Spruce, San Francisco

The highlight of the night was service. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to sit at the bar with a friend and dine for 4 hours and be completely at ease with the restaurant staff and pace of the evening. At no point did I feel rushed or feel obligated in any way to give up our prime real estate. This speaks volumes about a well-trained staff and the customer focus Spruce has for its guests. In addition, the bartender was able to describe each menu item we had questions about and had the foresight to split our plates for each course without our prompting. Attention to detail and anticipating a guest’s needs are the hallmarks of any great restaurant and Spruce surpassed my expectations.

Briefly about the food and drink; we started with cocktails, a Whiskey Smash and their award winning Greyhound’s Tooth. Our server and bartender explained the finer points of the Benedictine used in the Greyhound, which was critical to the award. Food highlights included a delicious second course ravioli and main course of short ribs, both were off the charts good and the cheese course intermezzo before dessert was well selected.

This was one of those nights that even if the food was off a bit, it was a distant memory.