Ula Restaurant & Tapas Bar — Restaurant in San Francisco

Please do yourself a favor and RUN THE OTHER WAY. I am visiting from New York and wanted to thank my friends for hosting me by taking them out to a nice seafood dinner. This experience was more like a punishment. First I should begin by saying that I have worked in the restaurant industry for a number of years from bars to more upscale dining establishments, so I am aware of how a restaurant - especially one that claims to be fine dining- is operated. 1 The quality of the food - Lobster bisque - please save your money and time. The presentation was nice, however I should’ve read the menu more closely because there is nothing lobster-y about the lobster bisque. There are chunks of shrimp, with leek purée in a thickened seafood broth. Not a hint of lobster flavor (or sherry, or thick cream). It wasn’t horrible but it was the furthest thing from lobster bisque. Best salad - flavorless watery, unformed burrata. It liked like when they plated the dish the burrata was dropped from ten feet above. It lacked in flavor and consistency. “Jumbo” sea scallops. This was my main and was by far the second most disappointing item I received. The scallops were chewy and over cooked, but still the only thing that I was able to consume on the plate. The labneh was ok. The cous cous with roasted tomatoes tasted like it was soaked in gasoline. I love babaghanoush and am well aware of what a smoked or fire roasted vegetable should taste like. This dish was so disgusting because it tasted like the flame of a gas stove. It was inedible. I asked my friend to take a bite to make sure it wasn’t just me and she agreed before she even bit it she said it smells like chemicals. VERY disappointing. When they have the audacity to write “Jumbo” on the menu my expectation was that I’d be getting U/10 or U/12 scallops at the very list. The scallops were puny in size closer to 10/20s and poorly cooked. Do not order this item off the menu - $38! The actual nerve. The worst thing we had during our dining “experience” was the “Louisiana Prawn Cocktail”. Absolutely insane the wording on the menu. I should’ve known. 1st this claims in the description to have Calabrian chili- absolutely nothing spicy about this- no sign of chili. Secondly when anyone says “prawn” I expect more than a Costco quality pre frozen tasteless piece of shrimp. Zero flavor, averaged sized, no head, not fresh shrimp. The garnish was slices of browning avocado and halved grape tomatoes. And now lastly for the “sauce” (as the waitstaff repeatedly referred to it as). This plate was literally 5 shrimp that were just thrown down in a huge mound of....KETCHUP. LITERALLY HEINZ KETCHUP. when asked- one waiter said we don’t have cocktail sauce. Another stated that they had and went on to bring me a side dish with more ketchup. Our main waiter had the audacity to argue with me that it’s a Mediterranean restaurant and cocktail sauce is an English thing. So where’s the aioli or even fresh lemon? Which brings me back to the menu post- Louisiana Prawn Cocktail has no cocktail sauce, farm raised (I’m sure) unimpressively sized shrimp and last I checked Louisiana is far from anywhere in the Mediterranean! Just another part of our gaslighting dining experience. We did have two of the branzino specials which were good. The accompanying sides were ok- poorly seasoned canned corn, the turnip cake was good but a bit greasy. The fish itself was fresh and well prepared. The seafood stew was ok- the sauce was lackluster and thin but the seafood content was good. The tuna tartare was the best thing we had all night (that’s not saying much unfortunately). Presentation was standard. The flavor was just good. I’m out of characters but the server included a generous 20% gratuity for a party of four and didn’t inform the table that he’d done so. Our main dishes came out when the apps were still on the table being eaten. The silverware was stacked on plates and cleared while others were still eating. The only fine dining part of this experience was the unjustified pricing. $364 wasted....

TLDR: The atmosphere feels like a intimate escape into another world, the food is some of the best in the city, and the cocktails have deep flavor profiles that make them almost feel like potions —it’s truly magical. However, what sets Ula to another standard is the level of care and hospitality they show their customers. Get the beef tartare and the clams!!

We are visiting friends here in the Bay Area but are from Austin and wanted a special date night. I had seen amazing reviews of Ula and was curious to see the beautifully designed art deco interior —which truly delivered. It made the restaurant feel intimate and cozy, even with a huge open floor plan and high ceilings, almost as if we were dining in a cave. The cocktails had deep, complex, and refreshing flavors that lended themselves perfectly for sipping alongside seafood and red meats alike. Not to mention the food! The beef tartare and clams were especially incredible. That being said, it was difficult to stay present and focus on our romantic night out when we were treated so strangely by the waitstaff.

After ordering some bread and knowing which cocktails and appetizers we wanted to start our meal with, I moved our large menus from our small 2-top to the empty table next to us (there were many open tables that night) to make more space on our table. It felt like our waitstaff assumed we didn’t want to order anything more than bread and took our menus before we had ordered, without saying anything to us.

It then took a weirdly long time for someone to come and actually take our order and it was a different server altogether. It seemed as if our original server asked to drop our table, which felt very insulting, as we had no idea what we did to upset them. We just wanted to take it slowly ordering one course at a time but felt so uncomfortable that we had to leave. We watched as the servers talked with each other and pointed at our table throughout the next hour and, without knowing what was happening, we began to feel very awkward. Because of the service, we left Ula after enjoying only a few starters & small plates.

I posted an instagram story the next morning with a picture we took at the beginning of our date at Ula, jokingly saying “We were treated like poors last night but it was so tasty” and the Ula account immediately responded to try and get more information about our experience, which I appreciate. After recounting everything I said above and giving the last 4 digits of my card as well as my phone number, I was promised they would look into it and receive a call from the manager. Instead I received a call from owner, Neeraj Miglani, who was extremely understanding, protective of his staff, and incredibly hospitable. We were given a free round of drinks at his other restaurant & bar just down the street, Zingari, which was an absolute neighborhood gem!

There are many restaurants, especially in SF, that provide out-of-this-world, masterful dishes but what takes a restaurant to the next level is high standards of hospitality at every level of the company. Ula went above and beyond to show how much care and dedication it takes to run a community-minded, high end establishment in the heart of San Francisco and I would recommend them to anyone living in or...

TLDR: this restaurant has disgusting business practices. They will charge you $$$ if they don't answer the phone when you requesting to cancel your reservation due to having a stroke and being admitted to the hospital.

I made a dinner reservation for 5 people for March 4th, as this restaurant is walking distance to the Toni Rembe theater, where the play "The Headlands" was playing that night.

The week beforehand, I was in and out of multiple ERs, and later admitted to UCSF for a carotid artery dissection and ischemic stroke. I am partially blind in one eye and on bed rest for 3-6 months, and even then may require risky surgery.

I was discharged from the hospital March 2nd and began calling the theater/ticketing agency who IMMEDIATELY offered a full refund on tickets.

I called Ula to cancel my reservation. No one answered. I left a voicemail.

After receiving multiple messages to confirm my reservation, I called again and again. I finally got a person on the phone the morning of March 3rd (approximately 30 hours before the reservation time). They cancelled the reservation - with no mention of a cancelation charge. I was later charged $125.

After not responding to my email (because you cannot get anyone from the "business office" on the phone), they finally responded refusing to refund me, and said I needed to "email" to cancel my reservation. Not only was no email provided, but regardless, to charge someone while they were in the hospital, and attempted to make contact in multiple ways well in advance of the reservation, is disgusting.

There are plenty of good restaurants in SF. I would skip the one with awful business practices who could care less if you were on what could have been...