Hearsay Supper Club

We had a wonderful experience. Great food and great company. It’s not often that you get a chance to mingle with strangers at dinner, and this was especially refreshing. Great wine pairing.

I have been coming to Hearsay for years. These guys rock. Jeanne & Dan don’t just cook — they create. They are the real deal underground supper club, in fact, they were one of the original pioneers of this concept. The food, ambience, & creativity is incredible. The presentation is gorgeous. I have never been disappointed. They choose dinner themes such as Childhood and Japanese (with animé accents). One of my personal favorites was Eastern Mediterranean. They were recently named one of the top underground Supperclubs by San Francisco’s prestigious 7×7 (Jan 2015). The Chronicle newspaper (Nov 2015) and Mabuhay magazine (Dec 2015) just featured them, too. Seriously, I hope you can check out this awesome scene. I’ve introduced numerous friends to Hearsay… and we just keep coming back. There is some serious passion going into this food.

I’m writing a long-​overdue review after dropping by for dinner back in August. Some friends had highly recommended Hearsay Supper Club to me more than a year ago, and I’d been stalking their menus ever since, waiting for a dinner theme that would be vegetarian/​pescetarian-​friendly. The Mediterranean dinner was just what I was looking for – delicious, thoughtfully prepared and presented, full of fun and surprising flavors, and accompanied by interesting wine that I’m not enough of a wine snob to to ever find on my own.
I love eating good food in warm, welcoming environments that introduce me to unexpected tastes in a non-​pretentious atmosphere. That’s why the idea of a supper club in someone’s home was so appealing to me, rather than going to another one of SF’s trendy new restaurants aimed at foodies. (Though don’t get me wrong, I love that experience too.) I just wanted to try something new, and Jeanne and Dan didn’t disappoint. They are friendly, savvy hosts and seem genuinely psyched to talk with you about the food and wine they prepare. Their home/​dining room is spacious and lovely, and the skateboard decks on the walls give it a edge that made me start aggressively photographing my meal in a way I’d feel self-​conscious about in a restaurant. But I felt so at ease – like I was eating dinner at friend’s house – and that was exactly the point.
One of the highlights of my evening was how our hosts adjusted part of their menu just for me – originally one of the dishes included meat, but they made a special version to accommodate my non-​meat diet. I didn’t ask them to, either – I figured that would be too picky – but they went out of their way. And I’m glad they did; the phyllo dough wrapped around marinated miitake mushrooms was probably my favorite part of the meal (it tasted like Christmas!), though the parsley and lemon trout and burnt honey dessert were also delectable.
I’ll be back the next time Jeanne and Dan do a menu with a lot of vegetables, and I’m bringing friends with me.

The Hearsay Supper Club was quite terrible. Jeanne and Dan are very nice and hospitable; however, this does not give them a right to rip us off! All the guests at the dinner were nice, friendly, and polite — almost like the Emperor’s New Clothes — nobody wanted to say anything negative. One of the guests commented that one of the wines smelled like nail polish remover, but as nice as this guest was, she commented that it tasted better than it smelled (the wine tasted like nail polish remover). It’s interesting human nature — I too found it difficult to leave food uneaten on the plate — I kind of felt bad leaving the uneaten lump of dry dough on my plate. Poptarts for dessert? Really? Jeanne even warned us not to pick the Poptart by the stick that it was attached to because it would fall apart. Kellogg’s Poptarts they were not! Sorry, but I went home hungry and pissed!

1-​star for the food.
4-​star for the service.
*** update 11÷30÷15 ***
For full disclosure, Jean and Dan refunded my money 100% without asking after reading my review, along with sending me an email apologizing for the less than stellar experience. A kind gesture I didn’t expect but very much appreciated.
I thought about removing my review but really I think it is really a fair and honest review. So I’m leaving it. But noting in here that I’ve received a refund from them.
– original review –
Hearsay Supper Club was a complete bust and disappointing.
While Jean and Dan were wonderful and friendly hosts, the food is just barely ok and mediocre at best.
The salad was — simply — nothing — special. It wasn’t horrible but not good either.
The chestnut & porcini soup was flavorless and completely bland.
«TurDucKen» was a bad case of pretend sausage. The meat lacked consistency and flavor.
The «Grandma Mariam’s Knedliki» was the worst… a dish of flavorless, dry braised beef with a clump of dry dough at the bottom that is so tasteless and barely edible.
Mandarin + gold was the only dish that can be quantified as ‘good’. It’s a mandarin orange jello (like a palate cleanser) served in its mandarin orange skin, with gold flakes in top. It’s about the size of a teaspoon and that was it. The best part of the entire evening was over.
Finally, «homemade pop tart» for dessert that is supposedly served on a stick. But when you try to hold up the stick, the whole thing falls apart. So… actually, the real pop tart is better.
Everything was really just mediocre at best and does not justify the $ 125 per head premium price.
Note: while wine paring is included, a bottle of wine is served between 12 patrons. Also, «because they are not a restaurant», no changing of wine glasses between red and whites and no changing of utensils. … … … then why am I paying premium restaurant prices!?! A complete bust and disappointment.

Awesome Supper Club! Jeanne and Dan are wonderful hosts. Be sure to sign up on their website and get more information on their website. For those traveling to San Francisco, this a must if you’re a foodie and looking meet local SF hipsters and other foodies. I met some amazing people through one of their dinner events. Definitely a must for locals and visitors!