1 /5 Gladys Soriano: I hate to say this and I very rarely feel this way about a restaurant, in fact I don’t even remember the last time I felt this way, but this was by far one of the worst dining experiences I have had. I will preface this by saying that Prubechu was at the top of my list of restaurants to try while visiting SF. I heard great things about it and was very excited to come here with my husband for our anniversary. Unfortunately, that excitement was met by the biggest disappointment. Here’s why:
After checking out the menu, our server explained to us that the fiesta table (tasting menu) is where the “chef brings out the best of the food” in 10 courses. It’s $96 per person for this option. We compared the regular menu items, which by the way already seemed unreasonably expensive ($25 for 5 chicken wings, $32 for a potato dish, $10 for pickles, etc), and we decided YOLO let’s do the feast. We were excited to go all out (it was our anniversary) and to try their cuisine. First course was a creamy potato soup. Very mediocre, and I was concerned at the decision we just made to spend $200 on dinner with this being the first course. Then a “Caesar salad”. Idk in what world that was a Caesar salad. Not that I care that it wasn’t a Caesar salad, but why are we calling it that? It was large chunks of tomatoes, very large pieces of frisée, corn, and a creamy dressing. Caesar? Also it was very lacking in flavor. Then they brought us a cheesy focaccia with super crispy edges (this was the best thing we ate there but how is that even Guamanian?) Then they brought one small shrimp tostada. For the two of us. It had an avocado cream base and cold shrimp on top. Very basic, kinda bland. At this point we asked the server for hot sauce, he brought us a (tiny) condiment cup of hot sauce and told us to use very little because it’s super spicy. He wasn’t lying, the entire dinner we consumed probably half of a teaspoon of the hot sauce (this is relevant for later). After that they brought us two tacos with cold meat and grated coconut. Again, not flavorful, and cold. Then the entrees: short rib and chicken wings. The short rib was surprisingly tough, we had a hard time cutting it. And the chicken wings had a nice crispiness to them but extremely overhyped. By now, we are absolutely shocked at what we had been served for the price they were charging. But I figured dessert may just fix all of this. Wrong. A scoop of vanilla ice cream with a little nut crumble topping sprinkled on top. That’s when I really felt scammed. $96 per person and you’re serving us a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert? That felt extremely lazy and disrespectful. And then get this - we get the bill and they charged us FOUR DOLLARS for the hot sauce. WHAT?!! We couldn’t believe it. We already felt the tasting menu was way too expensive for what they served, and then they can’t even give us a complimentary spoonful of hot sauce?? I have never felt more scammed in my life by a restaurant. My husband and I go out often and don’t mind spending money on nice meals, but this was beyond disappointing and the biggest waste of money. I genuinely have no idea how people are leaving such great reviews. I truly wish we felt that way because this was no cheap dinner, we only got 9 of the 10 courses for some reason, portions were small, horrible value, and just not good food. The only good thing at the restaurant was the service, the guys who served us were nice.
