Paprika restaurant — Restaurant in San Francisco

• In Short *

Flavorful food that falls a bit short otherwise.

• In Depth *

After asking friends for suggestions about places that were similar in style to some Russian cuisine I've enjoyed on previous visits to Seattle, Paprika was one of several suggested to me, and certainly the easiest to get to of the numerous options, with the others being on the other end of the city. So, along I came, with a friend, getting their:

Paprika Goulash - Great, great flavor overall (mostly from the sauce), but the gnocchi was a bit too doughy and lacking in firmness, while the pork itself was too dry for my tastes (albeit tender).

Mixed Sausage Plate - A combo plate with the Polish kielbasa, and one other sausage I can't recall: German spice? Hungarian Sweet? I can't imagine I knowingly ordered the last one, but... read on. So, this combo plate had some good flavor going on too, helped along with the aforementioned sauce in place of traditional gravy for the mashed potatoes. Kielbasa is always quite tasty, but the other one I ordered was unexpectedly sweet, and while not bad, is not a particular one of the taste senses I enjoy when eating sausage (thus, the earlier doubt).

So, the food is by no means BAD. But, given the other gastropubs in the city that I've enjoyed far more, I can't really see myself coming back. Three stars normally, but 2.5 for this reason.

Accessibility Info

Venue - A bit on the smaller side, with tables consisting mostly (or entirely?) of two-tops. While a good majority of them are accessible, some are arranged in such a way that they may be inaccessible if you were sitting back to back with someone else.

Bathroom...

The chicken paprikash was lackluster. They at least used real potatoes to make the mash. The stew looked like it had a lot of herbs, but the overall profile of the stew was not that exciting. The chicken was overcooked and dry. The chicken was not well seasoned either. I wished they used chicken thighs , the chicken they used was very easily shredded.

The paprika goulash was also very lackluster. The pork was decent at best, the texture was also pretty dry. The stew was a little bit sweeter compared to the stew from the chicken paprikash. The gnocchi was atrocious — the texture, and the flavor was all wrong, it was definitely overcooked and way too soft, and not seasoned either.

The tomato soup as soup of the day was its saving Grace. The soup was very well balanced in terms of acidity, richness,,, and creaminess. I hunched that they made their tomato bisque in house , instead of it being store-bought.

The hungarian sausage was nothing special. Tasted like sausages that I can buy at stores.

The wait time for our food to come out was unreasonably long. It took around 15-25 minutes for our soup and sausage to come out. It took an additional 10 minutes (after we finished our beginning courses) for our entrées...

We went on our weekly jaunt out to a new San Francisco restaurant, this week's adventure was Paprika.

Dinner was wonderful The food was great. Service was so friendly. The beers we drank were new to us and fantastic.

We ate and drank: Weihenstephan: unfiltered hefe Staropramen Dark: Crisp, light, rich beer SMALL PLATE - GERMAN SPICY SAUSAGE: the sausage was so good, just the perfect amount of spicy CHICKEN PAPRIKASH: sweet, savory, delicious SZEGED GOULASH: my favorite, tangy, sour, rich, and awesome HOMEMADE APPLE STRUDEL: The dessert was delicious, it did not need the chocolate and strawberry drizzle, and would have been perfect simply served with whipped cream

We'll definitely be back. The food was wonderful and a breath of fresh air on the SF restaurant scene. The prices...