Bistro St Germain

This place has amazing filet mignon for $ 13. Not sure why it’s always easy to get a table but it’s pretty sweet.

OMG… this definitely has to be some of the best French food I have ever eaten. First, before I get into the food, let me just say that the owner, Elicio, has to be one of the most courteous, sweetest, and one of the most generous people I have ever met. My friend and I were going to do a birthday party there and he helped us out every step of the way, offering a pric-​fixe menu for us for $ 13, and even gave us the option to do something that wasn’t on the menu. Planning with him was quite nice as he is so easy going and really wants to make sure his clients and customers are very happy. Now for the food… omg… sweetbreads, foie gras, amazing soups, tender lamb shanks, oh my! And get this… Filet Mignon for… $ 13? Where else ANYWHERE in California (or anywhere else really) can one get filet mignon for that price? Nowhere I know of… and it’s cooked to perfection!
The décor and atmosphere in this place is also quite wonderful. It’s great to bring friends, family, OR for a romantic date! I seriously do not have enough words to say about this place, the food, and the owner! A+++++!

Are you kidding me with this place? ‘Phoning it in’ is the only way to describe it.
Service was spotty, at best. It was 8:30 on a Friday night and they were out of 4 things on the menu. There are probably a totally of 16 things on the menu, so that is just weird. They were also out of all apertifs, which is just unexceptable. Out of all of them? Seriously? They don’t go bad or anything. They just sit on a shelf.
Maybe this place is a front for something else. That is what it feels like.
Bistro St, Germain, please leave. You are taking up real estate that could be used for something much more delicious.

My bf and I wanted a «Sunday» night dinner– something nice, but affordable and I was excited to try this place since it was so close to my apartment. The place had ³⁄₁₅ tables occupied. That says something… however I did like the causal atmosphere of the place.
I tried to order 2 salads and an appetizer. He said that they are out of spinach salad and some other popular dishes. They bring out some bread, which was really good. The service was not so good. The girl waitress was snobby. I don’t like giving ratings based on rude servers, but there were only 2 servers here, and they should be representing the restaurant. We sat in the back by the bar and ordered a bottle of wine (a cheap bottle bc we had just had an expensive dinner Friday night at Marche) and the server pulls it out from the bar, shows the bottle to the girl server like he/​she would show you before they pour it for you, and she rolls her eyes. I was a little offended by their actions, because it IS a tapas places that serves $ 10 meals and why have cheap $ 30 wine on your menu, if the servers are just going to roll your eyes when people order it. Anyways, my bf told me to forget about it. We ordered the prawns wrapped with cucumber and potato. They were okay. Then we ordered the beef bourguignon, filet, and some french fries. The beef bourguignon was super fatty. I’m not sure if they gave us some bad pieces, but usually we really like this dish, and we couldn’t really eat theirs. The filet was okay, nothing spectacular. The french fries were pretty good, but overall, not impressed with food (the bread/​FFs were the best part).
So anyways, it was bothering me (the eye roll) so I did tell the server to not do that next time when people are sitting where I was sitting and can see everything that they are doing. He did have a response. That they «were out of so many other bottles of wine, and this was one of the ones we actually have left» …Yup I roll my eyes to those sort of things too. Maybe teach your servers some manners. Will not be back.

Came in for a friends bday dinner last Saturday night. Place was casual and not too busy. I saw people with kids, very relaxed atmosphere.
We already reserved a table and I felt that they were accomodating to our group of 9. I actually already had a very large, very late lunch so I wasn’t too hungry.
I just wanted something light so I ended up getting mixed green salad and a beet salad. I was a bit disappointed that there was so little beet in the beet salad and mostly just arugula. Tasty, but I wish more beets.
I also had a bite of my friend’s sweetbreads. Yum! It’s like liver, but lighter and really delicious. I’d suggest it.
Of course even though I wasn’t that hungry I had to have dessert! The desserts were all pretty large, good for sharing. (Although we all got our own, oops!) I had the fruit of the day crumble, pineapple. It was tasty, a bit too sweet unless you had ice cream with every bite. I couldn’t finish it. It’s a lot!
Overall I think this is a nice place to go and I’d go again so I could try more foods.

Yeah, it’s pretty solid. I’ll be back. I have a couple of criticisms of the place, but it was overall pretty good.
Went with the BF last night to celebrate my brother leaving town. We can’t take him to places other than, like, combination KFC/​Taco Bells, so we wanted to find a place that was the exact opposite for our celebratory Dinner of Freedom. It’s in the neighborhood and neither of us had been yet, so this won.
Our meal:
–bottle of Piper-​Sonoma Blanc des Blancs. Reasonably priced for a restaurant, and predictably good.
–half-​dozen oysters: excellent on their own, a bit overpowered by the shallot vinaigrette. Not sure of their origin, but were big, plump, tasty.
–mussels marniere: YESSSSS. These were quite nice. Mussels themselves were lovely, broth was a little bland but non-​offensive. Had some fries to soak up the broth. Aioli with the fries were better than the broth.
–scallops: lovely, plump, well-​sauced.
–duck breast: a little dry; lentils were lovely and markedly salted. I like this, but I know it’s not for everyone.
–dessert wines: a nice Sauternes and a ruby port. AMAZING.
–chocolate pot de crème: nice, but tasted a bit like raw cocoa. Not how I’d prefer it.
–crème brûlée: impeccable.
Nothing was terrible, but many things could use a tweak. A champagne bucket would have been nice, but they don’t have any. So, perhaps order this by the glass and then get a bottle of another wine to be served at room temperature for the balance of the meal. Salt/​seasoning could use an adjustment in a couple of dishes. Pot de crème tasted a LOT like dry cocoa powder. I wouldn’t get it again. Luckily, there are other lovely desserts on the menu.
Portions were appropriately sized for the price, and good to share between 2 or 3 people.
Service was attentive, friendly, and timely.
Yeah, I liked ‘em. I was a bit afraid based on some of the other reviews, but my experience was good and I’ll be back for more.
Incidentally, we were there at 8 on a Wednesday and it was pretty slow. I’d be curious to try it on a busier night, but I’m not complaining. Maybe this is the champagne talking, but our first course was out in a matter of minutes. Good stuff.

«Meh» is the perfect word to describe this place. My fiancé and I were lured in by the yummy kitchen smells and the promise of cheap French food. Turns out you get what you pay for (and really, any place that sautees things in butter and fat will smell good, won’t it?)
We came in on a Tuesday night and were one of the 3 couples in the place — so being busy was obviously not the reason (excuse?) for the poor quality of the food. The mushroom soup was too chunky and super salty, as was the duck confit. By the time I had put the undercooked lentils in my mouth (which came with the duck), I needed 2 more glasses of wine to wash it down. We actually had to return the mussels (and I never return food!) because they tasted — how to put this delicately? — like ass. As in, «do not serve because it is 5 weeks old and smells like» ass.
We made it as far as these few dishes before deciding that if we were going to shove so much sodium chloride down our gullets, we might as well do it in a Chinese restaurant. Instead we went to a bar where we bemoaned the fate of French cuisine in SF over some good old fashioned American ales.
The only saving grace was the prompt and attentive waiter, who looked mildly embarrassed to be working there. Buddy, do yourself a favor and get hired by a real French restaurant. This one is tres beneath you.

Hubby picked this place for us to get together w/​BFF and BFF hubby. The Haight in general is a trip as far as neighborhoods go. Our fav place is Rosamundi’s sausage joint across the street (Jr. Unilocalers got lucky because we picked up sausage dogs for them after our dinner).
We made reservations but seriously, didn’t need it. The place was pretty empty for a Saturday, but we were dining at the geriatric hour again so we could go over to BFF’s for dessert and hang for hours.
The dishes are tapas (between small tapas and entrée dish size), meant to be shared.
The onion soup was salty, not too cheese, lots of onions, $ 6.60. Soup Du jour was cream of mushroom soup, $ 5.25, which I liked better. The mousee foie gras, $ 5.50 came with 2 thick medallions of paste-​like foie gras and a small salad. They serve slices of warm, crunchy French bread and chunks of butter in ramekins.
I had to send back the steamed mussels in wine & garlic. As soon as it arrive on the table, it had a horrible fishy smell & I knew it was bad. BFF loves shellfish and I gave her one to try, but after I tasted mine (it was OK but smelled like spoiled seafood in the trash), I took it back & wouldn’t let her eat it. Didn’t want to kill my BFF, after all! I flagged down the waiter & even he admitted it had a «strong smell» to be polite. So, he took it back and I ordered the roasted duck instead.
BFFH (hubby) had the duck too, $ 10, and he gave me a bite of his before mine arrived. He loves duck but complained it was too dry (it was). Mine was nice and tender, but it was the lentils cooked in wine with accompanied the dish which was the star on the plate. It was really good. Hubby had the rack of lamb, $ 12, which came with 3 lamb chops, pretty good. The side of spinach we shared was very good, $ 4.50, but the French fries, $ 3.50, which were nice and skinny like in Paris, tasted like «frozen» fries, lamented BFFH.
BFF has a small medallion of fillet Mignon, $ 13, which was OK. The side of mashed potato, $ 3.50 was OK. I must boast that my homemade mashed potatoes taste better. Her scallop dish, $ 10, was excellent. The waiter was very nice and told us that they were extremely depleted of their «wine by the glass», so we skipped the liquor and dessert. Everyone thought the food was «OK» but not sure we’d be back soon.

I overall like this place – the food is pretty good, not stellar, but I’m very happy with it, and the service is overall friendly.
My main beef is that I’ve come here twice, *twice* at 9:30 with a few French people and some guy told us they weren’t serving anymore. Really? For a quote unquote French place? My wife is French so we always have a lot of out-​of-​town family who want to see what we got here in SF re: French fare.
Frankly, for those groups if I can get us in I’ll probably just go to L’Ardoise from now on. It’s not that much more for a big jump up the food chain and they run on French, not Oklahoma City hours. I mean, I’m a hillbilly from Ohio but I at least eat dinner later than my grandma.
For just me and my wife, yeah, we’ll come here again, at 9 I guess so we can make last call.

My partner and I stopped into Bistro St. Germain (BSG) for dinner after taking a walk in the Lower Haight. The idea of French tapas piqued our interest and after quickly referring to Unilocal it seemed like a safe bet. Below is a breakdown of our experience at BSG:
Food
Salade Verte: simple yet delicious green salad, yummy dressing (4.0)
Moules Mariniere: highly recommended by the busboy, although the mussels were cooked well the sauce they were in was quite boring and flavorless (1.5)
Boeuf Bourguignin: delicious dish, beef was tender and sauce full of flavor (3.5)
Lapin Braise: highly recommended by our waiter, his favorite dish, unfortunately the dish was too salty for me; however, I did enjoy the bed of mashed potatoes (2.5)
Mushrooms: waiter initially forgot to bring out this side dish, when the dish arrived it was so-​so, I was expecting the flavors to be more interesting (1.5)
Bread: hot out of the oven, soft and fluffy, yummy (4.0)
Average Rating of Food Dishes: 2.8÷5
Service
Given our waiter was new, my partner and I tried not to give him a difficult time. However, considering there were few seated tables, we were surprised by how long it took for our order to be taken. In addition, bread services most likely wouldn’t have happened if we didn’t advocate for ourselves. Factor in the forgotten side dish, and having to ask for drink refills, the quality of customer service at BSG should be revisited by the GM. I do appreciate that the mushrooms were taken off our bill — that was a nice gesture.
Rating of Customer Service: 2.5÷5
Ambiance
Nicely decorated space, very warm, with romantic mood lighting. Considering the size of the restaurant, the tables were a little close together. This place is great for small intimate dinners, as well as large dinner parties.
Rating of Ambiance: ⁴⁄₅
BSG Overall Rating = .6(2.8) + .3(2.5) + .1(4) = 2.8
Michael’s Unilocal Rating Formula = .6 °F + .3S + .1A
F = Food S = Service A = Ambiance

French tapas. Although that’s how the waitress described the menu to my group after we sat down, I found the fare to be more «French inspired» American. Not sure why she said «tapas» since the portions were basically normal sized. Regardless of what it may or may not be, the food was very good.
Atmosphere was nice, clean and modern. I brought wine so don’t know about the wine list but the corkage was a respectable $ 15.
Only issue (as with many places in this city) was finding parking. So if you drive here, give yourself plenty of time to circle around…

THIS is what SF needs more of!!! Northern European AFFORDABLE eateries. We need another sushi hole, Indian pot or Italian bowl like we need more pretentious vegan hipsters!
The food is carefully prepared and full of flavor. Wonderful breast of duck, outstanding rabbit. Dishes that are quite simply too rare in this city. The portions are on the smaller side, but American portions lead to American waist lines. I’ll stick with a modest meal and good health over gorging myself any day.
I had no problems with the service. The place is nice, large and attractive, yet they somehow still manage to make it feel cramped. Not sure how they manage that one, it is also very loud which I am not a fan of. I realize thats the current fashion, make it loud so people feel like there is all this «energy» and action, but I like to talk with my dinner companions, not yell at them.
With great food, inexpensive prices, central location, edible portions, and casual airs I will make the Bistro St. Germain a new standard.

WOW. I just moved to the city a couple weeks ago from Texas and am already overwhelmed by all the delicious food here, but WOOWWW, every dish we got here was amazing.
We came here with a group of 6 rather famished, female, out-​of-​towners a couple weeks ago and were a slightly skeptical that tapas style food wouldn’t be enough for us, but we were pleasantly surprised that each dish was perfectly proportioned. The dishes I remember off the top of my head are escargot, roasted duck with lentils, a couple of salads, mussels, filet mignon, pumpkin soup (?), sea bass, tarte tatin, profiterole. I’m sure there are a few more I’m forgetting.
Every dish I tasted was phenomenal. My favorite was the sea bass. I didn’t get a chance to try the filet, but the others said it was the best dish by far (one of which had been eating steaks every night looking for the perfect one). The look on each girl’s face as the filet touched their lips was enough to make me write a review about this place (…also because I live about 3 blocks away and will probably be returning on multiple occasions). This was the last meal we’d have in the city before my 5 friends returned to Texas and each of them said this was the best restaurant we had been to all week.
The décor itself was very charming, especially if you pay attention to some of the details around the place, ie, there’s a bench that scales the back wall and if you look behind it where the lights are, you’ll see corks scattered along the entire length of the wall.
2 very enthusiastic thumbs up!

Came here with a group of friends on Friday night. The food was pretty fantastic across the board (everything from the mussels, to the scallops, to the escargot, to the beef bourgonion, to the quail, etc). The waitress was beyond exceptional and handled our large group of rowdy half-​sauced guys quite well. This place is a great addition to the neighborhood and should be considered any time you’re looking for a place to enjoy an evening with good food, wine, and friends.

Bistro St. Germain is a chic french bistro with great value. The décor is modern with high ceiling and romantically dim lights. Tables are large and room spacious.
Based on the nice décor, I didn’t expect the dishes to be so cheap! Or should I say, based on the low prices, I didn’t expect the dishes to be so large!
$ 9 for a large bowl of moules, enough to fill you up as an entrée, plus less than $ 5 side dishes — now you are really getting stuffed. I had gratin dauphinois, which was super buttery and therefore delicious.
One friend opted for the $ 20 prix fixe dinner which came with soup, fettuccine with mussels, and your choice of any dessert. Another friend got the butter squash ravioli with vegetables ($ 16). I highly recommend the ravioli, which is light but flavorful and has a great silky texture.
Service was extremely attentive and efficient. I think this is a great place to take a date without breaking your bank or sacrifice the romantic ambiance.

I wonder if people are going to get all up in arms over this place and scream that the Lower Haight is becoming «gentrified». It seems to be the new trend that people get ten kinds of upset if a place opens that is not a carbon copy, with a few minor tweaks, of all of the other places in its neighborhood. I prefer to call it variety and growth but to each his own, I guess.
I, personally, like the fact that there is a French Bistro close to me, with a $ 20 prix fixe weekday neighborhood special, and cannot complain a bit about the quality of the food for the price. They could step up the speed of service a bit but I suppose this is not the European way.
The décor is pleasant, though it can get a little loud and the tables are very cramped thought the place never seem to be full. They could stand to lose a few tables and give us some breathing room. I will say this much, despite the slow pace of the service, the second time I dined here I was greeted with a «welcome back» and customer service counts for a lot in my book.

Found this place on the one & only Unilocal!!! Came here for Miss Kim W.‘s SURPRISE BIRTHDAY DINNER!!! I remembered that she wanted to try French food, so I decided on this place.
Called a few days before to make reservations for Thursday for 6 people for 6:15PM. I called around 9, but no one picked up so I left a message in regards to the reservation. The next day, they called back to confirm my reservation. The answering machine message was partly in French and partly English.
Since it was a surprise dinner, I had the 4 others come around 6 – 6:15PM so me & the bday girl could come in around 6:30 and it would be a surprise.
Each of us ordered the $ 20 prix fixe dinner. We also ordered the escargot, but I didn’t get to try any, but I had some of the sauce, very garlicky, it was good. The options for appetizer were… swordfish type croquette with salad or soup (mushroom, artichokes…). The swordfish tasted like tuna with an Asian flavor that I couldn’t identify. The soup tasted a bit like tomato soup, but it wasn’t red or pinkish.
The entrée consisted of rabbit with potatoes or prawns in pasta. Since I’ve never had rabbit for, I decided on that. That may have not been the best choice. The little creature looked like chicken and tasted like Indian food. I would have assumed that it would taste similar to duck. The prawn with the pasta was good.
Dessert, you can pick anything on their dessert list. It consisted of crème brûlée, assorted sorbet, pear sorbet, chocolate mousse with raspberry, apple tart with ice cream, or vanilla ice cream something with chocolate syrup. I tried most of the items… crème brûlée was pretty big, but I would have liked a thicker crust. Pear sorbet was probably the best on the dessert list, tasted like how I would imagine freezing an Asian pear would taste like. The vanilla ice cream something with chocolate syrup tasted like a cream puff, but not as good as a cream puff. I had the apple tart with caramel ice cream, the best part was the crust. The apple tasted like the fruit leather you can buy at Trader Joe’s or Safeway. The apple tart was my dessert, it was really sweet but it looked really nice.
What I liked the most was probably the bread… crunchy on the outside and warm all over.
This place doesn’t belong in the ghetto. The atmosphere inside was very different from the outside. Parking was sort of hard to find, all street parking were filled with cars. Lots of hobos around here…
Oh yeah, like other Unilocalers said, all the workers speak French.

2.5 stars (didn’t want to be the first two star review)
Ambience: Really nice, really loud! Cheap seating, park benches with chair on the other side. Nice lighting, cool mural on the wall.
Service: Inexperienced. Our server had an accident behind my bf but did not clean it up. Total safety hazard. We also waited about 15 minutes between each course, I had no wine left to eat with my mussels, and I’m not a guzzler! We also skipped on dessert as it took about 10 minutes to get dessert menus after it took 10 minutes to take our dirty plates away. I wasn’t a big fan of the dishes, silverware, wine glasses, and napkins being in the center of the room on top of large barrels… thats how you have accidents! Our waitress seemed overwhelmed (not her fault), but we felt ignored.
Food: Ok, this is where it really went to downhill. Maybe it’s because I had such high expectations of the place? We ordered 3 plates for the first course: Oysters, Escargo, Onion soup. None of them were up to our standard of what French food should be (bf is French). The escargo had so much salt poured on it, I couldn’t eat my last share… I forfeited my escargo!!! Never happened before. The onion soup didn’t taste right but the oysters were ok, under $ 2.00 each. The presentation of all three were just ok too. We both ordered mussels and fries (moules and frites) and both had to spit out what we thought may have been a bad mussel, through the meal. Just didn’t seem fresh… My glass of Bordeaux was good but the couple next to us sent their bottle of wine back. It happens.
I think if you had no idea what French food is, you may enjoy your dining experience here. Otherwise, I wouldn’t recommend this place as there are dozens of other French places in the city to explore before this one.

I’m glad that something good took over this space. I heard nothing but mediocre things about the thai place here beforehand, which I always thought was ashamed as the interior of the restaurant was so nice and welcoming.
‘dia and I both decided on the moules but couldn’t decide on which. Our charming waiter suggested one of us get the moules poulette and the other get the moules marinieres, both which were excellent.
Oh yeah and we couldn’t say no to pommes frites.
Top it off with a cold panache and the meal was complete.

French food in the lower Haight? Nah… or at least that’s what we thought, until we stumbled upon Bistro St. Germain. This neighborhood resto gets immediate street cred for having French servers with zee most darling accents, and even packing in some Frenchie patrons.
We started with a few oysters, but the escargot stole the show. They were already out of their shells and marinating in a butter garlic sauce when they arrived at our table, and we downed them with a finesse only reserved for the finest foods. The mussels and fries were lovely, the butternut squash ravioli were delish and the apple tart with caramel ice cream divine.
On the way out we saw the $ 19.99 pre-​fixe neighborhood special. Isn’t that how it always works? Oh well, next time we eat like hoodrats.