Today’s sightseeing was a bit of a nightmare, it involved getting incredibly lost, thankfully this was more than compensated for by the quality of the food.

Breakfast – Sweet Maple

Eggs benedict are incredibly popular in San Francisco, with umpteen variations offered by restaurants. On my host’s recommendation I ventured past Japantown to Sweet Maple. The friendly staff had me seated in seconds and I ordered their signature dish – dungeness benedict with a side of millionaire bacon. Dungeness benedict is essentially a scone, with wilted spinach, crab meat and a poached egg, drizzled with hollandaise and served with fried root vegetables. Millionaires bacon is an ultra thick slice of belly pork, cured and marinated in a spicy maple syrup before being fried and dipped in yet more maple syrup. Both were gorgeous. Sweet Maple is almost as good as ‘Mama’s on Washington Sqaure’ but without the ridiculous queue!

Lunch – Blue Barn Gourmet

Highly rated in the Lonely Planet, blue barn gourmet is situated down in the marina district. It specialises in organic salads and sandwiches. Their most popular special is their Cobber salad. Lettuce, tomato, croutons, chicken, bacon, avocado and egg. The dressing is a house special ranch. As a salad, it’s perfectly nice, but it’s just that – nice. The ingredients are great but it doesn’t do anything particularly inventive or exciting with them.

Dinner – Harris

America is synonymous with steak. Finding the ‘best’ steak restaurant in San Francisco proved a real challenge, with lots of conflicting opinions. I finally settled on ‘Harris’.

They offer a 21-day dry-aged steak in a sophisticate, but relaxed environs. Modelled on a stereotypical view of a London members club, it’s all dark oak and comfy armchairs. A pianist plays in the corner while the barman rustles up a stunning martini.

Ever wondered how to keep your Martini cold enough without diluting it with too much ice? Harris chill all the ingredients, quickly shake over ice in a chilled container before straining into a small carafe which is placed into a miniature barrel of ice, ready to pour as needed. Yum.

The steak itself was enormous, I went with a bone-in rib-eye, and it must have weighed upwards of 20oz. The plate is vast.

I asked for rare it it definitely came medium, but it was so good I couldn’t really complain. I’m writing a longer post soon about beef/steaks in general so the detail of what I thought will be there. But overall it was a great experience which I would heartily recommend to anyone visiting San Francisco.