Best Seasonal Restaurants in Civic Center / Hayes Valley / Van Ness

I love that the evening simply unfolds for you with no decisions to be made. Each course was a surprise and delight. The chef is creative and really focuses on extracting the most flavor from each bite. The service is always excellent. It always amazes me that we can have this type of meal pre-ballet without feeling overly rushed.

Hayes Street is always good. Consistent, unfussy delicious food, friendly efficient staff and I love what it says about the owner/management that many of the staff members have been there for years. The Bay Area is blessed with many other terrific seafood restaurants with more innovative or complex fare but for a beautiful piece of fish, simply and beautifully prepared, nothing beats Hayes Street Grill. Ditto their perfect French Fries. One "ding" for a dry, lifeless cheesecake but the creme brûlée was delicious. So nice to see it really busy last night well after the Opera, Symphony, Jazz Center rush.

Lovely meal with very interesting and tasty food. Some really different combinations that worked very well. Staff was very attentive. Important to note that really the only thing available is the tasting menu (just a few items as additions, but not an a la carte option).

The restaurant was excellent but the OpenTable experience was horrible. We tried to adjust our arrival time and the app said there were no tables available within 2 hours of the time frame. We had a 4:15 reservation and wished to move it to 4:45. When we left at 5:30 there were still plenty of tables available. We left a note for the restaurant and that went unanswered.

food and service was amazing and the ambience was so lovely with great lighting. feels cozy but also fancy. i loved how the noise level was low that i could have conversations without any stress.