Leopold’s Restaurant Review, San Francisco

Reviewer: Foodnut.com Leopold's 2400 Polk St. (at Union Street) San Francisco, CA 94123 415-474-2000 Leopold's Website

Why did we dine here? – Leopold’s is a hot new Austrian – German restaurant located on Russian Hill that has been getting a lot of positive press. Bauer liked it and Yelp fans are all over it. As the place opens at 530pm and the waiting starts around 6 PM. No reservations. A loud party every night! As they put it – “Casual, urban-rustic neighborhood gathering spot and bierhaus”. Are you ready for the 5 Liter beer?

Summary – Leopold’s serves up healthy sized portions of food with an extensive beer selection, resulting in one huge good time for all.
Insider Tip – Get there early. Cab or take public transportation.

Cuisine – Austrian, German
Location – Russian Hill, Former Antica location
Opened – 2011

Service – We had a very good waitress who amicably tended to all our needs. They are all decked out in nice-looking European uniforms.

Verdict – Leopold’s serves up very good food in an almost party-like loud atmosphere. Our server was in uniform, friendly and knew the menu well. Come here for the beer and hearty comfort food. The other folks in our party like the place, but preferred Suppenkuche in Hayes Valley more. Be sure to try the East German focused restaurant Walzwerk on South Van Ness, if you like this type of cuisine.

Menu

Signature Dishes – Salumi platter, goulash.

Full Leopold’s image set

Picks:

Crispy Pig Trotters ($9.75) with Frisee salad, fingerling potatoes, poached egg and pickled shallots. How can deep-fried pig fail to satisfy? Crispy deep-fried paddies of goodness along some potatoes and greens to balance it out.

Housemade Salumi platter ($14.75) with Salumi, coppa, bresola, lardo, speck with mixed pickles, beer mustard, and whole-grain bread was an all-encompassing selection of high quality meats tastefully arranged on a ‘pig’ board. A nice starter to share between 3 or more people.

Braised Beef Short Rib ($16.75) with Gruyere cheese mashed potatoes, race red cabbage, horseradish, fried onion and red wine jus was a solid dish with very tender beef in a robust meaty sauce. The portion size was in exactly huge. Excellent potatoes, bland red cabbage.

Wiener Schnitzel ($14.75) with warm potato escarole salad and lingo Berry sauce was made with pork instead of veal. Pretty thin and very crispy, making for a decent implementation. Not exactly on the high side quantity wise, as Suppenkuche provides 2 patties.

Apflestrudel ($5.75) with warm vanilla sauce finished off our meal with a nice flaky, balanced dessert. Strudel itself was not too sweet, while the sauce and whipped cream added an enhancing influence.

OK: (Order if you like this dish)

House special Paprika beef goulash ($13.75) with butter spatzle and green salad had tender cubes of beef that were low on flavor and a bit try. The salad was also pretty oily and could have had more pressing.

Pans: (We would not reorder these dishes)
None

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