E&O Kitchen and Bar — Restaurant in San Francisco

Was searching for a place to grab dinner near Union Square on a Friday night. Looking at the reviews, I had no hopes of finding a spot here without waiting at least an hour, since this was the second most highly rated places nearby. Decided to still check it out. Totally worth it!!!

Location: Two blocks from Union Square, it is located on the corner of Sutter and Grant. Parking can be annoying around here and so can be the traffic.

Wait times: Like I said, I had no hopes of getting a table here on a Friday night, but we were seated the minute we walked in. Although the place was busy, they have a lot more tables than most popular SF restaurants.

Ambience: This place has a really upscale vibe. The place is huge! I didn't realize it till we were leaving but they have an entire floor above where there's seating available. The place is not too brightly lit, ideal for dinners (especially dates). It isn't loud even though there's plenty of people here. I don't recall any music (if there was any, it wasn't loud).

Service: The service was fantastic throughout the evening. I was surprised how quickly we were served Food and drinks, even though it seemed pretty crowded.

Food: First of all, I really appreciate if a good food joint has an equally good selection for drinks. The cocktail menu was amazing!!! All the cocktails were delicious and creative!! Pisco Lychee was my favorite. The others we ordered were equally good: Tequila Tamarind (a spicy margarita), Bourbon Maple and another one that's the last one on the menu which I can't remember the name of. The beer and wine selection was also great. The food was delicious, although a little pricey for the portion size. We ordered the corn fritters and the dumplings from the special Chinese new year menu and they were kind of okay, but the rest of the food was amazing. The items that I definitely recommend were the baby back ribs (they were so good, we ordered another one), the Indonesian fried rice, the poached prawn salad and the bao.

Overall, had a great experience here. Definitely recommend going here (especially on a date). Will be returning (hopefully soon), for the cocktails and to try the other delicious stuff...

Prompted by a short-notice opportunity to spend some time with friends on a pleasure visit to San Francisco, we found E & O using Yelp. Conveniently located near our freinds' Union Square area hotel, the setting looked warm, comfortable, and spacious. The Asian fusion menu looked colorful enough to be interesting whileb still containing enough more common options for people who aren't out for brand new flavors. We were not at all disappointed.

We easily made 7pm reservations for our party of 6, and we got a marvelous table with an enjoyable view of the kitchen. We ordered a large variety of dishes to share communuty style. All choices received praise, but the ribs seemed to be the overall winner. I also recommend their Old Fashioned for its very pleasing flavor. I appreciated that the drink was not very boozy, too. Folks who want a stronger drink might check in with the bar on variation s or other selections. The gin and tonic was also a lovely drink, and received high praise as well. Overall I consider the food here to deliver a solid experience that combines with the setting and location to make E&O a very good option. But there's one more important thing to mention.

The service at E&O, from the reservation call to the greeting as we entered to taking and delivery of orders was spot on. We received the perfect balance of attentiveness and space to enjoy each other socially. Requests arrived quickly and at all times servers were cordial and professionally responsive. We never felt rushed, and the entire staff added positive energy to the pleasing and understated elegance...

We had a reservation January 22nd which was the first day of Restaurant Week. When we were seated and tried to order the RW menu, they said it was not available due to shipping issues. We were disappointed as we were not notified beforehand and went there specifically for the wagyu beef.

The manager tried to piece together a menu for us for $40 which was very underwhelming. The food was not good and the quality was not what we'd expect for what we paid. Examples below: Mushroom dumplings were what you'd expect at Trader Joes, pretty standard The "Bap" which is their bibimbap was not served in a stone pot, the rice was inside this weird fried tempura block, and the vegetables were "slaw" style. I understand that its fusion but this did not taste good The Beef dish was too salty the duck buns tasted like "sliders" as in we thought it'd be more like peking duck but it tasted more like shredded duck (which does not go well with the buns)

As a result, we did not end up ordering dessert since we were so disappointed with our meal. I was so disappointed because I made this reservation in advance and my date and I were really really looking forward to this and I traveled all the way from Sunnyvale to come here. :(

It pains me to leave this review because the service was good (2 stars for that) but the food was...