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Zuni Café San Francisco Reviews
HAPPY PRIDE!
Dinner on Pride Sunday was a great experience! I can't remember our server's name, but she was super fun and took very good care of us. We shared some starters, had the Cesar salad, duck legs, steak, and finished with the chicken. The chicken is an absolute must. Great wine and cocktails. We snagged the last piece of basque cheesecake and I'm so glad we did. ZUNI is a must for locals and visitors, and there's a reason it's been open for 45 years.
There was plenty of oysters, chicken and white wine
Zuni Cafe is a French restaurant, and that is almost all you need to know. French cuisine almost never misses. It is uncanny. I have been fortunate enough to visit Paris twice as a young tourist on a modest budget, and I could never find mediocre food. It is just not allowed. Of course, San Francisco is not in France. But its reverence for the culinary arts is not only evident, but it often matches the meals that are produced across the pond. The roasted chicken for two, and the Zuni Caesar salad are perfect choices after you begin with bread, cheese and oysters.
A rare negative review for me. Don't go.
Very mixed bag with the food, inexperienced service, noisy and overpriced. What else could be wrong. We live in the bay area and visited for a special dinner for a party of 5. We ordered the famous chicken as well as two of the seafood offerings and the lamb + several starters. The salad and white asparagus were good, the ling cod OK and the rest almost inedible. Our server was very nice - but largely not helpful. He admitted to knowing nothing about the wine list. We had one vegan diner - he could provide no information about what choices might be available. She eventually ordered after the waiter made repeated trips to the kitchen. We even tried the desserts (for a couple of our party in search of something "good"). The blood orange sorbet was a hit - otherwise "meh". Don't go.
Abominable
Managed to get reservations for a Tuesday night for my wife’s birthday. Busy, but did not seem overly busy for the number of tables available. Early pressure to order everything at once. Wanted cocktails first, then starters a salad and the the main course. Wait staff seemed disjointed…wanted us to order everything initially. Ordered cocktails which were OK. Ordered Oysters which were OK. Ordered main meal. After more than 30 minutes (while we saw later arriving diners get their entrees) we still did not get our order. Spoke to the server who said “the kitchen was very busy”. This was not a reasonable excuse. I said we needed our entrees promptly in the next few minutes or I needed to speak to the manager. After a few more minutes the manager came and told us he only found out about the delay. Poor organization. He said the food was “being plated” . After another delay, no food arrived. I refused to pay anything for such terrible service! No matter how busy the restaurant is/was this should not be the excuse for shoddy service. The food may be great, but if the service is terrible it counter-acts the “top 25 restaurants in San Francisco” as touted by the New York Times. Unable to comment on the food at this restaurant. Find it difficult to want to return here and the taxi fare paid to get here
Real gem
Great dinner! We loved the interesting food choices, the gnocchi was the best. The service was very very good, and the light and airy restaurant was very relaxing. A real gem.
Don’t go out of your way
2:15 pm lunch on a Wednesday in July. It’s a quiet time. We sat at a 2 top by the window that was not very comfortable. Peppers on the on the plancha were excellent. Wild salmon was delicious. It seems the lunch menu was much smaller then the sample, but it could be the time of year or day of the week. The wine list was decent with several .375 to choose from. It’s a decent spot with a good location and history. Not memorable…
Interesting space, great food
Zuni has lots of eating spaces on multiple levels, which gives a large restaurant an intimate feel. The service, food, and wine were all excellent, and the staff was very accommodating finding space for us several hours before our late-night dinner reservation -- always worth calling and asking. This place was recommended by a local for a "special" meal, and we weren't disappointed.
Famous chicken!
We shared the famous chicken dish, and really enjoyed it. The service was attentive and moved our appetizers and drinks along at a good pace before our chicken was ready, as it does take an hour. It was a nice atmosphere and very high quality food. This restaurant also has a decent half-bottle wine selection, which was great and not something I see very often as someone whose spouse cannot drink for medical reasons.
Kitchen, excellent; service, meh
Finally made a long-anticipated visit to the Zuni Cafe late on a weekday afternoon while passing through San Francisco. The dining rooms are bright and lively, and the servers are nattily attired, but after a warm welcome at the entrance, service was pretty chilly. The numerous waiters who served our table seemed in a hurry to get us out of there (the restaurant was not busy). We'd had the appetizers -- a plate of olives and fantastic slices of sourdough bread with fresh butter -- for about three minutes when our entrees were pushed onto the table. The burger was excellent, and a entree Caesar salad was lemony and delicious. Might have lingered for dessert or another glass of wine had the service been a little more gracious. The bill for our table of two came with a 20 percent service charge already added.
Choose another place, this Cafe is highly over rated
Sorry, but the famous chicken was dry and flavorless. I am not joking when I say that the $5 chicken at Costco is significantly better. The waiter was pleasant and a joy. However, the food is highly over rated. We had the shoestring potatoes to fill the 1 hour wait for the chicken. Because the potatoes are thin, they cool within a couple of minutes. My wife does not drink, so she had a lemonade. I had a glass of wine. No dessert, and the bill was $184. Outrageous for this.
What do people see in this restaurant?!
We were really looking forward to visiting this restaurant so many people and press had recommended. However not only were we very disappointed with the quality of the food, but we both got sick! We decided to forgo the chicken and got fish and certainly cannot say that it was good. Major disappointment!
Home.
Always a pleasure to be here for the last 30+ years. Great food and incredible service. You, along myself, help shape San Francisco ;)
Connect with users posting reservations for Zuni Café San Francisco
AppointmentTrader is a community-driven platform where users can exchange their reservations or leverage their personal relationships with Zuni Café San Francisco. Buyers can make informed decisions using automated seller ratings, which reflect past transactions and reliability.
Each posting on AppointmentTrader shows you which user submitted it and along with that provides a trackrecord of that user which indicates how much experience
the user has and how many percent of their transactions resulted in them issuing a refund.
If there is no user posting that fits your schedule, you can bid on your preferred time.
Let's say Peter has a great morning and decides to take his three friends to Zuni Café San Francisco at 6 PM the same day.
He checks the restaurant's website and sees that no reservations are available. He then looks at the Zuni Café San Francisco page on AppointmentTrader, but finds that there are no user postings either.
That's where the community-driven bid process comes in.
Peter can place a bid on AppointmentTrader, which serves as a reward for any community member who chooses to work on securing the reservation. AT then notifies experienced users who may be able to help.
Step-by-Step Process
1.) Setting a Reward (Bid)
* AppointmentTrader uses historical data to recommend a reasonable reward amount for securing a reservation - let's say $100.
* Peter really wants to go, so he increases the bid (or reward) to $200.
* At this stage, the reservation does not exist yet.
2.) A Community User Picks Up the Bid
* DistinguishedTree58, an experienced AT user, has a strong track record of successfully securing reservations and low refund requests, they receive a notification about Peter's bid.
* DistinguishedTree58 picks up the bid, meaning they will now work on securing the reservation.
* Peter can now talk to DistinguishedTree58 for any questions Peter may have as DistinguishedTree58 user fills the bid.
3.) Finding the Reservation
* DistinguishedTree58 now uses their connections at Zuni Café San Francisco to secure the table.
* If they successfully get the 6 PM table for four, Peter receives a confirmation that the reservation has been secured.
* If DistinguishedTree58 fails to secure the reservation, the bid is returned to the pool so another user can try.
4.) Payment & Protection
* Once the reservation is secured, DistinguishedTree58 receives the $200 reward which is credited to DistinguishedTree58's AT balance, where users manage their own funds and can withdraw via available payout options such as bank transfer, PayPal, or Zelle.
* Peter can now enjoy the dinner with his friends at Zuni Café San Francisco!
* As with all transactions on AT, disputes and no-show fees are handled through the platform's community-driven resolution system. Users with a strong track record are incentivized to fulfill bids successfully, and community members can report issues to maintain trust in the marketplace.
