Hog & Rocks

Pork and oysters, an interesting duo.
I can’t speak for the oysters here but I can certainly give my thumbs up with the oinkster.
Lively atmosphere, perhaps a bit too lively.
Greci & Folzani Prosciutto is aged 3 years; it’s has a warm, heavenly, and even sensual nutty taste. About $ 20 a serving. If you like aged ham, be warned, this is very good and I recommend ordering multiple rounds. It comes with house-​made ricotta, which I didn’t even notice on the plate– it looked like bird turd (a little glop of it).
The pork dish (main course) is very plump, kind of like that fat altar boy at the church you went to growing up. It’s cooked expertly and is very moist; if not, don’t be afraid to send it back as you’ll be paying a pretty penny for it.
Order the fries. They’re double-​cooked, and in case they’re not, they’re sent directly from the French Fry gods of Mt. Olympus. Ah, just can’t believe how crispy and chewy they were. Very food.
The not so positives:
Ice cream sandwich– served with spicy ice cream (not a fan).
Bread pudding– decent, nothing to write home about. But if you have an incredible bread pudding itch that just won’t go away like that wart on your thumb you’ve had since the 10^th grade, then their bread pudding will be a good fix (can’t speak for that wart though).
Drinks– very limited selection. They emphasize the «craft» aspect of their drinks and drink selection, but unfortunately in the annoying kind of way. Couldn’t find a wine that would go well so I stuck with a Nardini Manhattan (so craft, so cool, much wow, look at me…) and an IPA. Yes, life is so rough in SF.

This used to be my favorite place in the Mission, but due to changes to their menu that isnt the case anymore. They no longer have the trotter tots, fish & chips andddd bone marrow! no bone marrow?! that was thee best bone marrow in all of SF and its gone. due to these changes, i dont really look forward to dining here as much as i used to.
the wagyu beef tartare was definitely not worth $ 20. it wasnt tasty, didnt taste fresh, and it came with thinly cut potato chips that was a portion size for my 1 year old. i would not recommend this dish.
the elote was good. but i dont think you can mess up roasted corn just as long as you have all the ingredients. it was 3 pieces of small corn that would equal a little longer than 1 corn on the cob.
oysters are always good here. off the 4 types we ordered today i really enjoyed the Drakes Bay Oysters. it was a perfect blend of salty and creamy.
they dont always have the foie gras burger but tonight it was a special for $ 32. their burger is always tasty but this time their pieces of foie were smaller than ones ive had here before.
Not to mention they removed the Lavender Old Fashioned. Wahhh!

A pitcher of mimosas plus a free refill for 20 dollars?! And to top it off $ 1 oysters! I’m all in! lol
I recently came for the 2^nd time & it was just as good as the first. The first time around I came with a group of classmates as we celebrated the end of another semester and between the six of us had more than enough mimosas to go around. I ordered the blueberry ricotta pancakes (blueberry pancakes are my fave!) and were really good, interesting with the ricotta but I didn’t mind it whatsoever. Beautiful presentation & good portions too.
This last time around, my friend & I were in need of some drinks & happened to be close by. Ordered the pitcher of mimosas yet again, had dollar oysters, and ordered the H&R burger with egg. & either we were just starving from not having any breakfast but we both had never had a burger that tasted so good. Worth the $ 20 I believe they charge. Finger licking good!!!
The servers/​bartenders are awesome, super attentive and friendly. The location is great, the space inside & outside is also great & roomy. A place I’m glad to have been introduced to and will continue to recommend to others.

Fail for brunch. Small portions leave you hungry but big prices make it nonsensical to order another entrée when you have many other affordable options to choose from in the Mission. After spending close to $ 25 and leaving half-​full (half-​hungry), I will scratch this off my list.
Service was not rude as some reviews mentioned but neither extremely attentive either. It did take awhile to order after getting seated and also to get the check. All dishes we ordered and as described by my dining members were small, salty, and/​or greasy. Maybe we all went on a bad day or we should have ordered the $ 1 oyster special.

This place has never ever disappointed me! It’s an amazing small gastropub with amazing hogs and rocks! I love to come here win family and friends before a baseball game at At&t Park for the SF Giants. I usually come for Happy Hour and grab some quick Whiskey Sours and the $ 1 Oysters which we usually end up ordering 2 – 4 Dozens and then the sliders and corn dogs with the egg fries! All the food is amazing whether happy hour or not! Servers and Hostesses are really great too, so friendly and accommodating! If you go here have some wine and happy hour drinks relax and just kick back. Parking will be a mess so be prepared to look for about 3 blocks down because there is No Parking!

3.5 Stars :)
This review is for the oysters only. I have had no other food there hahaha The $ 1 oyster deal is insaneeeeeeee BUT the service here is terrible. You spend a lot of time trying to flag down people to help you. The times where I have considered ordering food, I realize just how long it might take and I decide against it.

The absolute best pork chop I’ve ever had in my life. And that’s saying a lot. Followed by the absolute worst piece of «cheesecake», which essentially was a swirl of cheese on a plate with crumbs, rhubarb and flowers sprinkled on top. How could something so incredible and so terrible come out of the same kitchen?
Seriously, axe the cheesecake before it ruins any more meals.
Three stars bc the cheesecake was so so terrible but the pork was incredible.

Had dinner reservations at another establishment so we wanted to stop by for a drink beforehand. It was 7:00 on a Saturday night and we were able to find a couple seats at the bar.
I had an Old Fashion and my lady friend had a Spiced Pear Whiskey Bellini. We also decided to get a half dozen Kusshi oysters. Didn’t want to order too much considering we we about to sit down for a 14 course meal at Lazy Bear.
While waiting for our oysters we noticed the bourbons sitting on the shelf and to my surprise they had Pappy 10, 12, 15, and 23!!! I asked to see their bourbon list and a pour for a 10 yr was $ 45. We never had Pappy so we decided to give it a shot. In the meantime we finished off our half dozen oysters and decided to try another half dozen of assorted oysters. On the menu that night they had Hammersley, Drakes Bay, and Malabar. All were very fresh and tasty! As for the Old Van Winkle, we had it neat and it went down smooth. Not sure if it was worth $ 45 but I was glad we tried it.
By the time 8:00 rolled around the place started to get busy. If it wasn’t for the fact that we had dinner reservations across the street, we would’ve found ourselves having dinner at Hog & Rocks!
They have HH, $ 1 oysters on weekdays and weekends.
This place rocks. Good food (at least the oysters) and the bartenders are friendly. I would definitely be back for the HH!!!

In the Spiced Pear Whiskey Bellini I tasted hints of bourbon with pear liquer and lemon zest. It could have been a tasty cough drop.
The Local Market Fish with Spring Vegetables. The fish was some kind of white fish. Generic, I know. As a foodie I should be ashamed of myself. The vegetables were even more of a challenge. One of them looked like brown asparagus. The bartender thought it might be a heirloom carrot. The word from the kitchen is that its called a Fiddlehead Fern. I also deduced endives, golden heirloom tomatoes, minituare potatoes, capers, peas, as well as a few other surprises. It was very tasty!
The Olive Oil cake was a wonderful complement to a scrumptuous meal. It was garnished with a mint leaf as well as thin slices of grapefruit and strawberry.
Sitting at the bar because I couldn’t get a table. Feels like I am at an Apothecary. Apparently, its a slow night for them. The place is 90% packed and I couldn’t reserve a table on a Saturday Night but there are seats at the bar and no line out the door.
Golden State was losing to the Spurs on the TVs. However, this isn’t actually a sports bar so the TVs were turned off after the game. The Hog and Rocks actually made me think of the Pig and Pitch or one of thoae soccer bars. The name is actually a reference to it being a ham and oyster bar. I actually had to ask the bartender that.
The noise level is medium. I can hear 80’s music playing overhead. The crowd sounds like they are having a wonderful time. This is definitely not a tourist spot, although, the bartenders assure me all the regulars are out of town.
It seems that it has all the fixings to be a great 3^rd place, nonetheless. The staff and the patrons here are friendlier than the strangers I have encountered in the city. Besides the other Game Development Conferencegoers (who aren’t the natives) the only other natives who have responded to a greeting have been the panhandlers in the streets. A big thanks to Derrick and and the rest of the staff for a wonderful job.

Started with the DHB, which are bacon wrapped prunes instead of dates, different but very good.
Tried all the oysters. I’m not an oyster connoisseur, but I thought they were fresh and tasty, especially with the malt vinegar (optional).
As for the hog, the aged prosciutto was excellent. It’s sprinkled with housemade ricotta, which adds a nice touch.
Finally, great cocktail program! For a light/​refreshing drink, try the Spiced Pear Whiskey Bellini or the Pool Boy. For something a little boozier, try the Penicillin, but only if you like scotch. It’s a well balanced cocktail mix, but you will definitely taste the scotch.

Very attentive staff. This is the only place where I’ve ever been asked «is everything alright, can I get you something else» three times in five minutes. They deserve a gold star for this.
$ 1 oysters before 5pm. Yupppp my gf and I ordered 12. :D
The fries were interesting. We got half and half of the Egg Yoke Glazed and the Spiced. The spiced was the better of the two but jeez… the egg yoke had such a great consistency. ‘Twas addicting.
Lastly, we got the Korean wings which were alright but not worth. For $ 15, these are an easy pass.
Can’t wait to come back to try the drinks! Funny cuz our favorite boba place is right down the street (Boba Guys).

This place is a fun place to come with friends. I won’t take someone visiting here because the menu is a bit weird and over priced for my taste.
FOOD: We had the cheese dip with veggies and flat bread. Was pretty good. My date had the squid pasta — which he liked. I thought it was extremely fishy, but I don’t really like fish, so, not the best person to ask. I had the ($ 18!!) burger. Yummy, but just fine for 18 dollars. Egg fries were weird — wish I ordered the regular ones. I liked the cocktails we had but my boyfriend said the Cabernet was awful.
Service was 5 star. The kind manager walking around had a great personality, which made us happy. We totally notice great service and friendly staff, and seriously appreciate it.
Not a good first date spot, as its super loud and hard to hear much.

This review is for the Winter 2016 SF Restaurant Week menu only. I’ve looked at their normal menu and it looks delicious, so this is in no way a reflection of their regular menu.
— — –
My girlfriend and I wanted to check out SFRW. I narrowed down the available restaurants to four and she picked Hog & Rocks. I made a reservation for Thursday, January 28^th through OpenTable about a week prior for a party of 2 at 6:30pm.
SF Restaurant Week, Winter 2016
Four course cocktail dinner ($ 65 per person)
*COURSE ONE — Duck fat popcorn paired with Hog & rocks punch: st george citrus vodka, citrus
*COURSE TWO — Artichokes: harissa spices, lamb neck, parsley paired with Dry rye flip: rye gin, earl grey, citrus, egg OR Fluke crudo: buddha’s hand, chicarrones, black garlic paired with Rumm-​amon: rum agricole, cinnamon, grapefruit
*COURSE THREE — Porchetta: roasted cipollini, lacinato kale paired with St george burns: single malt whiskey, vermouth, drambuie, tobacco OR Grilled monterey bay squid: black eyed peas, cornbread, chorizo paired with Chili smash: green chili vodka, cilantro agua fresca
*COURSE FOUR — Banana rum lumpia paired with Caffe birra: st george coffee liqueur, amaro, chai spiced stout
Since there were two of us, we tried the whole menu. One of the worst SFRW meals I’ve ever had! And yes, this includes all my Dine About Town (DAT) meals.
The popcorn was fine. It’s popcorn. Can’t really go wrong there. The dessert was also okay. It was the only thing my gf finished. The two big courses were pretty much just eh or straight up bad. The good? The crudo. It tasted fresh. The worst? The porchetta. The fat and meat were mushy while the skin was inedible. And the skin is supposed to be the best part! I tried my best eat it, but it was so tough and chewy, I couldn’t chew it. I had to spit it out. The artichokes and octopus were okay. Both dishes were kind of bland.
I’m an alcohol purist, so I should have known I wouldn’t really like the cocktails. The best one was the St george burns. Dark and boozy. The rest of them were a little too light for me. Or sweet. Or a combination of light and sweet. Not really my style at all.
Since we got to Hog & Rocks around 6pm, I was able to take part in their Happy hour: Mon — Fri, 5pm — 6:30pm. I ended up getting two Chef’s choice dollar oysters ($ 1 ea). Those were the best things about our meal. For the amount we spent, I found myself wishing we didn’t order the SFRW menu and just ordered off their HH and regular menu. I saw this foie gras burger on their board with truffles. Would have cost less than the SFRW menu and I probably would have been way happier.
Before we left, a couple had just sat down and was debating the SFRW menu. They ended up asking us what we thought and we advised them to order off the regular menu. I wish someone had given us the same advice when we sat down. One of the most unsatisfying meals I’ve had in a while.

TLDR: Come for HH before 6:30 for dollar oysters! Restaurant Week dinner is on point — cocktail pairings for each course.
Came here for Restaurant week with the BF — best meal I’ve had in a long time! Hog and Rock’s Prix Fixe meal included 4 courses. I highly recommend you come with 2 people and try their entire menu… everything was so unique and perfectly paired with their respective cocktails!
Memorable items:
Porchetta — perfectly fatty pork with delicious kale, served with a whiskey cocktail.
Fluke crudo — fresh raw fish served with citrus fruits and chicharrones! On point.
Artichokes with lamb neck — served with a spicy harissa sauce, the artichoke was tender and the lamb was flavorful. The cocktail was super unique too… as it was creamy from the egg added to it
Will definitely be back to try their regular menu! That fois gras burger looks delicious.

My friends and I came here because the sign outside that enticed us said the oysters were $ 1 each. We were seated and ordered a dozen of oysters for our first round. Oysters came in in about 5 minutes with vinegar in the middle with some sliced lemons. To our disappointment, most of the oysters were minuscule… $ 1 for this?
Anyway, after that, we ordered another dozen and the oysters were still tiny in portions…

We came here over the weekend for $ 1 oysters (Sat from 11:30am-5pm, Sun all day) and mimosas. Surprisingly, we were seated with no wait. Woohoo!
The oysters were fresh and delicious. We also ordered the chicken and waffles, the ham tasting plate, and an order of half egg yolk, half spiced fries. The fries fell short, though the other dishes were great. I wouldn’t recommend the fries unless you like yolky potatoes (which is all it really is).
I’d love to try the dinner menu, so I’ll likely be back.

Came here for $ 1 happy hour oysters and drinks after work with my coworker!
The oysters they had for happy hour were the Hammersely (Washington) oysters from Washington (Meaty, Creamy, Mineral). They were indeed creamy and meaty however, they were a bit too briny for my liking. My coworker and I couldn’t finish our last oyster because it was too briny and we had to chase the brininess down with fries and lemon.
We didn’t encounter any sand in our oysters so A+ for oyster shucking!
Also ordered the Kennebec fries, (Half spiced and half egg yolk glazed) which were vinegary glazed french fries. My coworker and I really liked the egg yolk glazed more :)
As for drinks, we ordered same drinks; Spiced Pear Whiskey Bellini which came in a sparkling wine glass. This cocktail wasn’t amazing nor was it bad. it was mediocre… we both thought It tasted like apple sauce.
Service was mehh…
We felt super rushed because the waiters came to our table to ask if we were finished 3x… and even handed us the bill when we didn’t ask for it… I would understand if they were rushing us because they were busy and needed seats… but we looked around and saw that there were many vacant seats.

Nice place to share plates and drinks with friends. It’s also a good date night restaurant. I recommend reserving in advance.
The staff was really great, very helpful and friendly. When we were ordering she even told us to stop because it was enough for two people. Very few people do that, unfortunately I forgot her name…
We started our meal with some delicious oysters. Not too big, not too small…
Then we had the delicious fried oyster deviled eggs. Man… you gotta have these. Not your typical deviled eggs.
The prosciutto plate was good, some better than others. The mushroom bread was great, we couldn’t stop eating it!
The only downside of the meal was actually the bone marrow, the pickled grapes were overwhelming. You could smell the vinegar from miles away…
It was a great evening at Rocks & Hog, the drinks were great and the food was good!

I’m not sure why I’ve made repeat visits to a place with «hog» in the name when I don’t eat pork. Maybe I’m really stupid?
Anyway, I mainly come for the oysters, which are fresh and tasty. As for other swine-​free fare, the chicken liver mousse is also pretty good. Unfortunately, the menu contains a bunch of pricey and boring dishes, namely the tomato toast, which is just a piece of toasted bread with cut up tomatoes and leaves. I can’t believe I paid $ 9 for something I could have thrown together at home in my sleep. What a rip-​off.

I had been meaning to try this place for a while but didn’t want to run knee-​deep in the hoopla when it first opened. It’s been around for over five years now, and it’s a good thing I tried it just before chef Robin Song jumped ship to start a new Korean spot called Junju, which apparently reflects more of his cooking roots in L.A.‘s Koreatown. In the meantime, I snuck in here early on a Tuesday evening to see what a ham & oyster bar was about before I got encircled by a lot of jaded hipsters giving me a lot of small-​mouth. The bar was starting to percolate but not the dining room where a quartet of somewhat tipsy, somewhat older locals were holding court at one of the larger tables.
Most of the tables are for two unless you feel social and want to see at the long communal tables in the middle. Not me, not tonight. I was interested in a bit of a sampling, so I decided to start with their take on a personal favorite, the $ 9 Deviled Eggs, which came out as a trio of egg halves, immaculately filled with the yolks creamed with some kind of salty seasoning (Worcestershire sauce maybe, turning the color to a reddish beige) and then topped with country ham and fried oysters (photo:
). While they were good, the dish struck me as a lot of effort for what’s basically a picnic starter, and the price reflected that bit of a disconnect. I segued right into the $ 14 Trotter Tots, which deep-​fried the pureed pigs’ feet into a half-​dozen capsule-​shaped tater tots and added pale beans, rosemary, yellow wax beans and frisee to the mix.
It was drizzled with a buttermilk ranch dressing that felt like the one pedestrian move in an otherwise creative dish (photo:
). My last dish was the $ 12 Cucumber and Melon Salad, a decorative plate that shaved the cucumber and honeydew into complementary, mandolin-​edged slices and mixed them with mint, jalapeño and chevre (photo:
). It was a gloriously refreshing dish, light but still quite satisfying, a nice contrast to the hog, rocks and other weighty items that were on my other plates. The service moved fluidly although I never felt rushed probably because it wasn’t crowding quite yet, only at the communal tables where the twenty-​somethings were starting to take a land grab that made me feel like a Syrian refugee. I believe it’s time to go.
FOOD — 4 stars… nice to sample Song’s culinary skill before he left with creative takes on dishes you wouldn’t expect to have room for creativity
AMBIANCE — 3.5 stars… it’s fine when it’s still relatively empty, not sure I would feel the same at the height of the dinner rush
SERVICE — 3.5 stars… more thoughtful than I would have expected
TOTAL — 4 stars… hopefully it won’t go the way of owner Scott Youklis’ other venture, Hi-​Lo BBQ, but without a Song, the music could stop