as for Chinese restaurants, a favorite of ours is called Gourmet Carousel and they cook very well, only the restaurant itself is not that nice, in fact it's a bit of a dump. Definitely check out the northbeach area at night as it is the lively hip italian neighborhood with nice restaurants and cafes. BART is very convenient and if you are only in the downtown/city area muni is fine, but bart operates into the night I believe their website has the schedule up