10/10/08

Excellent Bar

by ptixt

I was thrilled because I've always wanted to check XYZ out and with no surprise, we had a grand time... As we arrived at the restaurant, I was given a long-stem rose for welcome... We were treated like "royals"... Besides the cool ambiance, the food and service are excellent.., our waiter that night, mentioned about the free-chocolates at the bar and oh boy, it was like heaven - what a great way to end our night at XYZ... Highly recommended!!!!

01/29/08

Poor service

by melm413

This place is really nice, don't get me wrong, but the wait staff is so rude. They lost my friend's credit card and were completely unsympathetic about it. He never got it back. They also got mad at another person I came with, because they ordered food from the downstairs lounge and took it upstairs to eat. It?s the same place! Other than that, the drink specials were pretty decent and the atmosphere is gorgeous. I just hate when bartenders and waiters are cocky because they work in a nice place.

• Pros: Great atmosphere in a beautiful hotel.
• Cons: Crappy service and rude bar staff.

01/23/08

fun

by mattsteele

this is not my favorite place in the city - but I always end up having a great time here. It has a sort of snooty vibe to it but like I said - everyone ends up having a great night overall so i guess it's worth a visit to judge for yourself.

01/21/08

Fun, trendy, wide variety of people

by jwhung

Not sure if it was just near the convention center and a big techie convention was going on, but the bar had a pretty fun scene every night. The drinks are generous and the bartendars are a friendly...once you're able to get past their standoffish exterior. The decor is trendy with plush couches, contemporary chairs and warm fireplace. Not a bad place after a long day at the convention hall.

• Pros: Love the decor
• Cons: Closes way too early (last call at 130am)

A trendy SOMA lobby bar for the rich, the famous and the almost famous.

by Contributor

In Short
W Hotels are notorious nationwide for their über-hip bar scenes and San Francisco's XYZ is no exception. Silver-beaded doors open up into a long rectangular room dominated by an illuminated bar that changes color every few seconds. This is pricey to maintain, so the mixed drinks aren't cheap. Insiders don their blackest black outfit, keep a cell phone pinned to their ear, pretend to be important and fit right in.

02/24/07

great service, wonderful bar, nice ambience

by ms_brightside

Unlike the restaurant next to it, the bar is great! great service, nice wine, great ambience, what else do you need in a bar? the bar was so good that it erased the bad aftertaste from the horrible service and bad food at the restaurant! great service! very highly recommended! we go back there again and again!

• Pros: ambience, service, location

02/15/07

Best for Dates

by sam097

My husband took me for Valentine's dinner at XYZ... I was thrilled because I've always wanted to check XYZ out and with no surprise, we had a grand time...

As we arrived at the restaurant, I was given a long-stem rose for welcome... We were treated like "royals"... Besides the cool ambiance, the food and service are excellent... As I thought our night was over, Michael, our waiter that night, mentioned about the free-chocolates at the bar and oh boy, it was like heaven - what a great way to end our night at XYZ...

Highly recommended!!!!

• Pros: Ambience
• Cons: Parking

02/08/07

One of our favorite places on the list

by april20012000

This is one of our favorite stops. Its a nice lounge, located within the The W Hotel. We stop by every weekend for a little chit chatting and on we go. Its got a great vibe and nice interior for the upscale crowd. Theres alot of space to move around and meet new people. The drink cocktails aren't the best, but the ambiance and crowd makes up. Our favorite places on the weekend agenda are Starlight Room, Red Room, Matrix, Slanted Door, Foreign Cinema and the Syn Lounge.

• Pros: This is a great place
• Cons: Drinks are pricey, but thats how they keep the up scale patrons

01/21/07

Avoid the food.....

by davodka

Went for Sunday brunch with the wife for the dine about town specials. First course she had the beet salad which was inclusive of mizuna, beet, goat cheese, and walnuts. The ingredients by itself is fine, however together it did not make any sense. Mizuna and beet tasted odd, nor did it mix with the goat cheese. The second course was equally disasterous, we both had the rigattoni pasta. It was similar to farmer's pasta, however the pancetta they used was overly greasy, the wife could only finish 5 bites of her food whereas I finished half of the dish then came the pounding headache when you consume too much oil. The dessert for the wife was equally unimpressive, she had the banana cake which had extensive frosting which made the course much too sweet, the sorbet that I had was a pleasant surprise.

Upon our arrival, we were promptly seated, however the booth had bread crumbs all over the chair where I had to swipe to get the mess onto the floor. Do not quite understand why they use leather seating on the booth when you can visably see wine/food stains all over the place. At least use a higher grade of suede, so that the stains can be cleaned up. Assuming if people only go there for drinks, it would make sense, but it was just dirty and unattractive. The hardwood flooring also had food remnants like bread crumbs and other stuff over it, not remotely attractive at all. Can't understand why people cannot tidy the place up when there was like 10 wait staff around and only about 6 parties.

Will not go back for the food, maybe for drinks because people seem to make mentions of it here. The service was impeccable, though I did go to a restaurant and if the food is completely thoughtless then what is the point? The presentation of the food was attractive, but relative to French cuisine, it was not much better or worse. Or maybe it's because we were using the dine about town special, so they served us the worst food possible, in that case, please disregard my comment.

• Pros: Immaculate service.
• Cons: The food. Dirty suede booth, dirty floors.

12/10/06

Trendy crowd, well made drinks

by msnicole

This bar is a great place to go before a night out or to have a relaxing conversation with someone. Went to the XYZ bar and the lower lobby in the W hotel. The crowd is always late 20's to early thirties, but everyone usually looks pretty trendy regardless of age. The downstairs area has couches and chairs to relax in and people watch.

• Pros: Good drinks, trendy
• Cons: Bartenders aren't all that helpful, somewhat pretentious crowd