Forkelo ranking · Updated November 2026
10 panang curries across San Francisco, ranked on what people say about the dish itself — never the restaurant's overall rating.
New Thai Elephant · North Beach
53 dish-specific mentions · 89% positive · 2 source types · menu verified November 2026
A crowd-pleasing panang that diners call delicious and good value, including duck and vegetarian builds. Some bowls have come out watery or oily.
Farmhouse Kitchen Thai Cuisine · Mission
68 dish-specific mentions · 93% positive · 2 source types · menu verified November 2026
A braised bone-in short rib so tender it falls off the bone, in a rich panang sauce with blue rice. The recurring complaint is the price, not the cooking.
The ThongLor SF - Thai Restaurant · Lower Nob Hill / Union Square
39 dish-specific mentions · 87% positive · 2 source types · menu verified November 2026
Downtown panang that admirers call the best they have had, rich and coconutty with a bright lime-leaf edge. Some find it less creamy or balanced than hoped.
Sriracha Thai Cuisine · Inner Sunset
33 dish-specific mentions · 82% positive · 2 source types · menu verified November 2026
A sweet, flavorful pa naeng with peas, carrot and basil that several diners rank among the best. Others call it ordinary, a little thin or small.
31 dish-specific mentions · 87% positive · 2 source types · menu verified November 2026
Panang built on stewed beef short ribs that diners call tender, flavorful and generously sauced. A few find the sauce heavy and one-note.
Khob Khun Thai cuisine & breakfast · Inner Richmond
23 dish-specific mentions · 78% positive · 2 source types · menu verified November 2026
Diners praise a consistent, perfectly spicy panang with big portions. Critics find it heavy and too sweet, with frozen-tasting vegetables.
Patpong Thai Cuisine · San Francisco
20 dish-specific mentions · 80% positive · 2 source types · menu verified November 2026
A flavorful, well-balanced panang that regulars call a favorite. The knocks are skimpy meat for the price and underdone bell peppers on some orders.
Thai Spice · Polk Gulch
13 dish-specific mentions · 77% positive · 2 source types · menu verified November 2026
Fans call the panang phenomenal, with good meat and a peanut-forward sauce that is not too coconutty. Expect real heat, even when ordered mild.
Thai Cottage Restaurant · Outer Sunset
10 dish-specific mentions · 90% positive · 2 source types · menu verified November 2026
A small but uniformly warm chorus calls this pa-naeng authentic, deliciously spicy and big on flavor.
29 dish-specific mentions · 72% positive · 2 source types · menu verified November 2026
Fans praise a generous, flavorful panang with a good sauce. Critics, some recent, find it too salty and closer to plain red curry than a peanut-rich panang.
Every score is built from evidence about the specific dish: how often locals recommend it, how strongly, how recently, and whether independent sources agree. A restaurant's overall star rating is never converted into a dish score.
Quality and confidence are reported separately. A dish two people loved can score high, but it is marked limited data until more evidence backs it up. The whole calculation — every constant, and three dishes worked through line by line — is written out on the methodology page.
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