My favorite thing to do is to plan weekend trips with friends to neighboring cities outside SF with better immigrant food.

I think there are a few reasons why the food in SF just isn’t as good anymore (to me):

Lack of housing and good transit between cities means you can’t hire many service staff who can’t afford to live in the city (so we don’t have late night food)

Gentrification from tech means the only way to make money in the food biz is to cater to the palates of a very specific type of person in SF

Given that there’s no room for most new immigrants in the city that they can afford, they cluster outside in other nearby cities and towns and

Well there’s no point making amazing Tanzanian or Nigerian food in SF instead of in West Oakland coz

There aren’t people who will organically like most other cuisines other than the major known ones.

Also, SF permitting is an utterly nightmarish experience I would not wish on my worst enemy (it was part of my job to try to fix it, but there is a ton of corruption that would make many of the corrupt politicians I’ve met in developing countries blush)

Oakland has much better Chinese and Mexican and Japanese and Korean foods than SF to me (variety and price and quality); Fremont has ‘new’ Chinese (including halal Chinese and more northern foods, also the best Afghan and Indian foods (without going to South Bay).

Without easy access to these neighboring cities I would be much more annoyed about the food in SF (which is fine, better than many places, but doesn’t satisfy my palate which has been trained on lots of street food in most of Asia). I also don’t particularly enjoy SF fine dining compared to other major global eat out cities.

Maybe there are a handful of people in the city who are like, not true! I would love this stuff!

I just don’t think the data shows that. I’ve dabbled a little in the food industry here (helping friends out) and

I genuinely think SF is way more of a conservative dining city than it thinks. Outside of the ‘greatest hits’ and immigrant- originated food innovations

It’s frankly not a city where you can do really interesting stuff anymore. You just won’t make money.

Maybe there are a handful of people in the city who are like, not true! I would love this stuff!

I just don’t think the data shows that. I’ve dabbled a little in the food industry here (helping friends out) and

I genuinely think SF is way more of a conservative dining city than it thinks. Outside of the ‘greatest hits’ and immigrant- originated food innovations

It’s frankly not a city where you can do really interesting stuff anymore. You just won’t make money.

I think there are a few reasons why the food in SF just isn’t as good anymore (to me):

Lack of housing and good transit between cities means you can’t hire many service staff who can’t afford to live in the city (so we don’t have late night food)

Gentrification from tech means the only way to make money in the food biz is to cater to the palates of a very specific type of person in SF

Given that there’s no room for most new immigrants in the city that they can afford, they cluster outside in other nearby cities and towns and

Well there’s no point making amazing Tanzanian or Nigerian food in SF instead of in West Oakland coz

There aren’t people who will organically like most other cuisines other than the major known ones.

Also, SF permitting is an utterly nightmarish experience I would not wish on my worst enemy (it was part of my job to try to fix it, but there is a ton of corruption that would make many of the corrupt politicians I’ve met in developing countries blush)

@skinnylatte with all the money wealth in SF they are still food poor

@skinnylatte 1000% co-signed. I have been eating so much more varied, affordable, and just plain better food for 3 years after moving down to LA!

@skimbrel I LOVE LA

San Mateo has the most interesting Japanese foods and South Bay for Vietnamese and South Indian.

I do spend more of my time in east Oakland and Fremont because it’s easier for me to get to those places (and I have friends who pick me up at BART to drive me to places)!

Also, tacos are my primary food group and east Oakland has the most density of the ones I love

@skinnylatte are you coming down for PyCon? LGB proper has incredible Cambodian food (and tacos, of course) and I do think I could volunteer my car to take a bunch of folks further afield for everything else on offer here

@teajaygrey
In Australia we have supermarkets that will buy up land /pay rental for 10years so the competition can't move into an area.

But this is not the same as your story.
@skinnylatte