Fiorella Sunset — Restaurant in San Francisco

My two friends, one a great film actor from Armenia and one a talented musician from Memphis, and I decided to try your restaurant this afternoon and made a reservation for two pm under my name. I dropped them off and went to find parking as we were aware the kitchen would close at 2:30 and had already done a few circles looking for parking. What happened next was unprecedented, and I have been dining in restaurants regularly for over 25 years. Che Stratte, my musician friend, apologized for our lateness and him and Sam Tadevossian, my actor friend, followed Alex upstairs to the table and then asked where the bathroom was, as my friends wished to wash their hands (a completely reasonable thing in a pandemic). Alex directed them downstairs and Sam began to follow Che down the stairs, before deciding to wait at the table so we could get an appetizer ordered. Alex assumed something in his head and asked Che, quite aggressively, “are you guys OK??” Somewhat taken aback, Che said “yes, of course,” and went to wash his hands. After going back upstairs, Che took a seat, already feeling a bit strange and uncomfortable, and Sam T. went to wash his hands. While alone at the table, Alex came up to him, leaned in, and said “hey, just so you know, I won’t serve your table any alcohol since I can see there’s some kind of a fade going on.” Che responded truthfully that he had neither drank nor smoked nor taken anything, and said “ok, no worries, we weren’t planning to drink right now anyway.” This interaction didn’t sit well with Che, and he shared it with me and Sam shortly after I sat down, as the first dishes were arriving. We asked our waitress if we could speak with a manager, and soon Alex was back at the table. I started to tell him it was in bad taste to accuse someone of being on drugs with no real reasoning, and he now began to say Sam T. was “hovering over tables” and that Che was “unsteady on the stairs also.” He became visibly upset and said we could either drop it now and continue our lunch or take our food and go, and he would cover the bill. There was no willingness to apologize and we spoke with Michael, who identified himself as a manager, on the way out, expressing our concerns about how we were treated and spoken to. He was understanding and heard us out and said the director of operations would reach out. During this exchange, however, Alex returned to his host duties, but not without saying rudely to us that he had told us to leave. Michael calmy responded, “I got this,” and the conversation was soon over.

As I said above, I have never experienced this level of rudeness in over 25 years of dining out. Alex seems to have major ego issues and not understand what it means to be in the service industry. Our afternoon lunch was ruined and we have completely lost...

Update to my update-- just had another excellent dinner at Fiorella on a busy Friday night. Our party of two was unable to make our original 5:45 pm time, so I re-booked last minute for 8pm because that was the next earliest available. We showed up about 6:30, enjoyed a little time in the speakeasy upstairs, and then were seated in about 10 minutes-- a welcome surprise since they were thinking more like 30 minutes. Anyway, food and service were both top notch, so I'm back to giving Fiorella my most enthusiastic recommendations. Whole roasted cauliflower was outstanding, a relatively healthy and satisfying way to start a meal. Update to my review below-- I returned to Fiorella Sunset a few weeks ago and had a great experience. I sat indoors this time, on the main floor, instead of upstairs in the rooftop area. Food, service, and ambience were all excellent. Pizza with guanciale was so good. So, I'm gonna gradually upgrading my rating here as I go back and presumably have more good experiences.

I used to love Fiorella Richmond and Polk, so it pains me to give them only 3 stars. But my recent visits to Sunset and Polk were both marred by poor service. I realize that it's difficult to hire good servers in SF given the wealth gap and cost of living in SF. But customers should be aware of what's in store for them. AFAICT the problem is that Fiorella is understaffed and undertrained. I've noticed that our servers are responsible for too many tables and as a result we get neglected. Like taking 30-40 minutes for our starters to arrive after we order them, even though we asked multiple times. Like delivering a cold, uncut pizza with no tools to cut it. So, it just kind of kills the restaurant experience when stuff like this happens. I'm gonna have to rethink whether I want to go back to Fiorella X, and certainly whether I'll recommend it to friends. BTW, I'm still giving a 20% gratuity cuz I know it's not really the staff's fault that the customer experience is subpar.

I've had also great experiences at similar restaurants like Tailor's Son, so I've gotta believe there's a way that restaurants can make...

Can’t believe this was just my first time here. This evening we tried Fiorella Sunset for their restaurant week dinner offering. Hands down the best restaurant week menu we’ve tried so far: delicious, great value and comes with a glass of Prosecco!! $45!

Service and our server were attentive even when we experienced a slight delay. Blake took time to answer our questions, was thoughtful, knowledgeable and acknowledged when we had to wait. Definitely made our dining experience pleasant.

We had: the Arancini Al Parmigiano: fluffy perfectly cooked and seasoned cheesy rice balls with a savory sauce.

Toasted Farro Primavera: wonderful asparagus, parsley and farro salad with a great balance of acid, crunch and verdant flavors. My favorite dish of the evening

Salsiccia Pie: generous pie we haves slice due to six portions-we room home half the pie ! It was cooked with just the right amount of burnt crust and chewy dough. Simple and yummy

Radiators al vodka diavolo: al dente pasta with savory vodka sauce, another tasty dish that we ended up taking home because the whole meal was so well balanced and paced.

Also tried the rigatoni with bolognese which was also cooked just right and had the right amount of sauce.

Finally we had the rice pudding -yum!! And the chocolate gelato dessert.

The Negroni Salad cocktail: wonderful!

Overall the dishes were well seasoned and a tad on the saltier side-especially the pastas- my only suggestion would be to ease up on the salt/seasoning, but it won’t keep me from returning if to try the other dishes.

I highly recommend Fiorella for date night, early family dinner night, and any night! Cool and casual atmosphere that’s hip (check out the funky wallpaper: Montana, Alice Waters, E40 and Dennis Richmond together) without being a scene, with a warm fireplace, gorgeous bar and warm wood throughout. Staff seemed to be in a nice rhythm and the noise was just right.

We forgot to snap pics but trust me, it’s worth checking out even after Restaurant...