Oola Restaurant & Bar

I absolutely love this joint. Their happy hour menu is unbeatable — awesome food at an affordable price. I love the brussel sprouts (with chunks of bacon) and the ribs with ginger soy glaze. A full meal for under $ 10 and affordable wine…
Note that the happy hour menu is only available at the bar.

Great brunch spot! A tad pricey, but similar to most prices in soma. We sat at the bar and had bottomless bloody Mary’s! They have those and mimosas, unfortunately you can’t switch between the two. The food was super good! We loved the bar tenders too. The art is funky, and they played great music.

Suddenly solo after my SO’s last minute working dinner, I was on my own to find a delectable dinner to set his foodie heart afire with jealousy in return for the last minute cancellation of our plans.
Oola fits that bill nicely. I started with the Honey Pot cocktail, which hit my sweet spot nicely. The roasted chicken breast with fennel, mashed potatoes, and mushrooms was excellent. Chicken was moist and flavorful, mushrooms the perfect accessory. The chicken skin was infused with the licorice flavors of the fennel, which complemented the manhattan style cocktail perfectly. Thank you to my server for the suggestion!
For dessert I went with the brûlée with flavors of vanilla and lavender. It was not the most sublimely light brûlée of my experience, but it was good and the lavender was a delight.
Their coffee is also good, and good enough to need no adornment, as black as my heart.
There was a fair amount of orders being picked up, which makes me believe that locals like the food. I was fortunate to find a table, as later on the Tuesday evening the restaurant did fill up.
I gave this restaurant five stars instead of four because I rounded up from the 4.5 I would have given if possible. Good food, tasty cocktails, good service. Minor points off for almost but not quite perfect brûlée (but I am picky about those). Would come here again, there are other entrees and cocktails I’d like to try.

Came here on a couple of occasions and havent had a bad outing her yet. I like their food. I like their bar menu. The atmosphere is laid back and relaxing. The service is good. I have nothing to complain about besides parking (but that isn’t their fault).

Ribs for brunch? Yaaass please.
But these weren’t just ribs. These were soy-​glazed morsels of crispy, tender perfection. The epitome of meat candy. After my life altering experience of «brunch ribs,» I’m not sure I could go back to my regular order of whatever hash is on the menu. (well, maybe)
Whatever happened to me at Oola, it changed my perception of ribs and I’m from Texas. I’ll crave that sweet and savory sauce in the morning for the rest of my boring life. Things may never be the same.
(We also had the Chicken and Waffles and Blood Orange, Grapefruit, and Pineapple Mimosas — all good, but this review is about ‘dem ribs)

Funky little local spot on Folsom Street. I brought my niece here for brunch and we did enjoy it for the most part. Parking on Sunday around 12pm was a bit rough but after three times around the block I finally scored street parking around the corner. We shared the mac & cheese and each had the Croque Madam. I’m a huge lover of mac & cheese and I have had better — but it was pretty good. The Croque Madam would have been better if it had more sauce on it. It was on the dry side for my taste, but my niece LOVED hers and also really loved the mac & cheese. Good mimosa! Service was pretty good. It had a cool ambiance and vibe.

Happy hour is dangerous here. Got some cocktails and $ 1 oysters and next thing I know I drunkenly leave all the cash in my wallet to a not so nice bartender. Whoops. Enjoy!
Came here after drinks at Jamber. Next time I’ll just stick with Jamber. Oola is one step below Jamber and one step above Lola. Zero Zero is dead to me. Pick your poison.

While I am sure the food is delicious my friends and I came here to have brunch on our last day in SFO. Two of us ordered unlimited bloody Mary’s and our server never came to refill them. It took 20 minutes every time they asked for them. Additionally we have been waiting for over an hour for our food. Our waitress has never come to check on us and anytime we ask for anything, she is extremely put out. I will not be coming back.
Review Edit:
The food at Oola is very good, once we finally got it. After we complained, they gave us some comped deserts and did apologize. However, the apologies came from the manager and other wait staff, not our waitress. All in all, good food, service needs some work.

Friends and I had a bad brunch experience. Yes they were busy, but it took well over an hour for the food. The food wasn’t even brought at the same time. Friends finished their meal before the last two were even delivered.
Was the food good… yes
We’re the mimosas decent… yes
Please hire more staff to take care of your just brunch biz!!!
Ps I haven’t Unilocaled in years ;)

I came here with 6 girls for brunch on a Sunday. They open at 11 a.m., and we arrived at 11 a.m. sharp for our 11 a.m. reservation. We sat down, ordered coffee and drinks. By 11:10 a.m., around four parties were in the restaurant total. The coffee and drinks didn’t come until 11:25 a.m. Fast forward another 20 minutes, we FINALLY get to order our food. The waitress was cold and barely said a word to us. Nearly an entire hour goes by before anyone checks on us! No one refilled our coffee or drinks once. We finally got our food around 12:35 p.m. (Keep in mind we arrived at 11 a.m., when they opened, with a reservation.) The food was pretty good, but slightly overpriced.
When our food finally arrived, a waiter finally came up and apologized for the wait. «Sorry it’s crazy down there.» (He was referring to the downstairs floor.) Considering we arrived right when they opened, that was a really weak excuse.
My standards for restaurant service in SF are pretty low but this restaurant had by far the worst service I’ve ever experienced. The least they could have done is comp part of our bill since they knew the service was awful.

If you charge $ 20 for a burger, you better justify it, by at least, doing it right. I asked for a medium-​rare burger and got a burned patty, almost feel like someone at the kitchen did it on purpose, or perhaps it was frozen and not fresh?!
One of your amateur kitchen workers (sous chef would be an overestimate) poured an unreasonable amount of black pepper on the burger making it un-​eatable.
Now, going over your reviews here I see so many 1 – 2 stars and countless complaints about the service that if I were you, I would stop for a moment and re-​evaluate my business, because unlike what you probably think, NO, a restaurant should not receive 1 star not even one. But I guess you are targeting an average minus audience so that might explain everything.
Anyway, rest’ business is tough, obviously it’s your first one. When you leave your accountant office at the end of the year, don’t say we didn’t tell you, with the way you’re priced, it is just a matter of time until you shut down your place, unless you’re planning a major transformation, including bringing a real chef for a change.
Never again!

Random brunch stop that totally delivered!
Fine herbs and goat cheese omelette with chanterelle mushrooms. Add a side order of crispy bacon and an iced tea and I was in heaven. The only thing that could have improved upon it was not having to go back to work and being able to have a mimosa.
My waiter was pretty cute (okay borderline hot) and the atmosphere was everything I love. Dark woods, crisp whites, high ceilings and lots of natural light. Throw in some interesting art (every pic depicts someone blindfolded…) check this place out; I think you’ll love it too.

To be fair, I didn’t even get to experience the food. Walked in, waited for a host for 5 minutes, got seated, waited for 15 minutes and not and single person said hello. I could see that the waitress was around, but she was too busy talking to her co-​worker. If she simply said «Hello, I’ll be right with you», I would have been fine, but If the service is so poor, what’s the food like? We just walked out and went to another place.

Sat down at the bar waiting for a table to be available. Ordered food with the bartender (he knew we were waiting for a table). They asked us to close the food with the bartender they sat us down and the waitress got mad because we closed the food with the bartender. They brought the food 20 minutes later and nobody offered us water or anything. I ordered grapefruit juice and they never brought it. Point is waitress got mad and didn’t serve us. Horrible service due to their mistake.
I wish I could give a worse review than this one but I’m still starting and can’t think straight… Gotta find another spot to eat

My server was fantastic, very sweet and more then helpful. We were running late for a movie, and she went out of her way to try and speed things up for us. The kitchen still took some time though.
I thought the food was good, but I felt it was a bit over priced. There is a place next store called Jamber. Jamber’s food was amazing too (see my other review), and it is half the price.
Now to be fair, my boyfriend and I both got burgers. So I’m not exactly sure if I’m a good judge considering that they are probably not known for their burger. It was $ 16 each, which was the low-​end price out of all the entrées. If you wanted cheese, they charge extra. They ask what «kind» of cheese you want, so you think it’s included (since burgers usually come with cheese), but it is not.
The truffle fries were actually really amazing. My boyfriend doesn’t like fries at all, and he loved these. They had Parmesan on them, which was delicious.
Oh, almost forgot. For the appetizer we had the octopus. My boyfriend is obsessed with octopus and gets it at any restaurant that serves it. He actually LOVED their octopus, and so did I. We really liked the creamy grit-​like sauce, and there was some nice hint of popcorn in it. Oddly enough, popcorn and octopus goes well together. Kudos to the chef.
It was great because they put us in a booth, and the atmosphere is relaxed in there. They also take your coat from you when you walk in, which is a nice touch of great customer service as well.
It is located in SOMA, which is still being gentrified. So a street over may be a bit shady, but the street it is located on is surrounded by other nice restaurants and apartments.
I hope Oola stays busy, but I do think their prices need to come down just a tad!

This place is perfect in every way. Service, atmosphere and quality of food. The brunch is amazing and they have bottomless bloody Mary’s that can later be switched to bottomless mimosas. Next time I visit SF I’ll be there!

Horrible service, outdated place. We were basically ignored and forgotten when we came here. Dinner took 2.5 hours. I asked for things that never came.

For as far as the establish seems they would like to execute an atmosphere. I think it needs some work.
My friends and I came in for drinks, while everywhere else was busy during a recent convention. The restaurant maybe 20% full. I felt as if we had to persuade the host to seat us. Perhaps we weren’t fully dressed in suit and tie, but absolutely high end fashionable. We’re in San Francisco, I get into VIP nightclubs looking worse.
After seated we ordered drinks (building still empty) and they took at least 15 minutes for 4, not very complicated, drinks. We talked a bit and decided to order some appetizers. The «Crack» which is a form of garlic fries with truffle oil. The fries showed up another 20ish minutes later. Anyways consensus between the group was they were tastey, but not indeed addictive. The home made sauces were definitely a hit!
Our server was great, such a sweetheart. Though I am a bit upset with the flow and communication between (what it seemed) to be with the kitchen. The food came out slow. But our server I believe her name to be Susan really made it for us. She was on top of it. Always checking on us. Before this location changes a couple things in function, I definitely will not be back unless Susan is there.
The atmosphere is great, but the function of the restaurant is lacking. It’d be a 2 if Susan wasn’t there.

We hosted our company holiday party at Oola in December 2015. The management was very accommodating of all our special requests given that we needed to offer some dairy free/​vegan options.
The sea bass tacos and beef sliders were delectable as they were filling. The Ora King Salmon was my favorite entrée for the night, followed by the semi-​sweet bread pudding.
Thanks for all the love, Oola!

This was a cute place for a last minute brunch. It was dimly lit, quiet music was playing and not too crowded. We joked that it was the perfect place for a hungover recovery meal. We were able to get a group of 9 in without any problems after we were told The Pink Elephant was full.
They have bottomless mimosas (in regular, blood orange, and pineapple flavors) and Bloody Marys for less that $ 20 which is a really good deal for the city. The brunch entrees were also priced very reasonably and the portions were just right. Their truffle parmesan fries are to die for.
Service was nice and not too overbearing. Our rambunctious group was there for quite some time and we never felt rushed or unwanted. Another nice touch was that they brought out all of our food at the same time so that we all could start eating and finish around the same time. This place is kind of tucked in to the cityscape, but it’s worth the trek if you’re looking for an uncrowded brunch spot!

Started with a Bloody now we here.
Okay, Drake lyrics aside, the bloody here was phenomenal, and honestly one of the better I’ve had in the Bay Area. It held my girlfriend and I over as we waited for our very tardy posse of friends, but without filling us up too much as some bloody’s will do.
The real rockstar of the meal was the entrée, LOX Eggs Benedict. You heard correctly. (Check out the photo I’m posting for proof!)
On a thick, crisp, slice of Texas Toast, a heaping portion of lox was piled high and drenched in hollandaise. I’ve never been so pleased at brunch, and would enjoy this everyday if fate allowed.
Make a reso here or it’ll get busy beyond belief around 11.

Forgot to mention that they only have FRESHLY grated horseradish! I asked for some to go with my oysters and it took longer than normal. When the server came back with the freshly grated horseradish. It was worth the wait!!! I have never had fresh horseradish. WOW!!! I can’t eat oysters without thinking of it.
Thank you Oola!!!

One of the best food & drink HAPPY HOURS in town: affordable wine, great hh foods ($ 4/​dish!), and one-​buck-​shucks (maybe it’s $ 1.5 now)… can’t beat it!
I’ve pretty much had all the happy hour items, here’s my rundown in order of fav to least:
–Brussel Sprouts ($ 4) — The best. Includes chunks of corned beef (or maybe it’s bacon squares)… comes sizzling on a mini cast iron skillet. Always the first to run out with my group.
–Ginger Soy Glaze — 3 large ribs with fall-​off-​bone sweet & tangy goodness. Finger licking good.
–Mac & Cheese ($ 4) — a bit heavy but mac-​n-​cheese lovers will definitely rejoice
–Beef Sliders ($ 4) — very small on soft buns … but nothing to call home about. Order the other stuff first!
–Fish Tacos ($ 4) — Least favorite. I think fish is high quality, but on a minuscule «tortilla» with a side of picked bell peppers. No longer tastes mexican — and i prefer my tacos taste like tuesdays :)
My only complaint is that happy hour menu is only available at the bar or at the very first table by the door. Dining room serves only the regular menu. Requires you to stand around — but we didn’t mind shuffling about to share the happy hour finger foods.
P. S. only tried HH here. Cannot speak to brunch/​dinner!

I’ve been here both for brunch and dinner now. Both times were just OK.
Last Saturday, my friend hosted a large birthday gathering around 8pm. Though we were clearly the majority occupying the restaurant, service wasn’t all that great and the food came out terribly slow. I think we all put in our orders around 8:45 (because the birthday boy was running late), and we didn’t begin to dine until 9:45p or so. I wish that they had been better at handling the logistics — they should have collected everyone’s orders prior (since we were ordering from a prix fixe menu anyway). After all, we were a party of 25 – 26 people.
Food itself was OK. Baked chicken was surprisingly good and tender (probably the standout dish from the prix fixe), the salmon was salty and a bit too well done, and the papardelle pasta dish came with a lot of sauce. Beet salad was refreshing, but mostly because of the ample servings of watermelon in the dish. Bread pudding was very good, though.
Re: everything else, all just A-​OK. Nothing unique or special about the ambiance; the lighting is very dark so it’s hard to even notice the décor.

I came here for brunch last Sunday before the Giants game. It was the only place I could find that opened at 10am AND had bottomless mimosas, and was on the way from my house to the stadium.
Atsmophere: Super cute place! I made a reservation but probably didn’t need to. I liked the ambiance a lot and the waitstaff was really friendly.
Drinks: Mimosas were delicious. Our waitress brought us a caraf to the table, so we didn’t need to worry about having them refill it every 10 minutes. That was great. However, mimosas were a little expensive ($ 20 for bottomless), but we had no other option since it was the only place available haha.
Food: I got the goat cheese omelete. It was cooked very well, the eggs was very fluffy. However, I wish there was a little more to it. Maybe some pesto or sun-​dried tomatoes. I guess I could have asked for more the green sauce that was sprinkled on top, but it didn’t occur to me. Also kind of weird that there were no sides… usually at brunch, egg dishes come with a side of potatoes or salad or something. I would give it ³⁄₅.
Overall: I would still come back if I was in the area, but it wasn’t so amazing that I would go out of my way to eat here.

Start off with the good. Great atmosphere and service. Bad thing is that the food was so mediocre and $ 20 mimosa was hella expensive.
I had the mushroom ommelet for $ 14 and so embarrassingly small — maybe they are trying to control portion so we don’t get fat lol
Also they run out of Melville Pinot Noir — that’s what I went there for this morning!
Take it off of the menu then

My boy Brandon on the Ones and Twos. NICE!!! ;-)
Great service as usual! These guys know how to keep guests coming back. David, The Manager keeps is smooth.

Oola is a cute little restaurant on Folsom. It has a chill, relaxing environment. It seems more appropriate for dinner rather than brunch. Although, their $ 20 bottomless mimosas for brunch is what brought my friends and I here on a Saturday afternoon.
It was relatively empty for a Saturday, so thankfully the staff was pretty attentive. The food in general was okay, nothing special.
Mimosas: The mimosas were just okay, not too sweet. From the taste, it was like 95% champagne and 5% juice, not really flavored at all. They have orange, blood orange, and grapefruit. They make the pitchers of mimosas fresh so grab a few pitchers at once! I recommend the grapefruit.
Steak and eggs: I can NEVER turn down a steak so this was the obvious choice. For $ 17, you get a few pieces of steak with chimichurri sauce and two sunny side up eggs. While the quality of steak was good (it was tender and chewy), it absolutely had no flavor. Sadly, the chimichurri didn’t add any flavor either so I was pretty disappointed. Also the order comes with a side of fries and the batch they gave me was cold. Who serves cold fries?! Not cool — I asked for another batch and they brought it out immediately.
Eggs Benedict: my friend liked her order and the portion was pretty generous. The spinach had a savory-​salty dressing and it was surprisingly good.
Kimchi fried rice: this comes with shrimp and other veggies. My friend also liked her order so it’s worth trying!
Overall, I’d say Oola ambiance would make it worth it to check out. Their service was great and had very attentive staff. While some of the food lacks flavor, perhaps trying other dishes would be worth it.

Ooh la la… Maybe more like boo la la.
Not that I didn’t have a fabulous time celebrating my friend’s bday, but there’s something about this place that makes me never want to come here again.
It has a very lounge-​y feel (even at 11am on a Sunday). In fact it was so dark in there we had to turn on the flash to take pictures. Now that I think about it, probably a great place for a first date… Ha
The food was… ok… I’ve had better croque monseiurs in Soma. The portions are teeny too. What is this, a French-​style grilled cheese for ants?! The fries were pretty tasty though.
Mimosas here taste pretty standard. The grapefruit one is not half bad. 3 glasses later and I the food suddenly started to taste better so maybe they’ve got some sort of strategy going on.
Best thing about this place– you can make brunch reservations. Now that I’ve been there I understand why.

Ooo-la-la…this sounded like a great place to take her out for Brunch.
As always the pictures look better than the food actually is.
I can also say the same for my date.
Ouch, I know.
Don’t worry, I’m just as bad looking. I’m hideous in fact, like Darth Vader without the helmet.
The parmesan truffle fries were cold. And you know how I hate cold food when it’s supposed to be hot. I blame this on our horrible waiter who was MIA for most of our meal.
It was impossible to get him to bring us water, or our entrees.
I guess this is what my date means when she says that hipster places suck.
I think to myself that I may be a junior hipster, so this isn’t going to work out.
My date didn’t like the hollandaise sauce in her dish, and I thought my fried chicken sandwich was very plain tasting, as she reached out and cut herself a slice. Um okay, well help yourself then, I thought.
Personally, I think it’s rather rude to just take someone’s food without asking. I’m not cool with that.
I mean, I don’t even want a second date, let alone your germs.
The fried rib was also very plain. Tasted like a worst tasting version of Buffalo Wild Wings.
Since I was still hungry I ordered the french toast which was also a disappointment. The bread was lacking that vanilla and cinnamon flavor that French toast normally has. This tasted more like a bread block.
Epic fail all around.

Oola is best known for their baby back ribs. Although I’m generally not a fan of eating meat off the bone because I strongly dislike getting my hands messy and sticky, I had to make a special exception for Oola’s ribs. And sure enough, they were delicious. The meat was very soft and tender, falling off the bone easily, so shaving the meat off the bone with a fork and knife was perfectly doable. The ginger soy glaze was tangy and sweet. And the accompanying apple red cabbage slaw was decent, crisp and refreshing with a light dressing, but nothing too special. However, it did pair nicely with the ribs, balancing the latter’s heavier flavors and thus bringing the dish together as a whole.
The hazelnut chocolate stuffed french toast was delicious as well. The bread was very light and fluffy, stuffed in the middle with a generous amount of warm and creamy hazelnut chocolate. Topped with banana slices with a thin layer of caramelized sugar and a scoop of velvety crème fraîche, Oola wows with another stellar dish.
Supposedly another popular item, the parmesan truffle fries were disappointing. Maybe we received a bad batch, as we found the fries to be too chewy, too oily, and not crispy at all. Parmesan and truffle flavors were noticeable, but texture was way off.
Oola’s brunch dishes are reasonably priced in the $ 11 – 20 range, but the portions are very small. I needed at least one and a half dishes to feel satisfied, but still not full. Service is great and very friendly. The intimate restaurant setting is nice and spacious with several booth and bar seating, and not very loud either, making it excellent for weekend brunch without lengthy wait times.

Estuve en este bonito restaurante a mediodía y después tenía que seguir haciendo cosas de trabajo, por lo que me quedé con las ganas de probar sus costillas, que me habían dicho que eran exquisitas, y verdaderamente me lo creo.
El lugar es muy agradable, con el techo muy alto y una decoración sencilla, moderna y acogedora. Me dijeron que por las noches en fin de semana no se cabe, pero al ser un almuerzo entre semana estuvimos muy tranquilos, prácticamente solos.
De bebida tenía un té helado que venía muy bien para refrescar el calor repentino de San Francisco. De comer pedí un sandwich de cerdo a la barbacoa con lima, jengibre y cilantro. La verdad es que estaba muy rico, con el cerdo caramelizado. Yo no soy mucho de cilantro, pero la verdad es aue