Where can I find information on nearby restaurants, including those with private dining spaces?

The best general resource for finding restaurants in the US is Yelp. Yelp is a search engine for restaurants (along with other businesses) that includes photos, reviews, and the ability to narrow your search by details such as price point, business hours, or the location having a TV.

For commentary regarding restaurants, Eater (https://sf.eater.com) is invaluable. Their “Essential 38” and “Heat Map” lists, updated quarterly, are a tremendous resource for finding restaurants that will dazzle your visiting colleagues, friends, or business partners.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, the San Francisco Chronicle’s Restaurant Critic, Michael Bauer, is the ultimate judge of which restaurants will be successful or not. An unimpressive review from Bauer has led to the demise of many promising restaurants. His commentary can be found here: https://www.sfchronicle.com/author/michael-bauer.

Beyond the abundance of amazing food and beverages we have in Silicon Valley, there are a handful of tech-forward places that are worth checking out. These include:

• CafeX: Coffee bar with robots acting as baristas (San Francisco)

• Eatsa: Quinoa and breakfast bowls ordered and delivered using technology (San Francisco)

• Creator Burger: Burgers cooked and assembled by a robotic machine (San Francisco)

• Zume Pizza: Pizza created by robots with delivery options (Mountain View)

It is recommended to make a reservation whenever a restaurant accepts reservations. On the restaurant’s website, they will often provide a phone number or a link to make a reservation. Apps that are commonly used by restaurants and diners to make reservations include OpenTable, Reserve, Resy, and Yelp.

Also, by going to OpenTable and selecting “Larger Party” for your reservation size, you will see a list of restaurants with private dining rooms that are in the OpenTable network. You can click on a restaurant to see all of their private dining options (by default, you will only be shown their largest private dining room option in the search results). You will need to contact the restaurant to make this private dining room reservation, which you can do directly through the OpenTable website.