Café at the Opera at the SFWM

It’s a little pricey and it’s not a full service dinner since it’s buffet style. The menu is obviously revolving so I would say it’s probably hit or miss but on the Friday night that I happen to try this place because last minute options before a show are limited, I have to say, I really enjoyed everything. The salads were all very fresh and there was plenty of variety for all kinds of palates. The hot entrees were delicious and hearty and well seasoned. I particularly enjoyed the rare grilled salmon, the lamb confit with creamed potatoes, the roasted brussel spouts and mushrooms and the citrus beet salad. It should be noted that the wait staff is very accommodating even if they are not the most speedy and the asian bartender has a great sense of humor and makes fun drinks on request. I’m torn between a 3 and 4 star rating because a buffet is always a gamble and it’s not a consistent menu but for my single personal experience, I’ll lean to the 4 stars because I would be willing to try it again.

Because my boyfriend had foot surgery and didn’t want to walk too far, we decided to try the Café for the first time after decades as a Ballet subscriber. We were both pleasantly surprised. I had the seafood chopped salad which was a good sized salad with plenty of seafood and a lovely dressing. He tried the buffet and said it was delicious. If you want a light dessert there is cheese and fruit on the buffet but I highly recommend the cookie plate. EVERY cookie was delicious and they were small bites so you didn’t get overwhelmed with sugar. The service was very nice. This is a great alternative to the other Hayes Valley restaurants and extremely convenient for ballet or opera.

I really wanted to give this place 5 stars, but the entrée choices provided did not acurately reflect the menu shown online (and the menu didn’t say sample), 4 out of the 7 entrée menu items were missing so our choices were limited to sole, fatty prime rib, and chicken — rather mediocre for a $ 40 menu. Service was excellent, wait staff very nice.

Enjoyed our lunch very much before our Partenope opera at 2 pm. Instead of the buffet, we chose salads and we all liked them a lot. I had the smoked Petaluma chicken salad and I loved it.
Others had the steak salad and the fishermans wharf salad. We ordered dessert to eat at first intermission, and there it was waiting for us when we returned to the dining area at 3 pm. We had the apple and peach crumble, it was excellent.
We’ve been to San Francisco opera many many times and this was the first time dining here and it was really great and added to the whole experience.

Pretty good food, much better than anticipated. You certainly can’t beat the convenience. I’d go again!

What a perfect venue for a light (very tasty) dinner before the performance. Our waiter was very personable, attentive, and informative. The location couln’t have been better. It is open, airy, and cheerful. I think it is perfect for an evening at the opera.

I guess this is what you get for making reservations before the ballet the day of the performance.
We came here before the Shostakovich Trilogy, and they were serving a Russian-​themed buffet (kind of) for the occasion. Russian food isn’t known for its haute cuisine status to begin with, but as executed by the opera house it was bland, overcooked, and unappetizing.
Even the cheese plate was gross. How do you ruin a cheese plate? And why no meats?
The service was similarly baffling — in a buffet, you barely need service, but they even managed to wait 15 minutes to bring us a wine list, take forever in bringing it, then almost make us late by taking their sweet time with the check.
Next time I’ll just go to Max’s, where at least I know the food will be greasily delicious and cheap.

We had a la carte dinner at second floor last time when we didn’t make reservation at the buffet downstairs. This time I made sure reservation was made and we five people including two kids all had a good dinner at the Café. The food is fresh, with lots of choices for salads, main courses and fruits. Drink of ice tea and coffee are included but dessert is not which is completely fine with me because kids would have to eat their greens:-) I love the dinning environment, the sense of romance (the day of Cinderella performance there is actually salad named Princess salad). It is on the expensive side but not too expensive and kids do get heavy discount. We will still choose to dine here next time.

We ate here before the ballet last week. The waitress was super friendly, and provided great service. The buffet was beautiful. There was a wide variety of gourmet and yummy salads. The salmon was PERFECT! And the other items were all delicious. It’s amazing to have such a good dinner in Opera House, and it’s so convenient! I look forward to returning!

We loved it! We thought we’d try Café at the Opera because of its convenience. Usually, we have dinner nearby but it’s always a rush prior to a performance and an expensive rush at that. We loved being able to walk into the opera house and know we were going to be on time. Finding out it was a buffet was a surprise to me since my hubby made the reservation and didn’t tell me much about it prior to arrival, but I was so pleasantly surprised! All the food was excellent! The meat was prepared perfectly, the polenta was to die for, the cauliflower was perfectly roasted, the salads were interesting and tasty, etc. Service was perfect and I didn’t feel rushed. We made a 6 pm reservation and found it worked out well. We relaxed with a drink first and then had a leisurely dinner.
I think this will be a habit for us! :)

It was very expensive. nice to be able to just eat and be right there when they open the doors. The food was good, my daughter didn’t like any of the kids food. so my husband ordered her a cookie plate to make her happy 10.00 for 8 small cookies that had to have come from a box They were disgusting. I don’t recommend it for kids but adults would enjoy it.

As others have mentioned, this is primarily a place you’d come if you have limited time before an opera. Park, eat and drink, go see your show.
Given that I have a food allergy, I find the buffet to be too much of an investment for me, for what would amount to a giant gamble that’d primarily end in me eating my weight in cheese and grapes. So – given that – I have a light dinner before coming, and nosh on a cheese plate for my «meal.»
Wines are OK but the star of the beverage menu, really, is the cocktail created for the opera. When I saw Falstaff, they had «The Retribution» — sparkling wine and pomegranate liqueur. It was good and not over-​the-​top expensive. It’s a fun way to start the night.
Service is pretty good. On my last visit, the person working the maitre d’ desk was a tad churlish. However, I’ve only ever had very friendly and attentive service from the waitstaff.
Reservations are probably a good idea, just in case.
Pro Tip for the ladies: «Freshen up» in the cavernous women’s restroom prior to the opera. It is nicely equipped and you will find it far more… convenient than the restrooms upstairs.

*NOTE: we are actually finishing our dinner here right now as I write this before the 8pm performance of Barber of Seville.*
PROS: convenient if you only have 1 hr till your performance starts; food flavor was not bad
CON: where to start. Sloppy, unappetizing buffet; basic supermarket cheese; abysmally poor service: understaffed, unfriendly, grumpy, unprofessional; food was lukewarm; half way through meal by the time we got our drinks; will simply never eat here again.
How the seven reviewers before me gave this place 4 stars is beyond me.

I love their food and we eat here or Jardinere whenever we go to Opera… great service as well!

My partner and I just moved here a week ago. One of our close friends brought us to the café and we loved it. It is a close walk from our house, the atmosphere is fun and inviting, and the menu offers a variety of foods. We are definitely going back.

PATINA RESTAURANT GROUP — This is the 3^rd year in a row I have used their services for Intermission at the Nutcracker. Their Customer Service is excellent even for decidedly NOT big spender like me. One of their Managers, Susan, made sure the table and order were perfect. Great team that makes a special evening extra special.
Update for 12.18.2013– Make it the 4^th year in a row. The Customer Service as always is outstanding and I always get a great table overlooking the lobby. Wonderful Customer Service by Susan the manager and her staff.

This review is only for grabbing a bite during intermissions not their buffet.
While at the Opera house I definitely find myself needing to nibble or drink something during intermissions. What can I say, I have a sweet tooth when I am here!
— Their coffee is pretty good. — However, I wish they provided lids, and I do understand why they do not. (People would probably take them into the theater).
— Chocolate Brownies — Dense and flavorless.
— Chocolate Chip Cookies (3 per bag) — Decent, and better than the brownies.
— White Chip Chocolate Cookies (3 per bag) — I thought these had a good balance of sweetness.
From memory, I think any of the above cost about $ 3 which is a bit expensive for the lack of quality. They should be able to make a better product and have a justifiable price.

In the interests of full disclosure, I know people at Patina.
The worst and best aspect of this restaurant is its location, in the basement of the Opera House, in a low-​ceilinged space that lacks the drama or the elegance of the rest of the house. Even the bathrooms have more style. But, it is IN the Opera House, which means you’re there when it’s time to see the show. For the chronically time-​challenged and organizationally flawed, this can be very nice.
This is institutional dining, but it’s also some of the best in that category. There are some stellar restaurants near by, Absinthe and Jardinière come to mind and with them the Opera House Café can’t compete, but it’s not slouching either, not by a long shot. I’ve eaten here a couple of years back, with the old chef, and now with the new one, and things have improved, nicely; and once again, you are right where you’re going, no hurried walk to get back.
Buffet dining is one of my least favorite options, and this is a buffet. Still, the food didn’t look or taste like it’d been fixed and portioned hours before and kept on burners ever since. The chicken was the least appealing, the salmon was decent – served in a white sauce – and the prime rib was quite nice. The savory mushroom bread pudding stole the show: Re-​imagine stuffing without all the stuffy parts, the «i ate too much before I even took a bite» feeling, and put the flavor into a nice, light, moist bread pudding and there you are.
You get two plates, I did the meats first, salads and desserts second. The buffet dessert selections weren’t all that inspiring, but you can also order dessert off the menu and it will be awaiting you at intermission; those selections, most of which seemed to have chocolate in or around them, looked very nice. I had a petit four, a nicely flavored crème filling topped with blueberries, in a small crust, and skipped the brownie square, I much preferred the Caesar Salad and the Spinach salad. There was also a fairly broad selection of cheeses, from soft cremes to the more sliceable and dry cheeses, with crackers and crusts.
As others have noted, this is not a cheap dinner – then again, you’re not exactly out for a cheap evening anytime you set foot in the Opera House. I would say that the price is about right for the setting and the quality of the food. The wine selection certainly improved – not stellar, but I had a fairly decent Pinot Noir (I let someone order for me, and then ended up staying with it) and I usually can’t stand the stuff. Even the bubbly went down well with those with whom I dined.
I’ve been in institutional settings where the vending machines had better quality food than what the in-​house cafeteria was serving, and I’ve been to sit down restaurants in club houses, or on harbor cruises, and even tried to get decent food at the airport, from restaurants with local cachet (if you’re a pizza and boxed salad fan I guess) and I’d have to say the Opera House has the best food I’ve had in that sort of setting. There’s room for improvement – like figuring some way to serve a crowd quickly without a buffet – but all in all, I think the experience does the Opera House nicely.

Last night, my husband and I had a lovely experience at the Opera. We began with a wonderful dinner at the Café, located in the basement of the Opera House. I think this is one of the best kept secrets about the opera. The café offers a buffet which consists of two tables, one with appetizers and salads, and the other with main dishes. Each dish that we sampled was delicious. One of the most fun parts of our meal was choosing a desert before going up for the first acts of the opera. At intermission, we came back down to the café and there, waiting for us at our same table, was our desert. We will definitely add the café to our Opera experiences from now on.

Be careful– this is a so so buffet for a huge price. We paid nearly $ 100 for dinner for two. it was totally not worth it. Going to a nearby restaurant pre performance is a better idea.