Heirloom Café — Restaurant in San Francisco

Thank you chef Josh! Excellent experience!

Service: 10/10 we arrived early and were seated right away. The host was friendly and greeted us genuinely. Our server brought water, olives and almonds and extra olives for my wife with almond allergies so she can try the yummy olives. Amazing detail to my parties food allergies and checked to make sure the food was safe and had alternatives to accommodate.

Food: 10/10 the food was delicious. French influenced California cuisine. Fresh high quality ingredients. Sauces that enhanced the flavors and a balance of umami in all dishes. It was great that one person can have the prefix menu and others at the table can order al a cart. You can also order just one dish from prefix menu. The duck was perfect, the 3 cheeses with toast paired perfectly with the Bordeaux. The smoked trout was very well seasoned and balanced nicely with the pickled cauliflower. The hanger steak was super tender and flavorful with no dairy!!! Wine paring is excellent. The selection of French wines is reasonable and great for food pairing. I think the josey baker sourdough beats tartine country bread! The warm Chocolate cookie with ice cream was delicious, the polenta cake with cream and rhubarb was shockingly good!

Ambience: 8/10 I love the simple open decor. Bar, dining and kitchen blend together. It wasn’t too noisy because the ceiling pads dampened it.

Price: $$ (great value) Overall, an amazing neighborhood up leveled cuisine in a casual setting. We will be back...

What a treat - honestly this might be my new hangout spot. I didn't have a reservation but the hostess promised to squeeze me in at the bar. The place was quiet and half empty at first but sure enough 15mins went by and it was PACKED. I mean people were being turned down left and right. We finally got sat at the bar and waited about 20mins for service, but the server promptly noticed we hadn't been greeted and offered us complementary glasses of wine. We didn't put up that big of a fight, and the rest of the night was amazing.

The food is brilliantly paired with balancing tastes and flowing wine. The scallops were cooked perfectly and the gnocchi was probably one of the best I've ever tasted. The portions are small but take it slow and you'll be full by the end of the night. We split everything for two and ordered 5 dishes - PERFECTION in every bite.

The chef personally came over to deliver each dish and told us to wait for the ceviche to finish marinating. I'm so glad we did because once again it was well worth any wait.

I will be back to try and taste more and hope that each time I can feel right at home in this cozy...

Short version: it's good, it's expensive. It might not be entirely fair to call it out as expensive, since what really made it more expensive than other similar places is that we got a lot more wine than we usually do. But the restaurant is especially known for its wine, and they offer excellent pairings, so if you're not going to get the wine, why go?

Great food, great friendly, attentive, but unobtrusive service, nice semi-fancy, semi-rustic atmosphere. And the wine was great. It's always eye-opening for me to have wine well paired with food. I ordered a 2005 Rioja when we sat down, and we thought it was OK. Later in the meal, the same wine came paired with my husband's entree (braised pork, polenta, maple-glazed delicata squash, orange-pecan gremolata) and it was 10 times better. And with dessert we had a 2011 Jurançon Uroulat that was fantastic.

If we were in the mood to have someone hand-hold us through some excellent wines that can't be easily had other places. But otherwise, for the money, we'd go to Blue Plate...