Caroline C.
Yelp
This was the worst dining experience I can recall having. Let me give you some context, as I'v e noticed bad reviews of this restaurant span two categories: the truly ignorant and the truly experienced eaters. I'm in the latter category and I have a sophisticated palate, went to culinary school in Florence, eat adventurously regularly, am based among awesome restaurants and new chefs in San Francisco, etc. There is nothing I would rather drop lots of money on than an excellent dining experience.
Let me tell you a little about the negative gazillion stars I would to bestow upon this place. Staff members, please cancel my reservation for Thursday night. I will never come back. You'd think if I start the interaction with the place with "hey, I get that you're booked for tonight, and I'd like eat here tonight in the bar where you have room, and also come back another night for your tasting menu on which I will drop 70 euros or more per person plus wine" that they'd maybe want to make sure I actually want to come to that reservation. Not the case. It's too bad, I think the tasting menu at that price at any fine restaurant would actually be quite reasonable, and I was excited about coming back as I sat down this evening. I'm really glad I stayed and had the terrible experience I had and cut my loses there.
It was a mix of the worst service on the planet that should NEVER accompany a restaurant with a michelin star no matter how much they dislike a guest or how rude someone is or any number of other things that a customer could do "wrong." I don't think I fall into this category, but it's a consideration-- and a lack of innovation in the food--pretty one-note for the few things we were able to sample due to the crappy service.
The soup dumplings were very good, and I always order them when such a thing is available because they are kind of a pain in the ass to make. What wasn't good was having them slammed roughly in front of me and being barked at about how to go about eating them. I understand that they're delicate, they have liquid inside, and you don't want people wasting these concoctions by stabbing them desperately with a chopstick. I am not that customer. And, if you're concerned I am, you could have relayed your instructions in a much better fashion. Furthermore, why are you making it so difficult to eat your food the way you want it to be eaten? If you want me to eat it with a spoon, serve it on a beautiful spoon! I ignored the instructions and grabbed them with my chopsticks skillfully and had no issues. I realize they may have wanted htem in a spoon so that you smell the broth more before consuming but again, SERVE THEM IN A SPOON IF IT'S IMPORTANT TO THE INTEGRITY OF YOUR FOOD. When I ignored the instructions I was given, the service took a further dive and as my glass of wine was finished, I was not asked if I wanted more, as my water was finished, the same, and no effort to make contact me to let me ask for such a thing was made. I understand in Spain it may not always be that they force a menu upon you suggesting that you spend more money..but they should have. We felt like we were getting the cold shoulder all of the sudden.
Furthermore, we ordered what was effectively a really straight forward pork bbq bao, which was good, but not mind blowing, and a whopping nearly 6 euros for one bun, which was served by itself to my dining companion (who lives here) while I had nothing, and we also had a vegetable stir fry that was really one-note, just a soy based sauce with no complexity that really drowned out what appeared to be beautiful baby vegetables that would have had their own worthwhile flavors, and we ordered a tuna tataki which was the first thing we ordered and should have been the first thing that came regardless since it is room temperature to warm, and is fish, that didn't come before we were so frustrated with the service that we asked for a check.
I couldn't help but write a detailed review of this, because it was so horrific on so many levels. The place was recommended to me by someone who in general I would trust, so if that's what happened to you and you're thinking about going and you've had exposure to real asian cuisine and fine dining before, and you aren't someone who enjoys spending money just because it makes you feel special to pay a lot for something, then steer clear. Go eat at Allium. It's not asian inspired, but it's a hell of a lot better and friendlier and gives an overall better fine dining experience.
- inexcusably rude service
- not innovative or complex food
- due to the above, extremely overpriced
- happy to pay lots for great food and service...this is just a disaster.