Villon — Restaurant in San Francisco

Villon is in the mid-Market redevelopment area. While the adjacent blocks remain somewhat scary, with bands of people on the street buying and selling drugs openly, I’ve got to give credit to the folks who developed the Proper Hotel and its restaurant for their contribution to the area.

The dining room of Villon is on the small side, with capacity of 40 diners. Reservations at peak times, especially prior to theatrical performances in the area, may be limited. However, the restaurant has placed tables in the hotel’s lobby for the benefit of guests of the Proper Hotel and for a limited number of walk-in customers. We were pleased by the service at Villon, which was very attentive.

Villon has a very extensive cocktail menu. We went with a Cuban theme, ordering one called the “Hotel Nacional” and the other, “Old Cuban” ($14 each). I found the “Old Cuban”, with its bubbly champagne base, to be the better of the two.

My friend and I started our dinner with the bread plate ($10), which included delicious Hawaiian sweet rolls, a loaf of dark, grainy bread, and several tasty spreads. Our appetizer was a large and succulent diver’s scallop ($16). Our main courses were sea bass ($32) and duck ($36), both of which my friend and I split. The duck was a sizable piece, but the sea bass was on the small side and was a little dry. We ordered a side of Brussels sprouts ($13) that had been roasted with a caramelized maple topping – delicious!

For dessert we ordered the chocolate mousse and the fruit curd (both $12). While the mousse was nothing special, we thought that the fruit curd, with a base of passionfruit and mango, was especially delicious and a nice palate cleanser.

Overall, our experience at Villon was a good one. Some of the plates were delicious, others not so much. Service was great. However, we both felt that the price-to-experience ratio at Villon was a bit steep.

Addendum: Two friends and I returned to Villon in March 2019. The dining room is beautifully decorated but tiny. Our party of 3 was given a table for 2 so the chair of one of us protruded into the service aisle, a problem when any but the slimmest wait persons had to pass through. My review of our meal experience is similar to what I wrote earlier. On this occasion, our appetizers included the ceviche/poke, liver paté, and the Cobb salad. All were beautifully presented but taste-wise I'd give them a "nothing special" grade. Our entrees included chicken, salmon, and beef short rib. I'd rank the short rib as the best, followed by the salmon. The chicken tasted a little dry to me. We also ordered two desserts to share. With the above-noted appetizers and entrees, 4 specialty cocktails and 3 Irish coffees our total bill, including tax and tip, came to $400, a rather hefty sum,...

Should be a negative stars category. Absolutely DESTROYED our Christmas Eve. After weeks of looking forward to a special Christmas Dinner my family and I got dressed up only to have to make our way through some seriously sad & scary scenes of homeless drug addicts shooting up in the street. We made it to the hotel but instead of being welcomed into the restaurant we were stopped at the entrance and sat in the DRAFTY HOTEL LOBBY! (I still can't believe this happened) We booked a table weeks ago, one would assume, inside the restaurant. We were eventually left outside by ourselves, as the other tables finished and left, definitely NOT the Christmas Party atmosphere we were looking forward to. Our server was kind but even he was embarrassed by the poor timing of courses to the "wine pairing". Not surprising as we were fully out of sight. Even more offensive when at $90 per person he tried to explain that it was supposed to be a 2oz pour! This little detail was not included on the menu. The food was edible but not worth the price and the entire evening left us regretting not having walked out immediately. We felt unwelcomed & robbed in every way. We also felt disgusted at having spent our month's grocery budget on one lousy meal and then having to navigate through pure squalor to get to our car. We wanted to support a business trying to improve and build up downtown SF but instead left feeling ashamed and disgusted by ourselves so throwing away so much money when so many have so little. We couldn't get home fast enough. This is NOT the place to celebrate any kind of special occasion! (No photos as this is one evening we are ALL...

One of the few remaining affordable options for afternoon tea in the city. We booked on OpenTable and requested a table in their main blue dining room.

For teas, we selected the Aged White Peony (a pleasant white tea) and Chai Assam. The Chai Assam was unfortunately completely undrinkable due to its high concentration of black pepper. They did not initially provide any milk, cream, or sugar, however, even after requesting and adding cream, the tea did not improve. After calling over the waitstaff again, we were quickly able to replace it with the Golden Horse, which was excellent! Also great to have a tea strainer to catch any errant tea leaves.

We received 4 sandwiches, a scone, cream puff, Madeleine, snowball, apple cinnamon donut hole, macaron, and rainbow cake. The salmon sandwich was our favorite along with the cream puff and rainbow cake.

Lovely ambiance and beautiful decor throughout. Waitstaff were friendly and came by frequently to refill water for our tea. Unfortunately, the hotel's in a bit of a rough neighborhood, so I'd recommend parking in a secured parking garage or using Uber/Lyft.

We'd also been hoping to visit their rooftop bar, Charmaine's, as walk-ins to avoid their non-refundable reservation fee. I'd been pre-pandemic and really enjoyed their drinks and view. Unfortunately we waited in line for about 30 minutes as the 4th or 5th group in line, confirmed with the staff at the front twice that we were there as walk-ins, and then were told when we reached the front that they were not accepting walk-ins. So you'll need to shell out the $5/person reservation fee if you'd like to visit on...