Gary Danko - San Francisco (CA)

3 /5 Aswin Prasad: Recently, I had a dinner with my spouse at Gar Danko. The appointment was at 10. I thought they would be closing down as their shop closing time is 10. They said we are okay to eat until 12 a.m. But we had to place all our courses upfront, which is kind of not convenient. Service-wise, it was great. All the servers were competent, helpful, and charming. They explained all the dishes and were constantly checking on us. There were multiple gift desserts to charm us. Coming to food, the menu looked great. But beware, vegetarians, there are literally three dishes you can choose from. I would say that the place is not vegetarian-friendly. We had like 1/10 options of vegetarian and non-veg options. They offered us coffee before dessert. The latte tasted really good, and I enjoyed it a lot. To us its not worth the price we paid as its over $150 a person and its not acceptable to have poor menu options for vegetarians.

4 /5 Pete Smells: We had a lovely anniversary dinner at Gary Danko. The service was wonderful and the team brought us some complimentary bites with happy anniversary spelled out on them. Some of the dishes such as the scallops were outstanding. Others were good but not fantastic. It seems as if theyve made the decision to try to move more people through the restaurant on a nightly basis, which is probably why they can afford to serve top quality food at reasonable prices, but also probably the reason they do not have a Michelin star. The tables are very close together, in some cases requiring you to sit next to your partner instead of across the table from them. When the cheese cart is out, it is impossible to pass through the aisles near it. At our table, this resulted in many people squeezing up between our table and the cheese cart and rubbing their butt over our table as they passed. Not what you would expect in a first class restaurant. The decor also seemed a bit dark and dated to us. So not perfect, but a good experience, especially if youre a new new to fine dining and want to see what a near-Michelin experience looks like at a not-crazy expensive price. Seems like a good balance for trying to build a viable business in a tourist-heavy location. The 7% health care mandate hidden in the bill is way out of line. The whole idea is ridiculous, but most restaurants in SF, with far lower average tickets, seem to get by with 3% (and plenty dont charge anything).

4 /5 Lucy Nguyen: Food was delicious and staff were all very polite and friendly. Restaurant was nice, just really dark. I got the 4 course which was more than enough. Sure some items were small but once you get to the main, youre pretty stuffed. I was barely able to finish the dessert.

2 /5 Clarin Houle: Our recent dinner at Gary Danko was unfortunately not at the level one would expect from a restaurant with such a long-standing reputation. While service began warmly and certain dishes were well prepared, the overall experience fell short in several key areas. Food: • The amuse bouche tasted stale, and the sourdough was underwhelming. • The scallops were well-seared and enjoyable, and the duck was the strongest dish of the evening. • My mom had the lobster risotto, which was pretty good, but the branzino felt dry to me (though she enjoyed it). • The biggest disappointment was the soufflé. Mine was slightly undercooked and my mom’s was noticeably more raw in the center. When she mentioned it, our server didn’t acknowledge anything was wrong and just kept asking if she wanted something else, which felt a bit off for a restaurant of this level. • She switched to a crème brûlée, which was fine but nothing memorable. After-effects: Unfortunately, both my mom and I had stomach cramps later that night (hers started first, mine around 2am). The next day we could barely eat anything except some chicken soup with ramen noodles, which completely ruined our day. Overall: There were bright spots, but the inconsistency in execution, combined with the dessert mishandling and the stomach issues afterward, made the experience hard to justify at this price point. For us, it’s not a restaurant we would return to, especially with so many strong alternatives in San Francisco.

5 /5 Lesa Lacey: We snagged a last minute reservation at Gary Danko and we were so happy with our experience. Friendly and top notch professional service with beautiful food. I loved the format of being able to choose from any section for the courses - very cool and made it simple for my husband as he likes fish and I do not.