Foreign Cinema - Brunch

Open since 1999, Foreign Cinema restaurant has garnered local, national and international acclaim as a quintessentially San Francisco dining experience. We offer a daily changing California/Mediterranean-inspired menu in an industrial chic setting located in the heart of the bustling Mission district. Dinner is served nightly as well as weekend brunch both Saturday and Sunday.

Gayle Pirie and John Clark are two highly original talents who have been deeply involved in the competitive and innovative ferment of the San Francisco restaurant scene for over two decades. Long standing tenures at Zuni Cafe and Chez Panisse earned them critical approval for the purity, quality and consistency of their cuisine. Pirie and Clark then developed a restaurant consulting practice to create restaurant concepts and designs for a diverse and adventurous set of clients in North America, Asia, and Canada. They spent nearly two years in Hong Kong developing two new restaurants, and have traveled widely in Europe and Asia researching locally produced and artisinal ingredients. In 2001 the duo took over the kitchen of Foreign Cinema and implemented an ever changing Mediterranean influenced menu and full oyster bar, earning the restaurant three stars from The San Francisco Chronicle and six consecutive "Top 100" rankings as well as rave reviews from the New York Times, Gourmet, Cosmopolitan, The Examiner, SF Weekly, and San Francisco Magazine. They have published two cookbooks, Country Egg, City Egg in 2000 and Bride and Groom, just published in 2006.



Foreign Cinema's house made organic huckleberry "Pop Tarts"

Smoked salmon, grapefruit, jicama, cress, crème fraiche, Marash pepper


Cowgirl Creamery's Fromage Blanc: summer melon, mint, toasted hazelnuts



Fried eggs deglazed with balsamic, rose potato-roasted garlic hash, tender greens


Croque Monsieur: Parisian ham & Gruyere toasted sandwich, French fries


Two poached eggs: grilled duck breast, warm salad greens, croutons, currants, shitakes, sherry



Foreign Cinema's chicken-apple sausages

Slow-cooked brown sugar smoked bacon