Garden Club Restaurant

Went there with a party of 4 on a Wednesday night at 7:30pm. Waited patiently to be seated. After 10 minutes a waitress came by to say abruptly they weren’t seating anymore. No empathy, no apologies. Restaurant closes at 9pm. PLENTY of restaurants to spend my hard earned money. Won’t be coming back.

Great little hole in the wall. It’s definitely a place you do not think about going for food but surprisingly quite delicious! I’ve been coming here for about 2 years now and it is a go to if you’re not looking for fine dining but a great steak!
I generally love getting their rack of lamb (you have to be a lamb my person to get it) very savory garlicky sauce smothered all over the rack of goodness! Juicy and very satisfactory
My other go to is the prime rib, it comes in one size but trust me when I say it’s a hefty size. I generally have enough for another meal the next day! Keep in mind with all their entrees it is a 5 course dinner!
Soup– salad– bread– ravioli– entrée — dessert

Pro Tip 1: If you’re short on money and still want to be stuffed to the brim — you can’t beat the lunch deals at Garden Club. The only thing the lunch doesn’t include is the raviolis — you still get soup or salad and a ton of bread (carb city).
Pro Tip 2: Lunch is less busy in general. Saturday, if you go to lunch at 1:00 PM (they close at 2:00 PM) it’s pretty slow and so you can be in and out pretty quick if you’re in a hurry. Dinners on weekdays aren’t too bad either. Friday and weekends for dinner — it’s PACKED. Come early if you plan to have dinner!
Pro Tip 3: if you’re not picky about ambience, the bar is cheap and the best part is that if you’re alone or with a party of two — they’ll let you order food at the bar and eat!
Pro Tip 4: If you come for a dinner for 2, one person get the salad and one person gets the soup. The portions are usually so generous, they will give you the ENTIRE serving soup bowl — enough for multiple portions of soup for both people. You are guaranteed to not leave here hungry — EVER!
Truthfully the highlight of this restaurant is the dinner — the Prime Rib (get this) and the bone-​in Lamb Chops are delicious too (if you need a change up). Dinner also includes soup or salad, bread, raviolis, and a little desert either rice pudding or spumoni.
Garden Club is where I go when I want to take my belt off or apologetically show up to a restaurant in sweat pants and let my gut expand to maximum capacity.
Again, IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO LEAVE HERE HUNGRY! I CHALLENGE YOU. IT’S NOT POSSIBLE.

An awesome little spot nestled in a strip mall in south city. You’d probably think this was a dive bar of some sort just by the look on the outside. However, on the inside is a surprising treat.
You walk in and you might think this place is a little wonky, a little different than your usual prime rib restaurant. Well that’s perfectly fine with me. The restaurant is local and they aren’t trying to put up a front. It’s real people, real home cooking. (If I knew how to cook prime rib well) The first thing you should know is that their dinner is family style. You get a soup, ravioli and dessert all included with a dinner entrée which is a fantastic value. If you come with your sweetheart or a group, it’s all good man, you’ll be covered. I happened to come here during a triple date.
Get the prime rib. Don’t argue. Medium rare is my personal preference. Everyone is different. Unless you get it well done. We can’t be friends if you’re going to ruin meat like that. It’s a great restaurant to have a gathering with friends or a date night. The staff is super friendly and if anything is the matter, they do their best to address it right away. Luckily, we didn’t run into any snags.
Pro tip: if you come on a weekday you still might wait for a table, but not as much.

I’ve come here multiple times for the full course prime rib meal and it is incredibly worth the price. Now the dining experience is pretty unsatisfactory every time but I usually forego it all because I came here for prime rib, not to appeal to those sassy Italian waitresses. I did come here once at like 8:15pm and we waited to be seated for 10 minutes or so and a waitress came over and asked us what we were waiting for and we said we wanted a table. She said they don’t serve tables after 8:30pm; we checked the time and it wasn’t even 8:30 yet and she said «oh, well, we aren’t serving any more people tonight».
I got irritated but I got over it.

First time at this establishment. When I first arrived, I was stumped as to where the restaurant was (even though the GPS stated it was where it was). I was greeted by a polite hostess that was multitasking. I waited with my party of three for about 30 minutes because someone booked two of the larger tables. Once seated, menus and «what beverages would you like?»
Their menu is quite large, but my eyes went straight for their steak items! My God, once the dishes came, mouth drooled because their portions were quite large and so much food !
You know what, if you have time to read this review, just order and you wont be disappointed!
STOP SCROLLING! DO IT NOW!

Well, we went the Garden Club for dinner tonight & I thought it was terrible. We went early to avoid the crowds & were seated right away. The menu is set for certain items for the day with the prime rib, rack of lamb & new york steak as standard fare during the week. I ordered the prime rib & my wife ordered the rack of lamb.
The soup of the day was manhattan clam chowder & it wasn’t very good. Bland & the clams were like used tires. The next item was their shrimp salad; it was loaded with shrimp & fake crab meat, but there was way too much vinegar in the dressing. We managed to eat a small plate each, but it wasn’t easy. BTW: the bread was pretty tough too.
The main entrée arrived & to my surprise, they were huge. The prime rib was an inch thick, accompanied with au gratin potatoes & frozen vegetables as advertised. My wife’s rack of lamb was good sized as well with the same side dishes. I took a bite of my prime rib & it wasn’t melt-​in-​your-​mouth, but it was decent. However, the rack of lamb had way too much garlic; once you get past the first bite, it’s okay (bad for vampires).
We could only eat half of our meals, so we got leftovers to take home (a plus). For dessert, I had the tapioca & she had a ice cream sundae. The tapioca tastes like baby food & her ice cream was already melting. Plus the guy sitting behind me was bouncing around like a yo-​yo, so I made sure to bounce back on my way out (jerk).
Sixty-​two bucks plus tip for mediocre food & service; I don’t think we’ll be back at any time soon. Chef Ramsey would agree with me; it’s pure rubbish.

Friday night dinner spot for that prime rib au jus or the lamb or the ribeye, all dishes are paired with mashed potatoes, steamed mixed veggies, roll of sourdough bread already pre-​sliced and slits of butter. There is also a salad that has lettuce, onions, tiny shrimp and crab. Everything here is good, very old school feel, the bar is offers nothing on tap all mixed or bottle cocktails
I have sampled the ribeye, the prime rib and the lamb chops, every single dish is heavy and delicious. I prefer the prime rib over the ribeye here, simply because the prime rib taste better. The lamb chops are also a helpful serving and give you that fix if you want that something other then a steak.
Mixed crowd in restaurant and bar, at the bar older locals to the bar few younger but more folks that look like they live up the street, the restaurant section does spill over from the other side, on Friday night place is usually packed, folks include younger crowd for the friday night specials, folks with kids infants and toddlers, and the older crowd
always inviting staff, spot feels old but they make you feel at home when you eating, waitresses call you honey or dear constantly haha, never had to ask for a refill of water or my alcoholic beverage, the food is good, better then most places that offer steak/​prime rib for $ 30 you can also order to go,
definitely a spot you want to visit if you are in the mood for prime rib, ribeye or lamb chops
Food ****
price $$
service ***** always pleasant staff
ambiance *** older motif but works for them
no beer on tap only bottled

Looks like this place has been here for many years. Inexpensive prime rib. It was good for the price actually. We would come back to try other dishes like the rack of lamb. The lady who greeted us was nice but the server barely attended to our needs. Seems like a family owned business. Maybe she was just comfortable with old repetitive customers.
Definitely not house of prime rib like one of the servers claimed they were better. But she’s never been. Lol.
Be right back…

Came here with a large group of friends, without a reservation. They were barely able to squeeze us in, and really only because we were willing to take a booth with a tiny coffee bistro table pushed up against it.
I read all these reviews and wanted ravioli, but the day I came, they served this «combination shrimp salad» instead (wasn’t a fan). Wished their bread was warm. At least their butter was room temperature and easily spreadable. Their minestrone was very delicious– would have had more, but wanted to have room for my meat! The steak knives they gave us were teeny tiny, almost the length of a toothpick. I ordered my prime rib to be medium, knowing I wouldn’t be able to finish. When I took it home and heated it up again, it was the perfect amount of cooked, and easily cut with our normal sized carving knives at home. My friend ordered lamb, and her lamb was very well seasoned and so tender! Super delicious.
Only downside was how grimy the restaurant felt. The tables were sticky, and the paper placemats did little to make me feel like it was clean. It was super dark, but it felt like the booth cushions were also greasy, and I didn’t even want to look down (I was so careful to not drop anything!) If you can overlook this, it is just a perfect dinner place!
Great price for what we got. Enjoy that it’s a family run business.
Pro-​tips: Come on Sunday when they serve their raviolis. Definitely call for a reservation.

The restaurant was clean and the server are friendly; the foot are set in five course meal with dessert. It will begin with a soup and today was minestrone; then it was a salad; the dressing was too acid for me; next, it was the ravioli; I did enjoy them even that there were not gluten free; the ravioli had a good flavor; next, was the main dishes, I order the today special grill sole with potatoes and vegetables. It was life a home made meal. I ended with the Spumoni Ice Cream which it is one of my favorite. I recommend this place however because the limited of the gluten free items, I will not returned.

5 stars for their prime rib. For about $ 25.00, you get a 5 course meal: soup, salad, meat ravioli, entrée of choice, and dessert. The meat raviolis were good! I sprinkled some parmesan cheese on top and boy oh boy… delish! I could do without the soup, salad, and dessert though. I feel like those are just filler appetizers…
the prime rib itself was spectacular! I thoroughly enjoyed eating mine. it was probably one if the best I’ve had, and I’ve definitely had my share of meats. I’m your typical carnivore: meat all day everyday!
My group of friends and I didn’t want to sit through the long wait time, so we opted for the bar seats. it was a little small for all the different plates, but we made it work. we all were very satisfied with the quality and quantity of the food here at the Garden Club. No wonder there were so many people waiting to eat… despite the shape of the building/​restaurant. I had my doubts upon entering, but don’t let looks deceive you! This is by far one of the best deal I’ve ever encountered!

I was lured in to the Garden Club by the buzz about their hearty portions and delicious prime rib. Though I was forewarned that it was located in a rundown strip mall, I was still caught by surprised when I arrived to what seemed like a sketchy spot. Once inside, I actually found it to be quite charming in an old-​school kind of way.
We were seated after a short 10 minute wait and our orders were taken promptly. The three of us all ordered the prime rib, which came with a side of veggies, potatoes and four other courses including a salad, soup, stuffed chicken and dessert. All for only $ 26– what a steal!
Here’s how I felt about the food:
Bread– I had to start with the bread because I have to mention that the butter that goes on the bread is left on the table for an unknown amount of time. Though Mr. Dubs will forever argue with me that butter is fine when left at room temperature, there is still the issue of people being able to touch said butter.
Salad– The salad was just mediocre for me since I didn’t care too much for the dressing. However, what they lacked in taste, they made up (maybe) with the portions. The salad came in a huge bowl that held enough salad for all three of us to have seconds.
Soup– Can’t go wrong with minestrone!
Stuffed chicken– My favorite of the night! The chicken was perfectly tender and flavorful without being too salty.
Prime rib– To be fair, I was stuffed by the time the prime rib came out and couldn’t give it a fair review. I felt that it was decent (not great), but definitely well worth $ 26!
Although my meal ended with a very enjoyable chocolate sundae, I walked out feeling beyond full. I love the idea of such a hearty meal, but I think my stomach simply cannot handle that much food.

Value is what comes to mind after my first visit.
I believe if you have the correct expectations, you should have a nice visit.
First, this isn’t a fancy place, and you are in the middle of an old strip mall. The bar and dining area are old, but for my mature self, it kind of reminded me of places I would experience as a kid in the 70’s. Second, the process is not clearly laid out, but you enter an older bar, and head to the back, and enter your name on the waiting list.
While waiting, we sat at the bar, and had a couple of drinks. Very nice, and friendly bartender made some awesome drinks, and the prices are very reasonable.
We were eventually seated and headed into the dining room. It really felt like a flash back for me, and I really enjoyed it. Good old fashion sour dough bread and butter (the butter is served in the old wax paper pads). They will start with your soup, and drop a family size bowl to your table to help yourself. Next, they brought a large bay shrimp salad to share amongst the table. The soup and salad were both very good, and we ate all the bread. We are now full, so be cautious to leave room for your entrée. We had the Seafood platter, and Prime rib. I may skip the seafood platter in the future, but the prime rib was awesome. Looking at others, the lamb looked to be very popular.
Lastly, dessert is even included. A small scoop of Spumoni topped things off.
I was shocked when I received the bill. Cocktails and so much food, for such a reasonable price.

Garden Club may not have the bells and whistles of what you would considered to be a «fancy» restaurant but it does have a great warm family style feel that is nostalgic and brings you back to your childhood. Tucked away in a secluded strip mall behind the South San Francisco BART station, it’s a part of old SSF that still remains and we are so fortunate that they are still around!
Where else can you still get a 4 – 5 course meal (huge portions too!) for under $ 30?!? That’s right, your choice of protein along w/​bread, soup, salad, and dessert for an incredible price. Come on a Sunday and raviolis are included. mMm… yum! Most entrees are still around $ 19.95 and the 3 most expensive choices of either prime rib, rack of lamb, or NY strip now ranges from $ 24.95 — $ 26.95. Many moons ago, even those were under $ 20 a plate but it’s understandable that prices have gone up a few $ through the years. Through it all, they still maintain their generous portions and tasty flavors.
The restaurant itself is not that big so I would suggest making reservations if you have a party of 5 or more. They don’t take reservations for any parties less than 5 so be prepared to wait, especially during the weekends. However, make yourself comfy at the bar while you wait for your name to be called, they have a great selection of drinks and the bartender is a totally sweetheart! I love her every time she is around, she would strike up a conversation w/​you as if you were one of the regulars. It’s just a great place for locals to meet and gather!
If you are looking for a restaurant with tasty food along with generous portions and value, Garden Club is your place!

The value at Garden Club was otherworldly. A 5-​course prime rib dinner for under $ 26? Yes please!
Like some other Unilocal folks, I found the outside of Garden Club a bit sketchy. But upon walking inside, we were warmly greeted by the waitress. Looking over the menu, it’s pretty simple. Soup, salad, AND ravioli accompanied by your choice of entrée and a choice of dessert.
Soup on Sunday was minestrone. Tasted very good, strong tomato flavor and had a lot of stuff inside. However, the pasta within has definitely been sitting in a pot for a long time, total mush. There was enough for the 4 of us to have 2 bowls and then some. Next course was salad. Simply dressed chopped lettuce. Nothing to write home about, but still pretty good. Next came the ravioli. Our party of 4 received a platter of 12… but to save room for our main course, most of us only had 1 each. The ravioli was pretty exceptional. The accompanying tomato sauce was equally delicious.
For my main, I opted for the prime rib. I received a nice thick (1″-1.5″) cut of medium rare prime rib. Paired with the an jus, each bite was just heavenly. Perfectly seasoned and incredibly juicy, I just slowly worked my way through the entire slice which had to be at least 10 oz. The plate is accompanied by a scoop of mashed potatoes and chopped vegetables — neither was too appealing. I ended up eating the mashed potatoes only because I couldn’t waste the an jus!
For dessert, I asked for a scoop of spumoni. When mine was delivered, I looked at it and it was really only chocolate ice cream… but the waitress was very attentive and noticed my dismay. She took it back and returned with a fairly hefty scoop that definitely contained each of the 3 flavors — chocolate, pistachio, and cherry.
Value-​wise, Garden Club really can’t be beat. The food is also cooked very well, so the general lack of presentation/​ambiance really didn’t bother me.

Make sure to come early before they run out of prime rib!
Came here for the first time yesterday, after wanting to come here for months! This place serves up a 5 course menu, a different one every single day. You only get to choose your main course. They have about 8 main courses. I chose the ramb lack ($ 26.95) because they were out of their prime rib. Darn, I’ll have to come back another time. The rest of the set meal changes by day, so the rest of the meal depends on which day you come. We came on a thursday night and were served minestrone soup, stuffed chicken, and salad as starters. They also have a choice of ice cream, sorbet, or tapioca for dessert. I’ve gotta say, this place serves HUGE portions. I was nearly full by the first course (the soup), and I had to save nearly ¾ of my lamb rack for lunch the next day. You definitely get a lot of bang for your buck at this place.
All the food was excellent! All the food had a home-​cooked taste to it, and the lamb rack I got was very tender and well cooked. (PS. they serve mint jelly with the lamb rack. DON’T try a whole spoonful of it. It was like eating toothpaste lol. It did taste good spread thinly over the lamb rack, however.)
The only gripe I had was with the red headed waitress with the short hair. Our waitress (Linda, who was amazing) put a plate of stuffed chicken on our table. As we were about to start eating, the red headed waitress rudely grabbed the dish and handed it over to the next table. Which I would have no problem if there was a «sorry, this was supposed to go to them first» or an explanation of some sort. Linda came over right away with a second dish and had to apologize on behalf of the other waitress. And if there was a replacement second dish available right away, why not just leave our first plate and give the second one to the next table? (It literally came out 30 seconds later). But… I digress.
I’ll have to come back here to try their prime rib, but all in all, a good place to come try!
They also have a bar on one side of the restaurant where you can order a drink to wait.

This place did not disappoint! I came here for lunch on a Saturday with a few of my friends and we got the rack of lamb, seafood platter and prime rib.
The rack of lamb was very juicy and tender. I would highly recommend grabbing an order when dining here.
The prime rib was also very good. It was above average.
I would skip the seafood platter next time around as it was not particularly tasty — just a lot of fried seafood.
The entrees came with free bread and soup. The. Soup was surprisingly simple but tasty. I think it was a tomato celery soup when I visited.

This place is off the beaten track. It’s in SSF, so if you can imagine a place in SSF off the beaten track in SSF, this place is definitely it. I was wondering were all the Italians in SSF went. They are the original founders of SSF. Seeing them brings back memories of Paradise Valley & Grand Avenue when it was run by SSF Italian Families and the other families who were around during time of Bethlehem Steel. Probably, a bit of Sign Hill (side) history no one knows. This place seems to be one of the only last haunts for them.
My husband found it four years ago when my son was 6 mos old. The establishment is as family style old school as it gets… meat & potatoes, fried seafood, soup, salad, ice cream. Bar flys.
The only problem with any family run «family style» establishment is that in every family there is a major head case. We all have one person in our family who we dread seeing on Thanksgiving. We had great experiences at this place until last year when my mom asked the «Betty Davis» with the Hair Bob waitress if we could get a container for the left over soup. Unfortunately, she made the mistake of going off on my mom on her 70+ birthday. Tonight, we were so happy she wasn’t our server. Still, she managed to give me a lecture about my purse on the floor. Okay, that’s the only negative thing I have to say about the place. Basically, except for scary Betty, I like the place. I don’t expect delicate food, I expect hearty food from this place, and they deliver that just fine.

I’m currently in a food coma after eating a 4 course dinner! Oh my. What a great place to eat family style! Yes, the restaurant itself seems like it’s in the middle of no where, but its really close to Costco and the car dealerships in Colma!
I definitely recommend getting a reservation! My friend called in the day of and was able to get two booths for 7 people. Unfortunately they didn’t have any large tables available for us. Call early if you can! We arrived on time and got seated right away. Thank goodness! Cause the line was long and there were a bunch of people waiting!
Right when you walk in it kinda looks like a bar… haha. You have to walk in further towards the back to check in with a waitress. After you check in, the place looks more like a homey restaurant!
The food came fast! The soup, ravioli, salad, and prime rib (medium) were superb! The prime rib was delicious and cooked to perfection! It was nice and tender.
I guess desert varies day by day because we only had 3 options: chocolate sundae, tapioca, and strawberry ice cream! I really wanted to try the spumoni, but maybe next time! My friend did not enjoy the tapioca and thought it was too sweet! The chocolate sundae consists of vanilla ice cream drizzled in chocolate syrup and topped with whipped cream.
All together the total was $ 33 per person! What a steal! Where else could you get a 4 course PRIME RIB dinner for $ 33 bucks?! Great bang for your buck!
I’m definitely coming here with my family next time! :).