Good food, IMO the avocado was overpriced and nothing fancy, tastes like eating ash coating. Tiny food portions, typical of fine dining. Nothing out of this world though, for the prices.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
Varun Puri
Besides the (half) avocado, nothing else was up to par of a restaurant at this price point.The sashimi dishes were uninteresting. The most flavorful part was a small dot of yuzu on the plate.The Tokyo Turnip was tasty, but the portion was extraordinarily small and unbalanced -- a small mound of leafy greens cloaking the marble-size turnips underneath.The biggest disappointment was the wagyu ribeye. Tough and chewy with a lot of connective tissue.Great atmosphere and presentation, wanted to like it, but the each dish fell short.*** As a note: a restaurant this expensive should not have to charge a "living wage fee". You're charging $15 for half of an avocado. If you can't afford to pay your servers a living wage from that, reevaluate your business model or just raise your prices.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 2
Service: 3
Recommended dishes: Wood Grilled Avocado
Mickey W
Enjoyed our experience dining at bird dog but thought it was A little overpriced.Tried the chefs menu which was a tasting menu, half the dishes we thought were just alright. Some added flair on otherwise pretty ordinary dishes. The salad was a little too salty for our taste with the seasoning not adequately spread across the dish. Their specialty avocado dish was interesting at first taste but quickly become a little boring.The wagyu was a highlight as was the dessert.Service was excellent and the restaurant had a modern elevated vibe.Overall happy with the experience but definitely there is better value to be found elsewhere where in Palo Alto.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Sashimi, Wagyu Beef
D R
This is a tough one. It's hard to say what's wrong with this restaurant without sounding like you don't know what your talking about so I'll put it simply: Uninspired service (our table wasn't set until after we got our first plate, for example), miserly serving sizes under the guise of high cuisine (the food is good but not even close to a level where its extreme refinement justifies starving the diner) and, finally, a bar that simply couldn't find it's way out of a paper bag. Bulk isle black olives in a dirty martini? Seriously? Just say you can't do it. All together it's a lot of money for a place that's barely a culinary after thought.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 3
Service: 2
Shlomi Gian
The most creative dishes I have tried recently. Great
This place has good food but let’s be honest, the service is miserable and the staff is horribly entitled. They overcharged us and had us pay the full bill upon check out even though we had sent them a deposit, and they were super arrogant and rude about it. That spoiled what would otherwise have been a very pleasant evening.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 5
Service: 1
Qiushuang Zhang
Doesn't allow our own drink
Steve Guttbinder
UPDATE: I contacted the restaurant after writing my review and had a very pleasant and productive conversation with who I think was the GM of the restaurant group that owns BIRD DOG – Emily. She went above and beyond and replied to my feedback from a place of wanting to better everything about my experience and the restaurant. It's rare to see this type of commitment and am updating my review to reflect that. Although my experience fell below the standard that anyone should have for a fine dining experience – mistakes do happen and everyone is just trying to do their best. I will also heed Emily's advice to let the restaurant know of a poor experience prior to taking it online – so I thank her for that. Below is the original review with updated language as to take into account a hard working team. Thanks to Emily, I intend to visit again in the future with the same expectations and looking forward to having them be met.The kitchen staff had an off night this evening. Front of House staff were above and beyond, and sadly taken down by food that did not meet the expectations of a fine dining experience. Dishes were either too sweet, too salty, unbalanced, or too “eh” in the reach to for fusion-esque dining. One sour spot (literally) was the dish we were looking most forward to - their famed avocado - was rancid. Everything looked amazing - but we came to have our taste buds be delighted. We wanted to taste something amazing… and of the 9 dishes we ordered things just felt all over the place in a way that didn't feel like a tied in experience. In the end our bill did not reflect the experience we wanted which led to a buyer's remorse/sticker shock reaction of this review.Additionally, there was a music playlist snafu that took us out of the fine dining element.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 1
Service: 5
Christopher Hoover
A big meh overall.We had the chef's menu. The steak was great. The salad was solid. I quite liked to avocado though the rest of my table wasn't thrilled (one was not quite ripe enough). The rest of the courses were average at best, sometimes missing salt, sometimes missing acid, sometimes both.We sat for at least ten minutes before anyone came to the table. After that the service was OK, though it took a long time for us to get our first round of drinks.The music is a bit strange.The food and experience does not match the price.
Food is incredibly small portion but charge extreme high price. The scallop is bitter, mushroom is burned. Service and ambience is decent. Not worth the money.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 1
Service: 5
Kim Ladin
A huge
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 2
Service: 3
Recommended dishes: Kanpachi
Sara Coughlin
Lovely ambience and creative
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Xavier Reyes
I went here for my wife’s company party, I was blown away by the service, the amazing food and the atmosphere.
Good food, IMO the avocado was overpriced and nothing fancy, tastes like eating ash coating. Tiny food portions, typical of fine dining. Nothing out of this world though, for the prices.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
Besides the (half) avocado, nothing else was up to par of a restaurant at this price point.The sashimi dishes were uninteresting. The most flavorful part was a small dot of yuzu on the plate.The Tokyo Turnip was tasty, but the portion was extraordinarily small and unbalanced -- a small mound of leafy greens cloaking the marble-size turnips underneath.The biggest disappointment was the wagyu ribeye. Tough and chewy with a lot of connective tissue.Great atmosphere and presentation, wanted to like it, but the each dish fell short.*** As a note: a restaurant this expensive should not have to charge a "living wage fee". You're charging $15 for half of an avocado. If you can't afford to pay your servers a living wage from that, reevaluate your business model or just raise your prices.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 2
Service: 3
Recommended dishes: Wood Grilled Avocado
Enjoyed our experience dining at bird dog but thought it was A little overpriced.Tried the chefs menu which was a tasting menu, half the dishes we thought were just alright. Some added flair on otherwise pretty ordinary dishes. The salad was a little too salty for our taste with the seasoning not adequately spread across the dish. Their specialty avocado dish was interesting at first taste but quickly become a little boring.The wagyu was a highlight as was the dessert.Service was excellent and the restaurant had a modern elevated vibe.Overall happy with the experience but definitely there is better value to be found elsewhere where in Palo Alto.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Sashimi, Wagyu Beef
This is a tough one. It's hard to say what's wrong with this restaurant without sounding like you don't know what your talking about so I'll put it simply: Uninspired service (our table wasn't set until after we got our first plate, for example), miserly serving sizes under the guise of high cuisine (the food is good but not even close to a level where its extreme refinement justifies starving the diner) and, finally, a bar that simply couldn't find it's way out of a paper bag. Bulk isle black olives in a dirty martini? Seriously? Just say you can't do it. All together it's a lot of money for a place that's barely a culinary after thought.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 3
Service: 2
The most creative dishes I have tried recently. Great
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Fried Chicken Thigh, Wood Grilled Avocado, Kanpachi
Great place for dinner. Food was unique and delicious. My only issues were the food came in a bit slow and the place is a bit dim.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
Recommended dishes: Tuna, Fried Chicken Thigh, Karaage, Wagyu Beef
This place has good food but let’s be honest, the service is miserable and the staff is horribly entitled. They overcharged us and had us pay the full bill upon check out even though we had sent them a deposit, and they were super arrogant and rude about it. That spoiled what would otherwise have been a very pleasant evening.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 5
Service: 1
Doesn't allow our own drink
UPDATE: I contacted the restaurant after writing my review and had a very pleasant and productive conversation with who I think was the GM of the restaurant group that owns BIRD DOG – Emily. She went above and beyond and replied to my feedback from a place of wanting to better everything about my experience and the restaurant. It's rare to see this type of commitment and am updating my review to reflect that. Although my experience fell below the standard that anyone should have for a fine dining experience – mistakes do happen and everyone is just trying to do their best. I will also heed Emily's advice to let the restaurant know of a poor experience prior to taking it online – so I thank her for that. Below is the original review with updated language as to take into account a hard working team. Thanks to Emily, I intend to visit again in the future with the same expectations and looking forward to having them be met.The kitchen staff had an off night this evening. Front of House staff were above and beyond, and sadly taken down by food that did not meet the expectations of a fine dining experience. Dishes were either too sweet, too salty, unbalanced, or too “eh” in the reach to for fusion-esque dining. One sour spot (literally) was the dish we were looking most forward to - their famed avocado - was rancid. Everything looked amazing - but we came to have our taste buds be delighted. We wanted to taste something amazing… and of the 9 dishes we ordered things just felt all over the place in a way that didn't feel like a tied in experience. In the end our bill did not reflect the experience we wanted which led to a buyer's remorse/sticker shock reaction of this review.Additionally, there was a music playlist snafu that took us out of the fine dining element.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 1
Service: 5
A big meh overall.We had the chef's menu. The steak was great. The salad was solid. I quite liked to avocado though the rest of my table wasn't thrilled (one was not quite ripe enough). The rest of the courses were average at best, sometimes missing salt, sometimes missing acid, sometimes both.We sat for at least ten minutes before anyone came to the table. After that the service was OK, though it took a long time for us to get our first round of drinks.The music is a bit strange.The food and experience does not match the price.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 3
Restaurantji Recommends
Food is incredibly small portion but charge extreme high price. The scallop is bitter, mushroom is burned. Service and ambience is decent. Not worth the money.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 1
Service: 5
A huge
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 2
Service: 3
Recommended dishes: Kanpachi
Lovely ambience and creative
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
I went here for my wife’s company party, I was blown away by the service, the amazing food and the atmosphere.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
local go to for
Food: 5