Greens Restaurant, San Francisco

Reviewer: Foodnut.com Greens Restaurant Building A, Fort Mason Center San Francisco, CA 94123 415-771-6222 Greens Restaurant Website Book Reservation

Greens Restaurant has been serving vegetarian fare since 1979. Their Marin based Green Gulch Farm provides much of the produce. Greens was a pioneer in the early days, nowadays we have many more plant centric restaurants like Wildseed, Baia, Shizen, etc. Today almost every fancy restaurant accommodates vegetarians to some degree. The menu changes all the time.

Our last visit was in the Summer of 2022 during the Pandemic. They had added a nice outdoor seating area as well as takeout.

Decor, Vibe – Most tables have a stunning view of the San Francisco Marina’s harbor and the Golden Gate Bridge. (Outside dining doesn’t) The dining room has a mish mash of paintings, wood, and sculpture looking almost unchanged for decades. There were a lot of folks in their 30’s to 50’s dining. A fair amount of green hippies.

Greens Menu

Different lunch, brunch, and dinner menus. Lots of starter options as well as a good selection of big plates. The menu changes all the time but usually has some pizza and pasta dish. Everything clearly marked, gluten free, vegan, vegan possible. 6% healthy SF Mandate.

Website Menu

Food Picks:

Pinot Noir & Hibiscus Spritz Lemon, Calisaia Bitters ($14) tastes a lot better than it sounds. Light with not much alcohol. 8.5/10

Celery Soda ($6) is very unusual.  Not overwhelming, and actually refreshing. 8.5/10

Shared Cultures Beet Miso & Lime Glazed Beets ($12) with fennel pollen yogurt, chervil (gf/vp) was a top dish of the night. Fresh and great sauce. 9/10

Swanton Strawberries & Baby Lettuce Salad ($15) with tarragon, pickled shallots, almonds, rhubarb poppy seed vinaigrette (gf/v) was on the sweet side but not too sweet.  Lots of fresh berries and not overwhelming dressing. 9/10

Fresh Spring Roll ($15) with Hodo tofu, carrots, jicama, daikon, cucumbers, cabbage, jalapeños, rice noodles. Served with coconut peanut sauce and grilled beech mushroom & radish salad with sesame vinaigrette (gf/v) 8/10

Mediterranean Sampler ($15) – French lentil salad with feta, lemon and mint; filo turnover with artichokes, spring onions, fromage blanc and pecorino pepato; golden and chioggia beets with mach; roasted pepper hummous; grilled pita bread; spicy tomato jam; olives. This was the best dish of the night, but it was tiny. We got to sample lots of fresh items with diverse flavors. Great dips.

Linguine alla Nerano – ($27) with confit morels, fried Star Canyon zucchini, Shared Cultures wild leek miso butter, basil, chives, pecorino fiore sardo (vp) was good with solid flavor profile, but had too much olive oil. 8/10

Yellow Coconut Curry – ($28) with Hodo tofu, carrots, cauliflower, snap peas, and potatoes. Served with brown rice and pickled green papaya salad (gf/v) was not exciting but decidedly average. 7.5/10

Crepe ($25) filled with mushrooms, with a lite mushroom sauce, and served with sauteed rainbow chard and dinosaur kale. Light, Airy, and Delicate with well cooked veggies. Very good mushrooms and sauce.

Food OK:

Mesquite Grilled Brochettes ($19) – skewers of mushrooms, peppers, garnet yams, fennel, potatoes, cherry tomatoes and marinated tofu with charmoula. Served on cherry-pistachio couscous. Many of the items were over charred. Quality of the product was there as was quantity.

Food Pans:
None

Greens Restaurant used to be cutting edge, but seems to be pretty mainstream now.   Glasses of wine started at $12. A Navarro Pinot Noir was good. The view is beautiful and timeless, unless the fog is rolling in! We would recommend both vegetarian and omnivore foodies come at least once to experience the place.

You can sample their food for less by getting some at their take out counter, Greens to go. Picnic tables are outside as well as lots of beautiful views from the Fort Mason area.

Restaurant Map: