The phrase new on Resy gets used very loosely in San Francisco. Plenty of restaurants filed under it are booking somewhere else entirely, and at least one that genuinely launched on Resy has since moved off it. Rather than a ranking, here is a chronological walk through the city's recent openings that are actually on the platform right now, in the order they opened, followed by the four names that get mis-listed most often and where they really take reservations.
New rooms are easiest to book in the two or three weeks before the first review lands, and that window closes without warning. Karpo watches the openings and tells you when one is still gettable.
March 2026: Rose Pizzeria, Inner Richmond
The Berkeley original expanded across the bridge in March 2026, taking the corner at 1 Clement Street. The San Francisco branch runs 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day, which is unusual for a Resy listing of any heat and makes it one of the very few new openings in town where a walk-up lunch is realistic. The pizzas lean Cal-Italian rather than strictly Neapolitan: stone-milled flour, local mozzarella, seasonal toppings that rotate, and a short natural wine list. If you want the quietest table, the gap between 2 and 5 p.m. is the whole point of a kitchen that never closes mid-afternoon.
Late June 2026: Esme, 311 Divisadero Street
Susan Dunn, previously of Pearl 6101, turned the old Ragazza space into a 32-seat French-inspired neighbourhood bistro that opened in late June 2026. The menu is deliberately unfussy: rillettes, steak frites, the kind of cooking Dunn picked up as a student in Paris rather than a tasting menu with ambitions. Esme serves Tuesday to Sunday from 5 to 9 p.m. and closes Mondays. The detail worth memorising is the walk-in policy: several tables and a five-seat counter are held back every night, and the room actively invites you to leave your name on the list if Resy shows nothing at your hour. A blank booking page here is not a closed door.
24 July 2026: SAAM, 415 Brannan Street
The biggest opening of the summer. Thitid Tassanakajohn, the Bangkok chef behind Le Du and Nusara, both Michelin-starred, opened his first restaurant outside Asia at 415 Brannan Street on 24 July 2026, in the former Sun and Moon space near China Basin. Saam means three in Thai, a reference to the trio running it: Tassanakajohn as executive chef, Tee Atthapon as general manager and Ty Choosuwan as chef de cuisine. The cooking is regional Thai built on Bay Area produce, with dishes like a charred tomato relish and a curry made with foraged cauliflower mushrooms. It landed on Resy's own August hit list within weeks of opening, which is the clearest signal that the easy-booking window is already narrowing.
Also this year: Song Wat, Lower Haight
Song Wat sits at 312 Divisadero Street, almost directly across from Esme, which makes that block one of the densest new-opening corners in the city. It is Thai, it is on Resy, and it is deliberately built for weeknights rather than occasions: plenty of booths and tables, a walk-in-friendly door policy, and a menu of pumpkin curry, crackly-edged corn cakes and omelettes dressed with house hot sauce. If the Resy page for Esme is empty, crossing the street is a genuinely good plan B rather than a consolation.
The odd one: Folklore, Financial District
Folklore is the strangest thing currently bookable on Resy in San Francisco. It is a ten-seat tasting salon in the Financial District that publishes no address and no public menu; the location arrives with your confirmation. Seatings run Thursday to Saturday, starting at 6 p.m. with the last at 8:30 p.m., and the dinner is prepaid at an all-inclusive rate of roughly $500 a head with pairings, with a lower member price. The same team runs a coffee tasting on Fridays and Saturdays at $80 a head plus a 15 percent service charge, also prepaid through Resy. Treat both as tickets rather than reservations, because that is exactly what they are.
Four names that are not on Resy
These four appear on new-on-Resy lists constantly and none of them is bookable there. The Happy Crane, chef James Yeun Leong Parry's modern Chinese room at 451 Gough Street in Hayes Valley, books through OpenTable and serves Tuesday to Saturday from 5 to 9 p.m., closed Sunday and Monday. Arquet, the Ferry Building restaurant from Sorrel chef Alex Hong that opened on 17 October 2025 in the old Slanted Door space, is also OpenTable, serves dinner Wednesday to Sunday from 5 to 9 p.m., and releases each new date at midnight, 30 days out. Restaurant Naides at 708 Bush Street is Tock only: $235 a person plus a 20 percent service charge, prepaid, released in monthly batches, closed Monday and Tuesday, and now in the Michelin Guide's 2026 California selection. And Side A, the Mission bistro at 2814 19th Street, did launch on Resy in May 2025, but its own site now sends bookings to SevenRooms; it opens at 4 p.m. Monday, Thursday and Sunday, runs to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and operates as a Coffee Movement cafe from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on weekdays.
How to be early next time
Resy maintains its own Bay Area new-openings page and refreshes it every few weeks; the version behind this piece was updated on 13 August 2026. Reading it the week it changes is the cheapest edge available, because a new room is usually bookable for two or three weeks before the first serious review lands and then is not. Set Notify rather than refreshing, take the 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. edges of service instead of fighting for 7:30, and check the restaurant's own site before you assume a listing is current. The gap between what a guide says and what a booking button does is where most lost evenings happen.
Several of these openings lead with natural wine lists or built-in pairings. If you are working through one, please drink responsibly and sort your ride home before you sit down.
Tags: #SanFrancisco #Resy #NewOpenings #SAAM #Esme #Folklore #SongWat #RosePizzeria #SFRestaurants #HiddenGems
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Ask Karpo first
Opening dates, booking platforms and service hours for brand-new restaurants move constantly, and this category ages faster than any other. Four of the names most commonly listed as new on Resy in San Francisco are not on Resy at all, and one of them changed platforms after launch. Before you set an alert or drive across town, ask Karpo which app the restaurant is using today, what time its tables drop, and whether it is open that night.
