RH Rooftop Restaurant at RH Palo Alto — Restaurant in Palo Alto

For one, I did not know that RH meant Restoration Hardware — so I was thrilled to find that they had opened one in Palo Alto! Located right at the outside of the Stanford Shopping Center, next to a Blue Bottle Coffee, it is a prime location for furniture seeing, but also, for the fine dining that every person deserves. My experience at this place was out of this world — high quality service turned into a high quality meal that every race of life would deserve. I just so happened to be celebrating my mom’s birthday last night at this place, so here’s my experience with this place so far:

Food: 3.6/5

For appetizers, we got a 4-count blini with caviar. I was actually blown away by how tender the caviar was — especially with the texture of the blini and how thoroughly baked it was as well. The garnishes were an extra layer of goodness as well.

For drinks, we got a Bellini, a mimosa, and an Arnold Palmer. While there is really no comment to the Arnold Palmer because they are known for their mixture of iced tea and lemonade, the mimosa was another story. While the waitress had told me they inserted an ounce of orange juice, it tasted more like the presence of Prosecco was there. The Bellini lacked the fruity taste that was present, but both drinks alike were a perfect pairing to the salad and entrees that came for us.

We got the Mulholland Drive Salad — a goodness of all different kinds of vegetables. I enjoyed the beets, the cheddar, everything… including the vinaigrette. The only thing I would’ve wished for was more variety of greens in this particular dish but otherwise, everything hit the crop on this.

For our entrees, we got the petite filet and the whole grilled branzinos, with sides that included the grilled asparagus, truffle fries, charred broccolini, and potato puree. While the branzinos both had such an enhanced and charred texture, the middle bone tasted a little dry. In addition, while I had asked for the fillet to be medium-rare, it lacked the sufficient and dry texture that one would expect in steak.

Service: 4/5

The service was near perfect, and I was mesmerized by how attentive our waitresses were. They put thought and process into recommending us the best dishes for our alcoholic pairings. However, as with most places, we were seated later than our reservation time, which I found to be kind of unprofessional, because it lacked the communication that was given to us with regards to the families.

Atmosphere: 3/5

The atmosphere of this place was noisy, and while the energy of the place was indeed nice, cozy, and homey, it felt a little too tight for comfort.

Overall, I’d definitely...

I have a very bitter sweet feelings after having a dinner for my birthday here. It is truly a beautiful place to celebrate and I came here for the wholesome experience for my Birthday, and to share this special moment with my family. However, there were several points that ruined our experience here.

Food. The steak was burnt and so was the bread, salad was soggy. Lobster roll gave too much of burnt butter taste.

Service. I would say it was so so, because our table wasn’t taken care of enough. We had to wait long for food to arrive, empty plates were staying there for quite a bit, after we done working on them. Server asked us once’, but then it took a long time to clean our table. And there was not enough attention to us as guests, our water hasn’t been filled up for a long time, and only after asking for it and waiting again. There were drops after steak cutting board was removed, and never were wiped down. I had to collect dirty plates to the side so it wouldn’t bother my eyes.

And what’s the most sad part about it, hostess knew that it is my birthday and in restaurants of this level you don’t have to ask for a congratulating complimentary dessert. And after asking they brought one cookie and a candle, That didn’t look representable, at least not for the level of the interior of your restaurant. And there was not special presentation with congratulations. Server just mumbled “Happy Birthday”. Seriously?

And that is not it. Later we wanted to take beautiful pictures and videos because your place was marketed for that reason too. But when I wanted to get on the stairs on the first floor and film it, after 5 minutes hostess said that first of all we can’t sit on the furniture, while my husband leaned on the couch a little so sudden that both my family members were shook after such note. Second, that I can’t go upstairs it’s closed, but there were no signs saying that, while I was there taking pictures in the mirror on the stairs.

What’s the most frustrating is that she said that with annoyance like we are not guests. There was no respect, or a politeness. It felt like we’re in her house, some unwanted people from the street. I thought this is a furniture store, and who knows I wanted to try out the couch before buying?! It felt like “pretty woman” movie moment on Rodeo drive.

You can see that I’m very frustrated and deeply disappointed in your restaurant treatment. As I always say even bad food could be forgiven if the service was on point. But there was no hospitality. And I wouldn’t recommend...

I really wanna share this totally awful experience me and my husband had yesterday by visiting RH “restaurant” (can’t really call this eatery anything more decent). When we came there, we were met by 2 individuals, a hostess and, I believe, a host. She asked us if we made a reservation, which we had hadn’t as we didn’t come to that place intentionally, just spontaneously decided to pop up to see the atmosphere and enjoy the cup of coffee (and/or some food) before heading next to our own business. So I explained that thing to hostess right exactly word to word how it’s written here and… what happened next just DEVASTATED me! Her response was “oh, you know, if you are no-eating-food guests and want just order a coffee, then go to the bar behind and order your beverage there to go”. SERIOUSLY?😐… She literally told us to leave just because I said that I want to have a cup of coffee there. Is THAT the high-quality service of the currently top-promoted restaurant?? So disappointing… Okay, moving forward. I said that maybe we want to have a food, and that we’d prefer to see at least the menu first to be able to decide (which is ridiculous, as for me, to explain such a thing to the person, who on the daily-basis works at the restaurant with clients!). Finally we were given a table right next to the exit. And guess what? The host 100% noticed the big greasy stain on the table he offered to us - and purposefully avoiding it just covered it with menu, instead of placing us on the exactly the same tables, which were free nearby. How do you like that attitude?? If you’re set up like that, then maybe make the announcement that you don’t accept all of guests, at least not those, who want to drink only and that you will do anything to get rid of them. These two persons badly SPOILED the very first impression about this place in Palo Alto (the fun thing, that we actually liked RH restaurant so much in San Francisco and even celebrated big occasions in there). So eventually we just left to find another, better place. Though we really wanted to consider this one to visit on the regular basis. But after all this thing that happened I don’t think that I have any good association anymore. Service was terrible, attitude awful, only presented hints for us to leave were on the high level. Which is unacceptable. And we are not gonna...