Paul K

This place is pretty small. If u go for brunch you have to get there early or expect to wait. The food is fair, more lunch oriented though. I’ve been here a few times and the service is always up and down.
P. s. The tall tables are way too small. You can barely fit two entrée plates on them.

Paul K’s owners have decided to move back East and have relinquished their location to two young chefs. In just a few months Paul K will be no longer and Rich Table will be in the neighborhood.
Go and try their Lava Cake while you can! It’s worth the trip.

I will say 3.5 stars is a fair rating of Paul K. Their food was actually better than I thought it would be — we ordered the octopus dish, the house fries, the fried portabello mushrooms, and the eggplant main course. (Of which, I think I enjoyed the octopus and portabello the most.)
SALT SALT SALT! is all I can say — too much salt. As a savory-​licious lover, salt is awesome and I love lots of it. just not THIS much. I had to eat their octopus and eggplant dishes with their terrible pita bread/​hummus or whatever the hell it was. It was the blandest hummus and pita bread ever (perhaps most disappointing about expectations from a Mediterranean place), but it did balance out the salt.
Service was decent, but again, salty — we really needed more water. Also, they left out some of the food I had asked to take home as leftovers. Fail.

The food was good and portions are generous.
–Lamb riblets were really sweet. All you taste is pomegranate. I would not order that again.
–Grilled octopus was my favorite dish of the night.
–Duck fettuccine was great.
–Pork shoulder was good, not great.
–Lava cake with brittle ice cream, the ice cream was great, the cake was good but typical.
They do have wine and cocktails but I went with their elderflower soda. It was nice.
Service was adequate.
I wouldn’t hurry back but I would go back.

We recently went to Paul K for my parents’ anniversary dinner, and ordered the following items:
— potato gnocci: These suckers literally melted in your mouth! While soft gnocci is good, I’m not so sure this consistency was — seemed much too overcooked and didn’t retain any texture at all. Very overpoweringly cheesey. I wouldn’t order it again.
— lamb riblets: Tangy and tart thanks to the pomegrante sauce. Tasty, but significant fatty meat on the riblets. The yogurt mint dipping sauce was a nice accompaniment.
— eggplant and spinach moussaka w/​chickpeas: Delish! Topped with citrus breadcrumbs that added a crunch to the dish, it was piping hot and a nice departure from the usual moussaka preparation.
— pan roasted red snapper w/​beluga lentils: Two full fillets — a huge portion in a restaurant of this type. Overall, good flavor, not fishy, and fairly light.
— roasted butternut squash risotto: Thick, rich, creamy — the three indicators of good risotto.
— white chocolate chip crème brûlée w/​chocolate chip cookies: The crème brûlée should’ve been a tad firmer. The chocolate chip cookies on the side didn’t taste like chocolate chip cookies and didn’t add anything to the dish.
— chocolate lava cake w/​brittle-​vanilla ice cream: Fabuloso! The brittle ice cream was a perfect accompaniment to an oozing chocolate cake.
Overall, I was surprised at how plentiful the quantity of food was. The dinner was good, but several items, as noted above, were just OK, too. For a meal this expensive at a Michelin-​recommended restaurant, I expected to be somewhat wow’d and that ‘wow’ factor was definitely missing.

If you’ve always wanted to try Paul K, do it now as they will be closing soon.
We were planning on coming to Paul K for Dine About Town when we passed by this place after a dinner at Sauce but didn’t get a chance. So when a Groupon deal of 1 app, 2 entrees, and 1 dessert came up for only $ 34, we knew not to close the door on this opportunity.
After reading the reviews, we went with the pomegranate lamb riblets (4 pieces) for the app which was tart and savory and the yogurt accompaniment added a nice cool creaminess to the bit of spice it had.
Entrees were the pork shoulder and the red snapper. Both were surprisingly pretty large portions (2 pieces of snapper and a nice large pork shoulder). The jalapenos in the lentils added a little more heat than I was prepared for but I enjoyed the crispiness of the snapper. The pork shoulder was surprisingly quite flavorful and very tender due to the braising. Since we had to save room for dessert, we ended up taking about ½ of both entrees to go.
Dessert was a delicious chocolate lava cake paired with vanilla ice cream and toffee bits… I could’ve gone for another one of these.

Paul K had been on my list of places to visit for a long time. As I headed over for dinner, I plugged in the incorrect intersection in to a GPS and parked a mile away. Hiking back to the car, things finally got much better.
I shared a pomegranate braised lamb. It had a nice tart favor and the meat easily fell off the bone. If you used the yogurt, it masked the tartness but this was a very tasty appetizer.
I ordered the braised pork shoulder. This too was very tender in a broth. It cake with kale, white beans and mushrooms. It reminded me of kalua pork because of the saltiness which I did not mind. The portion was quite large, having a late lunch, I was only able to eat a third of the pork.
I also had some of the red snapper over lentils. There was a little bits of jalapeño which gave the lentils a little bit of spice. I enjoyed this dish, but really liked the pork best.
Finally dessert was the chocolate lava cake. I was surprised that there was more molten chocolate inside the cake as the outer shell of the cake was very thin. This was paired with vanilla ice cream. Under the ice cream was small pieces of brittle. Combining the brittle with some ice cream and chocolate was the best.
After waiting all this time to visit Paul K, I was saddened by the news that the restaurant would be closing when the new owners take over. Once the restaurant closes for remodeling, it will be come a new french restaurant with new chefs.
I will try to sneak in another visit, hope you get a chance to try it.

Came here for DAT week, booked rsvp through open tables, and still ended up waiting at the bar for ~30 min after we showed up early.
For starters, got the sweet potato soup that was comforting and creamy and the potato gnocchi which had sun dried tomato pesto, watercress, and walnut. For me: gnocchi beats soup, gnocchi wins. My entrée was the grilled flat iron steak, the beans were nothing out of the norm but MMM was the beef tender, juicy, and filling! The friends ordered the Braised pork shoulder, white beans, mushrooms, spinach which melted in our mouths but a lil heavy on the salt. The dessert portion was amazing, their yogurt panna cotta was sweet and simple topped with blueberries. My favorite thing about this whole place was the Pistachio Sundae that had chocolate butterscotch sauce and whipped cream. Ah can you say mouth orgasm?
Heads up for people who wants to participate this place for next years DAT: go EARLY! it was 9:30 and they ran out of many things on the prefix menu (the red snapper, the chicken, and most of the soups weren’t available).

Sooo sad the chicken liver pâté is off the menu. It was abfab!!!
Pomrgranate braised lamb riblets, garlic yogurt were flavorful. My only lament is there weren’t more of them. lol.
The guys next to us both ordered the grilled swordfish, P.E.I. mussels, clams, roasted fennel-​baby artichokes, yukon potato in harissa broth — which looked crazy good. I had food envy.

The girlfriend had wanted to try Paul K for a while, so when she saw 1 of those voucher deals (Groupon, Living Social, Bloomspot, etc, etc, etc) for this place she bought it. Suffering from voucher over-​saturation (as I am too), we made it here the day before the voucher expired.
The dining area of Paul K is an intimate & smartly decorated space. Arriving at the time of our reservations, we were seated immediately. It wasn’t busy, so noise level was low & service was very attentive.
Everything on the menu looked quite impressive. To start we ordered cocktails. I ordered a Camden (gin, Lillet, Cointreau, orange bitters) which was fantastic & ended up being the highlight of the entire meal for me.
Our total food order was:
Pomegranate braised Atkins lamb riblets with a garlic yogurt for an appetizer.
The girlfriend got Syrian spiced duck breast with spelt, hazelnuts & stewed cherries for her entrée.
I got Grilled black Angus ribeye with blue cheese gratin, roasted garlic, sauteed broccoli di ciccio, Yogurt Panna Cotta, strawberry coulis, fresh strawberries for mine.
Again, it all looked quite impressive. For the most part, it actually was quite impressive with a couple very notable exceptions. Both the duck & the ribeye were average at best.
The appetizer & sides were exceptional, even sublime, but the main proteins of both entrees were lackluster. The sub par quality of the proteins was made even more glaring by how good everything else was.
Overall, I’d rate Paul K 3.5 stars, but I’m rounding down because the star of both main dishes was so weak. The supporting cast was superb, but really a duck or ribeye dish is about the proteins & everything else is along for the ride.

I had a pretty good experience here…
Grilled Pita with Hummus — while I thought the hummus was just okay, the grilled pita was fantastic… wow! A nice charred and slightly bitter flavor along with the warmth made for a great starter to a meal.
Salad — a nice salad to start off the meal, this tasted very fresh and light.
Grilled Chicken — this was pretty good: tender chicken cooked with a combination of interesting spices along with grilled peaches… I thought the taste was a bit off for me. It arrived on a bed of cooked spinach, which was good.
I’ve been to this place twice and I’ve really enjoyed my meals here. I wasn’t a huge fan of the chicken dish on this visit, but I’d definitely come back here, but probably order something else.

I hosted my Bridal Brunch at Paul K a few weeks ago on a Saturday. My first choice was Lime, not because of food but because of their lively atmosphere. Unfortunately, Lime was booked up but I noticed Paul K had availability so I took it. My girlfriend recommended Paul K to me awhile back so I figured I’d finally give them a try.
Our reservation was for 12pm and their brunch goes to 2:30pm. I figured we’d be out of there w/​in a couple of hours but I was wrong. We drank & gossiped for at least 3 hours and surprisingly enough, they didn’t kick us out! (At Lime, you’re booted from your table after 2 hours and charged if you want to continue drinking at the bar.)
We started off with bottomless mimosas but 2 of my girls weren’t drinking since they drove. What I liked most about their bottomless deal is the carafe of strong mimosa left at the table. Rather than waiting for someone to refill our glasses, we were able to refill ourselves w/​out delay. To top it off, our server constantly refilled the carafe w/​out us flagging him down.
Here’s what we ordered:
Appetizer — Fruit Plate for the entire table
3 girls — Duck Hash
2 girls — Fry Up
Me — Portabella & Spinach Soft Scramble w/​Cheese
My soft scramble resembled a runny omelet. The combination of ingredients went very well together. The portions of all of our meals were huge.
One of my bridesmaids commented that the food was much better than Lime. I’d have to add that the service was also better. Only 2 of us had leftovers and the rest devoured their meals. I was bummed that the restaurant mixed up our leftovers because I was really looking forward to eating my eggs the next morning only to find my bridesmaid’s duck hash.
In my drunken state, I forgot my pashmina at the table. I didn’t realize it until later in the evening when my fiancé and I were on the way to OC for a week. I called the restaurant and spoke to Paul himself. He stored my pashmina in his office until I was able to pick it up after our vacation. Thank you, Paul!
Total bill came out to ~$ 180 (gratuity included) and I was happy to treat my girls. My bridal party and I thoroughly enjoyed brunch. The food was delicious, drinks were flowing, and I’ll definitely return. Worth every penny!

We stopped in here for a Sunday brunch before the ballet. We had the hash, comprised of duck, potatoes (a lot), egg & sauteed onions. Quite nice, if a little greasy.
This is a fun place if you like Mimosas, the bottomless Mimosa is certainly worth it. They will keep filling it voluntarily without you having to beg. :)
By the way, there is very little Greek about this place.
Service — 5 STARS
Ambiance — 4 STARS
Food — 4 STARS
Value — 3 STARS
Location — 3 STARS

Can you say bottomless mimosa for only $ 12!!! That alone is worth the 4 stars. I’m surprised this place isn’t packed more often and we were able to increase our party easily the night before. As we were waiting on our slow friends, we started the bottomless mimosa at the bar. When we got our table, the waiter just gave us small pitchers to place on the table.
Waiter was very friendly, however, he wasn’t very attentive. During my entire time in the restaurant, I’ve seen him drink from his cup and taking shots with tables. I guess I’m lucky he’s not making my food. We’re on Unilocal,so I need to talk about the food. Everything was pretty delicious especially the hash, which was duck confit with potatoes and sauteed onions. The duck was super tender and flavorful. I ordered the fry up — maple infused bacon, italian sausage with 2 eggs and potatoes. I had a few bites of the greasy breakfast and barely finished the sausage and potatoes. I shared the bacon. Off course I can’t really comment on the «Greek or Mediterranean» flavors. I guess I’ll have to come back for dinner at some point.
Cute hang out spot with friends for brunch. Because they weren’t busy, we didn’t feel bad drinking and taking up their table for 1.5 hours.

Yesterday I attended a close friend’s pinning ceremony and wanted to prolong the celebration with a nice dinner. Using good ol’ Unilocal,I went through my bookmarks and suggested Paul K.
We arrived roughly around 730 pm with a party of 7. Lucky for us, they were able to seat us at a large table, without reservations! The ambiance was intimate, room is lightly dimmed and tables were decorated with white elegant cloths and tea candles. We felt relaxed, we enjoyed each others’ company and had a very wonderful experience.
For starters, our table shared two of the Mezza appetizers
–Mezza: lamb riblets and kebabs, baba ganoush, cucumber salad, olives, feta, and yogurt dip
–Vegetarian Mezza: rtichoke hearts, hummus, baby beets, pickled carrots, feta, carrot mint yogurt dip
Both of the mezza dishes were absolutely devine! I love the taste of the spices and herbs used in the middle eastern cuisine.
For entrees, we had
–Seafood stew with white beans in a chili harissa broth.
–Grilled half chicken with dumplings, cipollini onion, baby carrots, in a peppercorn sauce
–Grilled Niman Ranch hanger steak served with shoestring potatoes, black trumpet mushrooms marinated in harissa butter.
–Wild arugula salad with toasted hazelnuts, dates, and feta
–Seared Cortez scallops in meyer lemon and apple smoked bacon
Tried my friend’s seafood stew and it was amazing! The steak was delicious too, I had my cooked rare so it was very juicy and flavorful.
For dessert, we shared
–Pistachio Sundae drizzled with chocolate and butterscotch sauces and topped with whipped cream
–Yogurt Panna Cotta with promegranate syrup
For the most of us, our favorite was the Yogurt Panna Cotta, it tastes like a cheesecake but light, airy and fluffy. The kick of the tangy promegranate syrup gave the taste a nice refreshing finish.
4 stars for the experience!

As much as I wanted to enjoy Paul K, the experience fell short by the end of my meal. Dine About Town started off well with an exotic sampler plate of the Mezza with an assortment of meat, olives, sauces, and chips to go along with the warm flatbread and hummus. Next, we had a sweet, rich bowl of corn chowder that was large enough to be an entrée. Perhaps I should have stopped here to end on a high note. When I took a bite of my pan-​seared yellowtail with herb buttered corn and potatoes, I was disappointed with the fish being fully cooked instead of a rich taste of heaven melt in my mouth. Perhaps I should have asked for the fish to be cooked medium rare. Finally, dessert tasted more like a bowl of honey with a scoop of mascarapone ice cream. The almond fritters were good, but it’s hard to not like fried donuts of any sort.
Service was friendlyand fast. The décor and ambiance was modern, simple and clean to enjoy your meal. Street parking is tough, but there may be lots nearby.

It was a gorgeous Saturday afternoon the day my husband and I joined Daniel L and Tom R for an relaxing day of cocktails and brunch.
We were early for the reservation so we sat at the bar and ordered a drink. By the time the others showed up and were seated we still didn’t get our drinks but they were served to us once we sat at our table.
My husband and I started with the Clockwork Orange cocktail. Absolut mandarin, cointreau, muddled orange, peach. It was pretty good bordering on kind of medicine after taste but once you have had a few sips you get past it.
Daniel L. got the Pomegranate Mimosa. It was so sparkling and gorgeous. I had to order one for my next cocktail. A really good change on an old favorite.
We then ordered our food. I was fairly happy with my Confit Duck Leg Confit Yukon Potato hash, Poached Egg, and Green Onion Salsa.
The Duck was not dry at all and rather juicy. Like the others experienced, my poached eggs were not as runny as I would like but I was there for the Duck more than the eggs. I didn’t eat very much of the potatoes but they were also a nice addition.
We had one more round and I had the Espresso Martini. The waiter was also our bartender and he really did know how to make some delicious cocktails.
I requested the Espresso Martini with Soy and it was really good. One of my favorites of the day.
I enjoyed my day here. I probably wouldn’t make a special trip to come back but it was very good for the moment.

The good: My brunch companions, our server, and a big shout out to the 35 super gorgeous women who were there.
The bad: Pomegranate mimosa
The ugly: Over salted hard egg yucky brioche salmon benedict
With a discreet, understated exterior and the letter «K» etched on the door, I had the pleasure of meeting fellow Unilocalers Tom R, Ivy R, and her husband Ted for brunch. The décor was surprisingly elaborated with white table cloth, a bar that overlapped with its open kitchen, and a room filled with 35 super gorgeous women. At first I thought Tom had invited me to a surprise taping of The Bachelor as we were seated with a gorgeous view of their tables. Given its chill vibe to go with a hint of sophistication, we were kicking back and sipping our drinks while enjoying Ivy and Ted’s company.
The venue was ideal but the food was less than decent. My Pomegranate Mimosa ($ 8) had decent strength but the pome flavor was lost in the shuffle. By this time I already had an inclination that the food wasn’t going to be great, but my Atlantic Salmon Benedict ($ 12) was terrible below my lowest expectations. First, they ran out of their house biscuit but the brioche replacement was dry and crunchy while the Atlantic salmon was wayyyyy too salty and one dimensional. There was really no redeeming value at this point as the egg yolks were served firm and well done all the way to the core. The side of fresh greens was nicely dressed but too salty as well, leaving me to seek Tom’s generous piece of maple cured bacon for rescue. The bacon tasted like a sweetened jerkey but I didn’t mind.
To their credit, our server was super nice and responsive. With everything said, I still had a fabulous time with Tom, Ivy and Ted. They certainly made the experience easy to bear with their wits and humor. One star for the service and another for ambiance. This is by far the worst eggs benedict I’ve ever had. I am so not coming back here ever again.

Had a nice dinner here tonight before going to see Wicked at the Orpheum. (Which was fantastic btw. if you haven’t seen it. go)
Smaller space than I expected, but not particularly crowded feeling. We had an early dinner before the show so I would wonder what it was like at full capacity as far as noise, etc.
Loooove the table setting with the blue glass bread plates. Also love the gorgeous floral displays. Nice use of space…
I felt the service was a bit detached/​aloof but otherwise fine. Timing was good. Checking up on wine and water refills were good.
The only slip up was when they brought my friends cocktail but not mine. We had ordered at the same time and mine was very simple (hangar lime and soda) so it just seemed silly to forget it. Turned out it was sitting at the bar the whole time so… bummer to have to ask twice when it was right there.
I also tried the Flowering Buddha cocktail… (generally speaking they have a wonderful list of creative cocktails that I’d love to drink my way through sometime) … At any rate, Flowering Buddha was Hangar 1 vodka, lime juice, ginger syrup and cayenne pepper. The hint of heat was *wonderful*… and not too sweet… a winner. Though I do wish it wasn’t so –small-​… My hangar lime and soda was also practically a shot. Booooo.
Otherwise I had the beef tartare with grilled brioche and it was fantastic. Seriously, what’s not to love there? For my entrée… pan roasted Atlantic salmon, carrot purée, baby carrots, English peas, orange oil… it was absolutely delicious. Crispy skin, perfectly cooked, very fresh all around.
Was great to watch the kitchen workings from my spot at the table. Would definitely be back if I was in the area… Absolutely wanna try brunch sometime based on other reviews…

My wife brought me out to Paul K’s for my B-​Day on Saturday night. Surpizingly parking was a snap… It’s located in the Hayes Valley, draws the theatre crowd. The restaurant was small, cozy, and modern. We went for an early dinner around 6:30, but the place was filling up fast (probably people wanting to catch their curtain call — Wicked). It just so happened to be Dine About Town as well, so we had a chance to check out their pre-​fixe menu as well.
I heard about the Mezza plates, so we tried the one with fried flat bread, lamb kebabs and riblets, cucumber salad, olives, baba ganoush, cucumber salad, feta, yogurt. Definitely a must when you visit. The lamb riblets we sweet and tangy, lamb kebabs done just right. fried flat bread with the baba ganoush was scrumptious. It was a meal in itself.
I chose the pre-​fixe dine about town menu, and had the drunken goat cheese, Lamb shoulder tagine with citrus couscous, almonds and currants (great compliment). The lamb was super tender, and not gamey at all. My wife had the citrus marinated olives, and Seafood Stew (was a very tasty and rich sauce). Wish we knew the olives were the same as on the Mezza Plate.
We both ended up with the baklavah cigars with orange blossom crème, and the yogurt panna cotta with strawberry compote and balsamic sauce. Both were yummy… Great way to end the meal.
Overall atmosphere was very nice, waiter and staff were very attentive and fun. Totally receommend trying Paul K’s. Maybe we will try it out before a show one day…