Exploring the Outer Sunset

Set in the converted garage of a nondescript two-story Sunset home, Toyose serves spicy Korean food to a 20-something crowd that appreciates quality, late-night dining (it's open till 2am) and loves the insider cache that comes with the covert location.

The name may be forgettable, but the Pizza Place makes up for it with dishes like sweet-potato steak fries and thin-crust broccoli-tomato pizza, great cocktails and $10 pitchers of PBR--perfect for a post-surf pigout-and-swig session.

There are easier places to get a table than Cajun Pacific, but it's worth the effort. The size of a shoebox and only open Thursday through Saturday, the Louisiana kitchen plays to a packed house thanks to dishes like New Orleans barbecue shrimp and the po?boy and gumbo.

Driftwood, seashells and weathered wood make this restaurant look like something that washed up on the beach, and its warm, welcoming ambiance and stellar food--the "eggs in Jail" are a must-try--make cold, foggy days in the avenues seem not so bad.

Breakfast at this diner feels like a visit to a bygone era. Photos of Elvis, John Wayne and other heroes of yesteryear hang above booths covered in cracked vinyl, and the juke box (10 songs for $1!) plays plenty of Sinatra. The food is typical greasy-spoon fare--eggs in all their incarnations, pancake short stacks--but the low prices are a nice throwback, too.

The glitziest place for miles around, Thanh Long is definitely the only place in the Outer Sunset with valet service, and it gets a mixed crowd of families, couples and special-occasion diners, most of whom are there for one thing and one thing only: Thanh's famous roasted-garlic crab.

Unlike many of its neighboring watering holes, the Riptide isn't a neighborhood dive--it's a destination in itself. This surf-centric honky-tonk has specials every night, with live music on the weekends, trivia Tuesdays and free home-cooked food on Fridays.

Windowless but well-lit with a tight-knit-but-friendly crew of locals, Flanahan's is a neighborhood dive bar where outsiders can easily settle in. There are no Irish beers at this supposedly Irish bar, but Flanahan's does carry four kinds of absinthe.

Low-key locals jostle with sustainable-coffee-loving hipsters at this tiny cafe, but the thick hunks of cinnamon toast and freshly cut coconut Trouble is famous for keep everyone happy, and the coffee is the best you're going to find in the Sunset.

Dark and musty with Jethro Tull on the juke, Pittsburgh's Pub is the Taj Mahal of dive bars. A hardcore local crew calls ?The Pitt? home and it's not uncommon to find the barkeep pouring brews when they open at 8am. The fireplace with a raised hearth is the warmest seat in the house, and a single solitary booth in the corner is perfect for all kinds of shadowy debauchery, while pool tables, pinball machines and an arcade game offer more wholesome entertainment.