Alborz

Take your money somewhere else.... I booked this place for my brother's birthday for 20 people. Even though I called three weeks before and booked the private dining room, they double-booked it, and we were moved to the general dining area.

In our initial conversations, they gave me a per person price over the phone ($38), took a $500 deposit and no further pricing/invoice was sent, so I communicated that price to my family coming to dinner. But when the bill came, it was almost $50 per person. It left me and my family unprepared, which is not how we wanted to end an evening, especially an evening that costs $1,000 for 20 people. I had to ask people for more money at the end of dinner, which is awkward and uncomfortable for everyone.

For that price, we should have had more than enough food, and we didn't - some people in our party did not have enough to eat. And then the servers came in and took our food before we were done! They just started clearing plates. I have no idea why that happened. At least 6 people in our party did not finish their dinner.

In addition, the tip was added to the taxed amount, which is incorrect. You do not tip on tax. Further, given that the service suffered, a 17% tip was completely inappropriate.

When we brought all of this to the manager's attention, she took $40 off of the over $1,000 bill. Hardly even a gesture. I didn't want to create a scene, so decided to be done with it and follow up the next day. I contacted the owner who said he would take care of my issues but needed to call me back, and haven't heard back from him.

The staff and setup of the whole evening was geared toward making money off of us and get us out as soon as possible. Not the kind of environment during a meaningful family event.

For $1,000, we should have had enough food, great service, and respectful communication and a more accurate per head price before the event. Still waiting to hear from the owner...…

Citysearch Editorial Review. Since it first opened in 2001, Alborz, one of the only Persian restaurants in San Francisco, still struggles to get to the attention it deserves. Not only do some fantastic regional dishes remain undiscovered, but there's also never been enough overflow to push people into the kooky, homey lounge adjacent to the restaurant's teeny bar. The menu here is lengthy, but it's the kebabs that steal the show: An impressive variety are served, most being the familiar chunks of tenderly skewered meats, but the Joojeh with bone features a whole Cornish hen, marinated with olive oil and saffron. Another perk, especially for people working in near proximity, is that it offers a lunch menu, which is exciting since lunch options on this stretch of Van Ness are decidedly meh.…

Horrible Customer Service. SLEAZY!! We purchased a gift certificate for them through Restaurant(dot)com - but they refused to honor claiming that they "didn't have a contract with them anymore and didn't have to honor it." The restaurant was almost completely empty and we were there for the first time - but they didn't care if we left... so we walked out. Contacting Restaurant(dot)com revealed that they have never cancelled their gift certificates with them, so they apparently are just using those gift certificates to get people in the door. Didn't work with us. We will never go back again!

NOTE: Only gave them 1 star because we couldn't give them zero.…