The Richmond is San Francisco's other Chinatown, its old Russian quarter, and its quietest great eating district all at once — and it never bothered to pick one identity. The walk runs the length of Clement Street and over to Geary, through more cuisines than most cities manage in total.
Start where Clement gets going near Arguello: dim sum windows, produce crates on the sidewalk, egg tarts cooling in bakery glass. This is the working food street, the one the tour buses skip, so eat as you walk. Green Apple Books breaks up the grazing — floors of new and used stock, the kind of independent that survives by being genuinely good. Keep west and the kitchens shade from Cantonese to Burmese to Russian inside a single block.
Then up to Geary for the Holy Virgin Cathedral, five gold onion domes standing against the fog — the heart of the old émigré quarter, with black-bread bakeries and Cyrillic bookshops along the boulevard. Carry on until the avenues meet the green wall of the Presidio, then turn back for the 38-Geary. The fog usually arrives before you do.
