San Francisco’s Kothai Republic, a neighborhood restaurant dedicated to modern interpretations of Asian cuisine, is packed at 7 p.m. on a recent balmy evening. This wouldn’t be surprising on a Friday or Saturday night. However, this particular night is a Wednesday, which makes the lively scene a bit more rare.
By the front door of the 3-year-old Inner Sunset restaurant, two women share stories about their daughters over translucent, kombu-cured crudo. A family of five, by the corner window, celebrates a birthday as they all take turns pulling the flesh from a whole butterflied branzino. And I’m having a remarkably tender lamb shank cooked in a Sichuan peppercorn sauce that is paired with delicate and buttery roti.
As one of the latest neighborhood restaurants, Kothai Republic is a perfect representation of the new wave of stellar food businesses in and around the Ninth Avenue and Irving Street corridor.
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Right now, the Inner Sunset is arguably the hottest neighborhood for new, fantastic eats in the city. And yet, there’s a connection with the longtime businesses that still remain too, making it a quintessential neighborhood that is built to last.
“While it’s rooted in this old-school west side of San Francisco kind of umbrella, along with the Outer Sunset and the Richmond district, they have that native San Franciscan mentality to them,” MoMo’s owner Scott Morton told SFGATE. He lives nearby and frequents Fiorella and other restaurants a lot with his family. As such, he’s wanted to open a new business in the Inner Sunset for years, and he recently announced plans to unveil Maggie & Mac’s, a neighborhood bar and grill concept coming next spring. “There’s a burgeoning, younger element to the Inner Sunset that I find really intriguing. You have both of these universes kind of cross-pollinating on a Venn diagram, and it feels really unique to that area.”
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San Francisco’s Inner Sunset truly is the center of a Venn diagram, as Morton said. On one hand, there are age-old restaurants and bars that have withstood the test of time, such as the 132-year-old Little Shamrock at 807 Lincoln Way. It’s a cozy place to play backgammon or read a book in an old Victorian-era lounge chair. Its most famous patron, an elderly man named “Val,” has his spot reserved at the bar nightly with a hand-painted office nameplate; he will change the channel on the TV to whatever he’s in the mood for, and you’ll be better for it. Around the corner, the venerable Marnee Thai, which is known for its earthy panang beef, crispy angel chicken wings, creamy coconut cakes and more, has been around for about 40 years and is still one of the area’s best restaurants.
But over the last two years, the Inner Sunset neighborhood has seen an influx of new food businesses enter the fray. All kinds, too. The Bay Area-based burger mini chain Super Duper opened up shop in November 2024; everyone’s favorite casual salad joint Mixt, another chain, opened a store in May 2025. Burgeoning local grocer Luke’s Local opened its fourth outpost here in May 2025. Even smaller businesses, such as the seafood-centric Cachè and the aforementioned Kothai Republic, are betting on this bustling neighborhood.
“The Ninth Avenue corridor is a real artery of that whole side of the city with direct access to Golden Gate Park,” Luke Oppenheim, the owner of Luke’s Local, told SFGATE. “But I think even more important than that is it’s a long-standing community of families, and now a younger generation are starting families there now too. That’s always the kind of community we want to be in.”
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The vibes these new hot spots bring are great for the entire business community. Marnee Thai co-owner Kasidit Siriyarn has seen a change in the neighborhood this last year that has been a real help coming out of the pandemic.
“There’s definitely a shift in clientele because San Francisco is constantly changing, and there’s a good amount of our older customers that have moved out of the neighborhood,” Siriyarn told SFGATE in an interview. He thinks the addition of Luke’s Local and Mixt are great for Ninth Avenue. “Hopefully, they’ll add extra foot traffic to the area and make the neighborhood more interesting so people will want to visit. When new restaurants enter the area, it helps to keep things fresh.”
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Little Shamrock co-owner Tavahn Ghazi feels similarly.
“Having Luke’s Local and other new restaurants enter the Inner Sunset is definitely a positive, especially as we keep seeing businesses close and a lot of ‘for lease’ signs up. Empty storefronts are never positive for business — or for the social flow of a neighborhood,” he told SFGATE. “Having options (like Cachè or Mixt) is good because you get return clientele from people who don’t live in the neighborhood who want to come back to try new things. And then there’s crossover and business gets shared.”
So why has this corridor become so popular for new businesses? One likely reason is those young new families who have moved into the neighborhood, as Oppenheim noted. Homes on the west side of the city have usually been cheaper relative to the rest of the city. In the summer of 2024, there was a significant dip in median home prices for the Inner Sunset, according to online real estate company Redfin. Even now, at a $2 million median price as of this month, according to Compass Real Estate, it’s still among the city’s least expensive areas to purchase a home.
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Ghazi believes the shift is a positive for the neighborhood.
“I’ve been happy to see fast turnarounds for many of the businesses that have closed in the neighborhood because the longer the lease signs stay in the window, the more people start to take notice that that may be connected to other factors that just don’t look good and function the way a healthy neighborhood should,” he said.
This turnaround for a neighborhood that is sometimes considered “quiet” is not totally unexpected. It’s just part of the evolving nature of a neighborhood. As a born-and-bred San Franciscan, I think it’s been outstanding for me to see new life in such a beloved part of the city.
My favorites still remain, such as Art’s Cafe, the Yellow Submarine, San Tung and Arizmendi Bakery, to name a few. But I now have new favorites too. Kothai Republic truly is serving inspired food. It’s the perfect balance of delicious, creative cuisine in an unassuming, almost bare-bones space. (There is no art on the walls, and the open kitchen lends itself to mouthwatering smells). The locals have already seemed to make it a nightly destination.
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And the charm of the neighborhood still remains. It’s not like new tech money came in and destroyed what was already there. The old man playing his erhu on the corner of Ninth Avenue and Irving Street is still making bops. The streets are full of energy as both tourists and locals check out Misdirections Magic Shop before a meal at the posh new Cachè or a scoop from Hometown Creamery.
“Thankfully, we have good neighbors moving in and keeping the Inner Sunset vibrant,” Little Shamrock co-owner Ghazi said. “Luckily, [needing a cold beverage] hasn’t gone out of style, no matter how people or times have changed. So our plan is to continue doing the exact same thing as we have and to welcome our new neighbors happily in order to continue to be a small part of why this neighborhood is so special in this city.”