Mission, San Francisco · restaurant
An open-air courtyard behind a blank Mission facade where films project on whitewashed brick at dusk — Foreign Cinema has been running this since 1999, and the room still fills without coasting on nostalgia. The California-Mediterranean menu changes daily with what’s in season: oysters from the raw bar, the perennial Madras curry-sesame fried chicken, and plates that shift fast enough to justify returning often. Weekend brunch in the same courtyard is its own draw.