Marlowe — Restaurant in San Francisco

Utterly Disappointing and Lackluster Experience

My family and I came in hoping for a good meal — especially given that there was basically no one else in the restaurant. The service at first seemed friendly, but things quickly fell apart. Despite the empty dining room, it took close to 45 minutes for our food to arrive. By then, we were tired, cranky — and somehow, even after all that time, they still got multiple orders wrong.

When we asked (politely) about our food, the sole older, red-headed woman working there responded with visible annoyance — no apology, no warmth, just a clear sense we were bothering her. She said, "It’s coming," with the same energy you'd expect from a greasy spoon diner off a deserted interstate. Other reviews mention this same staff member and her attitude; maybe it’s time to consider a different, non-customer-facing career?

To make matters worse, our server never even properly excused themselves when their shift ended — a random, new server just quietly took over. I worked in hospitality for years — this is basic server etiquette.

The food? Sad, uninspired, and absolutely not worth the wait. We were drawn in by an online menu that looked exciting and extensive, but the in-person menu was short, limited, and ridiculously overpriced for what you actually get.

Afterward, we ended up grabbing In-N-Out burgers — and honestly, they were infinitely better. This place couldn’t even get a basic burger order right. My burger came out marginally warm, cooked incorrectly, with a thin, rubbery, semi-pink patty that had no flavor or personality. The much-hyped sauce overwhelmed the anemic burger rather than complementing it — if the burger had been thick and juicy, maybe it would have worked, but this wasn't even close.

It’s a real shame too as I travel to the Bay Area at least once a month for work and was hoping to find a good spot for casual, business lunches. Sadly, Marlowe won’t be it. With inattentive service, poor food quality, and a complete lack of hospitality basics, I just can't even consider it.

Seriously, save your time, your money, and your patience — there are far better options in...

Excellent! A friend recommended Marlowe for our visit to San Fran. We made a reservation for the night before we headed home (a Sunday night, the next day was MLK day). If you've never been you should know it's a small place and you will likely be sitting close to other people. It's also very popular so a reservation is probably a good idea. I started with the brown butter brussels sprouts as my 'starter', my spouse had the romaine Caesar. Both were fantastic and mine was a lot of food but I kind of expected this as it was listed as a side not a starter. The egg on the romaine was different for my spouse, who usually doesn't like anything out of the ordinary but he cleaned his plate. My brussels sprouts were phenomenal. While enjoying the flavor explosion, I was thinking how or if I could replicate this at home! The entrees were even better, if that's possible. My spouse thoroughly enjoyed the grilled pork chop, which was a generous portion of meat. My polenta was amazing. I almost asked to hold the parmesan (I'm vegetarian and also try to avoid dairy) but I'm glad I didn't. It added a distinct flavor to the dish. Though we didn't have room for dessert, I ordered the peanut butter bites to go. These were the perfect small sweet for post dinner. We both had regional beer with our meals, which was very complimentary to both. My spouse also ordered an iced tea. We are from Florida and my spouse is used to getting sugar packets when asking for sweetener. They produced a small bottle with simple syrup, which he said was perfect for the tea. Service was great. There was a short wait here and there but I can look past that as they were very busy. There are not a lot of menu items but that seems to allow them to focus on these items, making them phenomenal. If you want to enjoy something unique and you see something on their menu that interests you, you should make a reservation now. Hopefully, they can figure out how to expand to a larger dining room...

Loud cacophony of people and slow service paired with over-salted everything (except the deviled eggs -- those are still delishly divine despite this less than stellar review).

We booked a 15 person reservation (which, admittedly, was a 7 and 8 person reservation combined via coincidence because our company separately booked multiple reservations and the partners asked to combine them, thinking we would get a full row of proper tables -- would this have ended up differently if we didn't do that?), and we got wedged in the back area facing the bar & walkway to the kitchen. I'm a tall dude... and I couldn't fit comfortably without kicking table legs or table mates. We were on smaller dinette white tops compared to the restaurant's normal spacious wood tops.

Beyond that, this was my first night out with coworkers after having my first child born, on the company card, so I was looking to sling back cocktails. I was hoping for a server that would see me empty, look to me, have me sheepishly smile and nod yes, and then a few minutes later I'd find a fresh drink. I managed to order two drinks in an hour and a half dinner. First drink took a bit of time to come out paired with starters and small bites, but then my next cocktail took 25 minutes to come out. The wine took 20... astoundingly disappointing. For the price of everything, I'm expecting a mustachioed bartender to twiddle his suspenders and tell me that I'll get Shanghai 'd if I have too many of his cocktails. Literally impossible for me to get drunk here though at that rate...

Mains: burger was overly salty. Polenta was overly salty. Poulet was overly salty. Not impressive. Other half of our party devoured Steak Frites x 8, which were not overly salty apparently.

Marlowe... a city favorite that managed to disappoint with lackluster food & especially lackluster service, now removed from my list of recommended...