With love to mom
Where to brunch on Mother’s Day 2024 in San Francisco
With SF’s diverse culinary scene and stunning views, there’s no shortage of fantastic brunch spots to treat mom. Here are 10 restaurants.
By Virginia Miller
San Francisco’s limitless brunch options can reach religious fervor here with long waits for no-reservation spots. Here are 10 restaurants that (mostly) take reservations, across a range of cuisines and price levels. All offer something to please mom, from colorful cocktails to heartwarming dishes.
Angler
132 Embarcadero
Reservations
It’s the perfect time to return to Michelin-starred Angler as lunchtime hours are recently back. So is chef Joe Hou, who most recently helmed the kitchen at Tenderheart and all LINE Hotel restaurants, but formerly cooked at Angler. Angler was my number one opening of 2018, from the two Michelin-starred Saison team.
It’s as top-notch as ever with a “surf and turf” focus cooked over open flame in the spacious main dining room sporting the fish side and taxidermy-lined bar room representing game or meats. Pamper mom with sunny views over the Bay and Bay Bridge and Michelin-starred cuisine, whether a crazy-affordable three-course menu for $38, or lingering over joys like Pacific oysters with seaweed vinegar and embered tomato, cute mini-lobster rolls or dreamy soft-serve sundaes. Excellent rarities include aged kingfish crudo in yuzu and fig leaf oil or delish Nashville hot frog legs with pickles and cardamom creme fraiche.
Early to Rise
1801 McAllister St.
First come, first serve
Maybe mom doesn’t do lines, and brunch-only Early to Rise has drawn lines down the block since it opened in NoPa February 2024. But mom is going to lose it for chef-owner Andrew McCormack’s dissolve-in-the-mouth, cream-filled doughnuts, filled with the likes of Earl Grey cream.
Since 2016 in his pop-up days, McCormack has won fans not just for his doughnuts but for malt bagels, while he also makes eggs Benedict with his own English muffins and butter from scratch. Challah apple butter French toast in Calvados apple butter is sweet, but bears balance from shredded green apple, subtly sour crème fraîche and toasted hazelnuts. I was a bit disappointed in the slightly overwrought samusa potato pancake, but everything else was on-point, including friendly service, a tight natural wine and low proof cocktail list and espresso drinks. Thankfully, they’re open Thursday through Monday starting at 8am if you can’t get in on Mother’s Day.
Abacá
2700 Jones St.
Reservations
Abaca is extending their hours for Mother’s Day (9am-1:30pm) and they regularly do a top-notch brunch all about chef Francis Ang’s on-point modern Filipino cooking. Certainly mom is going to appreciate “California-Filipino” cocktails, like their now iconic, bright purple Ube Colada. Highlights from the family-style food include a classic short rib adobo or roasted black cod piaparan in coconut turmeric sauce. Brunch brings on classics like silog garlic rice, playful dishes like a crab scramble with jackfruit in coconut alavar sauce, or savory ensaymadas (a fluffy Filipino brioche) French toast, decadent in caviar hollandaise with bacon, scrambled eggs and shrimp. All this in a bright, modern space, with a tight wine list and fun brunch cocktails like Howling for Cocoa Puffs, mixing banana whiskey, Fernet Branca, noyaux, pineapple, makrut lime, cocoa puffs cereal milk.
Dalida
101 Montgomery Street, Suite 100
Reservations
Dalida is one of the nation’s greatest Turkish restaurants, set in the idyllic Presidio state park. Thankfully, chefs Laura and Sayat Ozyilmaz just launched lunch and brunch in March 2024, a perfect Mother’s Day spot for stellar modern Turkish food and cocktails, all sourcing ingredients from their Presidio garden. A few dinner favorites are available during the day, including their can’t-miss flatbread and dips.
Copra
1700 Fillmore St.
Reservations
One of our top openings of 2023, South Indian treasure Copra launched brunch in March, offering more chances to try chef Srijith “Sri” Gopinathan’s food — the only Indian chef in the U.S. to earn 2 Michelin stars formerly at Campton Place in SF. The ever-packed restaurant serves a number of dinner faves at brunch, alongside Indian-inspired cocktails. But brunch offers plenty of its own dishes, including fluffy-yet-dense cardamom “Copra Toast” in cashew mittai cream. This dreamy dish manages to be almost eggy and custard-like.
Uthappam may be my favorite South Indian dish, a savory, thicker, dosa-like crepe or pancake, subtly sour with its fermented dal (lentil) and rice flour base. Chef Sri’s vegetable masala uthappam shines with veggies of the season, while kori gassi, a Mangalorean chicken curry with tamarind and coconut, are ideal to share.
Bodega
138 Mason St.
Reservations
Since opening near Union Square in 2022, Bodega has been a refreshingly modern Vietnamese haven from Matt Ho, the son of a Vietnamese family who ran Bodega Bistro in the Tenderloin for 14 years before it closed in 2017. Ho works with his parents and uncle, so you can feel the family love. Mom will dig that, the traditional-yet-refreshed Vietnamese fare with Southeast Asian-influenced cocktails and wood-lined, modern Asian diner decor.
They’ve added a tasting menu option alongside a la carte, including inspired, creative bites like banh khot turmeric cakes topped with caviar, shrimp and perilla leaves. Traditional favorites I’m crazy about, like bo tai chanh, a cold, seared filet mignon carpaccio loaded with sweet onion, Thai basil, fried shallots in a citrus nuoc mam sauce, flow nicely with modern takes like truffle crab fried rice. They make excellent pho… and Mom is going to want that neon green pandan cake for dessert.
Palette Tea House
900 North Point Street, Ste. B201
Reservations
Palette Tea House has long been one of our top, more upscale dim sum brunch spots, set in Ghirardelli Square with the Bay as backdrop. They just celebrated their 5th anniversary in April 2024 showcasing the excellent modern Chinese food chef Sarn Saechao and team cook far beyond dim sum, alongside Chinese cocktails from bartender Luis Dzul.
Yes, artful dumplings like a cute koi fish or lush Iberico pork cabbage dumpling prove why they’re beloved for dim sum. But other top-notch bites include grilled meats like juicy Iberico cha siu BBQ pork, comforting Dungeness crab longevity YiFu noodles and desserts like killer, mochi-esque chocolate sesame balls. The modern design and cocktails offer festive vibes for celebrating mom.
Barberio Osteria
557 Valencia St.
Reservations
AltoVino is a beloved Nob Hill Italian restaurant whose chef-owner Nick Kelly and his wife, wine director-owner Calli Martinez, opened Barberio Osteri in the Mission with GM-owner Saul Magana in September 2023. Though it was a bummer to see Ancora close in this space, chef Kelly was connected with Ancora owners Joe and Andi Conte and Water2Table, so he continues their seafood-sourcing focus while also tributing his Calabrian-Italian grandparents.
Mom will love Kelly’s pastas, which he perfected working at greats like Perbacco, where he met Magana. The almost all-Italian wine list pairs nicely with dishes like tonno e fagioli — olive oil-poached albacore tuna, gigante beans, fennel, pickled red onion, capers, preserved lemon, bottarga, bread crumbs — or a proper bagna cauda. Pastas steal the show, whether the perfect purity of egg yolk Piedmontese tajarin pasta noodles in butter and sage, or winter squash-filled triangoli dotted with mascarpone, Parmigiano cheese, brown butter, sage, toasted hazelnuts, pomegranate and sweet saba dressing.
Blue Whale Restaurant & Lounge
2033 Union St.
Reservations
Opened in Cow Hollow in September 2023, Blue Whale Restaurant & Lounge is from Michelin-starred chef Ho Chee Boon of Chinatown’s Empress by Boon. This more casual restaurant can be uneven on the food and cocktails and is definitely overpriced. But it’s a more under-the-radar brunch serving modern Asian dishes that feel a bit more celebratory for Mom’s Day. It’s hard to resist the sweet-savory Kurobuta pork buns, and you shouldn’t.
Pippal
5614 Bay St #235, Emeryville
Reservations
Pippal (pronounced “people”) hit the second floor of Emeryville’s outdoor Bay Street shopping center in November 2023. Opened by the owners of ROOH in SF and Palo Alto, Pippal is a more casual but still refined sister to ROOH, strong on regional, casual Indian food and refined Indian cocktails. The sunny, open air restaurant and patio is a great place to celebrate with mom, especially as they’re doing 10 special dishes just for Mother’s Day.
Chef Munish Rana’s pepper fry prawns, masala mini-idli breads and vada pav (fried potato patty) sliders all delight, alongside a range of curries and kebabs. Straight from Mumbai, bartender Arvind Poojari crafts beautiful cocktails each named after a heritage site in India, visually beautiful as they are balanced and delicious. Kerala Back Water is a savory-fab vodka cocktail showcasing Poojari’s house rasam, a South Indian tomato, turmeric tamarind soup, like a brunch-y Bloody Mary, but better.
Virginia Miller is a San Francisco-based food & drink writer.
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