Foreign Cinema

Recommends

kckraft

Joined 6 years ago

Foreign Favorite!. This restaurant is an all around winner. Great family gathering place, romantic for the date scene, entertaining for a night out with the girls, and friendly and welcome. The food was spectacular and I can't stop raving about this place. If you haven't been yet, make your reservation now.

Recommends

frecklesmcgee

Joined 6 years ago

fun, and great wine!. awesome...spent my birthday here, so fun, and great appetizers...the cheese, grapes, crostini and potatoes are amazing

Recommends

deepeachy

Joined 8 years ago

Unique restaurant with AMAZING food!. My date and I dined here before the year ended because a good friend of mine told me that it's an amazing restaurant. A good foreign flick was playing so I requested to be seated outside, which was nice. The only downfall was that the heaterlamp blocked my date's view of the movie, so he was a bit upset. However, once we started our meal, he was all smiles the rest of the night! Take note: The menu does change. We started with stuffed quail. It was an amazing starter! Full of flavor! It was extremely good. No words to describe. My date had roasted duck and I had salmon. We both gave each other a taste of our dishes and we both agreed that one was not better than the other. They were both amazing. My salmon was cooked rare, as suggested by our waiter, and it was extremely tender so much so that each piece of fish I flaked off of the filet! So good! The pairing with mashed potatoes was excellent, as well. My date's roasted duck was very flavorful! Both were amazing! For dinner we had the gateau au chocolat, which was pretty good. I'm a big fan of chocolate, so I liked it a lot. The service there is absolutely amazing. Our waiter knew exactly what he was talking about and made great suggestions for choices.

Doesn't Recommend

jacquiehmoss

Joined 6 years ago

Not recommended for company party.. We had our company's holiday party (100 people) at Foreign Cinema and were quite disappointed with the service, food and space. The acoustics were terrible -- we were completely unable to hear the DJ we'd hired (having been invited to hire one). The service staff was rude and reluctant with requests. The food was yummy, but not as requested -- all of the vegetables were fried (specifically requested not to have). For the expense, it was not the experience we'd hoped. I recommend finding another venue for large events.

Doesn't Recommend

jmtcf

Joined 7 years ago

Bad Experience End-To-End. Recently went there early on a Friday night with my fiance and are we ever sorry we did. There were about 4 customers in the place but without a reservation they would only seat us outdoors. Ok, not crazy about freezing out there, but ok. Heatlamps were nowhere close enough to make a difference, so we kept our coats on the whole time.

The service is best described as benign neglect. After a long time waiting for one of the many black-clad staff to wait on us (now there are only 6 customers in the whole place! WTF?) our waitress finally emerged to take our order and then never appear again. A series of people brought and retreived plates but no one inquired as to why we both didn't eat more than half of our meal. (My fish dish was swimming in butter and tasted only of salt, his steak was almost entirely fat and gristle. At $24 and $30 per entree, that is a BIG downer.)

For the prices they charge, I'd have expected a much better all aroun experience. Additionally, the movie that night was Cabaret, and eating to the sound of Liza Minelli's screeching would put anyone off their feed.

Recommends

mkbauer

Joined 7 years ago

Good place for brunch. I've been to too many places for brunch and could not find a place that can match the omelets from here. Dinner once, it was ok. I strongly recommend for Brunch.

Recommends

gnhoratio

Joined 11 years ago

They ALWAYS treat us like royalty. We visit SF twice a year. The first time, waiter "Daddy P," gave us drinks on the house. Why? Probably because we were pleasant. Six months later, we came back. He remembered us. We had a different waiter and he told him "take care of them." He did. Beautifully. The chef came over and was all excited that "with all the restaurants in SF you choose to come here! Thank you SO much." And it's continued, through five visits. It's always a delight, and always a pleasure to eat here. Proves the point: you be nice to them, they'll be nice to you.

Recommends

candyw

Joined 7 years ago

Best lamb and hummus I have ever had. Loved the warm olives.. Party of 8 had a great time. Great service from Vlad. Lamb with hummus was outstanding. Great vibes from this restaurant and lots of fun. Desserts were just ok. tried both of the chocolate dishes but the fruit slump with ice cream was much better. Scallops outstanding . Salmon was a little on the small side. Swordfish was not very good. Decent wine list. All in all a very positive experience. Would definetly go back again.

Recommends

aml888

Joined 7 years ago

Trendy place, imaginative food, good service. We ate at Foreign Cinema on 9/1 and had a very enjoyable experience. Unlike previous reviewers, our service was very good - absolutely nothing to complain about. We were seated immediately and everything (drinks, appetizers, entrees) came in good time - we weren't rushed or left waiting. The appetizers (proscuitto and ahi tuna) were both excellent, but the portions are small. The chicken (gram marsala) was especially good; our server steered us clear of the noodle entree (which others have complained about). We opted for dessert at Mitchells and so can't provide any information there. Overall, a very good experience - better than previous times that I've dined there.

Recommends

aundrealowery

Joined 7 years ago

Bad oysters, Good dessert, Bad service. There were six of us. It took about 15 minutes to get our first drink. The resturaunt was by no means packed. The oysters were bad! We sent them back. Two out of the three dozen ended up on the bill anyway. We had to remind them that they were bad and that we had sent them back to the kitchen. The food ranged from excellent, as in the seared ahi tuna, salmon, olive dish, and desserts, to horrible, as in the oysters, and boring noodle dinner entree. The service was also intermittent and slow. But my glass of framboise paired with some chocolate heaven saved the dining experience for me in the end! Then came the 600 something dollars bill, we were amazed at the price considering the wait times, bad seafood, dishes, and service.