Oola, San Francisco

I love Oola, and keep going back. The food is awesome, the bartenders are friendly, and the music is always amazing. It's great for a dinner or lunch, or ribs, oysters, or burger and crack fries at the bar. And where can you get good food late? And I've seen some celebs there too.

I am seeing a lot of 5 stars and am not sure why. We went in to Oola's about a month ago now and I still have a bad taste in my mouth. The food was OK. I had the ribs and my mouth was raw after eating them, they were sooo over sauced/seasoned. The potatoes were good, but I don't go out for good potatoes.We did get to sample some wonderful deserts, but to our great disappointment the coffee we ordered was awefull ! It was served french press style but was all wrong! I felt like we were drinking dirty water. I did enjoy the cheese selections, they were the highlight of my meal. As far as the service is concerned, I'm not impressed. We were in on a night that was not very crowded and had to wait for extended periods of time for wine to go with our food. By the time it got to us food was 1/2 gone or almost cold. Boo for that. Also, when the server took importiant silver it was never replaced. When our first courses arrived we told our server we were all sharing and never got side plates . I know this is stuff seems trivial but its the little stuff that can make it or break it. I feel like this place is all show and getting overrated! OOlas is nothing to ooo... over.

A friend recomended this place for a late dinner, so I made resavation Saturday night @10:30 for four people. We arrived there @10:15 and we thought we were too early. The host greeted us and said our table will be ready in a few minutes. We waited and waited and waited and the host kept saying our table will be ready in few minutes. We finally sat down at 10:50 with no opologies for the delay from the host or any comments. The vibe I got from him was too bad whatever look.The food was good but nothing to WOW about. The menu selection was not that impressive, the turn off item on the menu was the chicken pot pie which I felt I was at KFC with presentation and the size of it. Some Entrees did not have sides and there was no option to order a side of veggies or potatoes. When asked to order a side of potato with the lamb dish the waiter said they do not have enough to serve only for the specified dishes that comes with potatoes. Overall we could have gone to the ELEPHANT BAR AND BEEN SATISFIED for less money.

What I like about this place is that it is casual dining at its best. If you find yourself in the mood for casual late night dining on a school night, but don't want to end up in a dinner or coffee shop then try this place. They are open pretty late for San Francisco- 12am, which is a huge plus. My favorites include the ribs, half roasted chicken and the chicken and shitake ravioli.The atmosphere is pretty cool too.

Foie Gras Torchon, Baby Back Ribs, Goat Cheese Mac and Cheese, Kamamoto Oysters, etc, etc. Really excellent meal. I prefer to eat at the bar. I've tried table seating, but if you are only two, the bar is comfortable and groovy. The layout is dark and sleek. Everything there is, yes, lovely, food, people, the Tawny. The mac and cheese balanced out the intense but delicious flavor of the baby back ribs. The foie gras with candied cherries were wonderful. They played one of my favorite OM Lounge songs while I was there. Music is everywhere. It keeps the conversations between the people having it and drowns out the rest. The bar staff is young, but make excellent drinks. Have some bread pudding or the blood orange pot de creme as it is in season.

We found a last minute reservation at Oola on opentable.com and were immediately seated when we arrived. Unexpectedly, we were seated in the private booth on the second floor....sweet. We started with the roasted beet and watercress salad. It was prepared with a yummy vinaigrette, goat cheese and pistachios...divine... Our entrees were the baby back ribs and the sea bass. Both were excellent but the baby back ribs really stood out....so tender, the meat just fell off the bone. I plan to return to Oola again and again.

The most impressive thing about this place is the service. The server we had was on top of everything down to every time water needed to be refilled - but he was polite and not pushy with anything. The dishes to try are the scallops starters (which oddly, had much better and fresher asparagus served with it than the separately ordered asparagus side dish) and the ribs. I've heard their hamburger is good, too but never tried for myself yet. Oola is almost always packed without a reservation unless you're going pretty late into the evening so plan accordingly.

Found a great place in SOMA. Oola is a great place to go for a late dinner. The drinks are excellent, especially the Watermelon Cosmo...and the food was really interesting, a great mix of all your favorites. I loved the Tomato and Goat Cheese Tart to start with. Will definitely be back, but not too soon...there are so many great places in the City.

The baby back ribs and the oysters were very good. The ribs were tender and fell off the bone. The oysters were also very fresh. We had a couple of dishes which were all excellent and easy to share with. The service was excellent as well as the wine menu. It is not too expensive and also a great date place.