Best American Restaurants in Cole Valley

Food was great, portions was bigger than I remember especially the King Henry VIII. Great value!

We will always return to this legendary hidden gem garden patio for special event brunches just as we did decades ago as young gay men to compare notes with our best friends after scandalous nights of clubbing! I only wish the new management would bring back the fishbowl mimosas that calmed our nerves in those crazy days :-)

We had an awesome Valentine's Day dinner at Spruce. We travelled to San Francisco for the weekend and this was our first visit to Spruce. We made a great choice. The fixed menu for the evening was great. Everything from start to finish was delicious. We opted for a nice bottle of wine with our dinner. However, the wine pairing menu looked to be great as well. The service was excellent. We will definitely return the next time that we are in the Bay Area.

Wonderful food and nice local spot. Very busy for Valentine’s Day (to be expected) hence the wait staff was stretched thin.

We got lucky getting the best table in the restaurant, across from the bar in a nook under the stairs, so we easily heard each other! We chose a plant forward menu and our waiter Kai (sp?) decided on the order of the dishes. I’d trust his judgment again because we had a great time. The pigs head hid a shaved fennel and pear salad underneath. I delightfully learned how different parts of fennel tastes when shaved so finely. The Hokkaido scallops were soooo good and fresh and compared to a sushi restaurant, a very good value. My partner normally doesn’t like shellfish but he loved the scallops. We ended the savory portion of the meal with the seaweed noodles and the grilled cabbage with dill pickle butter and roe. Both plates had amazing, complimentary sauces and Kai brought us some bread to savor the last drops. The One Punch Man cocktail complemented entire the meal so well with its fruity yet creamy flavor. We got the chocolate semifreddo for dessert for the texture. It had a toasted umeboshi meringue that tasted like dates if they were slightly pickled. I left food drunk and with very happy tastebuds. I loved the restraint in all the flavors. I think a lot of dishes could’ve easily gone sideways in less capable hands, or even the meal because this menu had a lot of citrus and pickled items, and instead they nailed it just right.