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This Review of Kitchen Story in San Francisco is just one of our many Restaurant Reviews and San Francisco posts. Breakfast and brunch are our favorite meals, so we're always on the lookout for wonderful breakfast and brunch spots, whether in a luxury hotel or resort or in a stand alone restaurant.
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Kitchen Story Location and Hours
Kitchen Story is located at 3499 16th Street by Sanchez, in the Castro. It's open for breakfast and brunch only, from 9am-2pm on weekdays and 9am-2:30pm on weekends. It's possible to make reservations on Yelp for weekdays only (note that you'll need to provide a credit card as a guarantee; you'll be charged if you don't show up).
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We reserved an outdoor table, in the restaurant's parklet:
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Kitchen Story Menu and Food
Here's the Kitchen Story menu for our recent visit:
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We decided to order three dishes and share them family style. Our son chose the Open Face Breakfast, with a Wagyu patty, spinach, mushroom, white cheddar, and demi-glace, topped with two sunny side up eggs. While certainly a hearty breakfast, I wasn't overly impressed with it. I couldn't see or taste the cheddar cheese at all and the Wagyu tasted about the same as the ground beef I buy at Whole Foods. The crispy potato wedges served on the side were the best part, they were tasty and perfectly crisped.
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Fortunately, the Millionaire's Benedict was much better, featuring the restaurant's signature “Millionaire's Bacon” with thick cut free range bacon baked with brown sugar, cayenne, and red and black pepper. I especially liked the Meyer lemon hollandaise that crowned it, and would have liked a bit more Meyer lemon zing to it, to balance out the richness of the eggs and bacon.
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The Mascarpone Stuffed Deep Fried French Toast was good, but not amazing, as it was a bit bland. I also found the grapefruit garnish odd; orange would have complemented it better.
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The Verdict
My expectations may have been too high, since I didn't love Kitchen Story as much as I'd hoped. My favorite dish by far of the three we tried was the Millionaire's Benedict, with the contrast of the sweet-savory bacon and the Meyer lemon hollandaise, as well as the delicious potatoes. The deep fried french toast was good, but needed something else; perhaps Meyer lemon or vanilla infused into the mascarpone or some passion fruit in the maple syrup to kick up the flavor a notch. And the Open Face Sandwich, while hearty, wasn't my cup of tea, although our son, who ordered it, seemed to like it well enough. I do like that the restaurant offers reservations (including for outside seating) for weekday breakfasts, so it could be a good spot for a weekday business or tourist breakfast.
Have a favorite San Francisco brunch place? Share it in the comments.
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