best cocktails in town.

Daniel Patterson, who has made a name for himself both as a chef and as a pundit on contemporary restaurant trends, has had a restless career, but seems to have settled in at this intriguing 50-seat spot on the gritty end of Broadway. Coi (pronounced kwa) is really two restaurants. One is a 30-seat formal dining room—ascetic gold-taupe banquettes on two walls—that offers an 11-course tasting menu ($120). The food matches the space in sophistication, with such inspired dishes as chilled piquillo pepper soup, smoked and seared bone marrow with pomegranate and Asian pear, seared bison with gold turnips, and Monterey Bay abalone with escarole. The menu in the more casual—and more casually priced—lounge is à la carte, with less than a dozen items, including a crisp-skinned roast chicken, a bowl of udon noodles, and a grilled Gruyère cheese sandwich.

"Irresistible." That's how countless die-hard fans describe Craig and Anne Stoll's Delfina. Such wild enthusiasm has made patience the critical virtue for anyone wanting a reservation here. The interior is comfortable, with hardwood floors, aluminum-top tables, a tile bar, and a casual, friendly atmosphere. The menu changes daily, and among the usual offerings are salt cod mantecato (whipped with olive oil) with fennel flatbread and grilled squid with warm white bean salad. If Piedmontese fresh white truffles have made their way to San Francisco, you are likely to find hand-cut tagliarini dressed with butter, cream, and the pricey aromatic fungus on the menu alongside dishes built on more prosaic ingredients. On warm nights, try for a table on the outdoor heated patio. The storefront next door is home to pint-size Pizzeria Delfina. And for folks who can't get to the Mission, the Stolls have opened a second pizzeria on California Street in lively Lower Pacific Heights.

Be prepared to wait your turn for a table behind chef Gary Danko's legion of loyal fans, who typically keep the reservation book chock-full here (plan on reserving two months in advance). The cost of a meal ($66-$98) is pegged to the number of courses, from three to five. The menu, which changes seasonally, may include pancetta-wrapped frogs' legs, seared foie gras with Fuji apples, shellfish with Thai red curry, and quail stuffed with foie gras and pine nuts. A diet-destroying chocolate soufflé with two sauces is usually among the desserts. So, too, is a "no-cholesterol" Grand Marnier soufflé with raspberry sorbet, perfect for diners with a conscience or a heart problem. The wine list is the size of a small-town phone book, and the banquette-lined room, with beautiful wood floors and stunning (but restrained) floral arrangements, is as memorable as the food.

A special anniversary? An important business dinner? A fat tax refund? These are the reasons you book a table at Jardinière. The restaurant takes its name from its chef-owner, Traci Des Jardins, and the sophisticated interior, with its eye-catching oval atrium and curving staircase, fills nightly with locals and out-of-towners alike. The equally sophisticated French-cum-Californian dining-room menu, served upstairs in the atrium, changes daily, but regularly includes such high-priced adornments as caviar, foie gras, and truffles. Downstairs, the lounge menu, with smaller plates and smaller prices ($8 to $25), is ideal for when you want to eat light while visiting with friends or tame your hunger before or after the nearby opera or symphony. Cheese lovers will appreciate the wide variety of choices—both Old World and New—housed in the glassed-in cheese-aging chamber in the rear of the restaurant.

A staff chattering in Italian and seductive aromas drifting from the open kitchen make customers who pass through the door of this modest storefront, with its sunny yellow walls and friendly waitstaff, feel as if they've stumbled into a homey trattoria in Italy. Each day the kitchen produces small plates of simply cooked vegetables (grilled radicchio, roasted carrots and fennel), a few pastas, a daily special or two, milk-braised pork, a roast of the day, creamy polenta, and thin-crust pizzas—including a memorable "white" pie topped with porcini mushrooms and mozzarella. Wine drinkers will find a good match for any dish they order on the all-Italian list, which showcases gems from limited-production vineyards. At lunch try one of North Beach's best focaccia sandwiches.

After one bite of chef Judy Rodgers' succulent brick-oven-roasted whole chicken with Tuscan bread salad, you'll understand why she's a national star. Food is served here on two floors; the rabbit warren of rooms on the second level includes a balcony overlooking the main dining room. The crowd is a disparate mix that reflects the makeup of the city: casual and dressy, young and old, hip and staid. At the long copper bar, trays of briny-fresh oysters on the half shell are dispensed along with cocktails and wine. The southern French-Italian menu changes daily (though the signature chicken, prepared for two, is a fixture). Rotating dishes include house-cured anchovies with Parmigiano-Reggiano, deep-fried squid and lemons, nettle and onion soup with a poached egg, and brick-oven squab with polenta. Desserts are simple and satisfying, and include crumbly crusted tarts and an addictive cream-laced coffee granita. The lunchtime burger on rosemary focaccia with a side of shoestring potatoes is a favorite with locals.