Maykadeh — Restaurant in San Francisco

⭐ My Honest Review of My Recent Visit to Maykadeh Restaurant, San Francisco:

I had visited maykadeh once a couple of years ago and honestly, the experience wasn’t great — but I didn’t make a big deal of it. I figured it was late in the day, maybe the staff was tired or just having a rough shift, and mistakes happen. So I let it go.

Fast forward two years: I’m visiting San Francisco again (I live in Vancouver and travel often), and decided to give this place another try — big mistake.

Unfortunately, the second experience was even worse than the first.

Let me be clear: this restaurant is what I’d call a “polished tourist trap” — they present everything nicely but hit you with surprise charges that make you feel like you’ve just been politely robbed. No warning, no real explanation, just hidden costs tucked into a tiny corner of the menu you’re probably not shown clearly. It felt extremely dishonest.

I ordered something simple — a basic Ghormeh Sabzi — which came in a bowl barely larger than a yogurt cup, they charged $32 for it. On top of that, they automatically added an 18% “service charge” to the bill, even though we were dining in and no one warned us about it. No one asked, no one explained — it was just there. That’s nearly $50 for a below-average single meal.

The food itself? Bland, small portion, and not fresh at all. The service? Cold, uninterested, and honestly depressing — the staff member looked like she just wanted to go home. There was zero hospitality, zero care.

In summary: Overpriced food Tiny portions Poor service Hidden fees No respect for customers

This was by far one of the worst restaurant experiences I’ve had in the U.S. I absolutely do not recommend this place to anyone. Save your money, your time, and your mood — go literally...

We arrived on a Monday evening around 6pm and were seated promptly without any reservation. As soon as we sat down, we were served water, a generous offering of about 5 pieces of warm/hot bread, and a plate of basil and raw onion. Our Persian friend ordered the ghrome sabzee lamb shank, koobideh kebabs, filet steak, mast-o-musir, and baba ghanoush.

I had their Persian Martini, which contains pomegranate juice and bits of lime. Very refreshing!

The grilled khoobideh kebabs are made with coarsely ground beef, lamb and chopped onions. The meat reminded me of Japanese "tsukune"! :-) The meatball kebab was seasoned nicely and very juicy and was served with a hot, roasted tomato, and a healthy serving of lightly seasoned fluffy rice on large plates.

My only gripe is that the breads were slightly over baked on one side, so the consistency of one half of the pita bread was crispy and stuck together instead of being warm, spongy and chewy. It was a bit like a soda bread cracker.

Overall, though, I found the food to be delicious, not overly seasoned, and the portions were sizable enough to take half of my rice and kebab back home. The ambiance is nice with some Middle Eastern background music. Service was professional, but I wish there was less dish clatter by the bussers.

There are other dishes on the menu that I didn't get to try this time that I want to try next time, so...

I’m writing this with great sadness as I have been ordering from this restaurant for 20 years since 2006. Something is off. Our delivery order was supposed to take an estimated 1 hour to arrive, it took 1 hour 45 minutes. An entire plate of kebobs and rice was forgotten and when we called in the women on the other end was very defensive. She did knowledge the mistake and sent the food eventually. The kebobs were okay/good, but the chicken and the sauce was a little weak. Lastly the rice was split, that’s what happens when you put too much water (rookie mistake). They also forgot the dried pomegranate they usually send.

Something is off and it’s either a new/worse chef in the kitchen or possibly new management, but the woman said there’s no change? The plates we ordered were still a 6 out of 10 or 7 out of 10 maybe, but I am used to 10 out of 10 at this place! It was like top three favorite restaurants, but sadly I think it’s fallen off. Note, I’m not even complaining about price, because if you’re amazing on food I’ll hand over any amount of cash.

I never write reviews, but having sorted the filter to “newest reviews” I see a trend…half the reviews are pretty bad (way worse than mine). Try It. I’m here to mourn the loss of what was a 10 out of 10 SF classic restaurant....