Bistro 1689

i’m going to have to go with 5 stars here. me and my sig other were driving all night trying to find somewhere quiet to eat. Absinthe was mobbed and loud. somehow, we found this place while driving through Noe.
Very quiet, nice menu, friendly service, reasonable prices.
mango avocado salad, cream of aspargus soup, duck, filet mignon, shared warm chocolate cake.
$ 75 (no wine)

Who should eat here: People in Noe Valley/​Castro/​Glen Park/​Mission looking for a causal French Bistro Style meal.
1 Star — Lacking/​Turn Off
2 Stars — Needs Work, But fixable
3 Stars — Adequate
4 Stars — Near perfect, rough edge here or there
5 Stars — Can’t get much Better
Ambience/​Atmosphere: 3 Stars: The owners have done a good job of providing a nice quiet and semi romantic setting. Although it doesn’t remind me of eating in a French Bistro, it is comfortably pleasing environment to enjoy a relaxing meal. To be honest it would be hard to do more with the space. There is a small counter with some bar seats towards the back if you are dining alone, but I fell that this place maybe too quiet (and maybe a little boring for a single) if you are solo. Incanto, near by but not French, maybe a better bet for dining solo.
Service: 2 Stars. I feel like I am being too hard on them here, but to be honest I have eaten here 3 times, and the service has been below average. The entire staff has been extremely Nice, pleasant, and has gone out of their way, but I feel they just lack some basic skills. I have found this at numerous restaurants recently. I feel the staff should know the menu, the wine list, and the basic levels of services that customers need. Being nice is great, but I want to see some passion about the food and drink.
Food: 3.5 stars. Out of all the dishes I have tried here, a couple have been dudes, but about 80% have been very tasty. For Apps, the French Onion soup is very good, along with the fried zucchini blossoms (not sure if these are still on the menu). As far as entrees, I have tried two different pork dishes, the pork shoulder was just ok, while the pork shank was very good. The lamb shank is also solid, but I feel getting a little overplayed out there these days. As for deserts, I think the Chocolate Truffle Cake is the way to go, but if you are not into chocolate, try the fried apple fritters.
Wine: 1.5 stars. I can’t rant about restaurant wine lists for hours so I will keep this short. 1689 has a ok wine list, but I don’t understand it for the type of restaurant this is. For one, all the wines should be from France and be designed to go with the food. Maybe some out of the way regions in the south would be nice, because they are great food wines, yet reasonable prices. Also I think they should concentrate on stuff that they could sell for btw $ 30 and $ 45, with maybe one or two trophy bottles. Third, make the staff taste the wine and know just a smidgen about it, and what dishes go with which wines.
Overall: 3 stars. I think with a little bit more knowledgeable service, and little tweaking of the wine list Bistro 1689 could become a 3.5 to 4 star place. Try it if you live in the area, probably best to let them find their stride before you travel out of your way to come here.
Cheers

Valentine at Bistro 1689.
The food was fairly good, my filet rossini was quite tender and tasty. From the starter to entrée, I would say the presentation was average.
The service was medioarce at best. The waiter was not attentive to our needs and failed to provide us with adequate service. Understandibly it was Vday, but at the pace he was working, I couldn’t vouch for his efforts. Several times, I had to ask him again and again for the same needs.
The overall evening was medioarce. The price was fair and the décor was okay. I can’t say I impressed my date much. I’ve never dined here prior, so I’m not sure if the hectic mood was a good reflection of their normal business days.

Must say that we were very disappointed w/​Bistro 1689. So here were our meals (this was the Valentine Day menu so maybe the regular menu is better):
Amuse Bouche:
A lil piece of dungeness crab meat topped w/​horseradish (but i think it was straight from the store cocktail sauce). I can find better crab at Crab Station #2 at the Wharf.
First course:
Sweet Cream of Onion & Cremini Mushroom Soup which both had. We felt that soup was way too mushroomy and was decent at best. I’d pick the mexican chicken tortilla at SF Soup Co any day over this
Second course:
Baked Brie pastry wrapped served with assorted sweet fruit chutneys which we both had. Our highlight of the dinner. The brie was very tasty and the chutney w/​cranberry was very nice.
Entrée:
She had the Roasted Hen-​of-​the-​Woods Mushroom. Horrible, absolutely horrible. Tasted like rubbery whatever and the lentils had no flavor what so ever. Funny thing is we didn’t fully read the name of the entrée and thought it was chicken!
I had the braized New Zealand Lamb Shank With orechetti pasta. To say the the pasta was better than the lamb says a lot about the quality of this meal. The lamb didn’t even fall right off of the bone like it should!
Dessert:
She had the Blood Orange Cake which was as good as entenmann’s cake! The carmelized pineapples made it marginally better.
I had the pear and blackberry cobbler w/​rose ice cream. If the cobber was by itself then I would’ve called this a good dessert but the rose petal ice cream took over the entire dessert.
So the service was very slow too. I know it was Valentine’s Day but it took 10 minutes before we got our check. Don’t they wanna get paid? We also made a comment about the hen-​of-​the-​woods mushrooms and how it was not tasty at all. The waiter said he would talk to the kitchen but then we never heard what went on w/​that conversation. Oh well. I would not recommend this place to anyone really. It gets 2 stars for it’s décor which we thought was quite cute.

Take your wife, not your mistress!
Dined here tonight and 1689 is a great little neighborhood restaurant with decent wine list. Although I would have preferred more french on the wine selection, we ended up drinking an Argentinian Malbec that paired nicely with my Lamb with Orzo. The food was fantastic, cooked with precision and care. For dessert we had the apple fritters which were killer.
Overall, they could work on the service and the personality of the restaurant. I will be back to check out more of their food.

**UPDATE: Has this place closed?**
Bistro 1689 is a quaint, comfortable and cozy restaurant in the upper Noe Valley over on Church and 28^th Street. It better be cozy after the length of time it took to find parking.
The style is a sort of Californian fusion served in a French way with friendly Californian service. The interior is similar to any Bistro you’d find in Paris. Only there’s a cool rolling ball on water ornament that I guess is for Feng Shui purposes. The environment was perfectly warm and sociable. On a social level, Bistro 1689 gets 6 Stars. I rate high on fun places to eat especially when, after sobering up, I notice that the bill didn’t break the bank!
My favorite dishes are the French Onion Soup, Escargot, and the Filet Mignon. The goose liver combined with the filet mignon was so subtle, I had no idea it was goose liver. Unlike many other lousy French restaurants in San Francisco, the goose liver was smooth.
The desserts are great. I particularly loved the apple fritters with a side milkshake that is a tastey light mixture of triple sec and vanilla ice cream. It’s very good.
The service is impeccable and the atmosphere perfect and fun. I look forward to coming back to this place again someday.

I went here a week ago for the first time, and will most likely go back. I agree with some that the décor is kinda odd. I didn’t really love the room, and the bathroom didn’t seem to go.
Our waiter was very good. Happy, helpful.
Anyway, the food!
I had the French Onion Soup, which I had had a craving for and it was chilly and damp out. It was good, solid, not the best, but that’s OK. I wouldn’t say there was anything wrong with it.
Hubby had the crab cocktail, yummy. Nice, clean, bright flavors.
I had the Sole for dinner. Bring on the butter baby! It was great. I loved the caper berries and the cous cous was great. The fish were a few small fillets, arranged over the co us co us. The sauce was nicely lemony and oh so buttery, mmmmm.
Hubby had the Petit Fillet with pâté, oh my yumminess. Meat on meat, gotta love it. I did:)
We had no room for dessert, so can’t comment there.

Lovely Dishes & Beautiful Atmosphere.
My boyfriend & I was here yesterday. This is definitely one the best places we’ve ate at. The price of a meal here is worth because of the combination of service & food. We LOVE this place.
Highly recommend to special occasion.

Ahh, Dine About Town, an excuse to eat at places you’d normally never venture. After knocking out a few strollers in Noe, my friend and I entered Bistro 1689. At first you see a china cabinet with random glass stuff inside: grandma’s house. Then there’s a flashy divider with glass cutouts in it and ginormous glitter art on the wall: uncle nancy’s house? The weird part is this is not a hodgepodge place. .. it looks like they actually picked all the décor on purpose. Eeek!
Dinner was ok but too expensive. I started with a baby romaine salad with lovely fresh greens, hedgehog mushrooms but way too many mustard seeds in the dressing. Towards the end (I eat twice as fast as my friend) I was popping all the mustard seeds to amuse myself and then glancing over at the glitter art to giggle. I had a glass of Malbec that was inexpensive and very smooth but came in a cheap looking wine glass (it made me think of ordering box chianti at beppo’s). My main course was a duck confit with some sort of nice cabbage mélange underneath. The duck confit was on the dry side though the skin was nice and crisp. Dessert was stellar — a pear and cinnamon crème brûlée that I ate 4 times as fast as my friend. (Whew, I’m glad I brought my sudoku) Our waiter was cool and even noticed our tea light had gone out and got it going again. A little inconsistent and overly sparkly, but promising!
In my PM inbox the next day:
«Thank’s from Uncle Nancy»
I was your waiter and thanks for the cool compliment. We do try to make people happy must be part of the «Nancy».
Guess we don’t expect that breeders would get it but hopefully appreciate the large naked women in the middle of all that pink glitter — maybe you missed her?
No worries though, the owners just fired the chef because they couldn’t afford him anymore and now I have left too. I am removing my friends’ art — Rene Garcia Jr’s (
) today so maybe give it another try under a new look and without all the «Nancy.»
Best~

My evening at Bistro 1689 was a nice surprise. I met my friend around 9:15 (the restaurant closes at 9:30) and never felt rushed by the staff to leave. Even when we were the last table seated and hadn’t received our entrees yet. Speaking of our entrees, I had the duck and it was moist, tender, and delicious. My friend had the albacore which he liked, although I do believe he was jealous of my plate. Before that I thoroughly enjoyed my frisee and beet salad with quail egg. It was just the right amount of everything to make it flavorful and be a teaser for dinner.
Desert was the best part; we had the apple fritter with a cointreau and hazelnut milkshake-​YUMMY! We literally picked up the bowl and drank the milkshake from it. And the apples were like little donuts which I’ve always had a hard time turning down, regardless of my best efforts. (who am I kidding, efforts??)
Anyhow, I thought everything was delicious and the server, Jason, and his service were perfect. He even let us choose the music from his iPod!
If you like a sweet white wine I suggest the Rancho Sisquoc Sylvaner, they’re the only winery in the world (that they know of) to produce this varietal and clearly it is an unusual find.

I’m confused???
I’ve been watching the reviews for a number of weeks and wonder… is everyone talking about the same place???
Last night (09.30) was my third visit to this restaurant and each one has better that the previous.
Reservations are available (
) and mine has always been honored promptly. The space is intimate but I’ve never felt intruded upon by my fellow diners. The wait staff is friendly and knowledgeable but I’ve never felt rushed.
Last nights meal included the Pigs Foot and Caramelized Fois Gras appetizers followed by the Duck Breast and Short Ribs. Interesting, artful, smooth, succulent, juicy, and flavorful… all adjectives that could be used to describe this meal.
Don’t be put off by the other less than stellar reviews… or perhaps you should be (which leaves more of this little gem to be savored by the rest of us).

Great new French bistro in Noe Valley. It has a very casual, yet updated vibe to this restaurant. The service was absolutely fabulous from the minute we walked in. My friend and I started off with the heirloom tomatoes and peach salad. It was so light and freshening. The tomatoes were juicy and sweet and it went great with the sweet slices of peaches.
I really wanted the short ribs with spetzel for my entrée, but since it was my friend’s birthday, I let him order it as his. So I took my waiter’s recommendation and had the honey lavender chicken. It was wonderful! The half chicken was roasted with a delightful lavender, honey glaze, so the skin was caramelized and crispy. It was SO good. The meat was so moist and juicy. It was delicious. It was accompanied with a huge chunks of hen mushrooms and artichokes. I was actually glad I didn’t get the short ribs. It was good, but the meat was a bit dry and so were the spezetel.
For dessert, we had the goat cheese plum tart. This was really good too. The goat cheese was strong, but the sweet plums really counter balanced the dessert.
Overall, I would recommend giving this new place a try.

I was so unimpressed with the food at Bistro 1689. The saving grace was there wasn’t much of it to have to eat since the portions were tiny! For aps we had the squash blossoms and an heirloom tomato salad. The blossoms were OK, but I’ve made better at home. The salad had another ingredient — maybe beets? — but I honestly can’t remember what it was.
Entrees, I had cod and my friend had chicken. She said the chicken was OK. The cod was on a stack of 3 other things — some corn gruel, some patty of something, and then overcooked zucchini. I think it was stacked to have differing textures and flavors, but everything seemed mushy and to taste the same.
The desserts — plum tart and chocolate cake with ice cream went unfinished. Need I say more about dessert? I didn’t think so.
I will say I thought the service was great. Our waiter was attentive without being overbearing, and was very friendly. The wine list was also great — nice selection and reasonably priced. The atmosphere is also very charming and quaint. Romantic, even.
A better evening would have been had, I think, if we had just shared a bottle of wine and a few more of the aps.

Bistro 1689 is a great little restaurant. The place first caught my eye earlier this year when I noticed construction going on at the old Long Island restaurant. Soon, it was goodbye Long Island and hello Bistro 1689. The interior re-​design was quite extensive, and the interior was warm and inviting without being stuffy.
Our party of four arrived for our 8:45 reservation, but our table was not available. The host suggested that we wait at the bar until they were ready to seat us. Once at the small wine bar in the back, a quick scan of the wine list revealed a variety of wines at some very reasonable prices. Because we had to wait for our table, the restaurant comped us free glasses of vino. The 2003 Terra Rosa Malbec from Argentina was our favorite.
All the food on the menu seemed appealing to me. Our hostess was happy to give us advice and gave us her personal recommendations. We started with the Duck Confit appetizer and the Crispy Goat Cheese Stuffed Squash Blossoms. We were a bit surprised that the squash was deep friend, but we had no complaints once we tasted it. The Duck was nicely done and served on a bed of beans and herbs.
Our entrees consisted of the he Braised Short Ribs and the Locally Caught Ling Cod. Both of these were amazing dishes. The short ribs had been slow cooked and the meat was so tender that it fell off the bone with just the gentlest nudge of the fork. The Ling Cod was also really tasty and complemented the ribs nicely.
My only small complaint about the meal was the desert. While our Lavender honey Crème Brulee tasted perfect, the temperature was a bit uneven. The desert was cold at the bottom and warm on the top.
Overall, the meal was great, and the service was helpful and friendly. I definitely look forward to going back.

This is a quick walk from home, so the old man and I thought we’d try it based on some Unilocal reviews. This food does not warrant five stars, people! The service was perfect, though.
What we ate: Apps — duck confit (really nice flavors and textures), heirloom tomato salad (agree with the review about being just cut up tomatoes on a plate… grilled peaches were a nice touch though, overall, nice fresh flavors). Entrees — mushroom ragout over polenta (flavors really lackluster, not very interesting, pretty disappointing), lobster special, consisting of lobster tail over thinly sliced potatoes, in a broth with peas and red peppers (potatoes were great, lobster could have been cooked for a minute more and the broth was really blah). Desert — the peach and blackberry shortcake (liked it).
What we liked: our server, she was great… friendly, informative and attentive. The wine — they had some by the glass specials of wines they don’t normally serve by the glass (very tasty). Duck confit, really good. Potatoes in the lobster special were excellent.
What we didn’t like — the menu has a handful of apps, a handful of entrees, which is not a bad thing. I appreciate a few thoughtful dishes with seasonal ingredients. What turned us off was that many of the ingredients showed up in multiple dishes. Fava beans are nice but they made appearances in two of the dishes we ordered. Mushrooms, if you like them, are great. If you don’t, you’d have been limited in what you could have ordered.
Next time we’re in the mood for some good eats w/​in walking distance from home, we’ll head to Firefly in Noe Valley or Blue Plate in the Mission. But we’ll try Bistro 1689 again in a few months.

Drat! I was really hoping this would be a great new spot. What is it with Noe Valley restaurateurs? All we get is mediocre, uninspired or half-​assed fare (Icanto, Fresca excepted.) This is one of the most expensive yuppy neighborhoods in the city, ‘cmon people, opportunity! Why aren’t the Mavericks, Ranges, Delfinas of the Mission considering Noe? 24^th Street is calling, someone please come to the rescue!
Bistro 1689 really frustrated me. They gave it a good effort, but they fell quite short of SF standards. The wine list was terrible and there is absolutely nothing worth drinking by the glass. The décor reeked of IKEA. I think there was only one waiter for the whole restaurant. The tomato salad was just tomatoes cut up on a plate: probably my fault for ordering it. The entrees were good; the honey chicken was actually delicious and the duck was interesting, but the accompaniments were greasy and inedible. They’ve only been open for 4 weeks, so I hope some of these issue get resolved.
To sum it up: if you’re desperate to go there, bring your own wine and don’t have great expections for the service.

I was very excited to try this new restaurant in my neighborhood… I came with my partner and another couple. We were greeted promptly by a friendly host and brought right to our table. The dining room is rather small as was our table for 4 but the décor is bright and modern. That is, I kept bumping my friend’s leg under the table and others of us kept getting bumped by the servers as they passed by our table. In addition to the dining room seating there is also a small bar with about 4 or 5 seats.
We all opted for the four course prix fix menu at $ 40 each. We also ordered a bottle of great Pinot Noir that was only $ 28. The wine menu has a nice selection with reasonable prices (by the glass and bottle). We all had the same soup course first (no option of selecting here). It was a cantaloupe purée with lime sorbet floating in the center. It was refreshing and different but could have been confused for a melted popsicle-​quite sweet.
For our appetizer course, two of us had the Hamachi tartar. Unfortunately the hamachi was somewhat fishy, cut quite thick, and one of my pieces had a bone in it that almost cut my tongue. One of my friends had the rabbit sweet bread terrine-​quite good. My other friend had the duck confit-​amazing. The duck confit was cooked perfectly with a nice crispy skin. Portion wise it looked more like a main course than the other appetizers did.
For our main course, three of us had the duck breast. Although the portion was smaller and less tasty than the duck confit appetizer it was quite tender and we all enjoyed it. My friend who had the olive oil poached char really enjoyed it as well.
For dessert three of us had the chocolate hazelnut cake that was rather dry. My other friend did enjoy his plum tart however. Warning: pass on the coffee. None of us could drink ours as it tasted like bitter brown water. Not sure what the problem was there…
Overall, the décor of the restaurant was average, the service was nice but very slow, and the food was inconsistent in portion and taste. Please, please fix your coffee! Buying some more of those nice big bordeaux wine glasses would also be a plus especially when our table got stuck with the smaller white wine version after ordering a bottle of red.

Holy fried squash blossoms stuffed with goat cheese, Batman!
What a fab new addition to the neighborhood… love the new décor, LOVE the short ribs (fall-​off-​the-​bone meaty goodness), and yes, I love goat cheese, too.

On many an evening walk, we’d been eying this place with anticipation as construction was wrapping up. We had no idea just how great it would be.
I started with a fresh and vibrant heirloom tomato salad that, when coupled with my wife’s warm goat cheese salad, mimicked the first course from our wedding dinner that people still talk about 6 years later.
When perusing the menu, the ‘rosemary spaetzle’ jumped off the page. That it accompanied braised short ribs sealed the deal. The short ribs were absolutely perfect, sliding off the bone like a popsicle off a stick during our recent heat wave. It was served on a bed of Swiss chard, topped with a delicate haricot vert and surrounded by puffy toasted spaetzle. The dryness of the spaetzle allowed it to soak up all the juices and sauce to intensify its flavor in an ‘al dente’ consistency. The meat was so tender that ignored my knife until it came time to scrape every last morsel off my plate.
Dessert was a delectable shortcake with crème fraishe and fresh black + blueberries and peaches. Just perfect.
Three servers managed this room with warmth, courtesy and efficiency, in spite of ones admission it was his first night. The noise level was a bit high, given they were accommodating parties of 6 and 12, two families of four with kids, four couples and a table next to us where all four seniors wore hearing aids.
It didn’t matter, though. Upon first bite, all sound dissolved with all consciousness absorbed in the flavors… a bit like the spaetzle.
Yet another reason for us to drive less and walk. As often as possible.

As a 20 something I have come to realize two things about my eating habits. Things are mostly covered in A) Soy Sauce/​Ginger/​Chili bases
OR B) Tomato/​Cumin/​Ancho or Pasilla Chili Powder bases
(the exception was probably when I lived in Honolulu and everything was deep fried and covered in mayonnaise, well, mostly).
This is to say as a mixed kid, moms, pops & g’ma fed me Mexican, Filipino, Mexican/​Filipino, or americanized versions of these foods (ooh how SF of them no?) so i wouldn’t loose touch with my roots. French food was nowhere in the picture.
Dining at Bistro 1689 on opening night was a great idea, service was attentive to our party of 6 (including 2, 3 year olds and add in a baby for some flair). This restaurant will go far, kinks are naturally going to work themselves out, but I really have no complaints. Stroller Valley needs a place I can go and be around only the children I choose instead of the whole danged neighborhood! I refuse to catch that breeding thing going around. :) Bistro might be it. (Note for a date meal, or otherwise special occasion, prices are high but not obsurd.)
The duck breast was cooked perfectly, the mushroom ragout with polenta was bomb (i earned the nickname GC, Good Call for choosing this one for the party to try). The cream was not as present as I thought and in exchange I was pleased to see a lot of goat cheese related dishes. I would eat the crispy stuffed squash blossoms in mass because unlike my time in Hawaii they were fried but not covered in mayonnaise. They might just be my new favorite French form of crack. I can’t remember what wine we ordered but it was from Sonoma.
I loved the plum tart with goat cheese mousse more than others in my party, and the chocolate hazelnut cake was ridiculously good.
And while the weren’t too sure about the raw scallop appetizer I have to say I didn’t have a problem with it, it certainly wasn’t my favorite but it wasn’t bad. (I should probably say there was a clear racial divide about that one as the Korean gentleman I sat across from and I had little issue with it other than the other appetizers out shadowed it and the two white women we were with didn’t care for it all that much… I’m an ethnic studies person I notice these things).
Our waiter was great in spite of the fact that his 18 year old cat just passed away, and the hostess is wonderful, very poised. I will return, perhaps next time with moms, pops & g’ma who need a break of our Mexi-​pino fusion food.