My LA friend helped me make piece with my food sadness in SF (I think other than a handful of things I don’t have a great time eating there), he said think of SF as Santa Monica or Beverley Hills. Maybe a few things (like Atelier Crenn) are amazing but it’s low on good and mid range options. Oakland / Fremont / Milpitas / San Jose is like San Gabriel Valley, where you can get endless great immigrant foods and nice restaurants also.
I think he’s right. A lot of SF food has ossified and gentrified and it just isn’t .. fun, or good, outside of a handful of places that I love.