hed verythai — Restaurant in San Francisco

If I had one recommendation for this place, it would be to save your money and NOT to come! After seeing multiple social media posts about this place, I gathered a group of 6 friends to try it out.

I opted for the vegetarian course ($23) while my friends opted for the chicken and other meats (more expensive). Interestingly, the vegetarian set contained an entree with dried shrimp. The vegetarian course came with:

-Tom Kha Soup: Horribly underwhelming. I have never had a Tom Kha soup that lacked flavor, acidity, or spice.

-Papaya Salad: Ok, pretty standard but didnt taste fresh.

-Tofu with Glass Noodles: The tofu was barely marinated and the glass noodles had an awful lime juice.

-Choice of Pudding (Coconut): The toasted flakes on top were bitter and the flavor of the coconut pudding was subtle. This was OK.

Note: I opted for a double portion of tofu instead of the eggplant that it generally comes with. But I was genuinely confused what vegetarian entree was supposed to be eaten with the three portions of rice (felt excessive for that many grains) as neither the tofu noodles nor eggplant had any curry to it.

The server also kindly gave me some tom yum soup but that unfortunately became the joke of the evening as we all sampled it and passed it around describing it as salty dishwasher soap and was the worst thing I tried that evening and potentially ever with Thai food.

Friends described the chicken as bland, tough, and unappealing. The butternut squash was described as unseasoned mush and there was a general consensus that the tom kha soup could have been done without.

Overall, I am not sure where all the positive reviews come from but take it from someone who gets a smile on their face from food -- this is not it.

Also, please take a look at the picture of the meal AFTER people were done. We all went to go get some yummy pizza slices after. We did get a 40% discount on the food after speaking to the server that night as all of us strongly felt that we had been duped. But if the restaurant has to apologize and discount their food, take that as a sign as quality...

I had been looking forward to trying Hed Verythai for a few months after reading about it from a local food critic. I was able to attend a special pop-up preview menu of Hed 11, a new restaurant concept inside the Kimpton Hotel in Japantown coming soon.

With 11 courses, there was a wide variety of dishes with a general foundation in Thai cuisine, but incorporating Japanese and French touches such as breading and caviar.

Right from the start, the oysters on a half shell had a crispy garnish with slivers of red pepper, which provided a good amount of kick. They were clean, cool and flavorful. I have to say that my favorite was the crisp catfish salad with green mango. The catfish was only incorporated in the flavor of the crispy mound without the texture, which was very interesting. The beef curry with Thai pepper was also a favorite of my group. The rest of the menu is below.

Welcome Set In-house Thai style herbal infused whiskey with Thai style spicy oyster

Amuse-bouche Northern beef curry puff Hamachi spicy salad with Thai herbs Thai coconut pancake with Greece reserve Caviar

Single Plate Grilled Hokkaido Scallop coconut curry noodle with Thai herbs

Main Southern style beef curry with Thai pepper | Chicken curry with young banana Cabbage with fish sauce and crispy crackling Crab chili paste and seasonal vegetable Crispy catfish salad with green mango Thai Jasmine Rice | Brown Rice | Riceberry

Thai-style Herbal Drinks Lemongrass | Jasmine | White tea leave

Sweet Thai custard cheesecake and...

tldr: everything is nice except rice was not done properly at all

Got the belly set: papaya salad is good flavor and refreshing acidity and spice coconut mushroom soup is rich and sour and also flavorful, but having two similarly sour things is questionable eggplant has a good not-too-soft texture, flavor is ok, not sure if the basil works here pork belly is quite subtle in flavor especially in comparison to everything else, not in a bad way though pickles and crispy onions on top of the pork belly are good accompaniments, although there are already enough sour things that pickles are just excessive also feels like there‘s too little pork belly because a lot of that bowl was actually pineapple chunks, which is great flavor but with pork belly it’s overpowering and unnecessary the rice is where it all goes wrong: the two colored rice are a bit too hard, and the white rice is a mushy mass except the very outer layer - as an asian cuisine restaurant, messing up rice feels unacceptable mango pudding doesn‘t feel like high quality dessert and is too sweet, but not bad

There were only a few other tables so the atmosphere was wonderful. The server was amazing and accommodating, let me move to a different table to use their outlet, and also reheated my food...