I'm sad they moved so far away!!! But I'm so happy their Japanese breakfast is BACK! I quite prefer the cod over the salmon but still delicious.
Dani G.
I'd been wanting to check out Cassava for a while and, having an afternoon event going on in North Beach, it seemed like a good spot to try for brunch. It was the last day of SF Restaurant Week and the restaurant was offering a $40 menu comprising a brunch entree and a selection of snacks for the table. I don't do eggs (which makes brunch challenging in general) so the only real option I was interested in was the duck leg confit salad. My dining companion went with the Japanese breakfast. These dishes a la carte cost $29 and $32, respectively, so the additional $19 for us both to have the snacks seemed like a decent option. The snacks comprised 2 each of: mini croissant, mini buckwheat pancake, mini salmon rillettes toast, and deviled eggs. The croissant and the pancakes were pretty dry and unremarkable and the eggs (according to my dining companion) were tough. The toasts were decent enough. Underwhelmed at the snacks, our expectations weren't massively high for the entrees. Happily, I was pleasantly surprised with the duck leg which was a good portion size and flavor. The Japanese breakfast was appealing for its novelty but none of the individual elements really stood out or seemed to work that well together. In hindsight we would have just ordered a la carte and skipped the snacks but for $30+ per entree for brunch I feel like that comes with pretty high expectations, and our experience didn't really live up to them. I get that Restaurant Week can be a double edged sword - it brings in new customers but also can mean the restaurant is busier than usual and makes service more challenging. However it's also an opportunity to make a great impression on people dining there for the first time, so they hopefully want to visit again in the near future. I'd give it a score of 3.5 taking Restaurant Week into account but, overall, probably not a repeat for us as a brunch option so rounding down to 3 based on this visit. I'd been wanting to come back for the happy hour which looked really good but, unfortunately, has apparently been discontinued.
Amanda B.
I was very excited to see Cassava on the restaurant week list and had high hopes because every single dish on the menu is typically something that I would LOVE, incorporating all of my favorite foods. I'm disappointed to say that the execution was poor. * Truffle fries (4/10): there was 0 truffle flavor and the fries themselves absorbed way too much oil but the dipping sauce was good *Duck confit bao (5/10): this was fine, the fermented bean paste was a little odd but it was the only part of this dish that had flavor *White asparagus (3/10): i love white asparagus but this had no flavor at all, i prefer the ones out of a jar * Crab toast (7/10): crab and peas are both some of my favorite foods so i expected to be wow'd but this fell short. there was too much of the pea spread to really taste the crab at all and it lacked salt. *Seared ahi tuna (7/10): once again, one of my favorite foods so this really couldnt be bad. the quality of the fish was great, but the fish lacked flavor overall. *Lamb loin (4/10): the puree underneath the lamb was fantastic but the lamb itself had an overpowering flavor (and i love game). the brussel sprouts were a nice touch and i wish there were more *Sweet potato cornbread (10/10): this is honestly what redeemed this place for me because this dessert was phenomenal. dense texture and not overly sweet. i loved the hot and cold contrast between the cornbread and the ice cream. The service was good and the interior is very cute which I think is what contributes to lots of the high reviews but the food overall lacked depth and flavor.
Jax B.
Can't wait to go back! We went during SF restaurant week. We did the 4 course tasting menu with the wine pairing and it was so delicious. My friend tried different plates and I got to try some of his dishes too. Highlights Buttermilk fried Chicken, Dungeness crab toast, salmon, prime rib (+7 and worth it) and the Meyer lemon posset. Service was great. I love the restaurant space, you're not on top of other tables like some places.
K C
surprised why this place still have a 4.5 rating after having so many bad reviews lol. Everyone was very friendly except for this Asian lady in hat. Hella rude and very condescending. Food was mediocre. Would not recommend to anyone.Also, no need to reply to my review the same salty way y’all replied to others. Maybe save that time to think about how to actually make the food taste better:)
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 2
Service: 3
David Liu
Japanese style weekend brunch was great. Highly recommend!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Awilda Rosario
Amazing food. Had the duck confit and muscles with fries and the salmon. All excellent and to top it off the service is amazing and gratuity already included on the check which was great.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Duck Leg Confit, Pan Seared Salmon
P I
Excellent food even better service. Salmon and duck wow. Mussels were worth it.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Adrian Sanchez
Reviews are consistent with the experience. The food was so good, every single dish was inventive, hearty, and non-pretentious. Good mix of flavors and food and I can tell they out a lot of thought into inventive recipes. I saw one bad review on this place and I must say that is not accurate at all. Staff was super friendly, checking on us constantly, food and wine were perfect. Very unexpected pleasant experience as it's not pretentious yet the food was amazing. Good job!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Duck Confit Hash
Braxton Carr
I adore Cassava, and it is an excellent addition to North Beach. They don't hesitate to try different, unexpected fusions. Of the 20+ times I have been there, I have yet to have a bad meal.If you enjoy the savoriness and acidity of Japanese cuisine and the complexity and texture of French cuisine, this is the place for you. It will combine them in avant-garde and exciting ways.Check out Cassava if you you're in the mood for something different, and get the Duck Confit for dinner!P.S: Their French toast at brunch is an absolute winner. I vehemently disagree with the review below. It's made from Japanese milk bread, features a compote, and is faithful in profile to ACTUAL French toast, "pain perdu."The texture is light and airy—as someone who detests how heavy and doused in syrup American-style French toast is, this is a breath of fresh air.
I very rarely leave poor reviews as I don’t want to hurt small businesses, but I am genuinely confused by this restaurant’s high ratings.First I will say that the staff are SUPER friendly, and I really appreciated that part! That’s why I’m still managing to give 3 stars.The restaurant was oddly empty around peak brunch/lunch hours on a Saturday, which I guess should have been my first red flag. Despite the emptiness, the food still took 30 minutes to arrive, and I wonder if they just forgot about us because by the time it came, it was totally lukewarm.Cold French toast is not great. But besides that, it was dry, and when i asked for syrup, the server said she’d go look for some, but never returned.Nobody came to check on us at all during the meal, and finally we had to flag someone down to even get the check.The avocado toast was decent , but served on the same dry and stale bread as the French toast bread.We felt pretty shocked to pay this much for extremely mediocre food.This won’t be one we will be returning to, and because of the price point, I need to leave a review to warn others.We ended up going into little Italy for pizza by the slice after this meal :/
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 1
Service: 2
MartyD
Yuka and Kris are wonderful hosts. The attention to detail to the food and ingredients is outstanding. The food is consistently excellent. The staff are attentive and cheerful ambassadors of Cassava. Their location in the heart of North Beach is a great addition to the neighborhood.
Sayantan Mukhopadhyay
Before any product launches in the market the company responsible runs a ‘self funded’ user testing period. This place wants to pay you instead for their five course tasting menu which is in highly experimental state. What a shame.All the dishes in the five course tasting menu are equally unimpressive. Lack balance, flavor or finesse. I have no idea why this place got James Beard nomination; I have no idea why this place got 4.5 rating avg here. The food here is not cheap, wine is stupidly expensive.I am also adding photos of the dishes; they look great but taste horrible.The location is actually cool. They should turn this to a cafe or bar and stop serving food until they find a products worth charging for.P.S. I am adding this section to clarify some context in the comment below from our server (not the chef/ owner). My main review remain unchanged.After eating the first four courses (three in picture below and a muscle risotto not in pictures) we felt pretty full and requested to skip the main course (the beef short ribs). We did not make this request because of the taste food served but the fact we were full. The waiter was very accommodating. Allowed us to box the risotto we could not finish also made a deduction in the bill (although I requested not to make the deduction because it's a fixed menu). I must agree the server was the most delightful part of our experience (in addition to the graffiti on the wall).Again, it does not change my review about the food I experienced on that day and it's a subjective assessment. My reviews are not endorsement or misinformation campaign.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 1
Service: 4
TJ Parris
Just had brunch here - first dish came out cold, second was undercooked, took about 45 minutes from ordering to get our meals. The staff was apologetic about it, and took off the undercooked meal, but all in all fairly dissatisfied for the price point. Won’t be coming back sadly.
I'm sad they moved so far away!!! But I'm so happy their Japanese breakfast is BACK! I quite prefer the cod over the salmon but still delicious.
I'd been wanting to check out Cassava for a while and, having an afternoon event going on in North Beach, it seemed like a good spot to try for brunch. It was the last day of SF Restaurant Week and the restaurant was offering a $40 menu comprising a brunch entree and a selection of snacks for the table. I don't do eggs (which makes brunch challenging in general) so the only real option I was interested in was the duck leg confit salad. My dining companion went with the Japanese breakfast. These dishes a la carte cost $29 and $32, respectively, so the additional $19 for us both to have the snacks seemed like a decent option. The snacks comprised 2 each of: mini croissant, mini buckwheat pancake, mini salmon rillettes toast, and deviled eggs. The croissant and the pancakes were pretty dry and unremarkable and the eggs (according to my dining companion) were tough. The toasts were decent enough. Underwhelmed at the snacks, our expectations weren't massively high for the entrees. Happily, I was pleasantly surprised with the duck leg which was a good portion size and flavor. The Japanese breakfast was appealing for its novelty but none of the individual elements really stood out or seemed to work that well together. In hindsight we would have just ordered a la carte and skipped the snacks but for $30+ per entree for brunch I feel like that comes with pretty high expectations, and our experience didn't really live up to them. I get that Restaurant Week can be a double edged sword - it brings in new customers but also can mean the restaurant is busier than usual and makes service more challenging. However it's also an opportunity to make a great impression on people dining there for the first time, so they hopefully want to visit again in the near future. I'd give it a score of 3.5 taking Restaurant Week into account but, overall, probably not a repeat for us as a brunch option so rounding down to 3 based on this visit. I'd been wanting to come back for the happy hour which looked really good but, unfortunately, has apparently been discontinued.
I was very excited to see Cassava on the restaurant week list and had high hopes because every single dish on the menu is typically something that I would LOVE, incorporating all of my favorite foods. I'm disappointed to say that the execution was poor. * Truffle fries (4/10): there was 0 truffle flavor and the fries themselves absorbed way too much oil but the dipping sauce was good *Duck confit bao (5/10): this was fine, the fermented bean paste was a little odd but it was the only part of this dish that had flavor *White asparagus (3/10): i love white asparagus but this had no flavor at all, i prefer the ones out of a jar * Crab toast (7/10): crab and peas are both some of my favorite foods so i expected to be wow'd but this fell short. there was too much of the pea spread to really taste the crab at all and it lacked salt. *Seared ahi tuna (7/10): once again, one of my favorite foods so this really couldnt be bad. the quality of the fish was great, but the fish lacked flavor overall. *Lamb loin (4/10): the puree underneath the lamb was fantastic but the lamb itself had an overpowering flavor (and i love game). the brussel sprouts were a nice touch and i wish there were more *Sweet potato cornbread (10/10): this is honestly what redeemed this place for me because this dessert was phenomenal. dense texture and not overly sweet. i loved the hot and cold contrast between the cornbread and the ice cream. The service was good and the interior is very cute which I think is what contributes to lots of the high reviews but the food overall lacked depth and flavor.
Can't wait to go back! We went during SF restaurant week. We did the 4 course tasting menu with the wine pairing and it was so delicious. My friend tried different plates and I got to try some of his dishes too. Highlights Buttermilk fried Chicken, Dungeness crab toast, salmon, prime rib (+7 and worth it) and the Meyer lemon posset. Service was great. I love the restaurant space, you're not on top of other tables like some places.
surprised why this place still have a 4.5 rating after having so many bad reviews lol. Everyone was very friendly except for this Asian lady in hat. Hella rude and very condescending. Food was mediocre. Would not recommend to anyone.Also, no need to reply to my review the same salty way y’all replied to others. Maybe save that time to think about how to actually make the food taste better:)
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 2
Service: 3
Japanese style weekend brunch was great. Highly recommend!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Amazing food. Had the duck confit and muscles with fries and the salmon. All excellent and to top it off the service is amazing and gratuity already included on the check which was great.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Duck Leg Confit, Pan Seared Salmon
Excellent food even better service. Salmon and duck wow. Mussels were worth it.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Reviews are consistent with the experience. The food was so good, every single dish was inventive, hearty, and non-pretentious. Good mix of flavors and food and I can tell they out a lot of thought into inventive recipes. I saw one bad review on this place and I must say that is not accurate at all. Staff was super friendly, checking on us constantly, food and wine were perfect. Very unexpected pleasant experience as it's not pretentious yet the food was amazing. Good job!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Duck Confit Hash
I adore Cassava, and it is an excellent addition to North Beach. They don't hesitate to try different, unexpected fusions. Of the 20+ times I have been there, I have yet to have a bad meal.If you enjoy the savoriness and acidity of Japanese cuisine and the complexity and texture of French cuisine, this is the place for you. It will combine them in avant-garde and exciting ways.Check out Cassava if you you're in the mood for something different, and get the Duck Confit for dinner!P.S: Their French toast at brunch is an absolute winner. I vehemently disagree with the review below. It's made from Japanese milk bread, features a compote, and is faithful in profile to ACTUAL French toast, "pain perdu."The texture is light and airy—as someone who detests how heavy and doused in syrup American-style French toast is, this is a breath of fresh air.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Duck Leg Confit, Duck Confit Hash, Cassava's Cheese Burger, Slow Braised Lamb Belly, Miso Soup
Restaurantji Recommends
Lovely place, nice quiet ambience and great
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
I very rarely leave poor reviews as I don’t want to hurt small businesses, but I am genuinely confused by this restaurant’s high ratings.First I will say that the staff are SUPER friendly, and I really appreciated that part! That’s why I’m still managing to give 3 stars.The restaurant was oddly empty around peak brunch/lunch hours on a Saturday, which I guess should have been my first red flag. Despite the emptiness, the food still took 30 minutes to arrive, and I wonder if they just forgot about us because by the time it came, it was totally lukewarm.Cold French toast is not great. But besides that, it was dry, and when i asked for syrup, the server said she’d go look for some, but never returned.Nobody came to check on us at all during the meal, and finally we had to flag someone down to even get the check.The avocado toast was decent , but served on the same dry and stale bread as the French toast bread.We felt pretty shocked to pay this much for extremely mediocre food.This won’t be one we will be returning to, and because of the price point, I need to leave a review to warn others.We ended up going into little Italy for pizza by the slice after this meal :/
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 1
Service: 2
Yuka and Kris are wonderful hosts. The attention to detail to the food and ingredients is outstanding. The food is consistently excellent. The staff are attentive and cheerful ambassadors of Cassava. Their location in the heart of North Beach is a great addition to the neighborhood.
Before any product launches in the market the company responsible runs a ‘self funded’ user testing period. This place wants to pay you instead for their five course tasting menu which is in highly experimental state. What a shame.All the dishes in the five course tasting menu are equally unimpressive. Lack balance, flavor or finesse. I have no idea why this place got James Beard nomination; I have no idea why this place got 4.5 rating avg here. The food here is not cheap, wine is stupidly expensive.I am also adding photos of the dishes; they look great but taste horrible.The location is actually cool. They should turn this to a cafe or bar and stop serving food until they find a products worth charging for.P.S. I am adding this section to clarify some context in the comment below from our server (not the chef/ owner). My main review remain unchanged.After eating the first four courses (three in picture below and a muscle risotto not in pictures) we felt pretty full and requested to skip the main course (the beef short ribs). We did not make this request because of the taste food served but the fact we were full. The waiter was very accommodating. Allowed us to box the risotto we could not finish also made a deduction in the bill (although I requested not to make the deduction because it's a fixed menu). I must agree the server was the most delightful part of our experience (in addition to the graffiti on the wall).Again, it does not change my review about the food I experienced on that day and it's a subjective assessment. My reviews are not endorsement or misinformation campaign.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 1
Service: 4
Just had brunch here - first dish came out cold, second was undercooked, took about 45 minutes from ordering to get our meals. The staff was apologetic about it, and took off the undercooked meal, but all in all fairly dissatisfied for the price point. Won’t be coming back sadly.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 2
Service: 3