Colibri Mexican Bistro Review: My Favorite Presidio Brunch

There’s a version of a perfect San Francisco morning I keep re-running: park in the lot on Moraga Avenue, walk under the Presidio’s big dark trees until the Golden Gate Bridge does its little reveal, then land at a patio table while a molcajete of guacamole makes its way over.

Colibri Mexican Bistro is my number one brunch in San Francisco — it lives inside the Presidio’s historic Officers’ Club at 50 Moraga Ave, and brunch runs Saturdays and Sundays from 10:30am to 3pm. The rest of the week it’s a lunch-and-dinner situation, so aim your weekend at it.

What to Order at Colibri

My order, straight off the receipt from our last visit: the guacamole with its handmade tortilla chips, the chilaquiles (verdes or rojos, crowned with two over-easy eggs — we add the pollo), plátanos con crema for the table, and a dulce limonada, exactly the kind of drink this sober girl shows up for. Damage: about $94 for two, well-fed and unhurried.

The catch: brunch is weekends only, and on event days the easy parking stops being easy — the paid lot out front fills up when something big is happening at the Main Parade Ground. On a normal weekend, you walk right in.

Make It a Presidio Morning

Colibri sits on the Main Post, which puts the whole Presidio on your before-or-after list. The Ecology Trail starts practically behind the Officers’ Club and climbs to Inspiration Point, Lovers’ Lane runs its straight, tree-lined 0.6 miles down to the Presidio Gate, and if you keep walking toward the water you get the full Golden Gate Bridge panorama along the way. On Sundays from roughly spring through fall, the Off the Grid food trucks take over the Main Parade Ground lawn next door, so brunch can bookend a very unserious food crawl.

And when the fog does its August thing: the patio has heaters, so the outdoor tables stay in play even on a chilly San Francisco summer day. There’s a big, open indoor room too, and I’ve never seen the place truly slammed. It’s where I take family and friends first, every time.

The Verdict on Colibri

• Best for: Weekend brunch plus a Presidio walk · taking visiting family somewhere idyllic
• My order: Guacamole, chilaquiles, plátanos con crema, a dulce limonada
• Damage: ~$94 for two
• Brunch hours: Saturday & Sunday, 10:30am–3pm
• Where: 50 Moraga Ave, the Presidio (Google Maps) · colibrimexicanbistro.com

Colibri holds the top spot on my best brunch in San Francisco list — the rest of the contenders, from Clement Street pancakes to Turkish spreads on Fillmore, live there. The wider map is in my best restaurants in San Francisco guide.

For more of where I actually eat, start with the best restaurants in San Francisco — and subscribe to my newsletter if you want the new reviews (plus my writing life) in your inbox. I spent five years rating restaurants around the world in my travel guides — now the fork points at my own city.