For many years, if you wanted the best Indian food, you had to drive down to the South Bay. Thankfully, there’s been a shift in recent years with a slew of exciting openings, including the Marina’s Indian tasting-menu spot Tiya, the elegant Union Square destination Bombay Brasserie, and South Indian sensation Copra in San Francisco.
Star chef Srijith Gopinathan is behind the latter and says the last few years have shown him that it’s the right time to open restaurants most personal to him. San Franciscans will know him as the longtime chef behind Union Square’s Campton Place, where he was one of the rare Indian chefs to lead a two-MICHELIN-Starred restaurant.
But eventually, he felt a calling from his coastal roots in the southern Indian state of Kerala and wanted to showcase the flavors and ingredients from there. “Copra is so personal to me,” Gopinathan says. “I’ve done fancy to fast casual, but this is one of those restaurants where I could fearlessly bring my mom. It’s the real story of my food.”
Read on to see how Copra in San Francisco is part of an exciting new time for Indian restaurants in the Bay Area, and make a booking on OpenTable.
A formidable restaurant group takes shape
Even before he opened Copra, Gopinathan had connected with restaurateur Ayesha Thapar and the duo began planting the seeds for a string of successful restaurant openings. They debuted Cal-Indian restaurant Ettan in Palo Alto in 2020, which received raves for its creative menu and interiors and a James Beard semifinalist nod for Gopinathan.
They followed it up with Los Altos fast-casual spot Little Blue Door in 2022, which became a go-to destination inside State Street Market for its butter chicken. Gopinathan and Thapar debuted Copra in San Francisco’s Fillmore District in early 2023 and almost immediately it became one of the most sought-after reservations in town.
The jewel in the crown
While all of their restaurants are distinct, Copra feels the most personal to Gopinathan, where dishes from his home state Kerala, as well as neighboring state Tamil Nadu (where he grew up), and Sri Lanka, come to your table. Within its first two years, the restaurant had already made it into the MICHELIN Guide, received a glowing review from the SF Chronicle, been named Robb Report’s best new restaurant in America in 2023, and earned a James Beard semifinalist nod for Gopinathan.
Make sure you get at least some of the staples when you’re there next, like the street food-inspired rasam puri, the fragrant black cod wrapped in banana leaves, and the basil seed-studded coconut dessert called “God’s own.” And return for the seasonal hits, including the current black pepper Dungeness crab and Goan-style hamachi collars.
Plus, it feels all the more special when you’re eating it in one of the most beautiful spaces in the city that’s done up with hanging ropes and climbing plants. Thapar has a sharp eye for design, and she’s constantly refining the space. The restaurant now celebrates seven different Indian festivals throughout the year, crafting special menus and colorful decorations for Diwali, Onam, and more.
On to the next hit
Gopinathan and Thapar debuted their latest restaurant Eylan in Menlo Park in January, and it’s given the chef a chance to dig deeper into the wood-fired cooking from his youth. He mixes that with plenty of inspiration from the Bay Area in dishes like pineapple kebabs brushed with chili marmalade, jalapeno naan cooked on the grill, and butter chicken reimagined with roasted tomatillos.
You can look forward to all of those dishes, plus yet another restaurant with stunning interiors. Thapar went a little more glam and Art Deco, filling the dining room with geometric floors, a green quartzite bar, and brass details, along with three olive trees and lots of live plants. Massive windows flood the space with light.
Five years after they launched their first restaurant together, Gopinathan has been thrilled to see that the Bay Area continues to be hungry for more regional Indian cooking. He’s warmed by the first-generation diners who come in craving the foods they’ve been missing from Bangalore and Chennai and the second-generation kids excited to see their family dishes showcased on such a grand scale in the Bay Area. “I always thought San Franciscans were very welcoming,” Gopinathan says. “But the reception we got at Copra—unbelievable.”
Becky Duffett is a food writer living and eating in San Francisco. Her work has appeared in Bon Appétit, EatingWell, The New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Eater SF, and Edible SF.
