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Octavia San Francisco Reviews
Every course of the tasting was excellent, from the amuses
Every course of the tasting was excellent, from the amuses to the chilled pea soup, salad, pasta, lamb, dessert (not to mention the bread.)
Service is perfection, hence 2 stars.
Food disappointing. Ordered starter, main and dessert x 2. Starters were cold including plate suggesting all preprepared and not off the pan. Raab would have been better warm/hot. Trout was only item properly prepared but sauce was tasteless and gooey. Supposed to have mushrooms, I detected slight crumbs that were brown. Worse is the brussel sprouts which tasted disgusting. Some over/under cooked and the flavor was offensive. Pork collar red not cooked through and should have asked preference for doneness. Partner and I ate separately with my plate left on the table although I was done. Why weren't we asked how was the meal? I left feeling hangry! I'll pay these high prices for excellent cuisine--at another restaurant.
This is a good place to go when you're on a diet.
The preparation is healthy and the portions are modest, even the deserts convey only a light taste of sweetness. The only problem is that you may go home hungry. All the vegetable dishes we ordered were innovative and delicious. There was nothing special about the chicken, which was a bit salty. I loved the ease of conversation in the peaceful ambiance with an upscale rustic aesthetic. Service was excellent.
We came to Octavia to celebrate a birthday.
We were a party of four. One of our guests has special dietary needs (gluten free, dairy free and no eggs). Our excellent server Kevin, provided us with so many options that fit her needs. We chose three appetizers: bread, an asparagus dish, a mixed Lettuce salad that were delicious. We then had our entrees of 2 chicken dishes, a black cod dish and a pork belly dish that were all exquisite. We finished with desserts of a Carrot cake, Pavlova, Blood Orange dessert, a Strawberry sorbet and a complementary Birthday Chocolate Cake! The food was excellent and the Service provided by Kevin and staff was exceptional. Our experience at the Octavia exceeded our expectations. We will be returning.
I had dinner at Octavia, and it was a pleasant experience.
The Ribeye steak was tender and flavorful. For a starter, the Wagyu beef tartare was really good and the stone fruit salad was also quite delicious. The service was good, our server was courteous and polite.
Shrimp toast had a negligible amount of shrimp, like
Shrimp toast had a negligible amount of shrimp, like spreading peanut butter on the toast, instead of a proper shrimp patty or farce.
Dined at Octavia last week for an early Valentines Day
Dined at Octavia last week for an early Valentines Day dinner. Food, ambiance, and service was equally incredible. We arrived on time and the table was prepared and waiting for us. We brought in corkage and ordered a bottle off the list as well. We had ordered the brassicas, soup, and pickled mussels to begin with. All equally fantastic. For mid course we tried the agnolotti del plin, garganelli, and beet cappellacci. Agnolotti del plin really stole the show. As for the final savory we ordered the crab cake and zabuton. Crab cake and the zabuton were absolutely worth the price point. Seemed as if there was little to no filler in the crab cake and the yuzu sauce really made the dish. The zabuton was insanely savory and hearty. We skipped dessert and had ample left overs to take home. This was our first time to Octavia and we are certain to be back. Thanks Octavia!
5 stars for ambiance and service.
Our waiter was great and the dark cozy vibe of the restaurant is perfect. 3 stars for food. The menu was full of interesting things but I felt like it didn't deliver. All the food was gorgeous and for the most part enjoyable but not outstanding. The salad we ordered promised goat cheese but I didn't taste any. The crab dip that came with the brassicas just tasted like aioli. The crab cake was delicious but sadly full of little bits of shell. And the gnudi were so pretty but tasted really dense and maybe undercooked. And yet - I would still go back! The atmosphere of the restaurant is just so lovely I was willing to overlook the little flaws here and there.
Thought this place was lovely.
I give a 4 star b/c we were in the parklet...and I HATE parklets (but it was warm). Service was good...server suggested items and we were very happy with them. We did family style and shared bread, broccolini, beets and coquette appetizers along with both pasta mains and beef. All were delicious, but I don't think I would drive across town again for it, but if I lived in neighborhood, I definitely go back.
A SF gem
We went to the restaurant at the advice of a family friend. It was an excellent referral. Though a high-end restaurant, we were able to share dishes. We started with a beet salad and a grilled-chilled cabbage dish with miso dressing. they were delicious and the miso dressing complemented well the grilled cabbage. The porcini garganelli was prepared in a butter sauce and was satisfying as a one main course. The seafood sausage contained lobster; would have been better with larger pieces of lobster. A dish not to be missed is Budino - a fudge brownie with house made peanut butter ice cream, miso caramel and cocoa nibs. Superb dessert!
Octavia is a typical SF restaurant that is quite small, you
Octavia is a typical SF restaurant that is quite small, you need reservations, parking is of course non-existent and the food is expensive. Given all this is to be expected, it had amazing service. They offer you blankets for your legs if you sit outside, for example. It also had amazing food. Small portions for the price but very tasty. Try the grilled and chilled cabbage! It's a food adventure and the menu is always changing. Like what's a habaNaba? Ask them! We had a lot of questions but it was fun finding out. The Bosca is perhaps a signature cocktail, I highly recommend. Very refreshing, not too sweet. Would definitely return!
Ideal For: small groups, intimate dining experience, cozy
Ideal For: small groups, intimate dining experience, cozy date night/atmosphere, curated dishes. faves: heirloom tomatoes, stone fruit salad, picanha, tortellini verde, corn lasagna, brown butter friand. Keep in mind: reservation required, seasonal ingredients and menu, a fave among locals, MICHELIN Guide restaurant. Other notes: Our reservation was later in the day and many menu were sold out. Suggest having an earlier dinner here. follow @inmybeli on IG for more reviews & recs
Wonderful, intimate restaurant - dined here for a birthday
Wonderful, intimate restaurant - dined here for a birthday celebration and the food, service and overall experience was excellent. Certainly one of my favorites in San Francisco now!
Ate here tonight and the only outstanding dish was the
Ate here tonight and the only outstanding dish was the "CASONCELLI, musquee de provence pumpkin, jimmy nardello powder." Everything else was very meh... here's what we got - sourdough (1/5 - nothing special) - oysters (1/5 - only comes with a single oyster so ordered 2. Mine was extremely gristly and hadn't been cleaned well.) - rockfish crudo (3/5 - good but wouldn't get again) - AGNOLOTTI pasta (3.5 / 5 - came out lukewarm and again, nothing special) - Casoncelli pasta (5/5 - would come back and only get this!) - TAGLIATELLE (3/5 - very mid. Wouldn't get again) - Pork (4/5 - this one is tough because the pork is a very weird cut, or maybe it's just cooked weird. The favor is there but the texture was very strange)
3.5 stars Service was decent. Waited a long time between
3.5 stars Service was decent. Waited a long time between the appetizers and the main courses. Tasting menu: Duck liver mousse - delicious Oysters - a bit fishy for me Rockfish Crudo - ok Truffle mashed potatoes - best I've ever had Steak - very good Black cod - ok Quail - ok Agnolotti - very good Tortellini - very good
Best restaurant in San Francisco! I recommend !
Best restaurant in San Francisco! We ate very, very well from the starter, to the main course and then to the dessert. Very welcoming staff, especially Christopher who explained the dishes to us well. We thank him for his advice. I recommend 100%
Delightful Celebration from Octavia
What an exquisite experience . Went here for a birthday and were treated like VIP’s throughout. We opted out of the tasting menu which seemed delicious - but happily created our own shred plate experience wit heirloom tomatoes, albacore tuna - and beautifully prepared Black Cod .the chocolate peanut butter semi freddo was to die for , and they graciously added a slice of birthday cake. Also don’t skip the amazing bread.
Blown away by how good this meal was!
We have eaten at many great restaurants around the globe, with many a Michelin-star amongst them. This was without doubt the best meal we have ever had in the United States, and up there in my top five meals ever! Totally restored my faith that America can produce top quality classy food. Great ambience, service and food. Our 8 year old daughter loved it too - particularly the corn lasagne! We will be back! Well done to all concerned at Octavia!
Creative, fresh, delicious!
Menu is perfect for a group so many items can be sampled. We tried most of the dishes on the menu, including desserts, and all were delicious. no run-of-the-mill salads and pastas here ... all had unexpected/wonderful added herbs and flavor combinations. Attentive service. Note that this is not as casual as many restaurants in the area. Some of us were rather underdressed.
What A Find
We stumbled across this restaurant on our first night in San Fran. Our hotel was a couple of blocks away, it was dark and we were nervously exploring the area looking for a small quick bite before some much needed sleep. The soft ambient lighting attracted us like a beacon and so we asked if a table was available for a snack. It turns out the restaurant was hosting a special event in collaboration with Slow Burn Restaurant. A 4 course tasting menu of sharing plates. We were too tired to go elsewhere and the place looked so inviting. So we went for it. Wow! The eclectic taste combinations and farm to fork ethos was sensational. Endive salad with home made curds, macerated strawberries and candid walnuts was absolutely divine! A ricotta gnocchi with fava beans was also fantastic. The dishes were all sharing and despite four courses and multiple dishes the balance was perfect. The finale was a two dish dessert of mushroom custard, miso caramel, dark berries and chocolate alongside a delicious granita of rhubarb with thyme crumb. ( I may have some of the combinations wrong, I am very tired, but in my defence I wanted to make sure I wrote this review immediately). The staff were all delightful and the food exquisite. What a find!!!!
OVERALL: Octavia was a great experience! With friendly
OVERALL: Octavia was a great experience! With friendly service, fair (for SF) prices, and a cozy atmosphere to enjoy a refined menu. Standout dishes included the Lamb Tartare and the Mahi Mahi.We appreciated the rotating menu, as even a few days after we had eaten here the menu had already changed. We will be back at Octavia in the future to try some of these new dishes!Dishes:LAMB TARTARE - 8/10Served on a tasty flatbread, this had a nice assortment of spices to it along with the zhug sauce. This was a standout dish and something I hope is on the menu for future visits. The tartare is served directly on the flatbread and pre-sliced (like a miniature pizza). BAJA MAHI MAHI - 8/10The fish was cooked perfectly - it was firm but still tender and moist. This was our favorite of the main dishes.DUNGENESS CRAB PASTA - 7/10One of the signature dishes, the dungeness crab pasta was tasty and rich, and the crab was fresh.HOUSEMADE SOURDOUGH (LEVAIN), CULTURED BUTTER 6/10It's hard to go wrong with housemade sourdough and artisan butter. This was tasty, as expected, but at an $8 price point I would probably skip this in the future.YELLOWTAIL AGUACHILE - 6/10Not a super memorable dish and somewhat small.CANNELONI - 6/10The presentation of the dish was lovely and it was nice to have a vegetarian main to go along with the seafood, but slightly bland in flavor, when compared to the rest of the dishes.
We had the pleasure of dining at Octavia recently.
There was 6 of us, and we opted for the Chefs tasting. The food was outstanding! I think we had every dish on the menu. The service was also outstanding and next time we're in San Francisco, we'll definitely be back.
The second time I ate here we got the tasting menu with the
The second time I ate here we got the tasting menu with the wine pairing. Everything was beautiful and almost all courses were good, but two were big fails. It's NOT cheap so it's hard to swallow a $300+ bill if the food isn't perfect, but I guess that's SF for you. They are quite generous with the wine. Everyone working there was very nice.
Excellent service - prompt, knowledgeable and attentive.
Food was good but not great. Portions were on the small side. Sourdough bread was very good and should be for $8 per serving. (I can't recall the last restaurant I went to where bread was not included as part of the meal.) Line for the one bathroom was 2-3 people long most of the night. Parking was about why you'd expect in the city on a Friday night - nearly non-existent. 6% "surcharge" is simply a ripoff. Not terribly expensive but not a great value either.
Left the restaurant on the verge of tears feeling after a
Left the restaurant on the verge of tears feeling after a terrible experience. I was so excited to try this place. I went to the sister restaurant Frances last month, so I was really looking forward to Octavia. My husband made a reservation for my birthday and we were both very excited.The appetizers were not the best. We've had better hummus and veggie cakes. We tried two different pastas and they were both pretty good. However, the mahi mahi was the worst I've ever had. It was burnt and unbelievably salty. The waitress did not even offer to replace it. Instead, she got upset and rude, so to deescalate, we just decided to keep eating it. I would not recommend.
I was in charge of booking my companies holiday party,
I was in charge of booking my companies holiday party, table for 8, and decided to book with Octavia. I've heard amazing things about this restaurant and was so excited to try it. The 8 of us don't get together often so really wanted to make sure this night was special. I have to say it was a pretty disappointing meal and after dinner my boss said, "I'm never coming back here ever again." The night started off with making us sit outside. Octavia had one tiny heater for the whole outside seating area. It hardly gave off any heat which made it freezing in our section. They provided blankets to us but it really didn't help. All of us were so cold. If they are going to provide outside seating to their guests they need to provide more heaters. The whole table ordered the tasting menu as our waiter recommended it would be the best way to experience the menu. Half of the dishes that came to our table tasted lovely and the other half wasn't good. A lot of the dishes lacked flavor and the lobster dish that arrived was really rubbery. The best course was honestly the dessert section. Our waiter was rude to us too and really made our experience not enjoyable. We spent over $2,000 at this dinner and I expect top notch customer service. One particular instance that stuck out -- we received a course that only had 7 pieces, not 8. I kindly our waiter we were missing one and he gave me the dirtiest look and walked away. 5 minutes later he came with an extra piece, placed in down next to me and didn't say a word. I was planning on taking my dad to their sister restaurant, Frances, for his birthday but after this experience I probably won't be coming back.
Very fun experience but a couple of disclaimers:The tasting
Very fun experience but a couple of disclaimers:The tasting menu is family style and personally I don't love that because I feel more stressed about the amount of food I'm eating/saving for others. For $95, I wouldn't say I was stuffed and I wanted to be feeling that way. We had our reservation at 8:15 and didn't leave until right before 11. We had to wait about 45 minutes after the starters for our mains. The restaurant wasn't very busy and the wait just seemed unnecessary. Overall, very fun experience though!!
A meal that delivers.
.. has me thinking about about it days later! We went here on a week day night for dinner for anniversary celebration. And it did not disappoint. The service was fine, and the place although looks small was warm and inviting. We sat in main room but I must say the 'outdoor seating' was very well done and looked just as inviting. What we ate: 1. Sourdough bread with butter. It did not blow my mind. 2. Gilfeather and Tokyo turnips with olive gremolata. Oh my God! How does one make turnips this delish?! They made 2 versions of the turnips. One a bite size piece and another was a turnip pasta. All mixed in with the olive gremolata. I wish there was more! 3. Salsify cakes with chili bomba (not pictured). Yum. 4. Tagliatelle with Dungeness crab. Just take a look at my before and after pictures to know my feeling hahah. 5. Torteloni with kale and butter (not pictured). This was a win too. Both pasta dishes were delish, complex and had me wanting more. 6. Creme brûlée (not pictured). I'm not much of a dessert person. But but but, I could have this creme brûlée anytime! It was not too sweet and the flavors were surprisingly novel! 7. Dark chocolate whoopie pie. This was from the restaurant. Again, a good pie. Not too sweet, right amount of dark chocolate and oh so soft. Thanks Octavia I like celebrating us :) I will be back. For more turnips and pasta and dessert.
Might be back! Not out of the question.
We got the tasting menu (not the wine pairing) and every single item was special and delicious. We agreed we likely wouldn't have ordered a single thing they served us had we seen it on a menu, so the fact we really enjoyed everything was remarkable.Service felt rushed at times and interminably slow at times. One weird thing is they cracked the window at the side of the dining room about eight inches. We mentioned it and they closed it (nice!) and then 20 minutes later they opened it again. We weren't the people sitting closest to the window, and not sure anyone else was bothered, so could have been just us. Still, had we wanted to enjoy the frigid night air, they have really nice looking parklets outside. To sum up service: no one was rude, and some staff were spot on, but overall it didn't feel particularly like warm hospitality. Definitely loved the overall experience, and depending on your frequency indulging in fine dining, you might find this a terrific value, so I didn't subtract any stars for what we thought was a little on the high side cost-wise considering the service wasn't as tight as it could be. If $270 for two (without alcohol) is in your budget for a special occasion, you won't be disappointed! We are very happy to have experienced Octavia, and we might be back!
Pretty delicious! This place had a warm and cozy feel on a
Pretty delicious! This place had a warm and cozy feel on a chilly fall day.The food was great, not the best vegetarian or pescatarian selection but thats common.This place you can see directly into the kitchen from the dining room and it was mesmerizing. The bread is a must try!
Great for dinner
I was looking for an interesting place to have dinner on envibe and saw this place. We went to Octavia and we really liked it! It was very tasty and cozy. I totally recommend this spot
fine but not worth the price, stingy serving sizes
Food and service were good (but not great or anything too special), not worth the super super small portion sizes. I am not a big eater but am offended by the stinginess of the servings. in a city with so much good food, a little generosity goes a long way to make your guests feel valued and welcomed! For a true special night out and similar prices, go to Madcap instead.
good service, family friendly, disappointing food
my son had very good experiences with this restaurant before. but not this time. oh, service was very good. but food was disappointing. ordered four appetizers and shared. ok, but ordinary. cod-head and tail needed a bit more heat/cooking. i prefer hamachi, salmon, or snapper-head. cod should be equally good, but... swordfish dinner was excellent, except broth was salt saturated. side veggies were burnt. i didn't care veal dish. too hard and chewy. side veggies didn't help meat.
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