Plow — Restaurant in San Francisco

I had a craving for a more western style breakfast. Eggs Benedict, preferably, coffee and some kind of bread. After wrangling my party of three, we make our escape from the heatwave engulfing the East Bay for a nice, overcast-y morning in Potrero Hill based on a recommendation and some cleverly framed pictures of potatoes, pancakes and deliciously fluffy looking eggs.

We arrive at Plow around 9:45am and are greeted at the door. The host tells us the wait will be 45 minutes to an hour, with a possibility of being as long as 75 minutes for first available seating. Honestly, I appreciated the heads up of potentially longer wait times, even though it didn't seem like it would be that long. Looking behind the host, I see a small diner-ish like seating indoors with what seemed like a 6-7 tables and 3 tables of (now) typical SF outdoor parking space seating.

Needing time to kill, we walked 1 block down to Linea for coffee and came back about 20 minutes later, caffeinated and ready to devour any of the delicious foods we saw being served. Within about 45 minutes of arriving, my party was seated. A word of warning, they roll through the list quickly, calling names and moving to the next after calling out a name a few times, so be sure you're there. Otherwise, you will be put at the back of the list.

Food was ordered: Buttermilk Biscuit, off-menu scrambled eggs/toast/potatoes/sausage patty, The Plow (Lemon Semolina pancakes, eggs, homestyle potatoes and sausage patty) and my craving Eggs Benedict with cold smoked salmon. 1 coffee, water and Ice Tea for me.

Everything was outstanding. The waitress was accommodating, letting us know of the off-menu meal. The biscuit was crispy on the outside and fluffy, yet dense on the side. The whipped butter that came with it was excellent. The sausage was tasty, a little heavy on the rosemary, but did not take away from the hand-patted patty. The eggs were fluffy and slightly runny, perfect for all there. The homestyle fries were like the muffin: crispy outer texture and fluffy inside. The only thing we had that less than extraordinary was the pancakes. They were cooked well, but mostly lacked a lemon flavor, which was remedied when I squeezed a bit of lemon into the butter and applied it to the pancakes. Then it was on par with everything else.

As an aside, never did our water go empty and despite the busy staff, not once did we feel forgotten. They took our outside coffee cups when we were done and 3 separate people checked in with us to be sure we were satisfied. I'm not sure if this is normal, but it was greatly appreciated. The food came out relatively quickly and nearly all at once. The iced tea was delicious and coffee was hot, but not scalding.

All in all, definitely added to my list of brunch spots and I look forward...

Found this place on the KQED website "Bay Area Bites Guide: Best Places for Breakfast in San Francisco". Arrived 9 AM on a sunny, crisp , Sunday morning (55 degrees, but not too uncomfortable for me). 30 minute wait for 1. Place is packed. Outside waiting is packed. And it's this early! Must be good, popular, or hopefully a good dose of both. (Note: They have blankets for those who elect outdoor seating.)

Sat at the counter. Conversed a little with the friendly cooks. It's already interesting just checking out what they're cooking. Omelettes and egg dishes... pancakes and French toast... and a very intriguing salmon, poached egg, and Hollandaise sauce I'll have to try next time. Also saw a salad topped with edible flowers.

So, the food has arrived and it's a full plate. Unfortunately, it's the same kind of full plate, at least in appearance, to what I would get in Denny's. The famous Plow potatoes take up half the plate. The seasoning is okay, but I have to summarize what these really are. They are simply burned potatoes. I'm sorry to all the faithful followers of Plow potatoes. They're just, not special. The eggs were equally uninspiring. I could have made those at home. The sausage was okay, but I've tasted better in a food tasting stall in Costco. You know, I came to San Francisco hoping to try something new, different, exotic, and the pancakes were it. Lemon ricotta pancakes. They had the thickness from the ricotta which made them different than ordinary pancakes with a little zest of lemon to them. I wish I would have bought just these. They were scrumptious, although as I get to the next part, we'll see that maybe they wouldn't be worth it.

Price tag for my meal including coffee and tax and tip and everything was $26. The ambiance isn't worth it either because they have the cold air coming through the front door that they don't keep closed. I have no complaints about the staff where the cooks or the cleanliness or the service. Coffee was good, but this meal was not worth $26 in any way shape or form. As I Was preparing to leave, I could hear them telling patrons that it would take 1 hour to 1.5 hours to be seated. Don't do it. it's not worth the wait if you're going to get The Plow. I believe in second chances and will try to come back for the salmon, poached egg, and hollandaise sauce. We'll see though if that ever comes to fruition. Until then, ciao.

Or... Plow? Eh.....

Two stars for burnt potatoes and price. Lemon ricotta pancakes were five stars, but you can see that was a small...

Plow was the most unique dining experience I’ve had in any city. Also, this is my first time ever leaving a review, but I do think this needs to be out there, and because I didn’t express any of this during the experience itself to avoid adding any stress to an already busy place.

Starting with the food and wait time, there is absolutely no reason to wait here for longer than 15-20 minutes. Zazie, Tartine, even a quick wait at Arizmendi is a much better use of your time. The food is good, but not outstanding or memorable, and certainly not worth waiting hours for.

The chefs and servers here are extremely hardworking and putting their best foot forward, but the people responsible for managing seating are not doing them any favors. The seating system is first come first serve, with a written list where you have to physically wait around for as long as it takes to be seated.

I believe it would tremendously boost customer satisfaction and improve operational efficiency for the restaurant if they allowed people to join an online waitlist. I do not think it is appropriate to ask people to wait around for over two hours on a weekend, just to be able to grab brunch. Being able to join an online waitlist manages expectations for guests and hosts, and is commonly practiced by many other popular brunch spots in the city.

I think a restaurant struggling with 6+ years (based on other reviews) of having people wait for over two hours on a weekend is unacceptable. To do written lists with extremely vague rules around who gets seated when (we were seated after 2+ hours, we specifically requested an indoor table and were placed on counters, we were not able to move to tables as they came up despite politely requesting twice) adds to the frustration. We also noticed smaller parties seated on tables for four while we were given counter seats.

I will definitely not be returning or recommending this place! There are plenty of other wonderful local businesses in the area to support that care about treating all of their customers fairly ❤️

They are also not vegetarian friendly, and the restaurant can get extremely loud so something to...