Pinecrest Diner — Restaurant in San Francisco

The service was one of the worst we’ve ever had. Our visit took over two hours due to the waiter being condescendingly rude and purposely delaying our service. I’ve worked in fast food before and try to be understanding and patient with restaurant staff, but this nearly felt intentional from the start. We arrived during a busy time so waiting was expected at first. A couple was seated behind us, 10-15 minutes after us, and ended up getting helped before us. I didn’t think much of it at the time. The waiter working our section was bearded and had long curly hair, which was not tied back or in a hair net. I thought hair management is needed when handling food in a restaurant? The receipt shows the cashier was Gery, but I’m not sure if that was the name of the waiter. When we were first approached, we asked for waters, coffee, and I stated: “can we start with the (x) appetizer.” The waiter replied with a condescending attitude: “can you?” I didn’t catch it at first and figured he was joking, but it was telling for how the rest of his service was going to be. After another 20-25 minutes, we had been ready to order for awhile and I noticed the waiter was going table by table, figuring we’d be next as he worked his way down, but he turned back and began helping the previous tables after helping the couple behind us. Sometime later our appetizer came out and we let him know we were ready to order. He said he’d be right back to refill our drinks and take our order. 20 minutes later, the appetizer was finished, our drinks weren’t refilled, and we still didn’t get our order taken. I tried making eye contact with him and briefly raised my hand to get his attention and he turned his back on us, further ignoring us. That’s when I noticed the couple behind us had finished their meal and had received their check. The waiter came over, took their check, and again ignored us. Our treatment was noticeably seeming off. After I tried to subtly get his attention again as he helped several other tables, he continued to ignore us. I finally raised my hand with the menu and left it up to get his attention. He eventually came over and took our order with a very condescending and rushing attitude. We had waited for over an hour by this point. Our food came out in a normal amount of time. He asked my brother if he wanted more coffee, which he forgot he said he’d refill earlier, and mid sentence as I asked to get a refill of water, he turned his back and walked away not acknowledging me. He eventually came back to refill the coffee and the water. Therefore he did hear me and continued to be rude and delayed our check. He dropped off the check, said he’ll help us with the check when we’re ready, and left. Another 25-30 minutes of our check being ready to be picked up, as he did for everyone else in our section, we definitely didn’t feel welcomed here and I raised the check to notify any of the staff we were ready to pay. I didn’t waive the check around, or raise my voice. The waiter came over to help a new guest sitting behind us, and told us we can take our check up to the counter. The counter was located in the middle of the restaurant and we weren’t aware this was an option since everyone else in our section was helped at their table. As I was preparing to pay my check at the counter, I mentioned I didn’t realize we were supposed to pay there, pointing out all others paid at their table. The waiter responded rudely and sarcastically: “do you want to pay at your table, let’s walk back to your table.” He mentioned he was offended that I raised my check, and I replied that I didn’t appreciate waiting over two hours to complete our meal. He replied sarcastically: “it was busy and it is what it is.” At that point it was clear it wasn’t that busy. We arrived around 10:30pm and finally left after 12:30am. A meal like this usually takes maybe an hour. This waiter was rude and hopefully others won’t have to deal with such a...

This place doesn't need my review to attract more business. They have a constant stream of customers waiting for a seat, and handle everyone with respect and courtesy regardless of how bustling it is.

I visited on a Friday morning, around 7am while in town for a conference. There are several other options around, most are more polished, but what attracted me to this spot was that it is an unapologetic diner in the middle of an upscale San Francisco area that slings good solid food, fast, hot, and delicious, all scratch made, no airs about it.

I had the huevos rancheros with scrambled eggs, which came in a skillet, and gobbled it down before remembering to snap a quick picture. It came with beans, freshly hand chopped salsa (you could tell because the tomatoes were uniformly diced), half a sliced avocado, sour cream, three corn tortillas, and of course, the seasoned scrambled eggs (could have chosen any style of egg). Toast and/or potatoes are extra, which is fine with me because I'm watching my carbs and what was served was plenty to fill me.

The diner is comparatively small, 8 or 10 booths/tables, and counter seating that seats 8 or 10, so the place is tight, which is why I took off one star, but don't misinterpret the missing star as any indictment on the atmosphere or cleanliness of the restaurant, it's exactly what you would hope a great diner would be.

Prices are moderate, but again, look at the location. The meal was $24 before tip that includes the bottomless coffee and taxes. Well worth the price considering my hotel is charging $49 for breakfast (yikes).

The food is served fast, and they have a system, as you can see from the picture, to get everyone's plate out together. That conga line of yummieness you see lined up along the grill was replaced a few seconds later with another line of plates. I thought to take another picture but I didn't want to be obnoxious about it.

If you're looking for a quick, hearty breakfast and aren't interested in hanging out for an hour to chat with table mates, stop in and enjoy. If you're looking for a place to hang out, eat, and solve the world's problems with friends while sipping coffee all morning long, you should probably find another restaurant. While I'm not sure they would ask you to leave, it would be inconsiderate to loiter a long time and not allow them to flip the table. There are an abundance of restaurants in the area to just hang out in. This one appears to be in the business of breakfast and moving out with a...

We went in around 1am to try Pinecrest bc of the good reviews. They weren't terribly busy with 4 open tables and a few open spots at the counter. We looked at the menus by the door and waited for someone to greet us or seat us. There were 3 people in the front of the house and multiple cooks standing outside the kitchen talking with the server. After standing for 7 min. (We timed it bc no one even looked or talked to us) I asked who do we put a togo order through? The busser pointed to the guy in the black hat. We walked over to where he was and we stood right in front of him in front of the cash register where he was standing. We were so close to him we could literally hold hands. He continued to not talk to us, looked up at me several times, went and talked to the cooks and continued to ignore us. We were standing there for about 4 more minutes when my husband said we'll wait another minute and if we're still ignored we'll leave. The server then looked at me and left the counter area knocked into me while trying to pass me and at this point we looked right at each other and I began to ask if we could order in which he acted like I wasn't even there. Completley ghosted me and my husband. He walked away from me mid sentence. It was late and we were so hungry all we wanted was a sandwich and salad to take back to our hotel room. So we ended up getting a pizza, which we didn't want. Funny, there was a guy there who shook his head at the server and told us he was there for 45 minutes waiting for french fries togo. He said "good luck" and mentioned he would never go there again. 45 minutes for french fries??? Fries take 4 minutes to make and another minute to box up.... Now we know that we will never go to Pinecrest again and tell anyone considering going about our experience there. We visit SF a lot bc I am originally from the area and I can say this; the service and hospitality here has definitely changed and not for the better. I am in the hospitality industry for 30 years and now I run a hotel. In my experience I have encountered poor additudes in employees and have always worked through their bad days with them. I understand people have bad days. But this server at Pinecrest, his behavior was so unacceptable that if I was the the owner or manager I would have fired him immediately. He probably has a poor additude all the time which is completely unacceptable in hospitality. I do hope the owner or manager reads this and cares enough to address this behavior. If not, why run...