The Vault Garden — Restaurant in San Francisco

I must say I was extremely dissatisfied with my experience here the evening of January 25th. When I approached the restaurant I had a bad feeling, as the patio lay vacant with only two tables in the entire venue seated. I requested to see a menu before being seated and was directed to an online version, which led to my decision to try it as the prices and dishes reflected an exceptional experience. After being seated, my server, I believe his name was Kent, took my drink order and said he would return to order food which must all be placed at the same time due to the kitchen being a block away. After another gentleman who appeared to be the bartender brought us our drinks, Kent was nowhere to be found for at least twenty five minutes. Luckily another sever who had been lounging by the bar noticed me searching for my server and offered to get me another drink, in which I informed him I was ready to order my food but could not locate my server. Upon Kent's return he was reluctant to address my table still until the main course came out, which was mediocre at best for the price. The reason for Kent's approach was due to the fact that my partners entree was not served and his response was as if she ordered nothing. I suppose this makes sense due to the fact he had been absent for the previous 45 minutes of our dining experience, which he stated their servers begin their breaks at the start of a shift. Considering the prices here are comparative to that of the nostalgic Cliffhouse, the food quality and service is far below the bar. Not to mention my partner returned home vomiting, although hard to directly say this was the food I can see a correlation to food handling a block away from the venue. At the end of my experience I review the receipt to find I have been charged more than was reflected on the menu. In a place like San Francisco this establishment will not last continuing to provide expiriences such as this. After reading the reviews of fellow patrons, it seems I am not the only one with...

Date nights are precious when you have two kids with a babysitter at home. I was excited to try The Vault Steakhouse and was craving a great steak. It's a beautiful space and we loved the live piano music. I figured I couldn't go wrong with ordering a medium-rare ribeye. I was wrong. My steak arrived and I went to take my first bite. It was difficult to cut into and I could see it was overcooked. A second steak was brought out and it went the entire other way...it was rare. Rare, as in just seared on the outside and blood red inside. At this point, I have not had one bite of steak yet. The host happened to be walking by and I grabbed their attention. They took the steak back to the kitchen and he came back a few minutes later and asked me if it was ok to just re-fire the rare steak. For $69 for a standalone steak, I declined. I just wanted a medium-rare steakhouse quality ribeye. The third steak arrived perfectly cooked but pre-sliced. They mentioned that this was their policy after a steak is returned. It wasn't too much of an issue other than the meat getting cold quickly. It tasted fine but wasn't anything special. The waiter's service during the meal did not help the situation whatsoever and I wasn't offered any sort of apology. There was another waiter in the dining room and busboy that we thought were great. I don't recommend...

We had been to Vault twice before for brunch and dinner each—both fabulous experiences in terms of food and drink quality. We loved the cocktails, Vault burger, sashimi plate, Caesar salad, Parker rolls, among other dishes. The service and ambiance had been fantastic.

Cut to our third overall experience during brunch. From the start things were off. We arrived as soon as the restaurant opened, and very politely requested where we preferred to sit but were declined and jammed into a tight space, fine if no one else is there. Of the whole empty restaurant, the hostess then proceeds to sit a screaming body right next to us. Why the seeming act of hostility? No common sense—I’ve witnessed on this visit and others that she sits people on top of each other, in spite of COVID.

To add to that, we were seated directly facing and in front of speakers which began to play blaringly loud music. My boyfriend has persistent migraines, and I too began to have a serious headache between the screaming baby and the vibrating, loud music. In addition, following the visit I had pretty violent food poisoning from the farmer’s scramble. Literally the only positive was our waiter’s wonderful service and kindness is allowing us to move tables after the adjacent screaming baby of terror table. Sadly will not be returning—we were really liking Vault as a...