Prubechu — Restaurant in San Francisco

I hate to say this and I very rarely feel this way about a restaurant, in fact I don’t even remember the last time I felt this way, but this was by far one of the worst dining experiences I have had. I will preface this by saying that Prubechu was at the top of my list of restaurants to try while visiting SF. I heard great things about it and was very excited to come here with my husband for our anniversary. Unfortunately, that excitement was met by the biggest disappointment. Here’s why: After checking out the menu, our server explained to us that the fiesta table (tasting menu) is where the “chef brings out the best of the food” in 10 courses. It’s $96 per person for this option. We compared the regular menu items, which by the way already seemed unreasonably expensive ($25 for 5 chicken wings, $32 for a potato dish, $10 for pickles, etc), and we decided YOLO let’s do the feast. We were excited to go all out (it was our anniversary) and to try their cuisine. First course was a creamy potato soup. Very mediocre, and I was concerned at the decision we just made to spend $200 on dinner with this being the first course. Then a “Caesar salad”. Idk in what world that was a Caesar salad. Not that I care that it wasn’t a Caesar salad, but why are we calling it that? It was large chunks of tomatoes, very large pieces of frisée, corn, and a creamy dressing. Caesar? Also it was very lacking in flavor. Then they brought us a cheesy focaccia with super crispy edges (this was the best thing we ate there but how is that even Guamanian?) Then they brought one small shrimp tostada. For the two of us. It had an avocado cream base and cold shrimp on top. Very basic, kinda bland. At this point we asked the server for hot sauce, he brought us a (tiny) condiment cup of hot sauce and told us to use very little because it’s super spicy. He wasn’t lying, the entire dinner we consumed probably half of a teaspoon of the hot sauce (this is relevant for later). After that they brought us two tacos with cold meat and grated coconut. Again, not flavorful, and cold. Then the entrees: short rib and chicken wings. The short rib was surprisingly tough, we had a hard time cutting it. And the chicken wings had a nice crispiness to them but extremely overhyped. By now, we are absolutely shocked at what we had been served for the price they were charging. But I figured dessert may just fix all of this. Wrong. A scoop of vanilla ice cream with a little nut crumble topping sprinkled on top. That’s when I really felt scammed. $96 per person and you’re serving us a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert? That felt extremely lazy and disrespectful. And then get this - we get the bill and they charged us FOUR DOLLARS for the hot sauce. WHAT?!! We couldn’t believe it. We already felt the tasting menu was way too expensive for what they served, and then they can’t even give us a complimentary spoonful of hot sauce?? I have never felt more scammed in my life by a restaurant. My husband and I go out often and don’t mind spending money on nice meals, but this was beyond disappointing and the biggest waste of money. I genuinely have no idea how people are leaving such great reviews. I truly wish we felt that way because this was no cheap dinner, we only got 9 of the 10 courses for some reason, portions were small, horrible value, and just not good food. The only good thing at the restaurant was the service, the guys who served...

Before dining at Prubechu, I really didn't know what to expect. Being that my girlfriend is from Guam, the only Guamanian cuisine that I've had was from her cooking. Thus, when I realized that Prubechu opened up this year and was the first and only Guamanian restaurant in NorCal, we couldn't pass up a chance to go. No only was our own hype there, the amazing Yelp reviews further solidified the anticipation.

Prubechu is located on Mission between 24th and 25th. What I despise about the Mission is that it is incredibly hard to find parking here on the weekends. Luckily, within 5 minutes, I managed to magically find a spot around the block from the restaurant. When walking towards Prubechu, you might actually miss it because the sign is so incognito. As a frame of reference, it's next door to Quickly, which you absolutely won't miss. Upon stepping inside, you'll notice that Prubechu isn't a large restaurant by any means, but it sure is popular. Make sure to make a reservation beforehand, because I don't really see how you can snag a table otherwise.

Once we got seated, Shawn and his staff took care of us for our whole stay. For dinner, we decided to order:

Pickles (seasonal vegetables): $5 Chamorro Empanada: $7 Kelaguen Manok: $12 Tinaktak: $16 Red Rice: $18 Fried Fish: $22

Dessert: Coconut Candy Ice Cream with Appigigi

For starters, the picked vegetables served as a good opening. They included: mango, papaya, radish, kimchee, and more. There was a nice spicy tang to each vegetable, and had that fresh homemade touch to it. Next up were the Chamorro empanadas. These are incredibly different from the empanadas that you're usually used to. Inside these bad boys was rice, achote, and mana. The empanadas were so taste that we ordered 2 additional to go.

If you're looking for some fresh tasting food, then the kelaguen is your dish of choice. This is Guamanian chicken ceviche with scallions and coconut, served on top of what resembles as a tortilla. Boy was this tasty. The chicken was juicy and combined with the citrus, it definitely made me want to order another round. If you're a coconut fan, then the tinaktak is for you. It comes served with homemade pasta. For my palate, it was a little on the thicker side, but I did enjoy the heavy coconut flavor that was associated with this dish.

Next up were the red rice and fried fish. Paired with these dishes was finedine, a vinegar based condiment. The red rice was paired with their homemade bacon, which was literally thick slab of pork. It was loaded with flavor, and the rice itself was moist. When combined with the fried fish, you have a winning entree. To finish off our dinner, we had their coconut candy ice cream with appigigi. The ice cream had a nice sea salt sprinkled on top, and when combined with the pieces of tapioca, it balanced the dish out, leaving me incredibly satisfied with my meal.

Throughout our meal, the service was attentive, the staff was incredibly nice, and of course the food was amazing. For Guamanian cuisine, there really isn't anywhere else you can go to in NorCal. Prubechu does the island a service by offering authentic tasting dishes to us Californians. Will I be back? You...

Yum yum yum.

So full transparency - I came here once, very drunk, and while I remember the food being great, I remember not much else. This time I fully enjoyed every bite, and let me tell you... mmmm mmm mmm. They were fabulous bites.

Came here on a Tuesday evening around 7pm with three friends. We ordered practically everything on the menu and shared a feast. We started with a few bottles of beer... I was pleasantly impressed with their beer list and we treated ourselves to a saison and a gose, both delicious. In terms of food, we shared:

Farmer's market salad: 5-stars. Little gems, stone fruit, avocado, and creamy sesame-ginger dressing. Super fresh, lots of great textures between peach and some crunchy bits, little pops of sesame. The dressing made the salad, I could have just drank the dressing on its own.

Chamorro empanada: 4-stars. Masa, achote, rice, sweet pepper and dinanche' aioli. Slightly crisp on the outside but the perfect amount of mush and delicious on the inside.

Kelaguen uhang: 4-stars. Shrimp ceviche with coconut, scallion and hot pepper. Pieces of shrimp served with freshly-shredded-right-this-second coconut on top. The things I wouldn't do for fresh coconut... the dish was really refreshing, great citrus flavors, and a perfect kick of something spicy. The coconut flatbread it was served on, however, was a bit tough, almost like it was stale.

Gollai Hagon Suni: 5-stars. Seasonal vegetables, onion, coconut and fresh turmeric. Just a million yums. The bitterness of the vegetables were evened out by the sweetness of the coconut. It was almost like the curried version of creamed spinach.

Tinaktak: 4-stars. Coconut braised beef, maitake, snap peas, and handmade pasta. Also lots of yum, though a bit more subtle than the vegetables. Tender beef, earth mushrooms, crunchy snap peas.

Bunelos aga: 3-stars. Super interesting dessert. Caramelized banana with tuba cream, which tasted like beer. It was quite tart and not completely balanced out by the banana, though the banana pieces themselves were sweet and sticky.

Coconut candy ice cream: 5-stars. Holy delicious goodness. Creamy coconut ice cream. Hints of caramel. Black sesame. Sweet. Salty. Creamy. Hot damn. I can't. All of this. In my face.

Overall, the food here rocks and it's pretty reasonably priced for SF. I highly...