Papito Hayes — Restaurant in San Francisco

4 star food, 3 star service, minus 1/2 star for deceptive pricing

My friend and I ordered drinks, mains, and shared a dessert. On the whole they ranged from fine to very good, but nothing exceptional.

My mole enchiladas were hearty but the mole sauce wasn't as rich & tasty as others I've had in the Bay Area. Also, it was a little odd that everything was thrown together in one bowl vs. the rice on the side, etc.

Our margaritas were good. I liked that my hibiscus one wasn't too sweet.

Our shared churro sundae was tasty, and we especially liked the pineapple bits.

However, BIG THUMBS DOWN on my friend's taco order! She very, very explicitly (and politely) requested NO CILANTRO. "I'm sorry, but I really really really hate cilantro. Can you make sure that none of it is in my tacos?" After some back and forth ("Okay, but then you have to have it without salsa; all our salsas have cilantro!"), and she assumed she was all set.

She gets her tacos, notices lots of flecks of cilantro in it, and when the other waiter notices her look of concern and asks what's the matter, my friend politely says, "Er, I ordered this without cilantro, but this [points] is cilantro, right?" "Oh, yeah, looks like it. Would you like me to pick it out or would you prefer to do that...?"

Um, really?! This did not make for a particularly enjoyable meal for my friend :(.

And at the end, what got MY goat was seeing -- in tiny print at the bottom of the menu -- a 4% surcharge for a "healthySF".

Look, I am a HUGE advocate for fair wages, and strongly believe that waitstaff deserves them + standard work benefits like health insurance, paid time off, etc. But it's gobsmackingly dumb to do this via a surcharge vs just upping menu prices by 4%. Outstanding restaurants like Zazie (and even fast food places like In'n'Out) offer benefits like this (and more) to their waitstaff without surcharging, surely Papito can...

This was a very unique Mexican restaurant located in a very lively area of San Francisco. This restaurant gets special credit for the wonderful atmosphere, the great service, and the location which is hard to beat. The food here is pretty good, and although not the best for this type of restaurant, it was certainly unique and worth the visit.

This restaurant offers a variety of Mexican dishes from tacos, soups, and other dishes, such as tortas and enchiladas. The mole enchiladas were amazing. The trees taco could probably be improved by putting just a little bit less salsa and more meat. And maybe having the potatoes be crispy instead of soaked. Otherwise, all the other items we tried were amazing. The cocktails are also really good. If you come here, you should try the charred jalapeño margarita. They also have a variety of beer on draft and in bottles if you want.

The location here is great. If you can find parking, there’s also a small park within half a block away with plenty of benches to hang out in a coffee shop and other places to get dessert if you want. There’s always something going on in this area so it’s kind of a cool spot to come to if you want to kill a couple hours.

The service was very friendly, fast and efficient. We were able to eat in about 15 minutes after sitting down. The prices are also pretty reasonable. For San Francisco the prices were below what I expected, which is great.

Definitely worth visiting the spot if you’re in the area if youre a fan of Mexican food...

Met up with an old friend here, looking for a bougie Mexican experience. Papito fit the bill nicely. The duck confit taco sounded ridiculous so I had to order it. It was good but I wish there had been a bit more of the crunchy skin. The chorizo taco I had was quite delicious. My friend and both enjoyed all our food, but if I’m being picky I would say that the flavour profile tended towards a more mild and sweet taste than I generally prefer. For the chips and salsa, the chips were nicely fried as they should be, and we enjoyed two out of three salsas. The third salsa was this fruity substance, which she called “mango syrup” and I called “watery jam”. Maybe other people will like that more?

Service was excellent, and we were both impressed by the portion and quality of the tequila shots we were served (this was sipping grade tequila; no plastic bottle regrets here!).

In the Hayes Valley ecosystem, Papito Hayes seems like it has evolved to fill a certain ecological niche: dispensing quality drinks and Mexican fare with a variety of interesting ingredients and deviations from your standard taqueria in a kinda posh but not stuffy setting. In other words it provides a bougie, if somewhat subdued, Mexican experience. It isn’t your favourite local taco truck and it is not trying to be. My friend and I were quite satisfied and I imagine many people...