Janelle "you just lost one star for that" C.'s Profile

Crowded = annoying but also a good sign that the food must be good right?? We pass by this place a lot on Union St. and decided to stop in today. It was well worth the wait. absolutely delicious burger (I had the Pacific Blue) with blue cheese (just enough not to overwhelm), caramelized onions and some greens. The bun is not too thick, toasted well on the underside, and the patty is juicy. I did the beef patty but I can't wait to go back and try the bison or elk. And as a certified french fry lover, I couldn't pick one so we went with the fry-fecta (sweet potatoes, regular, and Zucchini/Onion strings) which were yummy!!!!

Talk about a bad day... bad lunch near work, bad dinner near home. 2 strikes in 8 hours. Yuck! I think owners of true gastropubs should be offended that this place is considered a gastropub. It's more like a bar that serves so-so food. The service was ok - the hostess was attentive but the waiter didn't seem to know the menu at all and had to keep going off to verify or check on every basic question I asked.

The food was blah. I've had worse but I've also had a lot better. My friend did the regular menu while I tried the 'dine about town' menu. I'm upset this is on the 'dine about town' list. Gone are the days where 'dine about town' menus were special! Now special means chicken vegetable soup that tastes and looks like it came from a can. The ratatouille did not offend but the halibut was bland bland bland. Surprisingly the sorbet wasn't bad but I suspect it might not be home-made. Overall I thought the prices were way too high for the entrees and I don't really plan on going back.

The ambiance definitely lends itself to the happy hour vibe that everyone seems to rave about. The place emptied out past happy hour and not that many dinner patrons made their way in. I know the heavy rain kept some people away but on a Friday night, a good gastropub should be packed.

Lastly, the dinner utensils look like they were bought from a landfill - I could see Robert Irvine (from Restaurant Impossible) just yelling at them for that. Seriously, the spoons had a gross tarnish that would not come off. The waiter gladly replaced the first spoon he gave me, only to replace it with an identical tarnished one! The reason? That's just the way they are - they're silver and we can't get the tarnish off. Umm I really don't think you were serving me with true silver spoons. If you can't take the time to make sure your basic utensils are presentable, I'm a little worried about the things I can't see behind the scenes.

Sorry to be so harsh but in a land of so many restaurant choices, I'd have been happier spending my hard earned money elsewhere.

My bf and I had been looking forward to Spruce for month due to some untimely cancellations on our part. So we finally got an updated reservation in January we were elated. I'd many times passed by the outside of the restaurant wistfully looking in due to the overwhelming number of positive reviews from yelpers and friends.

One disappointment which didn't influence my rating but made me sad was to see a dude waltzing up to the door in sneakers and another male patron inside with a hockey jersey on. With all the information available nowadays, do your research! It's a nice restaurant - at least wear dress shoes and a button down shirt dudes!

Ok back to the review - I'll start with why I gave it 5 stars even though I contemplated giving it 4. It's gets 5 stars for the good food complimented by the good service, the latter matters A LOT to me. We were seated around 6p on a Saturday and yes the restaurant was quiet so there was no excuse for poor service. But even throughout the night (and we were there for about 2.5 hours) while the restaurant became packed, we never felt neglected or had to wait very long for our orders. The staff was extremely helpful in providing information on wine suggestions and pairings that I was very impressed. Perhaps the only thing about the service that was overwhelming is that at times there were servers walking up and down past the tables checking to clear them. It made the aisles too packed and crowded.

Now on to the food. (New) American food is not my favourite. I think the menu in general wasn't new and exciting on paper - a lot of items felt "been there and ate that". But I did not let that deter me from enjoying the meal. After all, the descriptions don't reflect how the food will taste. The breads that they started us with - dinner rool and cranberry loaf were fresh and well made. The butters (yes there was more than one) made me want to stay there forever. I don't like very sweet items but the cinnamon butter should be at every breakfast place is America. For starters, the charcuterie plate was divine and I will guiltily admit that we also had the fois gras plate too (I know I lost 5 years) paired with one of the most delicious Rieslings I've ever had. Off to a great start! The main courses were ok - my bf's duck was cooked perfectly but he actually didn't like the huckleberries with it. My pork tenderloin and belly were good but I have had better so it was satisfying but disappointing compared to the starters. The dessert menu was also ok but I love sorbets and usually fancy pancy restaurants will have some interesting flavours. And they did not disappoint on that - I really loved the concord grape sorbet :) And after such a heavy meal, the sorbet really was refreshing.

I loved the ambiance - the lighting is dim but has a cozy feel. The ceiling is high despite having a lot of staff on the floor, the tables are arranged apart enough to have privacy.

After dinner we decided to walk home on the beautiful night and start to work off the calories :)

If you're ever drinking it up through wine country in Northern California and still walking at the end, make time to stop here. I'm not really going to write about the main courses because honestly, you should just stop off and get a jar of the Terrine de Foie Gras
de Canard. You might get a heart attack (it's THAT rich) but if you're going to die, this is the way to go. It was delicious. Bouchon dethroned Craft for my favourite Foie Gras to date.

The staff is friendly and attentive and the layout fits a lot of tables but without having your neighbour's elbow in your soup.

Well worth the stop for dinner on the way back to the city!

How do you say delicious in Greek? This is probably the best Greek restaurant I've been to (so far anywhere). When we got there it was packed to be kind. The restaurant allows you to get drinks at the bar while you're waiting which I appreciated because it was cold outside but I felt bad for the diners who were close by. It's extremely loud in the restaurant, even worse if you're seated near the bar. But the atmosphere adds to the experience. The open fire oven and the open kitchen in the main dining room is beautiful and really left me in anticipation of my own food.

The wine list is overwhelming - the smaller one is for the ballers while the bigger one has more offerings that will appeal to the poor folk to saved up to come here :-P. We ordered a bunch of appetizers but my favourites were the lamb meatballs and zucchini cakes with tzatziki. I don't think I really needed a main course honestly. But I did *tummy groan* make room for it. I love lamb and the braised lamb shank did not disappoint! I found the orzo served with it to be a little too salty (maybe from the Greek cheese) and adding a vegetable would have been a welcomed exchange for half the orzo. But eat up the lamb I did. My bf had the lamb kebabs which were also very tasty. The pickled cucumbers and potatoes served with the kebabs were outstanding. They might be some of the best potatoes I've ever eaten.

We split a sundae (a surprise for my Birthday) and although my stomach had already doubled in size, I couldn't not have a bite. The peanuts, chocolate and whip cream were to die for. The chocolate was rich but without being overly sweet (did they buy it from producers in America???) and I wish I could have taken it with me to eat the rest later.

The service is friendly, attentive and knowledgeable.

If you're looking for Greek food, this one is a must for SF!

Atmosphere is cozy without being cramped - difficult to achieve in the dense restaurant world of San Francisco. It can be quite loud when the restaurant is full, which makes it less than ideal if you want to have deep conversation... luckily we did not - just friends getting together to have a good meal and enjoy company. The wait staff was very attentive and we appreciated that.

The food was great starting with the warm bread served nice and crunchy on the outside, soft and light on the inside. My bf had the burger which he thoroughly enjoyed on the unique French bread bun while my friend and I split the Ratatouille, mussels, steak tartare and lamb sausage. We also had the calamari as a starter for the table. Probably the least interesting of all we ordered was the calamari because there wasn't anything particularly unique about it compared to fried calamari at other restaurants but I did notice that the breading was very seasoned which I personally l liked. The lamb sausage was spicy, steak tartare well seasoned, and the mussels plentiful and served with a delicious broth. We were too full to order dessert.

The wine list has a nice offering of mid-priced wines for the table.

Give this a try if you're in the neighbourhood. We were able to talk in and be seated right away on a Thursday night around 7p.

Stopped in here for a quiet dinner with a friend and was not disappointed. Yes, the entrees are a little on the pricey side but location is near the beach so that's sort of expected. I found the food to be fresh, tasty and delicious. We ate the melon and proscuitto and carrot soup (soup of the day). I really liked the carrot soup because it had carrot in it! It was not smooth and creamy in that dump-cream in there way. It felt like the body was made of strained carrot which tasted fresh and home made. For the main course I had the chicken and mozarella ravioli. The pasta was cooked well, the sauce was not overwhelming, and there was a good amount of chicken in the filling! Service was excellent. They were not busy but extremely attentive, providing a replacement bread basket throughout our meal and checking to ensure we were satisfied. You should never overlook good service!

I would definitely eat here again and hope that they continue to do well.

I arrived in Kauai really excited to go to a luau for the first time. Usually I have a lot of faith in http://tripadvisor.com for trip related suggestions. Well someone thought this luau was the best luau and it was ranked very highly as something to do in Kauai. So since we were staying nearby, we signed up for it. I have been debating whether to give it 2 stars or 3 but ultimately decided to stick with 3 since my main complaint is over the food not the show itself. This luau is divided into dinner and show or show only. If you do the former, you arrive in the evening where a rude hostess gives you the run around regarding the dinner then seats you one of the Marriott's main restaurants. So in other words, eat first... Luckily the wait staff was very friendly and attentive. The food consisted of a plate of what I can only imagine was pre-made hours ago and reheated. Laulau, purple yams with a super sweet coconut sauce, lomi lomi salmon, teriyaki chicken, and some white fist with a beurre blanc sauce. Do you think you read the last bit right? Yes you did. there was a beurre blanc sauce on my fish at my luau - "sad face".

After dinner, scoot over to the courtyard and get in line. The show is about to begin. Once seated, the first 20 minutes was filled with the host praising all the people who just got married and were here for their honeymoon. No offense but there are other people in the audience who need not watch 8 couples go through their first married couple dance again. The hula dancers and fire dancers were cool. It would have been nice to see more fire dancing. The hula dancing was fun because they did a lot of different types of dancing, not only the stereotypical hula dancing you think of when you picture Hawaii.

Overall the food luckily tasted good which saved it and the rest of the show was good because the performers were talented. That said, I'd probably not recommend this luau and opt to go in search of a more traditional one on the island.

I don't give out 5 stars that often but for this I'll make an exception. I found this place on yelp! (thank you!) and decided that we'd be hitting this up right around lunch time on our Waterfall Wednesdays self-made tour of Kauai. Well yelp, you sent me to the wrong place (grrrrrr) but thanks to Google maps we righted ourselves and got here. And boy am I glad we did.
We tried:
- Hawaiian Meatloaf - so well seasoned and tasty!
- Lau Lau - the only other time I had this was at the Marriot and while theirs wasn't bad, it really couldn't compete with this version
- Spicy Ahi Tuna Poke - tasted like a deconstructed spicy tuna roll if you got a little rice on your folk too in a bite. We liked this so much we contemplated getting more to go and risking leaving it in the hot car for our trip. I'm still alive and kicking so we obviously voted against that plan. Might have to take another drive down to Kapaa just for this however.
- Macaroni potato salad - ok, good texture but not the best thing I had in my lunch box that day
- Spicy shrimp - same sentiment as above
- Lomi Lomi Salmon - yum yum yum

So I was armed with my camera to get a fantastic picture of this food but accidently ate it all before I remembered why I had the camera in my hand : ). The folks at the market were very friendly to us the tourists and I loved that. If you're ever in Kauai, go check this place out and you won't be disappointed.

Hawaiian style plate - one main, one side, one poke and a scoop of rice (cooked perfectly because trust me I'm a rice snob) is $9.95. Go pig out!

I've been going to Johnny for about 5 years now. Found him through a friend after moving to SF. I'm pretty damn picky about my hair since my grandmother was a hair stylist and the only person whom I let cut my hair on a regular basis. Johnny is the second person who I've let cut my hair regularly. And he's fabulous. I can't recall him ever giving me a cut or colour that has not made me free fantastic afterwards or not look awesome afterwards. The make of a great hairdresser is the ability to cut wet and dry hair or even dry hair right away. He asks the customers a lot of questions to ensure that he finds something that he knows will suit them and that they can maintain on their own. And he listens to the customers if one trip to the salon didn't go perfect e.g. If it's a little shorter than you had expected, he'll make sure to keep it a bit longer the next time. Colour is a lot of fun with Johnny too and if you can't decide, let him. Because his highlights look natural and grow out looking natural too. Price for a cut or cut with a colour is very reasonable for a city. He does great guy hair too. My boyfriend goes to him now. Hmmm Johnny can you institute the couple's special? : )