Hayes Street Grill

My fiance and I, along with another couple, were attending the Nutcracker one Sunday evening. I did my homework ahead of time and found that the Hayes Street Grill was well reviewed and made reservations well in advance. \r \r From the beginning our dinning experience started out very well. One of my complaints are that the tables are too small and are crowded together too closely. Each time a waiter / server / busboy would zip by our table each of our chairs were getting kicked or rubbed over by the help. Definitely not a place for a romantic dinner as the comfort level is limited. Be ready for a dizzying menu & bring your glasses to read it. The waiter seemed nice, but failed at delivering a ""personal"" recommendation on wines or entrees. The bread crust was extremely tough and not well cut through. You may need hands of the Governator to tear the bread apart as you are not given a knife to finish the slicing operation. Beware of the Green Salad if you think of a salad as anything beyond a pile of lettuce with dressing. I almost forgot, you'll need to cut the leaves to fit them into your mouth too....and keep that fork because there are no salad forks. The entrees did have good flavor and were cooked very well. Don't expect large shellfish or portions. I guess the waiter knew the food was well prepared as he never returned to ask how the meal was (a major complaint of mine of most waiters / servers today and a big determinant of the tip). Our waiter also failed to bring us two wine refills, yet he didn't bill us for them either, go figure. A separate person came to take our desert order and I don't know who left the check. I understand the restaurant was most likely busy, but why overfill the place to only have the service under perform? It is half the equation in my opinion to a fine dining experience and if you are going to the show, I recommend looking elsewhere- especially for the price and portions. Pros: Well cooked foods Cons: Not much to the Salads, high price, crampy, poor service. more

I am diabetic and can not eat carbs. When I ordered grilled fish for dinner I asked to substitute the french fries for a vegetable. The waiter said ""no"" that I could not and the french fries were their signature item. I was dumb-founded. He informed me I could buy a vegetable side dish, but the only choice was swiss chard, which I hate! He was very condesending to me. I ended up buying a salad I didn't want and was served my $28.00 fish, alone on the plate. The waiter brought the french fries, which I declined, anyway. I eat out a lot and have never been so dis-respected and dissatisfied as a customer. I will never eat there again. more

Three of us dined - the pork was excellent. The mahi mahi was very nicely grilled, light and flaky, and the soft shell crab was also good. We enjoyed dessert which was probably the best - a nice blueberry tart of sorts. The service was very good and the food very good, but if you want ambiance and value, you really would be better suited elsewhere. We found that there was much good food in the area, but value was harder to find. Pros: good food Cons: pricey more

I heard Gene Burns on KGO rave about this place so we went on that recommendation. I should have checked the reveiews first. Boring food and boring presentation. Minimilist doesn't, shouldn't mean, bland. Cold bread served with butter straight from the refrigerator (cold pats of butter hard as a rock). Bland lukewarm celery soup. Swordfish nicely grilled but lacking in presenation...white fish served on a white plate witha piece of white lettuce. Offered a choice of sauces, but I want the chef to decide...after all it's his food. French fries...please...! I know the fries are suppossed to be special there, but they are just oily french fries. So what! Wait staff was decent, but I also got a cold attitude when I didn't order desert. After throwing away $100 on very boring average food I was reluctant to toss another $20.00 away. Pros: Ambiance. Cons: Uninspiring expensive food. more

I'm confused at how this restaurant is getting good reviews. The seared scallops I ordered at $24.95 last night were absolutely tasteless. They were cooked through, but barely seared. Just terrible. Six of them were sitting on a pile of butterbeans the same color as the un-seared scallops. So not only was the dish tasteless, it looked drab as well. The green salad at $7.95 was just that -- a pile of green lettuce leaves in a bowl --- to help carry the boring and tasteless theme even further. Pros: We got in right away Cons: Food was tastelss and boring more

Went for lunch after a graduation, the maitre'd was very, very nice & friendly. Can't say the same for our waiter, who seemed disturbed, almost mad that we didn't want dessert. The food is pricey. I don't care how organic the hamburger meat is or how well it tastes, but do you think it's reasonable to pay $20 for a burger? The fries were crispy, tasty, but too well done. The quail salad was not great. The fried oysters w/cole slaw was delicious. The sausage came with only 2 links, which I thought was rather mushy tasting, not enough for a big eater. Guess would have to retry it for dinner one day, but those prices will hurt you. A soda was $25.0 for just 4oz! Pros: friendly maitre'd, took us w/o reservations Cons: expensive, food not that great for the prices charged. more

We dined here for the first time last week before the ballet and enjoyed the wonderful atmosphere, excellent service, and delicious french fries and creme brulee! As with most restaurants in this area, it is quite expensive and you will want to make sure you make reservations on performance nights. Pros: Service, French Fries, Creme Brulee Cons: Expensive more

If you are looking for good tasting seafood, this is the place. If you are looking for good seafood other than the portion of an appetizer don't go there. For the price of the entree, not including vegetables which are to be ordered and charged separately, you get bite size pieces of fish. The service was inattentive and slow. As other posters have mentioned, save your money and go to other restaurants in the area which at least will fill you up for the same prices. The only thing going for this place is its close proximity to the Ballet etc. Pros: French fries Cons: Service, Food portions more

The restaurant will no longer allow you to substitute a vegetable for the french fries. There are no items on the menu that are low-carb without substitution. The fish is good, but not excellent. And the price is high for nothing but a piece of fish. Cons: No low-carb options more

We should have read what the previous reviewers had to say rather than the 9.3 rating. Service was good, we were seated immediately and had a good wait person. The food was acceptable, the portions were (3 of 4) child portion size and came without any vegetables. The French fries were very good. To top everything off the prices were exhorbitant for the skimpy and so so food. We are embarrassed that we took guests there. We had eaten there a few times several years ago and we were very pleased with everything. What's happened? Pros: french fries, service Cons: prices, portions , no veggies more

The service was so so, but the food was really terrible. We were excite to try it since we had heard such good things about it. I had fish with shallot butter, the 75% of the fish was hardly warm and the last 25% was actually crispy cold. The shallot butter hardly had any flavor. My husband had the sausage plate which he said was not very warm either and ""not that great"". Over all I felt the food was really sub par and certainly not worth the bloated prices. I will never go back there and I have already warned my foodie friends against it. Pros: Convenient Location, They have bathrooms Cons: So so service, Really bad food, way over priced more

This is an EXTREMELY over-priced restaurant with average food that errs on the minimalist side (i.e. you pay extra if you want something like vegetables to go along with your small, plain piece of fish). It lacked in ambiance (I almost needed to wear my sunglasses) and with such pricey dishes you would think the service would be a little better. I was also not overly impressed with the menu options, which had absolutely no vegetarian options and only two dishes that were not seafood. Over all this was one of the most expensive mistakes I've made. The only thing this restaurant has going for it is its location, but there are plenty of other good places in the area. Pros: location Cons: EVERYTHING ELSE!! more

Terrible ambience, snobby waitstaff, pricey food, ridiculously small portions (when you order your main entree that is literally what you get unless you count boring greasy fries) and even that one item was bland - much like everything about this place. For $$$$, I expect to be impressed. I was not. Pros: NotCrowded(NoWonder), n/a, n/a Cons: expensive, small portions, bland food more

We have eaten here many times in the past. We have always put up with poor service because we enjoy the food and the restarurant's proximity to events. Monday I called to make a reservation for three weeks from Friday. I was told to call back on Thursday, as they don't accept reservations less than three weeks in advance. When I called on Thursday, they said to call back Friday. I said I was told to call on Thursday and that I'm arranging a trip from out of town. At this point, I was interrupted by the host who told me he ""didn't want to hear anymore sob stories,"" and agreed to accept our reservation. This is the kind of rudeness that's standard for this place. more

Pre-theatre this place is very busy. Having now eaten there, I am sure the only reason for this is proximity. Very unfriendly staff who refuse to put the customer first. Avoid at all costs. Cons: expensive, rude more

This place has been recommended to me over and over again, so we finally went. Why is a piece of fish so expensive at this place...grilling fish is easy!! Way overpriced, and the presentation of the food was like homecooking! We had a piece of fish, mash potatoes and that;s it. If you want veggies you pay extra!!!! please.... more

Hayes Street Grill is a nice spot for a healthy lunch in a nice atmosphere. The menu provides a variety of choices and the staff is friendly and knowledge. I seem to have lunch here every month. more