Rich Table

I had a fantastic experience celebrating my birthday dinner at Rich Table. We had a reservation at 9:45 PM and even upon arriving early still had to end up waiting approximately 20 minutes. The buttermilk sample they offered in return for the wait made up for the inconvenience instantly.

We devoured everything we ordered. Oysters were so fresh! Portions for entrees were filling. They did mention that their menu is very seasonal. Staff is very personable and service is very friendly - you will walk out having had many stories and laughs exchanged :) They brought out a celebratory desert on the house at the end and the staff signed our menu with birthday wishes. Highly recommend Rich Table!

Went for the peach themed menu and was also my first time at the restaurant, enjoyed mostly everything but the restaurant feels a little too packed. I recommend:
- fig toast: very refreshing taste
- chawanmushi: tastes very sour, which I liked, but could potentially be too sour if you're not into sour
- blue fin toro toast: a must! So good and aesthetically pleasing
- chicken liver mousse: very rich taste, personally feel like it goes better with bread with less taste, the ones that come with it tastes a little too sweet
Didn't like the other ones as much.

We were sitting at the bar, and when we were finishing dessert, we found that people started to stand in the narrow alleyway behind us, holding drinks and some even food! This not only made us free crowded, but was also very loud. It seems like they were the next round of res and waiting for table to open up, but not too sure and definitely not a good experience.

We totaled to just a bit more than $100 pp post tax and tip.

The night began when we arrived early for dinner. They were able to seat us early, which we appreciated. Parking was not difficult on this Thursday evening.

Ambiance 3.5/5
Typical loud American restaurant. The decorations and layout are very typical of the causal fine dining wannabe California farm to table restaurant.

Chef's tasting: 3/5
I wasn't entirely impressed with the food. There wasn't a sense of cohesion with the initial bites/starters. It felt somewhat overwhelming to bring eight separate bites at once.

The Crudo and Burrata had beautiful presentations. They tasted as good as they looked.
The pasta and fried rice were both well flavored. I would recommend larger portions since we had to share this chef's tasting.

Steak was whatever.
Dessert is not mentioning.

Service: 2.5/5
Server seemed to question my request for clean plates after eating the beef dumpling. Our next bite was a peach raclette so I didn't want the spices to taint the peaches. We're doing the chef's tasting. If we want clean plates, just oblige. The next table asked for it and the server happily obliged.

One of the servers seemed to be annoyed at my dad, who had his phone out, blocking his plating. He's older and wants to use his phone. Just smile politely and wait. Don't be a dick. If you want to be in the fine dining space, act like that in your service.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend the chef's tasting and perhaps would try items a la carte. Not the worth the price point for the tasting menu. Service needs a little bit more tweaking given that they're trying to get into the fine dining space.

3/5

This is definitely a hot spot in town so reservations are a must. I loved the concept of small bites and wanted to try everything. They have a tasting menu of their best hits, but I opted to order a-la-carte. Every bite I had was damn tasty. Service was great, they took the time to explain the menu and made great recs. I had an amazing experience and was surprised with some on the house treats. Honestly can't go wrong with anything on the menu. The dumpling was one of my faves and what blew me away was the dessert. The server recommended it and it was incredible. It was like fruit granita with toasted sesame and watermelon. Super fresh and the perfect way to end the meal. Must stop if you're in town!

Had an early dinner here yesterday and chose to sit on the bar by the window. Opted out of the chefs tasting and decided to do A La Carte. Started with our cocktails Shiso Popular was refreshing and the Garden party was interesting.

Our starters came out together- Sardines chips- was unique and very good. I don't eat horse radish but I definitely ate the one they had it was light and good.
-Blue fin totro toast (I highly recommend) bread is soft inside with a bit of a crunch on the outside the toro tasted amazing. The oysters were really good never had it with green strawberry and it definitely elevated the taste. The Chawanmushi Corn was packed with flavors. The Doughnuts- fluffy/thick and chewy. It was warm great with the cheese.

For mains we ordered The Tonnarelli -Urchin pasta was rich, creamy and flavorful. The Bluefin Tuna Laksa was good. With peanut sauce reminded me of their take of Kare Kare but with fish instead of the bagoong they have sambal which adds a little kick.

Overall everything was great! Food packed with flavors and service was great.

Rich Table is a very popular spot and it's probably best to get a reservation vs walk-in.

This is the 4th time I've been here and every time I've gotten the Dried Porcini Doughnuts! They're super savory and flavorful and go really well with the surprisingly airy raclette. If it wasn't obvious already, it's probablymy most favorite thing to order here!

Tried the Peaches & Cream for something new and different, it was just ok. It is literally sweet peaches topped w/ salty creme fraiche. I felt that the flavors were separated from each other rather than combining harmoniously.

The Sea urchin Cacio e pepe was nicely salty and creamy, but maybe lacked a little bit on the uni/sea urchin flavor. The tonnarelli was prefectly al dente and carried the sauce well.

The Kansas City BBQ Ribeye was very tasty and everything about it just fit well and made a lot of sense. Sweet, meaty and tender!

Had such an amazing experience at Rich Table! My friend made a dinner reservation for 4 a month in advance to secure us a table. We got 4 appetizers - burrata, toro toast x2, beef dumplings, and the porcini donuts. The toro toast was my favorite! For the entrees, we got the sea urchin pasta, fried rice, and ribeye. The sea urchin pasta was so good! Fried rice had so much flavor and the texture was amazing. It had some crunch to it from some of the crispy rice pieces. The ribeye was cooked perfectly and paired so well with the chile lime corn. We ordered the honey cornbread with vanilla ice cream for dessert and it tasted so light and refreshing for a cornbread! Not dry at all. My friend also got a bday dessert treat! It was mint ice cream with a brownie chip - also so good.

Overall loved the ambience of this restaurant - it felt like we were being hosted in someone's home bc of how home-y it felt in there! We also loved the open kitchen concept and watching the chefs do their thing! The servers were also amazing in helping us navigate their menu and choose what dishes to order. We finished everything and felt so satisfied at the end! Everything was so delicately made and you could really tell in each and every dish we got that it was made with high quality ingredients and intricacy from the chefs!

I'd definitely recommend to friends!

4.5 stars

I made an online reservation more than 30 days in advance (yes, it's those kind of restaurants) for a Friday night dinner for 2 at 7:15p. This is my second time here and the first time was more than a decade ago. I remember feeling lukewarm about this restaurant on my previous visit but with the consistent positive reviews and difficulty getting a reservation I decided to give it a second try and am so glad I did!

We opted for the "chef picks" option for $120 per person which is meant so you can try the majority of the menu with a few off-menu items. If I wasn't impressed after this I can finally put Rich Table out of my mind haha. Well, I was impressed and didn't think the price point was too outrageous given how everything is so expensive nowadays.

My favs were:
Dried porcini doughnuts raclette (menu staple)
Heirloom tomato with RTR Douglas fir ranch and crispy shallots
Maguro zuke with pluots, shiso and Borja's avocado purée
Plancha fried rice with morels, pole beans and pickled shallots
21 day dry aged rib eye with chili lime creamed corn

Desserts were only ok and can't quite remember exactly what we had. Service was excellent throughout with our water always being refilled, cocktails at the ready, and napkins folded whenever we left the table. It is a cozy restaurant and quite packed so a little on the loud side. Me and my hubby would definitely come back as their menu changes throughout the year with a few exceptions. Street parking can be challenging so we opted to park in the performing arts garage nearby (5 min walk to the restaurant). It was a $22 flat rate since there was a show at the SF symphony that day.

I've heard of Rich Table and wanted to finally check it out!

My favorite dishes that we ordered were the blue fin toro toast and the fried porcini donut raclettes.
The toast had a nice refreshing bite and buttery texture from the Japanese bread.

The duck taquito was confusing. The duck inside the taquito tasted good but that sauce on top completely overpowered everything.

The duck dish was good as the duck itself was perfectly cooked but I really didn't care for anything around the duck so that was a bummer. The pasta dish was also miss for me. The sauce felt flat.

Service was good and had cozy ambiance.

Overall, my dinner experience was underwhelming. I think their bites and appetizers are where I may be coming back.

TLDR:
There were some hits and misses for me at Rich Table, but overall it was a nice meal and I'd go back eventually! My favorite items were the porcini doughnuts and little gem salad. I'd personally pass on the sardine chip and their famous tonnarelli pasta in the future.

------

FOOD:

1. Porcini Doughnuts (4.5/5): Think of these as dense doughnut holes but instead of a sugary coating, it's an earthy mushroom / umami flavor. The raclette cheese is SUPER light and airy, so it's a good complement but it doesn't have a strong cheese flavor. These doughnuts come out freshly made. This comes with ~5-6 doughnuts so it's perfect for sharing.

2. Little Gems salad (4/5): This has a really bright tomato-based dressing that we absolutely loved. We also loved the popped grains. We ended up ordering two of these, though this is definitely expensive for what it is.

3. Ribeye (4/5): This is a quite fatty cut of steak which is really tasty but not always what people expect. It almost reminded me more of a pork chop. Still, it was good and the creamed corn was nice too, though a little too sweet given the steak itself already had a lot of flavor.

4. Maguro Zuke (aka Tuna Crudo, 3/5): This was fine. Barely any crudo in this dish though -- a lot of the space was just the thinly sliced fruit.

5. Tonnarelli (3/5): I thought I was going to love this pasta but when I took my first bite I realized that this is extremely al dente (like, if I bent a noodle with my fork it might snap in two) and extremely salty. This is indeed very rich, and you sort of get a fishy aftertaste which reminds you that there's uni in this, but not in the way I think I wanted. Anyway, this is a crowd favorite and what they're known for, so you should try for yourself too!

6. Sardine Chip (2/5): Oh wow, this was a lot to take in. The chip itself was half soggy, which was immediately not a good side. The sardine was fine, it was what I expected. But the combo of the horseradish in the creme fraiche combined with the fishy sardine and the soggy chip just made this not enjoyable at all.

------

SERVICE:

* Service was good, everyone was very welcoming and everyone greeted us as we entered and left. Our water was always poured for us, we never felt rushed, and they checked in before our meal to make sure we didn't need to be gone by a certain time. It helped with the pacing a lot.

------

ENVIRONMENT:

* This is a pretty casual feeling restaurant despite the prices. It feels like you're in a barn or in the countryside somewhere, which is super cute!
* The tables are pretty close together, so you literally have to squeeze between tables and you can hear everything people are talking about
* RT is on a beautiful corner of Hayes and right across the street from the highly-rated Loquat bakery
* Overall this is a pretty small restaurant so not a place for large gatherings but a cozy setting for a small group or one-on-one