Where to eat in South San Francisco

South San Francisco calls itself the Industrial City. The name still fits. East of Highway 101 sit biotech campuses and warehouses. West of it, Grand Avenue is an old-fashioned main street with taquerias, bakeries and family restaurants that feel nothing like a Peninsula boutique strip. In between are some of the more interesting meals north of Palo Alto, including a Basque dining room, a sandwich counter that dates to 1980 and Filipino bakeries in the Westborough hills.

This guide names only places we confirmed on their own websites, chain location pages or booking pages in early November 2026. We describe what each menu offers and the hours each site posts. Price notes are our rough read of posted menus. For Genentech, Sign Hill and the Oyster Point ferry, see our South San Francisco town guide.

How South City eats

• Downtown Grand Avenue runs west from the Caltrain station toward Spruce Avenue, with coffee, bakeries and lunch counters. Linden Avenue crosses it with more restaurants.
• Railroad Avenue, a few blocks south of Grand, holds the Basque Cultural Center.
• East of 101, around Oyster Point Boulevard and Airport Boulevard, restaurants serve the biotech crowd on weekdays.
• El Camino Real and Westborough, on the west side near the BART station, add sandwich shops, chains and Filipino bakeries.

A Basque dinner at Zazpi

Zazpi is the bar and restaurant inside the Basque Cultural Center at 599 Railroad Avenue. Zazpi means seven in Basque, a nod to the seven provinces of the Basque region on both sides of the French and Spanish border. The kitchen posts separate lunch, pintxos, dinner, prix fixe and dessert menus, plus a separate "Boarder's Lunch" menu. Its site lists lunch Tuesday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and dinner from 5 to 8:30 p.m. It is closed on Monday and takes reservations online. Our Spanish food and tapas guide covers pintxos closer to home.

Downtown: Grand and Linden

Dead Eye Coffee Bar

Dead Eye Coffee Bar has poured coffee in South City since 2018. It is easy to miss: the site says there is no sign on the door. Look for the brick building with large arched windows at 415 Grand Avenue, across from the City Hall steps. The counter is on your left inside. The drink it is named for is drip coffee with three shots of espresso. The menu leans on house syrups, including ube, pandan and a banana cream pie latte. It lists 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day, with online ordering on weekdays. See our coffee guide for Palo Alto cafes.

Andiamo in Banca

Andiamo in Banca at 301 Linden Avenue serves Italian-American food: steaks, chops and scratch pasta plus pizza and seafood. Its OpenTable page lists lunch Tuesday to Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and dinner Tuesday to Sunday from 4 to 9 p.m., with a 4 to 5 p.m. happy hour. A four-course tasting menu runs $65 to $95 per person. It was taking bookings for early November 2026.

East of the freeway

HL Peninsula

HL Peninsula Restaurant at 608 Dubuque Avenue sits just east of Highway 101 near the Caltrain station. It serves Cantonese dim sum and seafood. The group also runs two Burlingame restaurants, a Milpitas branch and a 28,000 square foot flagship in Castro Valley. Go early on weekends for dim sum. Our dim sum guide covers Palo Alto.

The Anecdote

The Anecdote at 348 Oyster Point Boulevard cooks dishes inspired by coastal regions around the world, such as smoked trout on a bagel at breakfast and bowls and sandwiches at lunch. It is a weekday place for the biotech crowd: the site lists Monday to Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and closed on weekends. Its mezzanine bar, bar a, runs happy hour on Tuesday and Thursday from 3 to 7 p.m.

Cafe de Casa

Cafe de Casa, a Brazilian cafe with two San Francisco shops, has a South San Francisco location at 1165 Airport Boulevard. Its page lists 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday to Saturday and closed on Sunday, with pickup and delivery.

El Camino Real and Westborough

Little Lucca has made sandwiches in South San Francisco since 1980. It builds them on bread from Boudin Bakery and spreads its signature garlic sauce on most of them. The tri-tip is the one it calls famous. The South City shop is on El Camino Real and a second shop is in Burlingame. Lines form at lunch, so order online ahead. Our sandwich guide covers Palo Alto delis.

Goldilocks, the Filipino bakeshop chain, has a Westborough store at 2268 Westborough Boulevard, Suite 306. Its location page lists 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekends. It sells cakes, breads and Filipino meals to go. Max's Restaurant, the Filipino restaurant chain, also takes pickup and delivery orders for its South San Francisco branch through its own ordering site. Our Filipino food guide explains the dishes.

Starbird lists a branch at 988 El Camino Real, Suite 2, for chicken sandwiches and tenders. Taqueria Mi Durango II takes online orders for its South San Francisco taqueria on the same stretch of El Camino Real.

A sample South City food crawl

1. Morning: Take Caltrain to South San Francisco and walk up Grand Avenue to Dead Eye for a pandan or ube latte.
2. Late morning: Walk Grand and Linden avenues to see the old downtown, then drive or ride a short way to El Camino Real for a Little Lucca sandwich to share.
3. Afternoon: Climb Sign Hill for the view or stop at Goldilocks in Westborough for Filipino cake to take home.
4. Dinner: Finish with pintxos and a prix fixe dinner at Zazpi on Railroad Avenue near downtown. Book ahead and skip Monday, when it is closed.

Getting there from Palo Alto

• Caltrain: South San Francisco station sits at the foot of Grand Avenue. It is a three-zone fare: $8.50 in October 2026 and $9.00 from January 1, 2027. An express took about 26 minutes and a local about 35 on the late October weekday timetable. Not every train stops. See our Caltrain guide.
• Driving: About 27 miles on Highway 101, 30 to 35 minutes outside rush hour. Use the Grand Avenue exit for downtown and the east side. Downtown parking is metered or time limited.
• Ferry note: The Oyster Point ferry is suspended November 1 to 30, 2026 for dredging and is expected back December 1.

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