South Park Cafe

This is a quaint little French bistro with excellent food and a nice, intimate atmosphere. The service is friendly and fast.
Lowlight: The food is quite good but also expensive for small portion sizes. Their prix fixe menu ($ 44 for an appetizer, entrée, and a dessert or glass of house wine) is a great deal, however.
Highlight: Literally the best salmon I’ve had in my life. I tend to have low expectations when it comes to salmon since it tends to be dry, but South Park Café’s salmon in a lobster tarragon sauce was so buttery and juicy. I’ve been ruined for all other salmon, people.
I’d go back!

South Park Café is a nice little French café with a chat friendly atmosphere and healthy food that has a taste of freshness to it.
I came here one afternoon with some coworkers and got to try the smoked salmon special. The smoked salmon was absolutely delicious, served cold and without an overwhelming taste of smokiness that is common for such dishes. It had a melt in your mouth texture, being moist and breaking apart easily with the touch of the fork. The plate was served with a wonderful salad and assorted vegetables (such as corn and peas) that complimented the salmon very well. I was surprised to even find some snow pea shoots in the salad as I’ve never seen those greens served in moderation mixed in with other greens.
The service is great here as well, being very friendly and attentive. I would recommend this little café for anyone looking for a comfortable place to chat over fresh bites during a beautiful sunny dat.

Had an exceptional meal here! Would love to go back!
Food:
The prix fixe menu is a pretty good deal with three courses. You get to pick whichever entrée you’d like.
–Ahi tuna tatare: So good; similar to poke. This yummy starter came with potato chips.
–Lamb with potatoes: I normally don’t like lamb, but this was incredible. Perfectly cooked. Came with the most amazing, cheesy, au gratin potatoes.
–Beef tenderloin with garlic mash spinach and glazed carrots: Everything on this plate makes my mouth water thinking of it.
–Flourless chocolate cake: Delicious and rich.
–Also, the bread and butter at the beginning of the meal was outstanding.
Service: Our waiter was friendly, attentive, and gave us great suggestions!
Ambiance: Really cute restaurant. Feels like you’re in a café in Europe. Casual, but romantic.
Parking: Plenty of street parking available.

No-​fuss, delectable French bistro food. Great place to have dinner and actually get a conversation going. The the three course prix-​fixe dinner is reasonably priced. Small but good wine selection. The service is attentive but not overly so. MUST TRY ITEMS: Liberty duck breast, Profiteroles with Grand Marnier Parfait

We had a really terrific dinner at this charming and authentic French bistro. Small but very good menu and wine list, warm service and delicious food. A lovely neighborhood gem that’s worth traversing the city for if you crave a tasty meal and some TLC.

I like the cute French bistro atmosphere and how good those plants they have inside will look in your pictures when you take a selfie next to them! That aside, I got the trout salad and was nice, but not extremely tasty. I found odd to pay in advance and then sit, not sure if this is the normal procedure as I only went once, but that was a turn off for me. The name of the place, not too original, but practical, as is located in the now under remodeling South Park. Cute dark green table and chairs outside create some sort of romantic environment for a date, but not during lunch time, can get too crowded for what I seen during my time working nearby.

Incredibly cute, nicely lit place with some deliciously prepared French food. We got the soup of the day and the pork salad it was so good. Salad dressing was so bomb and the pork was cooked to perfection. Juice was fresh too, I look forward on coming back !

Great food, service, and wine. Had the lamb it was great and the beef stew, all great. My sinning companion had the wines, the syrah were great. Service was excellent.

Good food but the service needs to be better. We had the pig salad to start which was fantastic and lived up to expectations. I had the duck which was also tasty with just the right amount of spice. My wife had the lamb which she found a little disappointing. The restaurant was a little quiet and the atmosphere low key, although the service was strangely disjointed with no time between courses. Overall a pleasant experience but could be great with a few tweaks!

I love the location of this cute café. The environment and ambience is nice and the servers are friendly. It’s a much older crowd, and seems like people who come frequently. Two friends and I went for a quick pre-​dinner bite, so we only ordered appetizers (and only 2 varieties at that), but maybe that’s where we went wrong.
We tried the seared scallops and the tuna tartar. Both were prepared with care, but the portion was extremely tiny (even for an appetizer) given the price. Taste wise was fine, but I’ve definitely had better. EVOO in the tartar really stood out. Bread basket was ok — I originally didn’t plan to eat the bread because I wanted to save stomach space for later that night, but given the tiny portion of the appetizer, I had to eat some to hold myself over.
Summary: Good place for an older couple to come on a Friday evening meal, but not a dinner spot for me. Romantic french feel.

Fantastic french brassiere food. Solid service.
We had the scallop, ahi tuna for appetizer. Small but very very tasty.
Black bean cod and roasted duck breast for entrée, which were both excellent. I was surprised that the black bean and lentil bases were so tasty.
Added a beef stew just for fun, and it was solid.
Creamy chocolate ice cream to top off. Very good finish.

The South Park Café is a great place to get lunch.
I work very near so I have visited several times and each time was really great.
I had a daily special stew the first time and a pig salad for another visit.
Both were really outstanding dishes and I am eager to go back and try some more of their offerings.
cheers
Steve

I’m sorry, but I can’t recommend this place. Although the service was good, the food just wasn’t worth the price we paid. We were very disappointed with this place even though we had heard good things!
I started off with an old fashioned cocktail and they didn’t make it very well, so I was already disappointed at that stage. We ordered the tuna tartare with potato chips as a shared starter, and then I went for the hanger steak (medium rare) while she ate the duck breast with lentils.
The tuna tartare was okay, and it was quite nice with the potato chips. However, what it had in presentation, it lacked in taste.
The hanger steak was cooked to the correct temperature but the red wine sauce was way too salty and wasn’t at all interesting. The steak tasted bland and the pommes frites were soggy. We were the only customers at the time so there’s really no excuse for serving up soggy fries. The duck breast was also cooked well, but lacked taste. There just wasn’t enough seasoning on the duck or the lentils.
The only reason this place is getting two stars is due to the dessert. We ordered a chocolate ganache with sautéed raspberries and it tasted great. The raspberries were really expertly sautéed!
I haven’t had such a bad dinner experience in SF for a long time. In reading the other reviews, I have to wonder if the chef had a bad day or if my expectations (now very influenced by Scandinavian restaurants) are too high.

Nothing but praise for this restaurant in SoMa.
Food:
Appetizer 1 — Scallop in pâté (with lobster as the base). AMAZING! Pâté was gelatinous. I crave more!
Appetizer 2 — ahi tartar was great, no complaints.
King Salmon — Wonderfully plated, cooked well and so delicately that it was coming apart at the fork. I’m also a huge fan of turnips and they not only made the baby ones perfectly, it contrasted beautifully with the greens!
Lamb: Did not expect the wasabi kick. Also nicely made, elements of asian fusion.
Dessert: Profiteroles was decadent with all that chocolate. drool.
Chocolate ganache with some sort of candied almond crackers? to dip. IM IN SWEETS Heaven!
Service: Was top of the line. Really props to our server Micha. For some reason I had been gulping so much water that day and she made sure my water was constantly filled. Didn’t even have to ask once.
⁵⁄₅. No faults at this restaurant!

I wish I’d gone w the steak frites, which I tried a bite of and really liked. The rack of lamb was only okay. Fatty cuts and not cooked evenly. One prong was charred to well done while the other was cooked to the proper medium rare. I wish I had been brave enough to say something because half the meat was pretty inedible. I wouldn’t recommend ordering this. The accompanying pesto sauce was fine, though the portion size was too much. No one needs a giant pool of olive oil on the plate. The entrée came with a gratin that was mostly cheese, very little potato that was fairly tasty. My favorite part of the meal was probably the roasted brussel sprouts, which looked super burnt but had a nice crispness and caramelization to them.

The bf used to live nearby and we used to walk past this place all the time, but finally decided to try them out since we needed dinner near the Cirque show.
Getting a reservation was easy the night before (score!). My favorite thing about South Park Café: the LOCATION. It’s tucked away in what feels like a secret little hideaway. I love that there’s a little oval shaped park in SOMA.
The food.
— Scallop pâté: Skip it. It was pretty flavorless. Texture and taste of fish tofu. Not in a good way.
— Sea bass: Okay. Granted it was moist but for the price the cut should have been much thicker. Loved the potatoes it came with. The spinach custard was interesting but didn’t seem necessary.
— Steak: Delicious. Meat, fries, and sauce – delicious.
I wanted to like you, but probably won’t return. The price was too high for such an «ok» experience. If you do go, get the steak.

I came here with a few friends on a Friday night and surprisingly
it was not packed around 7:00pm. Although, it did start to get more packed around 8:00pm. This cute little café is located at South Park. The atmosphere was very calm, relaxing, dim and romantic.
We ordered the three course Prix Fixe Dinner for $ 39.00.
Crispy pork belly with ginger cabbage salad — definitely crispy and tasty.
Pig salad — tasted delicious with a fresh apple essence. I’m not a huge fan of mustard vinaigrette however, the salad turned out great. Probably, one of my favorite dishes of the night.
Warm scallop pâté– huge fan of scallop but the pâté tasted more like a scallop flavored tofu. I didn’t really enjoy this dish.
Grilled hanger steak — was cooked to perfection. I usually don’t order steak but this was a soft medium rare piece and the taste was just perfect with the red wine sauce and also with Zinfandel.
Grilled salmon — was just okay. It was not too dry but definitely not the best I have tasted.
We got the special dessert which was warm peach crumble pie. It was really good and went well with vanilla ice cream.
Overall, I definitely recommend this place. Great place to take a date. There is a huge wine selection. The price is very affordable. I do recommend the 3 course Prix fixe menu!

On a slow weekday night, we needed a new place to try but were not very motivated to venture outside of the SoMa area. Looking down our list we came upon South Park Café and decided to give it a try.
Located on the side of South Park (which is a cool little park on its own), South Park Café is a small French restaurant with a very romantic ambiance. The lights are dim and the service is prompt. In general this feels like a classy place that you might want to bring a date to.
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Baked goat cheese — This appetizer was very tasty but extremely tiny. The thyme flavor really came out to pair with the goat cheese and crostini. I really liked it but given how small it was, I would not order it again.
Duck leg confit — I very much liked this dish. The meat was perfectly tender and tasty. The lentils were a good match with the duck but the potatoes were nothing special. I would order this again.
Roast salmon — Salmon is just one of those dishes that is almost always average or good but rarely great. The same applied here. It was a good dish, and cooked nicely with the red wine, but it was not so good that I would order it again. I definitely preferred the duck to the salmon.
Profiteroles — This was unfortunately our backup option for dessert as they ran out of the dessert special on the board. I was unimpressed by this, it was basically just a pastry with ice cream and chocolate syrup. I definitely would not order this again.
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Overall I thought this place was slightly above average. Most of the food was good, although nothing truly stood out as exceptional. I really liked the location and might consider it for future dates, but I’m not going to go out of my way to come here that often.

Although more than 26 years old, this place is my new darling in South Park. For the quality of food you cannot beat the prices, ambiance and good feeling. It’s a great place to take a client, workmate, date, whatever. Heck, I even go solo sometimes.
My favorite dishes are the $ 10 couscous. The spices and attention to detail on this dish make it my SOMA go-​to. I really don’t think it gets much better than this outside the Middle East or Paris. I have also had the $ 12 duck leg confit with salad three times. It was superb two of those times. The other time, the duck leg was a tad dry, but still very good. Accompany with a glass of wine or end with a digestif and you really cannot go wrong here.

Cute little romantic french restaurant! The boyfriend made our reservation day-​of, middle of the week just for fun. Got there around 7pm which was perfect ’cause the place wasn’t crowded at all. Ambiance: dim but cozy lighting, small tables, small space but nothing to ding points for. Service was great! We were greeted and then walked to our reserved table. After they gave us the menu, a few minutes later our server noticed that we were on our phones (on Unilocal trying to choose out what to order!) and promptly came up to us saying «you guys look ready to order!» hahaha. Super friendly and helped us order since we didn’t know what to choose :)
FOOD
–Complimentary Bread & Housemade Butter. Gotta love the free bread and butter ;) Had to stop myself to save room for dinner! Butter comes in this cute little cup.
–Pig Salad with Pork Confit, Shallots, Apples and Mustard Vinaigrette. … The pork was delicious, melted in my mouth! The vinaigrette has a horseradish kick to it. For the adventurous — it’s an Interesting balance between the pork, apples, and mustard and bitter greens. I liked it! Something you can’t get anywhere else.
–Roast Liberty Duck Breast with Green Lentils and Pepper Gastric. Yes. Plz. I don’t get to try that many duck dishes outside of the asian cuisine so I was really excited about this one –dish was recommended by our server. It delivered for sure. Duck breast was tender and juicy. Complimented by the very flavorful lentils and a few layers of turnip/​radish.
–Grilled Hanger Steak with Red Wine Sauce and French Fries. Chewy but still tender and flavorful steak. The red wine sauce was delicious. Fries, very fresh tasting (kinda reminded me of in-​n-​out fries).
–Fuji Apple Crêpe. For dessert we settled for the crêpe because the menu said it came with honey ice cream, caramel, and almonds! Was a little sad to see that the scoop of ice-​cream was pretty tiny, but the crêpe itself was yummy. (I think we were just in an ice-​creamy mood).
Left the restaurant feeling happily full of rich, delicious food. Cute café! Would recommend and come back again!

Well, I found a place, the perfect place for this momentous review. I didn’t want to perform a negative review for this one so I was selective. I mulled it over a bit and changed the ratings. While at the restaurant I was convinced I would only give it a 3.5 to a 4. But after some pondering I moved it to a 5. I’ll explain why as I go on.
First, what makes a place like this enjoyable like most meals is the quality of your company. Will the conversation compensate for some negative deductions to service, presentation, etc? The wife and I had perfect company for this occasion, so part of the extra star was the fact that the stars were in alignment for this specific night. So hold on to your seats and here we go…
We had a reservation for 7:30. Our buds made it there a bit early and had a pre bite/​pre drink nearby. Meanwhile, we were caught in traffic, which wasn’t common for this time on a Saturday night. This place is right at the South Park roundabout. I’ve actually passed by this place several times during carpool hours and it looks like it’s crackin’. But I’ve never really researched it and ignorantly assumed it was your typical coffee and pastry café. Dumbfounded was I to learn that this is a quaint French bistro offering some really inspiring dishes. When I found out this is where our destination was I of course went to Unilocal and ding, ding, ding… Pork belly! Great choice as no place that serves a pork belly has failed yet.
So going into it the pork belly was going to be a must for me. However, we checked it right at 7:30. This place has a small check in area, because it is a small business overall. Total seats are probably 30 –35. But what does that mean for bistros? It means the food is great because the focus is on taste and there is enough time to allow for surgical precision in the kitchen. After checking in we were politely asked to wait at the bistro tables outside. It’s been a freakishly warm January so this was ok but this would have been bothersome on a typical winter or rainy night.
The host/​owner/​maître d said he would buy us our first round of drinks for the wait. He then came to check on us about 20 minutes later and refilled our drinks. It sucked to wait so long. But here’s where company matters a lot. Good company along with the good business sense to buy us our drinks makes this something to easily take as a blessing in disguise. It allowed for catch up with free drinks.
We were seated right around the middle of the floor. This is just a one floor plan restaurant, on the bottom floor of a converted Victorian. So certain things weren’t really of worry when the building was built, such as «noise level». The noise is above average here so again quality of company comes to play so that something like this won’t become an irritant. Our table wasn’t balanced and that’s striking for a smaller bistro like this. But that’s a minor offense because lots of other things again made up for it.
The menu was simple. There was a generous wine selection. The wines looked good but I wasn’t here to sample wine. I needed my palate ready for food. So it was a simple Stella for me. While wine pairs well with certain foods it can jade your taste for other foods. (Just saying… if you come to see how good something is, don’t wine it up — keep it to a glass). The menu offers a pre fix for $ 39, allowing an appetizer, entrée, and a dessert. So why not? That’s a steal for the grub we ended up having.
So the appetizer and entrees selections have basic protein (beef, pork, seafood) to choose from and does also consider certain diets and vegetarians. Hard to do with a small menu but they do it here. Once our orders were taken, we were provided a generous basket of bread and butter.
The appetizers didn’t take long and came out piping hot. This is one of the best benefits of these smaller bistros. Food is always made to order right then and there. There may be some pre set dishes but they are pretty much fired up for you only after the ticket is punched. Of course I had the pork belly and it was PERFECT. It had good char, braised well, generous portion, and served on a type of slaw. Man, this was awesome! I could have had 5 of these. I tasted the beets my wife ordered with Apple slaw and that was as good as could be too. Also had some of the smoked trout appetizer, which was surprisingly really good. I chose the duck as my entrée and that too was perfect. It resembled medium rare wagyu for me. For dessert I chose the peanut butter ice cream. It was just what I needed to sweeten up the palate.
The waiter did have some fumbles like not providing a knife for my bud’s cheese plate and not bringing bread plates but he was polite and checked on us often enough. So I can overlook these enough to not deprive them of a star. Overall, great experience, great food, so make your reservation now.

Concept. Une petit café «à la française» prêt de south park (sans Kenny), un petit coin de verdure dans SOMA.
Cadre. Une belle salle très lumineuse avec une quelques tables en terrasse.
Service. Assez paradoxale… le café se transforme en Pub avec commande et paiement au comptoir, pas très frenchie, mais commode ! L’attente est courte et le service efficace.
Dans l’assiette. J’ai craqué pour la Pig salad en bon français :) Du confit de porc avec plein de douceur et de saveur. Les plats sont copieux, variés et avec un «je né sais quoi» comme disent les américains. Un must de la branchitude ! En plus on peut même y savourer du tartare de boeuf… une hérésie pour les locaux.