Restaurants near Balboa Park Upper

We celebrated my mother’s birthday and we received the best service from the dining room team. I have to say today’s service surpassed the food even. Needless to say the food is dependably tasty. We had the shrimp cocktail - very fresh; the veal scallopini sec portion is generous, so is the side dish broccolini, the other entree is a favorite - shrimp scampi with linguine. When the dessert was brought, one server (who’s an opera singer, I believe) sang Happy Birthday in a most beautiful voice. So surprising, so special. It was an overall one of the best birthday meals my mother ever had.

I have eaten many meals at Zuni over decades and the quality has been amazingly consistent over that time. It’s often just what I want to eat. I had a baguette steak that reminded me of France in the 1970s. The prices have definitely increased. It’s not out of line with similar places, but it used to seem cheaper than other places of equivalent quality. No longer. It’s every bit as expensive as other fine dining places if more relaxed than some.

We really enjoyed our dinner at Nopa. Beginning with the bread and butter. All I can say is order it. Next we had the Tortelli which was excellent (not to be missed). We also had the Tagliatelle with the bolognese sauce which was very good. For dessert we had the key lime pie which was good but the ice cream that came for the birthday person was outstanding. Our server who was excellent said it was ginger snap but it didn’t taste like ginger. Best ice cream I’ve ever eaten. Can’t wait to go back for my birthday and have that ice cream.

Upscale Mexican food in the sunset district. Authentic taste and flavors but spice level is scaled down for clientele. Nothing very spicy. Still, food was tasty! Good ambience, excellent service. Clean throughout. This is definitely not the mission district experience, if that’s what you’re looking for. But very good authentic food in a clean, upscale pleasant environment. Not a taqueria!

We had such a fantastic time at Foreign Cinema! From the warm welcome when we arrived to the excellent servers and the delicious food, it was an all star visit. It's no wonder Foreign Cinema is an icon in San Francisco. We can't wait to go back!