What a lovely place. Top end dining with no pretentiousness. Pleasant, cozy setting with likeable and capable staff. Don't hesitate to take an earlier seating; by the time you are done dinner, it will be late. The zero-proof drinks are genius; I didn't miss the ethanol.
The food, service and ambience were outstanding. It was 12 courses and very filling. I struggled to finish everything. The plates and presentation were creative and fun. Would absolutely go again.
EllenS
I ate as a solo diner and appreciated that such a small restaurant accommodated me. The food is exceptional, the chef's creativity and humor comes through, and the service is efficient and professional but also human, a great combination. I asked questions of most of the servers about the food and they were generous with their explanations. One of the servers spoke so quickly and the course elements so elaborate that I didn't always catch what was involved, but that was fine because just eating it was such a pleasure. My favorite course was the taste of the sea which was bite-sized and tasted exactly like the pacific and was both elaborate and understated and as perfect as the sea. I wanted the solo dining experience on a multi-coursed meal, and that's what I came for - without alcohol and with a tip it ended up being $300, after I added an extra tip because the restaurant only adds 16% of a gratuity, which seemed low for the level of service. I arrived hungry and I have a big appetite, but I couldn't eat everything and had a stomachache that night, which can be attributed to my amateur status and not a reflection on the food. It's the reason I don't eat multi-coursed meals, but I have no regrets. It was a special and memorable experience and I'm very glad I went. I will remember the excellence and the professionalism and the good humor of this special place. I highly recommend.
Luke Lu
Great dating place ? Enjoyable 3hrs fabulous food and dining experience with a design in mind. Impressed and fall in love here. The best fine dining at this price range in the city. The place is underestimated.. it deserves my high opinion review.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Quail Egg Look Hollandaise, California Squab, Blood Orange Sorbet, Caviar, Dessert with Yuzu Tart Chocolate Egg
SarahL
HUGE KUDOS for the plentiful and delicious non-alcoholic offerings. So many SF restaurants have yet to embrace this trend and it is appreciated that Nightbird is promoting inclusivity. The Valentine's Tasting Menu was filled with charm, whimsy and deliciousness. Jordan and Mark were especially warm and welcoming and the special touches throughout - from heart shaped beets to the pre-dessert dessert - made for a special evening.
CChour
Great first experience, we ate their V-Day pre-fixe Menu. Service was stellar, knowledge of the staff was excellent, food was done well and certain dishes shined over others. Bread courses were delicious but slightly too filling (we ate all the bread). Overall a fantastic experience, would like to try non fixed menu. Shout out to the staff and team and Nightbird for delivering.
arun venkatesan
Amazing 14 course vegetarian meal. Great and patient service with detailed explanation of all the courses. Excellent dessert. When I go there next, I would remember to ask for lesser salt in some of the dishes. Overall very nice fine dining experience.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Specialty Bread, Dessert with Yuzu Tart Chocolate Egg
globalfoodie
We loved our birthday celebratory dinner at Nightbird! Excellent choices of mains and 'bites' with a good variety of tastes and textures. Our server who was also the sommelier was knowledgeable and made good recommendations on the wines to pair with the food offerings. All in all it was a memorable and awesome experience and we all left quite satiated and happy! And we had lovely 'take home' bites too! Thank you to the wonderful chef and all the servers last night!
TheLL
I've been looking forward to visiting this place for a while and finally got there. The space is spare, but very beautiful. It's a small and intimate restaurant. The service is excellent. They are on top of everything, no matter how small. Quick, efficient and friendly. We opted for the wine pairings and, while some of them seemed initially odd, or even strange drinking a sip of them without the food, were in the end, perfectly suited for the food. A very remarkable combination and incredibly well done The issues for me was the food unfortunately. It's a tasting menu and obviously over the course of the varied tasting something might not be your personal favorite. The first thing I noticed was the temperature of things was constantly off. The hot food was always served much cooler than it should be. Every time. It is not something that should be that hard to get right and negatively impacts the taste of the food, particularly smaller sized courses that are on a tasting menu. Oddly, while the service vessels for the hot courses were generally not warmed, the service vessels for the cold courses were chilled. I also found the course themselves to be mildly underwhelming. Definitely not bad, or even disappointing, but not quite the level they should be for this type of dining. All in all, it was a good experience, but not a great one unfortunately
JerryH
Top notch restaurant- right around the corner from the Opera/Ballet/Symphony. Impecable service - gracious server with spot on skills for drinks and the prix fixe 5-course menu. Very intimate setting.
Food was great! Value is hard to say. We spent over $900 for two of us which included the tasting menu with wine pairing and two cocktails. But it was honestly one of the best food presentation that we have had in recent memory. The wine pairings were also Excellently thought out and coupled with the exquisite food. For such a small restaurant, it was a bit distracting initially to observe food being marched to the tables. It's a small space, and it brings more attention than I believe it needs to. But it got smoother through the night. Possibly the wine pairing numbed some of our audio senses, a little.
KathyO
It's a gorgeous experience. The room is absolutely stunning, beautifully and thoughtfully painted and designed. The hushed tones indicate a serious place and the hospitality does a lovely job keeping the tone fitting for such a wonderful restaurant, without ever being fussy. The sommelier is terrific and interesting and put together a fantastic pairing with the equally fantastic food. Brava chef.
GordonB
One of the best restaurants in SF. On this occasion, we dined for my birthday ahead of a show at SFJazz. This was our 3rd visit to Nightbird-we have previously attended for a winemaker dinner and a special occasion; it is an expensive experience but totally worth it. The food is exceptional, the service impeccable, but not precious or hovering, and the wine pairings were creative, fresh and excellent. Though one believes 2 hours is sufficient, we could have stayed another hour. The staff was very accommodating with our 5pm reservation to make sure we were able to finish by the time we had to leave for our 7:30pm show around the corner. We highly recommend this gem in Hayes Valley.
SFLOCALeater
Chef Kim Alter's creations are tantalizing to the palette. The blend of flavors, textures, I always experience a new flavor I've never tasted. The staff are remarkable, warm, welcoming and kind. Fabulous evening out for a special occasion.
Hector Vega
This restaurant had amazing service. They were all so caring and welcoming. The good was exquisite and varied. Really had a wonderful date night.
What a lovely place. Top end dining with no pretentiousness. Pleasant, cozy setting with likeable and capable staff. Don't hesitate to take an earlier seating; by the time you are done dinner, it will be late. The zero-proof drinks are genius; I didn't miss the ethanol.
The food, service and ambience were outstanding. It was 12 courses and very filling. I struggled to finish everything. The plates and presentation were creative and fun. Would absolutely go again.
I ate as a solo diner and appreciated that such a small restaurant accommodated me. The food is exceptional, the chef's creativity and humor comes through, and the service is efficient and professional but also human, a great combination. I asked questions of most of the servers about the food and they were generous with their explanations. One of the servers spoke so quickly and the course elements so elaborate that I didn't always catch what was involved, but that was fine because just eating it was such a pleasure. My favorite course was the taste of the sea which was bite-sized and tasted exactly like the pacific and was both elaborate and understated and as perfect as the sea. I wanted the solo dining experience on a multi-coursed meal, and that's what I came for - without alcohol and with a tip it ended up being $300, after I added an extra tip because the restaurant only adds 16% of a gratuity, which seemed low for the level of service. I arrived hungry and I have a big appetite, but I couldn't eat everything and had a stomachache that night, which can be attributed to my amateur status and not a reflection on the food. It's the reason I don't eat multi-coursed meals, but I have no regrets. It was a special and memorable experience and I'm very glad I went. I will remember the excellence and the professionalism and the good humor of this special place. I highly recommend.
Great dating place ? Enjoyable 3hrs fabulous food and dining experience with a design in mind. Impressed and fall in love here. The best fine dining at this price range in the city. The place is underestimated.. it deserves my high opinion review.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Quail Egg Look Hollandaise, California Squab, Blood Orange Sorbet, Caviar, Dessert with Yuzu Tart Chocolate Egg
HUGE KUDOS for the plentiful and delicious non-alcoholic offerings. So many SF restaurants have yet to embrace this trend and it is appreciated that Nightbird is promoting inclusivity. The Valentine's Tasting Menu was filled with charm, whimsy and deliciousness. Jordan and Mark were especially warm and welcoming and the special touches throughout - from heart shaped beets to the pre-dessert dessert - made for a special evening.
Great first experience, we ate their V-Day pre-fixe Menu. Service was stellar, knowledge of the staff was excellent, food was done well and certain dishes shined over others. Bread courses were delicious but slightly too filling (we ate all the bread). Overall a fantastic experience, would like to try non fixed menu. Shout out to the staff and team and Nightbird for delivering.
Amazing 14 course vegetarian meal. Great and patient service with detailed explanation of all the courses. Excellent dessert. When I go there next, I would remember to ask for lesser salt in some of the dishes. Overall very nice fine dining experience.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Specialty Bread, Dessert with Yuzu Tart Chocolate Egg
We loved our birthday celebratory dinner at Nightbird! Excellent choices of mains and 'bites' with a good variety of tastes and textures. Our server who was also the sommelier was knowledgeable and made good recommendations on the wines to pair with the food offerings. All in all it was a memorable and awesome experience and we all left quite satiated and happy! And we had lovely 'take home' bites too! Thank you to the wonderful chef and all the servers last night!
I've been looking forward to visiting this place for a while and finally got there. The space is spare, but very beautiful. It's a small and intimate restaurant. The service is excellent. They are on top of everything, no matter how small. Quick, efficient and friendly. We opted for the wine pairings and, while some of them seemed initially odd, or even strange drinking a sip of them without the food, were in the end, perfectly suited for the food. A very remarkable combination and incredibly well done The issues for me was the food unfortunately. It's a tasting menu and obviously over the course of the varied tasting something might not be your personal favorite. The first thing I noticed was the temperature of things was constantly off. The hot food was always served much cooler than it should be. Every time. It is not something that should be that hard to get right and negatively impacts the taste of the food, particularly smaller sized courses that are on a tasting menu. Oddly, while the service vessels for the hot courses were generally not warmed, the service vessels for the cold courses were chilled. I also found the course themselves to be mildly underwhelming. Definitely not bad, or even disappointing, but not quite the level they should be for this type of dining. All in all, it was a good experience, but not a great one unfortunately
Top notch restaurant- right around the corner from the Opera/Ballet/Symphony. Impecable service - gracious server with spot on skills for drinks and the prix fixe 5-course menu. Very intimate setting.
Restaurantji Recommends
Food was great! Value is hard to say. We spent over $900 for two of us which included the tasting menu with wine pairing and two cocktails. But it was honestly one of the best food presentation that we have had in recent memory. The wine pairings were also Excellently thought out and coupled with the exquisite food. For such a small restaurant, it was a bit distracting initially to observe food being marched to the tables. It's a small space, and it brings more attention than I believe it needs to. But it got smoother through the night. Possibly the wine pairing numbed some of our audio senses, a little.
It's a gorgeous experience. The room is absolutely stunning, beautifully and thoughtfully painted and designed. The hushed tones indicate a serious place and the hospitality does a lovely job keeping the tone fitting for such a wonderful restaurant, without ever being fussy. The sommelier is terrific and interesting and put together a fantastic pairing with the equally fantastic food. Brava chef.
One of the best restaurants in SF. On this occasion, we dined for my birthday ahead of a show at SFJazz. This was our 3rd visit to Nightbird-we have previously attended for a winemaker dinner and a special occasion; it is an expensive experience but totally worth it. The food is exceptional, the service impeccable, but not precious or hovering, and the wine pairings were creative, fresh and excellent. Though one believes 2 hours is sufficient, we could have stayed another hour. The staff was very accommodating with our 5pm reservation to make sure we were able to finish by the time we had to leave for our 7:30pm show around the corner. We highly recommend this gem in Hayes Valley.
Chef Kim Alter's creations are tantalizing to the palette. The blend of flavors, textures, I always experience a new flavor I've never tasted. The staff are remarkable, warm, welcoming and kind. Fabulous evening out for a special occasion.
This restaurant had amazing service. They were all so caring and welcoming. The good was exquisite and varied. Really had a wonderful date night.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5