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Best of the BayBest of the Bay 2024 Editors' Pick: Saluhall

Best of the Bay 2024 Editors’ Pick: Saluhall

The new Mid-Market food hall may be from Ikea, but offers a wealth of local offerings to warm up the city stretch.

48 Hills editors and writers are weighing in with their favorite things in the Bay Area as part of our 50th Best of the Bay. See more Editors’ Picks here, and tell us what you love in the Best of the Bay 2024 Readers’ Poll!

On April 11, when IKEA opened Saluhall—its first US food hall and cooking school, next to its San Francisco store on Market Street—the company was taking a chance on energizing a part of downtown that had seen better days. The department store itself had only been open since August.

Cinnamon roll at Smörgåsland in Saluhall. Photo by Tamara Palmer

The ground floor’s Smörgåsland swept in with swoonable pastries developed by Chef Claus Meyer, who co-founded the famous Noma restaurant in Copenhagen, while other entryway concepts offer vegan burgers and soft serve. The bakery is as good as any of the best in the city.

The real action takes place upstairs though, where there are DJs, a bar, and San Francisco food businesses with plant-forward menus. It’s the new home for Algerian eatery KAYMA, previously based at La Cocina Municipal Marketplace, which is now a private kitchen for the nonprofit food business accelerator, as well as the place to find a permanent stall for the MOMO Noodle and Curry Up Now food trucks, Oakland’s vegan Mexican restaurant La Venganza and the Bay Area’s only vegan Puerto Rican concept Casa Borinqueňa, also formerly from Oakland, on the west side of the Bay. And it’s an expertly designed calming space.

Vegan sampler plate by Casa Borinqueňa in Saluhall. Photo by Tamara Palmer

After just a few months in business, Saluhall has proven to be a valuable addition to the neighborhood as a gathering space for people who live, work, or are just passing through the area. That stretch of Market Street can still feel cold and desolate at times: a visiting New Yorker who I sent to Saluhall for coffee on the morning of the Skrillex and Fred Again rave at Civic Center admitted she didn’t feel very safe walking around during the day for too long, and was surprised at her own reaction.

Saluhall is offering more than coffee to start thawing that out and warming it up.

Saluhall, 945 Market Street, Suite 102, SF

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