Dalida

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

A Story Rooted in Istanbul, Told in San Francisco

Dalida sits inside The Presidio, a national park site on the Main Post of San Francisco — a setting that shapes the restaurant as much as the food does. The concept draws on the hospitality and layered culture of the Eastern Mediterranean: Turkish, Greek, Armenian, Jewish, Arabic, and Persian influences folded into one another, much as they once were in Istanbul, the city that was Constantinople. San Francisco, also built on seven hills and long accustomed to welcoming people from everywhere, turns out to be a fitting place to tell that story.

The guiding principle at the table is "little little in the middle" — an invitation to order an assortment of mezes, share them freely, and let conversation take its time.

Chef Laura Ozyilmaz

Executive Chef Laura Ozyilmaz arrived at Dalida with a résumé that spans continents and kitchens. Originally from Mexico, she trained at Centro Culinario Ambrosia in Mexico City before continuing at the Culinary Institute of America in New York. She went on to work at Café Boulud, Mugaritz in San Sebastian, Eleven Madison Park, and Del Posto, and later joined Saison's team in San Francisco. In 2017, she and her husband Sayat launched Istanbul Modern, a pop-up that laid the groundwork for what Dalida would become. She was recognized as a rising star chef for her restaurant Noosh in 2019.

Shortly after Dalida opened, Ozyilmaz competed in season 21 of Bravo's Top Chef, reaching the final four with dishes that included a hop-infused rice pudding and a dessert spread built around maraş, baklava, and meringue — a glimpse of the Eastern Mediterranean sensibility she brings to the kitchen every day.

The Drinks Program

The wine list has grown to more than four hundred bottles, focused on small-production family wineries that farm thoughtfully and intervene minimally. Some bottles are made from grape varieties that exist nowhere else in the world. Wine Spectator recognized the program with its Best of Award of Excellence in 2025 — a distinction that reflects both the depth of the list and the care with which it was assembled.

The bar program, led by Evan Williams, carries the same east-meets-west logic. Cocktails are built with Eastern Mediterranean ingredients — spices, yogurts, preserved fruits — alongside foraged aromatics gathered from the Presidio itself: eucalyptus, rose geranium, yerba buena.

Sustainability and Place

Because Dalida leases its space from the Presidio, proceeds from the restaurant support the national park site. The team sources from nearby farms, works with local artists on the interior, and composts food waste back into the park's own community garden — where the chefs grow some of their own ingredients. Spent walnuts from homemade nocino get candied; juiced limes become stock. The Mediterranean kitchen's tradition of using everything finds a natural home here.