State Bird Provisions — Restaurant in San Francisco

Just a little overhyped. My party came in with a reservation right at open at 5:30. We were seated promptly and the staff were friendly but our server did not take much time explaining how this dining experience works which ended up being slightly overwhelming but you eventually catch on. The atmosphere was very lively but incredibly loud, the building echoes all conversations happening and the music was up quite loud making it difficult to hear the person sitting right next to me. The experience is dimsum-esque with a menu to order from while also having several items offered for purchase brought to the table every few minutes. There will be a lot of options thrown your way very quickly and it’s easy to impulsively pick and choose; but beware of the price markers in the trays it’s easy to miss a higher priced item in the rush of food coming by. The food was very good but for the hype this restaurant has received I found it underwhelming and have had much better meals for a much much lower price. We started off ordering our entrees, “State Bird with Provisions” 3pc, “Sourdough-Sauerkraut Pecorino & Ricotta Pancakes” 3pc, and a roasted pepper Agnolotti . The state bird was the biggest letdown, being their namesake I had much higher hopes for this dish but was left with a measly portion (even for quail) that wasn’t very creative in flavor tasting indistinct from chicken. The pancakes were very good and were the best thing we had all night; they host a very unique flavor profile with many different notes to focus on and the dehydrated butter was a fascinating touch that worked better than expected. The Agnolotti had a sharp peppery flavor that, although overwhelming did hit the spot; it also had a brilliant sauce alongside it. Now to the dimsum we chose; we started with the bay oysters which were delectable and had a rich salty flavor. Next we got a roasted trout dip and house chips which surprised the whole table with a very good flavor and taste profile; the texture of the dip was a bit chunky and mushy for my liking though and it also became a bit too much over time as it was a very creamy and rich dip. Next we got the steamed albacore which had a brilliant taste and goes best with the sauce and lime juice squeezed over the top. Finally to end the evening we got an apple crumble which was cooked very well and tasted extraordinary; aside from the lemon sorbet on top which frankly didn’t work well with the other flavors at play, it just came across too tart to match the sweetness of the crumble and did not compliment it very well. Once again I’d like to reiterate that the food was good but definitely not worth what you’ll be spending. If you have the money and are interested it’s still a very unique and enjoyable experience but for the casual diner or someone looking for a more upscale experience I’d recommend looking...

Came with a party of 4, friends and family

I was really looking forward to trying an innovative and delicious variety of dishes at State Bird. Interesting and innovative the food was; alas, it fell short of delicious. Furthermore, we had one vegetarian member of the group which made it extra difficult to gauge what to pick from the "dim sum" section of the menu.

I made a reservation online. We were quickly seated at the appointed time. The waiter handed us a single menu with essentially apps, entrees, and desserts with a section left blank/$$ for "dim sum." We selected a few choices from there as per their suggestion - clay pot tofu stew with garlic rice, quail ("state bird"), and roti with morels. Then, servers proceeded to make their way with carts and trays of the "dim sum." I put this in quotes because apart from the serving style, it could not be more different. I realized the surprise of what might come around made it very difficult choose how much I would want a dish - what if what came later I wanted more? One only has so much belly and budget. This was doubly so when they assured us there would be more vegetarian choices to come, but they did not come until several choices later. I believe there are delicious ways to follow their philosophies of "whole plant" "whole animal" seasonal cooking with depth of flavor with a slightly more plant-forward view.

As for each dish - they were certainly interesting in description and presentation but often flavors were overwhelming. The fat acid heat etc theme meant very rich dishes. My favorite was the morels and roti. Combined South Asian gravies/chutneys, roti, and morels. It was fun to eat. Did taste like any other South Asian gravies though.

Second favorite was either the clay pot dish or the "garlic bread" with cheese on top. The bread was super fluffy and did well with the burrata-like topping. The clay pot tasted strongly of Thai green curry paste and Sichuan pepper. Liked the mushroom varieties in it. The garlic rice was excellent but I wonder if it's more scallion/green onion rice - it was certainly green in color.

Was not a fan of the quail. Breading was interesting with seeds but didn't seem to add much to the quail itself. Could have eaten the breading on its own and done without the nearly dry quail.

Perhaps it is more enjoyable with a very specific mindset -- treat dim sum as extras, and order enough to feel secure without relying on them, and feel free to choose only the ones that speak out to you -- or as a course menu with each dim sum item being one course; it's paced well enough to serve as this... And then don't feel bad about not liking any particular course, because you were there for the experience.

I don't think I'll be returning to this or any other of their...

First of all, the hostess was very kind and accommodating and the dim sum concept was well executed.

The food was decent, everything was crafted up to par for a fine-dining restaurant but nothing in particular was really outstanding. Most of the dishes were salty and dry (especially the garlic bread and pork belly, but not the quail).

We followed other reviews that suggested not ordering many a la carte dishes as they were disappointing and to focus on the dim sum dishes. We had around 6 plates of food and the state bird shared between two of us which totalled to around $130 so it wasn’t too expensive.

I’m just a bit confused with the service we received - two different servers that were bringing the dim sum plates around skipped us! We were sitting edge to edge with the table next to us, and they literally offered food to that table, walked past us to the table on the other side when I was noticeably eye-ing the food that they were bringing around. And this happened at least twice! It’s a different story if we were supposed to wave them down but no, they went up to other tables to offer and explain the dishes but just not us. Also to note, the food on our table was already finished just not cleared and we were looking around for more food, so it’s not like our table was piled with a lot of food. We had to chase down another server to ask about those dishes we weren’t offered. We declined that particular dish after hearing about it as we weren’t interested, then the server started clearing our plates. We said we still wanted to take a look around and wait for new dishes circling out, he apologized and said he would bring fresh plates and cutlery back to us but that never happened. We tried waving down another server that was walking around, he looked at us, nodded and smiled then proceeded to walk away??

Also, the table next to us got a blue menu that stated all the dim sum dishes that they were serving today which seemed pretty helpful but no one gave us one to refer to.

Our main server, Kevin A. was nice and helpful though. At this point, we were pretty fed up with everything else and just ordered dessert. We didn’t bring up the issue with him but maybe we looked visibly upset or uncomfortable so he offered us a complimentary dessert on top of what we ordered.

Overall, this was a cool experience to check out, but as a Michelin Star restaurant, I...