Silks at The Mandarin Oriental

I thought eating here would be ridiculously expensive, but I was pleasantly surprised. It’s an upscale establishment and the prices are higher, but it’s reasonable considering the quality of food, the exceptional service, and the ambiance.
I enjoyed my dungeness crab sandwich — plenty of fresh crab served with bacon, avocado, and lettuce, all for $ 22. The drinks are absolutely delicious — when you order ice tea, the ice in the glass is the tea. The limonade is a must have.
The good-​natured waiter also offered us the following choices of water: still, sparkling, and «Hetch Hetchy.»

It is never a good idea to schedule a 11am brunch the day after a wedding filled with shenanigans. I woke up with my dry tongue sticking to the roof of my mouth, my glamorous smokey eyes had relocated to my cheeks making me look like I just attended Tough Mudder and my brain was so swollen I thought my skull would crack open any second. Armed with a gallon of water in my lap I made my boyfriend drive us up to the city. Canceling was out of the question — after all we had organized this 3-​couple brunch. Somehow I survived the ride.
Silks has a nice, elegant, quiet dining room and we were lucky enough to get seated right next to the «Make your own champagne cocktail» station. Yes, you read right! Pick between regular brut or rose champagne and then mix in whatever your little hungover heart desires — strawberries, blueberries, peaches, cassis, orange juice, bitters, etc. etc. They had cute little cocktail suggestions with instructions on how to make them. After about 3 bubbly fruit concoctions I had tricked my brain into thinking it was feeling good again.
I ordered the Dungeness Crab Club Sandwich on toasted sourdough with bacon, avocado, lettuce, tomato, and mayo with a side of french fries. That was the best frickin’ sammich my belly has ever had the pleasure to meet! Juicy, crunchy, flavorful, and perfectly savory this not-​so-​standard club sandwich had me crying tears of joy. The french fries were perfectly crisp and I even got a side of mayo to dip ‘em in. Everyone else seemed just as happy with their food choices.
The service was a bit on the slow side, but we were all too exhausted to be in a rush or make a fuss about it. Slow Sunday was just fine with us. Hail to the champagne station — we shall return!

San Francisco FiDi generally doesn’t have an abundance of good places for a business lunch. I define «good» for this purpose as having (i) good to excellent food, (ii) an elegant dining room, (iii) solid services, (iv) centrally located, and (v) perhaps most importantly, an environment that is quiet enough so that you can really talk to your guests.
I am giving Silks a 5 as a place for business lunches, although for personal dining, quiet environment is somewhat less important, with the result that my overall score would just be 4.

I’ve always equate Mandarin Oriental properties as the pinnacle standard of A+ services. Unfortunately Silks (Restaurant inside the San Fran MO) is not one of them. The waitstaff is extremely polite but it seems the restaurant was so understaffed. We’ve been here for over 35 minutes and still no sign of our breakfast. I didn’t know the good olé scrambled eggs and bacon is such a culinary complex concoctions. Very disappointed.

Good:
Attentive service and luxurious décor. I took a friend out to lunch because she’s moving away. The maitre d’ offered to write «bon voyage» on the dessert plate. Nice. The waiter was very accomodating and split the dishes to 2 plates as we shared just about everything.
The décor is sheer luxury. I was afraid that it would be too dark to eat lunch at the restaurant on such a sunny day, but it didn’t feel dark at all!!!
Not so good:
The taste and quality of food is not worth the cost. We had cucumber mint salad which was actually quite delicious but the entrée we shared (pacific cod) was nothing special and a bit bland. Besides there were several bones! The dessert was a big disappointment. At $ 10 — $ 12, I expected something special. .. well, the chocolate cake was a bit dry and the crème brûlée did not have the hard surface. It was cold and looked like they forgot to torch the top. Instead of the hard surface, there was just cold sugar…So disappointing not to be able to crack the surface. :(
While the server was nice, everything took way too long for a weekday lunch. Our lunch took a little over 2 hours and the restaurant wasn’t full.
I’m glad I tried it but I don’t think I’ll be coming back here for lunch anytime soon…

Picture this: demanding boss, looming deadlines, annoying co-​workers, phones ringing off the hook.
And it’s only Wednesday.
Thank goodness for lunch! I had a pleasant time here with two of my good friends, sampling Silk’s fresh California cuisine with an Asian influence. You’re thinking: fusion? hardly. This is classy lunch time fare done at it’s best. I had the baby gem salad with asian pears and Point Reyes blue cheese, fresh as can be, albeit a small serving. My steelhead trout in a delicate miso broth was served with green tea soba noodles. A very light but satisfying entrée, which means I can steal a couple of french fries from my friend’s plate and those were so addicting! But perhaps, even more addicting was their bread basket, oh Lord! I love places that have great bread: Silk’s has your classic baguette while also offering olive and a rosemary/​potato bread too. If you want to stick to salads, the Mandarin chopped chicken salad is a generous portion.
Dessert was a banana cake that resonates with a deep chocolate flavor; pair this with a subtle green tea ice cream and caramelized cashews, you’d be thinking: spending that $ 10 on dessert was cheaper than taking a plane ride to Asia. Yup. It was THAT good.
Service was professional but not aloof, although in the end we did have to flag him for our check.
If you want your afternoons to be smooth as silk, come here for a business lunch that’ll sweep you away from all the madness.
Even for just an hour.

I was curious about Silks as I’ve read about it over the years, so friends and I came here for dinner during Dine About Town. They started us with a amuse bouche of lemon-​y sardine lightly dusted with vegetables — mmm (nice touch to wake up the palette)! The endive, guanciale and seasonal tomato salad with lemon thyme vinaigrette was refreshing, light and wonderful. The main dish was braised short rib, edamame purée, red cabbage and apple slaw (the short rib was amazingly soft and moist, didn’t need a knife, so flavorful, mmmmmm). For dessert we had the chocolate pot de crème (thick and rich, a little heavy after eating the short rib, but I still ate it, mine was gone!).
The service was top notch! While I was waiting for my friends to arrive, the host sweetly asked me if I would like something to drink or something read. I had a very long day at work and asked for coffee — he brought a nice tray over with a small pot of coffee and all the fixings. Nice, loved that — it’s all in the details, you know? Our dinner service was impeccable and on par at every course.
The only thing I question is the service fee that is added to the bill. Dine About Town dinner is $ 34.95, but when you pay for drinks, tax, tip AND the service charge, it was a little pricey than I expected. Oh well, it was an experience, and I certainly will not forget how tasty that short rib was and how nice the host was to bring me coffee.

Came in for Dine About Town and waited for 15 min despite reservation
Slow service, ok food (nothing special), but plus atmosphere.
I don’t think I would have came in if it weren’t for DAT and probably would not recommend to a friend.
It was ok overall. Why spend your hard earned money here, when you can get cheaper and better elsewhere.
— sent from iPhone

Dine About Town Day 1!!!
Clean food, very good service. But for a $$$$ restaurant, 3 stars for an unspectacular DAT menu. Salad was good, but it’s salad. Trout in tea — meh

As a Euro-​British person coming to this restaurant for the first time the name, ‘Silks’ conjures up images of the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand in London, where, to gain one’s ‘Silk’ means you have now stepped into the prestigious realm of Queen’s Counsel and instant respectability is yours. You may indeed feel as though you have embraced your ‘inner silk’ when you waltz into this rather sumptuous, although mildly stiff and foreboding place. However, through a minor bit of detective work — and I didn’t even have to call on Claude Clouseau to aid me — I now know that it acquired it’s name sake from it’s exquisitely gorgeous décor. From the textures used in the floor coverings, the fine fabric in the curtaining and table linen, to it’s hand-​painted silk chandeliers.
The peculiar thing is — which brings me back to my original thought — is that close by in this august establishment of the Mandarin Oriental is it’s ‘MO’ Bar, a sly abbreviation methinks for ‘modus operandi’ perhaps? I can assure you, one could certainly get used to afternoon-​teaing in the joint, if that’s what they mean. Sharing a Crab Club with ‘Jimmy the Finger’ long retired ‘Screw’ from Alcatraz perhaps — maybe even stringing a few Singapore Noodles while supping on a spot of English Breakfast with ‘Bay-​side Snitch’ the SF Cop’s best friend — or, is the old imagination just running away with me and all along it just simply stands for ‘Mandarin Oriental’ — of course, how innovative. But I digress… as bloody usual.
Silk’s cuisine as they claim is a mixture of Pacific Rim and American Cuisine. Whatever the latter really is, it sure ‘aint hot dogs along with burgers and fries, however, I do appreciate what their interpretation of American food is these days and how it has evolved over the years from greasy and over gravied to fresh and rejuvenating to one’s palate. Tasty and yet embracing the health concious element in us all without sacrificing total abandonment when enjoying one’s decent sized morsel of food either and here, Silk’s kitchen represents it all well.
This restaurant whether you are there for a business lunch — which to me was pretty good value and I struck a marvellous tasty menu — or dinner, now this wasn’t cheap, but fresh great food isn’t cheap. If it was, one would start worrying about a little matter known as ‘source’. So, whether it be the tender rack of lamb, ahi tuna or braised beef, all of which just simply melts in your mouth. The crisp Spring/​Summer veg where you can just gorge on the goodness. Simply divine. Everything I consumed I felt instantly healthier and younger for doing so. Botox Beware! Not heavy and languid, but bright and energetic ready, like Superman, to ‘leap tall buildings in a single bound.‘
The only thing I worried about was the mention in the menu of having ‘Biodynamic Wines,’ huh? Only in California!

We headed here for dinner, as a family member had a $ 50 credit to eat at Silks. Turns out that is a drop in the bucket for the prices!
We had a marvelous experience with the chef’s six-​course tasting menu. The food was all delectable. The risotto, shrimp, and ribs were all particularly memorable dishes, and we had a great bottle of red wine to go along with it. It was like an orgasm in my mouth.
The one disappointment was that the dessert came out with vanilla sauce — it was printed on the menu to us as chocolate sauce. The restaurant apoligized and made us chocolate truffles, which was really nice. Silks was very quiet that night, and the staff was extremely attentive to our table.
I don’t think I could afford to eat at Silks very often, but it was a great way to celebrate what (hopefully) was a successful job interview in SF earlier that day!

I came here for their Sunday Brunch. The dining area is large and well appointed. The service is very attentive. We enjoyed their Champagne Bar which allows you to pick your champagne and mix it with anything you like to make your own custom cocktail.
The food was delicious. I had the ahi poki and my brunch companion had the egg white omelet with Chinese sausage and wild mushrooms. Delicious.

Service & atmosphere — 5 stars
Food — 3 stars
Another Groupon deal! Our server, Geo, was terrific. The meal was well paced and relaxing. My hubby was not happy with the bottle of pinot we ordered and, after asking a few questions, Geo suggested another wine that they only sell by the glass. We liked it much better and he offered it to us at the same price as the bottle we didn’t like.
I had the crab salad with lemongrass gazpacho and it was just bland. This is when I noticed that there are not salt and peppers shakers on any of the tables.
Dinner was the onaga which arrived skin side up (yuck) and barely lukewarm (double yuck). It, too, was bland. The pancetta bits should have been crisped up because they just sat on the side in all their fatty goodness looking rubbery (yuck again) and tasting bland.
Hubby had the Thai beef salad and short rib which he enjoyed but you can read his review for the details.
Despite being a hotel restaurant, the atmosphere was a terrific place to celebrate our anniversary. I just wished my food was a bit tastier.

Still haven’t stocked the fridge since getting back from Vegas and it is DAT dine about town week. I went with my folks and the last time we came here I don’t even think Unilocal existed. The BMX salad was pretty weak, but the Onaga was very good and the Crème Brulee was nice.
It sounds like I am not so overwhelmed with this place, but since they have 3 hrs free valet with dinner, and the service is 5 star they get my 4 star rating. The dining room is very luxurious and the food is very top notch. I think if I had the $ 95 tasting menu, I would be giving them a 5 star, but when your going on the cheap and $ 34.95 is cheap by their standard you get 4 stars. I will be back and I don’t care what all ya stuck up Unilocalsters say about hotel food. This place does it right when you want to be taken care of.

Came here with my girl for the $ 95 per person prix fixe thanksgiving dinner. It was a four course meal.
Me: Beet salad, shrimp with coconut milk noodle, short ribs, sweet potato pie.
Her: Soup, cod, turkey, pie.
The food was solid, although expensive. They brought her cod first, then mixed up the order… which doesn’t really matter, but for the money you’re paying, you’d expect a restaurant of this caliber to get those things right. The bread was nothing spectacular, and cold… again, something that’s not a big deal, but should be better. The dining room is very elegant, old school luxury, which I enjoyed very much. With a glass of wine, some bottled water, and coffee, the bill came out to be around $ 275 for the two of us. Definitely overpriced, but it was a good thanksgiving meal. Would I repeat, probably not, but had to try it once.

I came here twice for lunch on a 4 day business trip. On day two of my trip I was looking for a place for lunch on my own, but recommendations of shope clerks didn’t seem to fit, so I decided to stop at the Mandarin Oriental, which I had seen in passing.
All entrees have a recommended wine pairing, so I naturally chose my entrée based on its paired wine: the burger with the nebbiolo. Delicious. Both were wonderful, such that I serched out the bottle of wine at my local wine shop.
On my last day, I was doing some shopping on Post street and ready for lunch. Now I only had my yoga pants and cal shirt on, but the mandarin oriental was calling me back. That burger was soo yummy and the wine, oh and I forgot to mention the chocolate truffles served after the meal. I walked to North Beach to the XO truffle shop to bring some home with me, they were so good.
The service was amazing. I was dressed very casually both times but I was treated like a queen. Dining alone, they offered me a newspaper or magazine to read. The second time I returned, the hostess called me by name and asked if I’d like my usual table… pretty neat considering I was dressed in sweats.
If an $ 18 burger isn’t off putting, then you’ll love this place.

Mandarin Oriental has long been a favorite hotel chain of mine. The dining room here at Silks is classy and romantic. Came here for a Friday night dinner and the restaurant was really quiet. Perhaps a little too quiet. The service is excellent as expected. In my opinion, the best kind of service is when the waitstaff are almost invisible. Customers should never have to ask for anything. Waitstaff would just magically appear when needed. That was the kind of service I received at Silks. Unfortunately the food was just so-​so.
Chicken Liver Parfait (³⁄₅ stars) — It is really hard to dislike the rich buttery taste of a fatty liver pâté. The Star Anise syrup reminds me of cough syrup though.
Crisp Tai Snapper (3.5÷5 stars) — The fish was as the name suggested, delightfully crispy. The crab broth was a little strange to me. The texture is too thin as a sauce but the flavors are too rich to be considered drinkable broth or soup. It went fairly well with the fish but at the end of my dinner I was left with half a bowl of soup that I couldn’t do anything with.
Seared Colorado Rack of Lamb (³⁄₅ stars) — Not a bad dish but I have had much better rack of lamb at many other places. The flavors are rich and exotic. Lamb tasted quite gamey. Unfortunately it was the texture that disappointed me. It wasn’t overcooked but the meat was just not very tender.
Would love to try their dessert but was running late for a show. The chocolate truffles were surprisingly good. They made me really happy even though I had to skip dessert.
The $ 25 business lunch is probably a better deal than dinner because the menus are very similar.

Overall — Disappointing. Frankly, at the Mandarin Oriental, one goes in with higher expectations and consequently my two star rating.
Service/​Food — The service is good, because, this is the Mandarin Oriental and it is seated in the higher echelon of the hospitality industry. The room is overly dark, making the menu difficult to read. The food was uneventful. Fish and noodles. Eh. Silks once brought out several interesting chef tasters in between courses. Also, absent from the menu was a taster menu. This once made dinner an event and what I was seeking. Three courses is not a taster menu.
I had breakfast there too. I am not sure that sausage was fully done, but I am going to give it the benefit of the doubt.
Children — I tend to like these higher end hotel restaurants, because you know there is a low probability of children (I am not a hater of children, but people, if the menu does not have a child section, the restaurant does not cater to children.) Of course, a child with an iPad was seated next to us. Note to restaurant: seat children away from couples, especially the couple with the grumpy looking guy that looks like he put in a 14 hour day.
Bar: Always a class act.
Return: Of course I will return. This is the Mandarin Oriental and the atmosphere is worth it. I just wish the food could be brought up a couple or three notches.

Went here for a business lunch recently. The environment was definitely stuffy, but this was expected, so I dealt with that. And while I thought the two courses I had tasted pretty good overall, there were elements to each of the dishes that simply came off pretentious and actually hurt the dishes. The cream of white corn soup was pretty darn good on its own — why add stale tasting pop-​corn to top it? The arctic char was pretty fresh and tasty — why add the bland crispy rice crunches to it?
I might come back if I have to, but there’s other fancy pants dining places in the area that I’d go to first.

We tried the Dine About Town lunch prix fixe–
1^st Course:
Butternut squash risotto topped with sage, bits of crisp pancetta, and shaved parmesan
Delicious, savory, a bit tangy, but I’d prefer my risotto more al dente. It was surprisingly not too heavy. Pancetta was an interesting touch on the risotto.
2^nd Course:
Char-​grilled Mahi Mahi dressed with Thai Yellow Curry Sauce; served alongside garlic stir fried Broccolini and basil whipped Potatoes
Mahi mahi was surprisingly very moist, tender and savory. The thai curry sauce was very light. Broccolini was perfectly cooked yet crisp. I was disappointed with the basil whipped potatoes, as it definitely required more basil (and yes, there was salt and pepper on the table, but still…)
We shared another entrée alongside the DAT two-​course lunch, the duck leg confit.
Duck leg was savory, not overly salted, and tender. The bean casserole was served in a tiny little cast iron ‘cauldron’ if you will, and was piping hot for most of the meal (because no one likes cold beans when it’s supposed to be eaten hot!); caramelized shallots and the frisee salad were both tangy and somewhat bitter touches to that entrée.
Service = efficient. Not much on personality. Forced friendliness is evident.
Décor = beautiful. I did love the chairs… very comfy. And if I was a guy, I’d wish I was smoking a cigar with a smoking jacket in it. lol
Prices = moderate to overpriced for lunch items.
It’s California cuisine with plenty of Asian overtones. I’m going to guess that they probably change a few things on the menu with the season. Overall, I liked my lunch, but I was not a fan of the pricing.