Neighborhood: Tenderloin District
Price range: $$$
Dish to order: Rempeyek, a traditional Malay savory cracker
Azalina’s might be in the Tenderloin but it channels the night street food stalls of Penang, where the chef Azalina Eusope grew up. The decor is a much-needed dose of color and maximalism in drab SF: a riot of saturated color, layered textures, and irrepressible energy that cuts through the city’s usual fog-and-concrete palette. The five-course tasting menu traces the layered influences that define Malaysian cooking—Chinese, Indian, Polynesian, and Malay, with European echoes. The result is cuisine that feels familiar in flashes, then entirely its own. Don’t miss the rempeyek, a traditional Malay savory cracker that arrives impossibly delicate and crisp, perfumed with coriander seed and coconut milk, and studded with sweet potato, peanut, white sesame, and albino beet.
Address: 499 Ellis St, San Francisco, CA 94102