Indigo

The bf described it succinctly as an «upscale Dennys for old folks». Personally, I thought this is a bit harsh but for $ 100 average for two, you just expect for it to deliver more.
–Fruit flies were prevalent
–Chicken entrée was dry
–The atmosphere was lacking in vibrancy/​dirty restroom
+Food arrived timely
+Service was good
+proximity to sfjazz (but then again, there are many other options in h.v.)

We went here for dinner last night. The reason for my two star rating is the food alone… it was good, but for the price, I would have hoped for more… that’s about the best I can say about our experience. The service was terrible! Took us 20 minutes just to get our drinks, and took longer to finally get our first course. I assume they are short-​staffed, as our waitress did apologized at one point, but she also ignored us for a good part of the time. The lasting impression I had when I left was «why were flies circling our table throughout our meal?» We commented to the waitress, but she didn’t seem to acknowledge this at all. Basically it was $ 150 that I will never spend again at Indigo.

Truthfully? I had trepidations about Indigo before we ate there. We needed some last-​minute reservations before an SFJazz event that we decided to attend. All our usual haunts were full and Indigo had some good reviews at OpenTable, so I went ahead and made the reservations.
After doing so, I noticed that the more recent OpenTable reviews were less enthusiastic than some of the earlier ones and that many of the most recent favorable ones were posted by the same person. Beginning to get a bit concerned, I went to Unilocal and found the same downward ratings trend. Because we did not really have alternatives, however, we took our chances and did not cancel the reservation.
I am glad we did not. All three of us enjoyed our meals thoroughly. We each had starters; butternut squash soup for our friend, the greens salad for my wife, and a well-​dressed romaine salad for me. For entrees, my wife had the cavatappi pasta, which was both cooked perfectly and tossed with well-​chosen vegetables; our friend had the pork tenderloins, which we asked to be cooked only to medium rare because a number of the reviews complained that they were overcooked; and I had a mahi mahi filet with beets and other vegetables that was both firm and almost creamy at the same time. My wife and our friend couldn’t finish their servings, so I had to step up and undertake the hard task of finishing the other plates’ remains. I did justice to them.
No complaints about the service. Everything arrived quickly, at the same time, and at the appropriate temperature. Bread and water were refilled cheerfully.
For three of us, with starters and without alcohol or desserts, the bill, with tax and healthcare but before tip, came to about $ 125. That’s reasonable for the Hayes Valley for a restaurant of this quality. We certainly expect to return to Indigo in the future.

We made a reservation and took a friend out of town here. It’s not busy. The butter squash soup is good. The entrée is ok. My friend’s steak is almost cold when it’s served. There were flies during the whole time and we saw one touched our wine bottle. The waitress reluctantly to change the wine bottle for us but she did after we insisted. People came here seems to be looking for a classy and fancy dining experience. The experience we had was definitely not up to that standards.

Went here last night for a 7:30 reservation. The place was pretty empty although had a decent ambiance to it.
We ordered a few cocktails to begin with including 1 from their ‘list’. It was called the Marina and I had an old fashioned. Neither cocktail was very good. Both tasted watered down with no punch or flavor.
Our ahi tartar was pretty good. We said that we were going to share that as an appetizer and they plated each of us an individual plate, nice touch. The ahi was pretty tasty. I got the fish which was actually really good and my wife had the cluster Calamari app as her entrée. She thought it was ok.
The service was good provided adequate attention. But because the drinks were so bad, we passed on dessert to go get another real cocktail around the corner at Absynthe.

Everything was pretty much disappointing except for our server.
We had high hopes for this restaurant, excited to be having a superb dining experience before heading to the theater for our annual holiday celebrations. Instead, we walked out hungry and feeling like second class citizens.
We had made reservations a month ago, but when we arrived, the hostess seated us in a small isolated corner, adjacent to the door, separate from the rest of the patrons. When we asked if we could be seated where everyone else was, the hostess indicated there were no other options except one table a bit further in, but still separate from all the other tables, and in the line of the draft coming from the door. There were plenty of open tables, but apparently we didn’t fit the bill. As others came in (even without reservations) they were seated on the warmer more vibrant side of the restaurant. When my husband asked the hostess at the end of the meal why she had seated us separate from the others, she said that others had made reservations… but, um, so had we… a month ago… she had no excuse and lamely apologized.
Where we were seated was freezing cold, and we all kept our winter coats and scarves on throughout the dinner.
When it came time to order, we ordered a couple of the salads, a vegetarian penne pasta with vegetables ($ 20) and the salmon over curry with roasted vegetables ($ 28). We were informed they had no penne, only bowtie – not the end of the world. The salads were OK – one a bit too salty. It was nice they split the salad to share. Toasted sun choke chips were tasty.
We waited quite some time before the entrees arrived – our cocktails were finished – I had to flag down a server to order a glass of wine to go with the main dish.
When the entrees arrived, the bowtie pastas were broken (remnants from the end of the bag?), the vegetables were not just al dente, they were raw, and the sauce was extremely bland. My daughter said she much prefers my vegetarian pasta (which is ¹⁄₁₀^th the price). The curry sauce with the salmon was delicious, but the salmon was so overcooked my son demonstrated to me how long he had to chew it before he could swallow it. The potatoes were not fully cooked – and presentation was clunky. This was the first time I ever left salmon on my plate – ever. For $ 28?
The server was kind and apologetic.
When we got the dessert menus, there was so much debris and grease marks embedded on the paper, my husband questioned what kind of secretions were on these – we decided not to eat dessert but instead go wash our hands.
When the check arrived, we reluctantly paid… of course we left a tip, since we didn’t want to penalize our server.
But the owner of the restaurant should train their hostess not to be discriminatory.
Perhaps the chef was having an off day but in any case we will not be back.

First time here and will be our last.
My partner and I decided to try this place as it’s close to the show we were going to on Sat night. Got an early reservation at 5:30. Walked in an the place was about 25% full. Got seated and server came over right away and took our drink order. After that I headed to the bathroom. First impressions… the bathroom is old and dingy and the toilet seat was cracked and dirty. I always can sense the kind of service I’m in for by the level of care they take with bathroom cleanliness. So back to my seat and the server takes our order.
I ordered the Butternut Squash soup and the Pork Tenderloin. Although I asked to substitute the sautéed greens for green beans. My partner also ordered the soup and the chicken breast. The server recommended we get the Pre Fixe menu which was a bit cheaper and included a starter, entrée and dessert. We agreed to that and then waited for our soups to arrive. After a longish wait a runner, not our server came to the table with my soup and a plate of tuna tartar. So my partner decided to just eat the tuna. I tried it but nothing special. My soup had good flavor but was served about body temperature. I almost sent it back but decided not to make a fuss. Soup should either be piping hot or ice cold. anything in between is just a bad experience. After another long wait and ordering a bottle of wine which was the highlight of the meal our entrees show up. The chicken breast looked and tasted good, my pork tenderloin however looked awful on the plate, just three blobs of meat swimming in a wine sauce and a blob of mashed potatoes in the center on top of sautéed greens, so I guess they missed the part about me wanting green beans. Again I thought I’d just make the best of it. The potatoes were supposed to be garlic flavored but I didn’t detect any. The sauce described on the menu was a green peppercorn and instead I got an almost sickly sweet wine based sauce. The meat itself was soooooooo dry. Tenderloin should be pink in the middle and I’d say this was served well done. Tough and lacking any flavor. Just terrible, but again I was trying to be a good sport about it. The only saving grace on the plate was the tiny serving of over cooked meat meant that I didn’t have to endure trying to eat it for very long. Then after that disappointment came dessert. I had the banana almond cake with chocolate ice cream and my partner had the pan cotta. His was pretty good. Mine was again over cooked and dry and lacking any bold flavors save for the chocolate ice cream that tasted like they had scooped it out of some grocery store brand box. Then it took forever to get the bill but by then and after 2 hours of just trying to get through a horrible meal I was looking forward to walking out the door and never coming back.
Lessons for Indigo:
Consider the state of your restrooms. details matter… take a good hard look at your restrooms and try to make that part of your restaurant a pleasant experience too.
When you serve something that’s suppose to be hot make sure it arrives to the table hot
When a customer makes a substitution request make sure the kitchen knows about it and then actually deliver it to the table by the person who took the order so they can check to see it went to the table correctly as ordered
Make sure a customer actually gets what they ordered
Make sure that pork is not over cooked to the point of shoe leather
If you’re going to serve garlic mashed potatoes make sure there is actually garlic in the mashed potatoes
Make sure that the correct sauce is placed on the dish (the one that’s described in the menu)
Make sure that desserts are moist and served with sides that don’t taste like something from the frozen food aisle at Safeway
Thank you and we won’t be back.

What a wonderful evening!
The food was fantastic! We shared the calamari appetizer which was spectacular. Battered and cooked to perfection and served with corn and mushrooms and a tasty mayonnaise based aioli. We each had an entrée that we shared. Both were delicious. I had the chicken with the madeira sauce. Rich and comforting, My companion had the coconut Thai BC salmon. Both were amazing!
Service was personable and attentive.
Atmosphere is nice with quiet to moderate level music in the background.
We didn’t take advantage of the free corkage but will do so next visit.
Bön Appetite!!!

Okay Indigo, where do I begin?
We booked a large 15 person dinner at the restaurant while working an event in the city, menu looked decent but nothing special.
I know the day we dined was very hot around town but your restaurant was BURNING HOT, open some doors or turn up the fans. It was broiling in there.
I wasn’t too pleased with the service, we were one of two tables in the whole place and the attention to our table was a joke. We kept asking for water, bread was never refilled, plates stayed on the table for far too long, and our check too forever to come.
Service again was so slow that we were the last ones to leave, the entire kitchen staff walked out before us.
Food was mediocre but I think that was just due to our group being hungry and we could’ve ate anything at that point.
Skip it… no really, on to the next.

3 ½* Indigo
San Francisco
Good place for pre-​performance dinner
Great pork dish
Salmon tasted a little old
Friendly food service
Nice desserts

The three of us had each a different dish and they were all really good.
I had the salmon and it was fantastic.
The place is really quiet and nice. I’m coming back here definitely.

Phenomenal tastes, great service. The chicken is perfectly cooked with great flavors around it. Love it!

The best part about this place is no corkage on the first bottle. So BYOB.
The food was whatever. There was only one vegetarian dish, pasta, available, despite what the open table menu read. The past was substandard and salty. Tasted like something a child could make when experimenting.
The chicken breast dish was okay. It came with wonderful polenta and vegetables. The chicken itself was not flavorful. We ordered the gem salad which tasted like a Safeway bag salad. The truffle fries we scarfed down. Those were great!
Our service started off great. About five minutes before closing (when we were getting ready to leave) my pregnant friend wants water so I ask. Our waitress says «sorry we are closing in 5 minutes.» ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! I don’t give a damn if you are, if the customer wants water give them water. And she knew my friend was pregnant bc she had a conversation with we about it.
Despite the waitress lacking manners, the combination of some good food and no corkage fee gets this place 2-​stars.

Amazing Tartare, Tomato Soup, Corvina Bass, and Salmon! Fast friendly service as well, and a perfect spot for a nice dinner after/​before the Opera which is just a three minute walk away. Very impressed!

Just fantastic. Very professional and prompt. The atmosphere is elegent and intimate. Great food, fantastic deserts and saved what could of been a disater of a birthday. We went to Opaque but they moved, good thing we found this hidden gem. Thanks Indigo! But next year put a candle in my dessert lol jk.

I almost never write reviews but this place deserves a fair warning. My boyfriend and I went to eat there last night and boy did we have an evening.
Firstly, I should mention the waiters were delightful and very helpful. Sadly, that didn’t make up for the fact that there was a long hair in the bread; the menus were greasy; when handed the my dish of the Roasted Chicken Breast, there was food on the bottom of the plate.
Now, the food was pretty delicious. Like I mentioned before, I had the Roasted Chicken Breast while my boyfriend had the Pan-​seared Pork Tenderloin. I did have an upset stomach after eating but that went away shortly.
My boyfriend, on the other hand, ended up with EXTREMELY violent food poisoning all night long. It’s currently noon the following day and he still has a stomach ache and can hardly move. It was a very frightening and disturbing experience.
I’m not sure what else to say besides we will not be going back under any circumstances.

Came here on a Sunday night and I am glad we did. The food was very good and the service was very attentive. The place was kind of empty but I thought maybe they just don’t get much traction on Sunday. I had the Salmon dish with the coconut curry and my gf had the bass and she enjoyed it. TBH, everything was really good and my only regret was that we didn’t leave room for dessert. We will definitely return!

You ain’t been blue; no, no, no.
You ain’t been blue,
Till you’ve had that mood indigo…
If this restaurant matched the cool elegance of Duke Ellington’s classic number, I would have been one happy customer. The nightclub jazz soundtrack was not on the muzak the evening that my friend Maggie and I met up for dinner, but that may have more to do with the hour. It was 5:30PM after all, and we were on our way to the opera, a modern staging of Handel’s «Partenope» just a couple of blocks away. If you know Handel, then you know it’s going to be a long evening with the curtain rising at 7:30PM. Fortunately Indigo is well aware of the schedule challenges of its pre-​theater customer base. In fact, I was late getting to the restaurant because traffic was miserable from downtown.
On the service front, I have no complaints, but the food was… well, I remember when Indigo was a hot place back in the 90’s, but it hasn’t been nearly as prominent on the dining scene as of late. Maggie and I decided we’d take advantage of one $ 35 3-​course Prix Fixe dinner in order to share the dessert, which allowed Maggie to order her appetizer and entrée separately (photo:
). She started with a no-​risk $ 10 Wild Arugula Salad in which she requested the roasted beets to be removed. It featured shaved sunchokes, bits of Pt. Reyes blue cheese and a champagne vinaigrette (photo:
). It was fine but hardly a culinary challenge to prepare.
I had the soup of the day, a creamy Butternut Squash Soup with a lemon-​chive crème fraîche (photo:
). It was alright but once again, there was a by-​the-​numbers feel about it like I was on a cruise ship. Maggie fared better with her entrée since she had the flexibility to choose the $ 25 Grilled British Columbia Salmon which came atop a mound of roasted potatoes, carrots and baby bok choy in a yellow coconut curry sauce (photo:
). It was well prepared and not overcooked. The same could not be said for the Pan Seared Pork Tenderloin which I chose over the chicken breast option. It came with a sweet potato gratin that looked like it came from a potluck casserole dish as well as a wet mound of sauteed Swiss chard and carrots, all of it swimming in a green peppercorn sauce (photo:
).
The medallions of pork were sadly dried out, and I ended up leaving most of it on my plate. Since Maggie is not a fan of panna cotta, we settled on the Banana Almond Cake with Chocolate Ice Cream, a weak ending to our dinner as it tasted if it came directly from the fridge with the ice cream frozen hard (photo:
). Chef Michael Whang describes Indigo as «California cuisine with global influences» and explained his background was in much larger operations where there was high-​volume turnover. I have to admit there was an assembly-​line feel to the execution of the dishes. Perhaps we could have had a better, more relaxing dinner after the opera, but like I said, it was Handel so we would be lucky to be out of the War Memorial by midnight. Some other time…
‘Cause there’s nobody who cares about me,
I’m just a soul who’s
bluer than blue can be.
When I get that mood indigo,
I could lay me down and die.
FOOD — 3 stars… passable fare for pre-​opera supper but it does feel a bit assembly-​line in approach
AMBIANCE — 4 stars… rich draperies, classic touches, still works
SERVICE — 3.5 stars… they know the drill when it comes to getting diners out to make the curtain on time
TOTAL — 3 stars… bloom has faded on this restaurant but perhaps a less hurried dinner away from the prix fixe choices would be better

Came in Sunday night b4 the symphony, it was my first time here so of course I was excited. We had a 5:15pm reservation. We were greeted immediately and sat. I remember thinking «it smells good» so far! Water came quickly and then we tried to flagged the waiter down for some balsamic vinegar (that took couple of tries) another waitress came and took our order. We were able to share a prix fixe: SOTD, pork tenderloin and panna cotta. On top of that we ordered the beet arugula salad, tuna tartare and the meatballs spaghetti. Everything was pretty good portion and came out quickly. Pork was super tender/​gravy was delicious. So why such a low score??? The crazy smell of smoke and it was hot in there. Red cheeks all across the place… not cool smelling so horrible. Almost as bad as Korean BBQ

This location is super convenient if you’re going to the theaters in the area but that’s about it.
There were 3 waitresses on hand, 1 bus boy and the kitchen appeared to be fully staffed but we noticed relatively quickly that service was lacking. There was no bartender so our waitress tried to make our cocktails which left us wishing we had ordered wine. While polite the wait staff seemed to have a problem managing an overall small dining area and offering acceptable service checking in only when we were done with dishes to clear them and hard to flag down for a second drink.
The food was disappointing. We ordered the dayboat scallops and for a hefty price we were disappointed to only find 2 on our plate. The ahi tuna tartare was the only good thing next to the oilive oil on the table. My boyfriend ordered the swordfish which he said was dry and didn’t taste right, I ordered the pork chops that were sectioned into 3 very tough chewy pieces and the potatoes au gratin that came with it were flavorful but not heated all the way through.
Overall while the location is convenient the service, food quality and ambiance left much to be desired for the price and we do not plan on returning nor recommending.

I went here on an off night. Usuallythis place gets crowded when theres a show at the nearby theater.
I went here because it was 1000 pts on opentable and no corkage. That made me happy and I like being happy.
I had fish and it tasted kinda weird, not worth the money. This place is ok, would I go back, no, not even with free corkage.