Bia’s

I’m stumped on how to star… This is a functional update. As Of October 2012 this place is closed. There is no note about why but maybe they’re painting… I hope so; it’s not easy to find a quaint place with backyard space.
Bia’s come back soon! (and do’t be afraid to expand your menu!)

If it was possible, I would give this place a 2.5.
The service was slow, but there was only 1 waiter, so I wasn’t too upset – When we asked him for something, it usually got done. The only exception to this was the table – it was dirty when we got there and we asked him to wipe it down, and he never did. We did choose our own seating, so that’s not entirely their fault, but it was annoying that he never fixed it. (2 stars)
The ambiance was nice, it was very comfortable to sit outside and enjoy the breeze. (4 stars)
We got a bottle of the house wine, the regular burger with fries, and the turkey avocado sandwich with salad. Because everything was so variable, I’ll write a separate rating and review for each individual item:
Burger and fries (2 stars) – My date ordered this, and it came out lukewarm, as did the fries. Also, while he asked for it rare, the center came out uncooked. I don’t know what to say about this (he usually asks for it rare, because when you order burgers medium rare, they typically come out well-​done), but I’m pretty sure it’s unsafe to serve raw meat. Other than being cold, the fries were good, well seasoned and crispy… But they were definitely cold.
Turkey avocado sandwich with salad (3.5 Stars) – Salad and dressing was average. I found the sandwich very tasty and refreshing. Not too much of any one ingredient, and whatever dressing they used was spot on. It wasn’t too heavy, either.
House wine (4 stars) – A solid, inexpensive, drinkable cab ($ 20 a bottle).
Would I seek this place out again? Probably not.
Would I go here again if I was hungry and in the area? Maybe.

It was an outright bad experience. Sketchy, dishonest service and food.
I was lured by the sign at the door which said «All Organic Food». But my experience turned out to be a bad one.
1. The waiter led us to order French fries on the side telling us they were «really good». However the fries were cold and soggy. I think he was just trying to get rid of them. I asked him to change it to a side of salad which he did, but he huffed and puffed.
2. The veggie burger was over cooked, totally burnt on the surface, smooshed and tasteless.
3. The potato soup was very watery and tasteless as well.
To sum things up, the food was bad and overpriced. There’s a nice patio in the back but that’s not enough to bump the rating up when the food was so unsatisfactory.

Based on the other reviews I would NEVER have tried this restaurant based on how unsanitary it sounds. Luckily this is my first time seeing these disgusting reviews, so I ate a Bia’s a few weeks ago and had a wonderful meal!
I’ll admit the service wasn’t great, but they only appeared to have one waiter working both the front room and the back patio, so i didn’t really blame him. And he didn’t forget anything or mess up any of our orders, so to me that’s a-​okay service.
Sitting outside was very nice. You have the option of sitting in the sun or the shade. Seating was a little bit limited; the tables were inconveniently close together, but nothing so egregious that i wasn’t able to enjoy my meal.
On to the food: my food was VERY tasty. I ordered the chicken skewers — a basic Mediterranean dish served with Basmati rice. But what made this dish outstanding was the savory green sauce drizzled on top of the chicken. It might have been a pesto sauce (or technically more of a chutney) but i can’t say for sure… all i know is it tasted great on my chicken. My lunch companions had the ratatouille and the turkey sandwich. Both were good, not outstanding, but we all at everything on our plates!
The more I think about the layout of the restaurant the more I can believe that other diners have found the conditions unsanitary. Patrons have to walk right past the kitchen pickup window to get to the back patio, which means any sneeze or cough could carry and land right on your freshly made food. The bathroom is also suspiciously close to the kitchen. If Bia’s could clean up there act and hire a few more servers (especially for the weekends) this place could be a big hit!

My partner and I stumbled upon this modest spot on Haight after spending a little park time at Hippie Hill on ⁴⁄₂₀. The prices looked right and so we went in to get some dinner. The place is small and not real special or fancy, but the waitress was pleasant and it wasn’t long after we sat down that more people began flooding in. The poor waitress was flying solo so we were being patient with service.
I ordered the half chicken in a french white wine sauce with a wild greens salad w/​homemade honey mustard dill sauce and my partner ordered a meatball kebab that had an amazing Mediterranean marinade/​sauce on it with a side of rice and sliced grilled tomatoes. The chicken was amazingly moist and tender and the flavor of the sauce was tangy and flavorful. We couldn’t have been more pleased with our entrees.
Sadly we passed on the homemade desserts but we will come back again for another meal. The price for the quality, flavorful food was more than fair. I hope to sample the appetizer crabcake next time and a dessert.

Came here this afternoon to grab some food. I got a caprese sandwich. Two bites into the sandwich, I see a sizable brownish crusty spot on the lettuce. I couldn’t tell if it was crusted on dirt or bird shit. Looking closely at the leaf of lettuce that was folded up, it was unwashed – with that really fine grit that you sometimes find on produce in the grocery store. You know, before you buy it and then take it home and **wash** it.
The server looked at it and said «it’s just wilted.» Total BS. There was no wilting, it was a crusty blob of gunk dried onto the leaf. I stood my ground and told him I wasn’t paying for unwashed, dirty food that I wasn’t going to eat.
I won’t come back here. I have zero faith that they are cleanly when it comes to food prep.
Upon perusing other Unilocal reviews (god, I wish I’d done this before we went in), it seems the server/​owner likes to stick his fingers in water glasses and wipe off silverware with his fingers. –in front of patrons.
No wonder he was surprised I wanted the raw produce on my sandwich washed.
Disgusting. I wonder how they pass their health inspections.

If you have nowhere else to eat, if everything is closed, if you are literally so hungry you cannot walk further down the street to McDonald’s then yes, stop in. Food? Mediocre at best. Service? Umm, I do not recall any service. Did I get food poisoning from eating there? Maybe a dormant form that will errupt a few months from now…
Ok fine, they have outdoor seating — might be the only perk. My friends and I were lured in because of the promise of sangria. Don’t get the sangria. Our server actually put his hand in the pitcher to pull out fruit. THAT IS SO GROSS! Additionally, when we asked for silverware he stared blankly at us as if this was the most ridiculous question people eating at a restaurant could possibly ask. He did finally bring it to us ONLY AFTER WIPING THEM OFF WITH HIS HANDS.
Eat elsewhere, there are so many other options.

I have been going to Bia’s for a long time now. I work in the upper Haight and find it very convenient and comforting to have a good neighborhood spot to get a great meal at. Something very disturbing has happened though and I feel the need to let the public know about it.
The last two times that I have used my credit card at Bia’s the owner/​server has added to the tip. The first time that it happened I used my checkcard. I am extremely organized and record everything that goes in and out of my checking account. When I checked my account I saw that the Bia’s charge was $ 5 more than what I had recorded. The second time I used my card I was charged $ 1 more on a bill that came out to $ 110 (including a 20% tip). I had left an $ 18 tip and the owner added a dollar more.
I am extremely disappointed by the poor business ethics of the owner especially since I have come to know him as a regular customer. I plan on reporting him to the Better Business Bureau and hopefully he will change his ways and quit stealing from the people that support him.

Backyard burgers.
Can’t beat the garden patio on a nice day. Bet Unilocalers complaining about the food, the wait and the service were not sitting out back. Amazing what warm weather can do for ones patience.
As for those complaints:
Food: Not bad. House veggie burger mix of parsley, chives and spinach gave it a distinct green look. Not the best I’ve had. Not the worst either. Lack of side kept the $ 8 burger from being a deal.
Wait: There wasn’t one. Order taken promptly. Food served about ten minutes later.
Service: OK. I was appreciative that even though most business was up front they let me sit outside without any hesitation. I did have to ask for utensils and condiments, and my water was not refilled. So all was not perfect, but not quite to the level I’d complain.
Then again it’s hard to complain about anything on such a nice day.

Inexpierenced staffers, breakfast that’s nothing to write home about and what’s with the clip on desk lamps for evening lighting?
Really a shame as it’s a great space with one of the VERY few outside patios in the Haight. And its a lovely back patio. … but that really that’s only gem about the place.

Lacking taste and consideration for their customers.
My friend and I sat down for a drink in the back patio and even though the server was gruff, we didn’t care as were just passing by. Right after I received my glass of sangria, I accidentally knocked it over. I asked the server for some napkins and he asked if I wanted another glass. I said sure, thanks!
I actually really enjoyed the glass of sangria and was looking forward to returning there the next time I was in the city. However when we got the bill, the jerk charged me for the spilled drink. If you were gonna charge me, you should have told me and not present it in a way that you were replacing my drink.
I have spilled a drink or two in my life but no one has ever charged me for it. It’s just bad juju and you just don’t do that if you want to build customer loyalty. Bad karma all around.
I really hope that dude was not the owner. If you are the owner, you really should train your staff better. You just lost two customers who would’ve returned and brought friends.
Two stars as the sangria was pretty good.

I was lured here under the hope that they had good falafel, but they don’t even offer that on the menu. So it was kind of a waste of time. In the words of my friend Samantha, «Don’t go here unless you want the guilt trip of a Jewish grandmother…»
The service was awful. Upon entering, the dude (I presume the owner because no server has the balls to be that rude) was bitchy about the most adorable puppy in the world cradled in my arms. As he could see, the pup is super chill and could handle the garden setting out back. Seriously, there were like two other tables occupied out back, I don’t think they minded the most adorable puppy in the world sitting beneath the table.
As soon as we sit down, the server/​owner asks us if we are ready to order. Seriously, are you that impatient and apparently really busy? No. Next, he asks us to move tables which I would have been fine with if approached in the appropriate way. Anyone who’s worked as a server knows that you at least have to ask. After being shushed out of the table, he tells us to sit in the table in the corner in the deep shade. Like no thanks dude, it’s a gorgeous day and I’m kind of enjoying the sun here. We found a sunny table, but the table was literally falling apart! Without even touching the table, little wooden splinters fell constantly into my lap. Yikes! I’m not one to keep a list, but there’s more…
We get the food and it’s actually really good! It’s so shitty that the service sucks that bad to cancel out the actual yummy food. Blast! In closing, I never got my water glass refilled the whole time, he never checked on us once and the icing on the cake was charging our credit cards with an extra $ 2.25. Seriously dude, check your math!
To harp on what my friend Sam said, it felt like we were the ones who he intended to make feel like shit hence the «guilt trip of a Jewish grandmother,» Except we actually had to pay to go there! Even though the burger was excellent and the caprese sandwich was great, I won’t be going there again.

To places this bad, I hate having to give the minimum one star. But this place deserves the one star, because they introduced me to a Brie Omelet! They have a cheese omelet on the menu, you can ask the server for brie cheese instead of the given options.
We came here yesterday at around 12 noon, we were starving. We ordered Cheese Omelet (w Brie), Eggs Benedict, Whole wheat Pancakes and Ground meat skewer with a Sangria and a Bloody Mary. We waited for 10 minutes to get our drinks, which was fine. We were one of the first ones at the restaurant.
Slowly all the tables around us started filling up, and we noticed that people that had arrived much after us had gotten their food. It was after 1PM, and we still hadn’t been served food yet. My friend went up to the front, and asked the manager why our food was taking so long. He got flustered and started blaming us for ordering the Ground meat skewer (PSA: do not order the Ground Meat Skewer unless you have all day to wait). Then he ran to my friend’s boyfriend asking him to stop my friend from questioning him. He blamed his cooks for not cooking our food. He said he has repeatedly asked them to cook it, and they haven’t yet.
Somehow it just wasn’t his fault that we hadn’t received our food, and even though he is the manager of the restaurant, he felt helpless.
We then got our food, at 1:20pm. I was served the Garden Omelet instead of the Cheese Omelet. When I alerted the manager again of this mistake, he did not apologize, but gave me the correct Omelet in 10 minutes.
He did not check on us even once after we were served the food.
Usually if the food takes so long, or if the restaurant messes up an order, they politely take it off the bill or comp us with something else. We were charged for EVERYTHING!
I will never go back here! It is pretty obvious that this guy doesn’t read his Unilocal reviews, but I hope this warns the fellow Unilocalers to stay away.

I am amazed that anyone has given this restaurant more than 3 stars. Let me give a brief summary of our experience there:
–The waiter grabbed the water glasses by the rim. Meaning he had dunked his fingers into each of our waters. No thank you, finger water.
–Every dish came out cold. From reading other reviews, this seems to be the most reliable bit of information about Bia’s.
–No coffee refills, no smiles, and definitely no differences in cook time on burgers.
–Had to walk to a dirty and dark hallway to be seated outside.
–One sweaty man with a scowl was serving the entire back patio. We practically had to beg to be waited on.
Even on a very busy event weekend in San Francisco, this place was empty. I wish our party had taken that as a clue and gone somewhere else.

All we wanted was a round of bloody marys. Pretty hard to f’ up, right?
First and only suggestion: Don’t serve bloody marys if YOU CAN’T SERVE VODKA.
Our $ 11 «cocktails» were made with soju, and there was nary a mention of this on the menu or from the bartender. Cute place, but get a full liquor license and a damn clue.
End rant!

While we were hanging out in the Haight-​Ashbury area, we walked in this restaurant for an hour’s rest in the late afternoon. Bia’s location is convenient and their advertisement of them being one of the top 5 restaurants of the area attracted us in.
Their daily special of red wine is only $ 4 and we ordered a plate of cheese and bread for a light afternoon tea. The restaurant was cute inside with plants and colorful walls.
I saw a couple foreign families come in for early dinner. Maybe they were lured in by the guidebooks too? They were quiet most of the time, so I couldn’t get much feedback on the food. Mine was average, crackers, cheese, bread and some apple slices, can’t be noticably wrong.
The restaurant’s corner had nice comfortable window seating, not a bad idea to kill a couple hours here with the view.

I’m not sure why the reviews aren’t higher for this restaurant, because the food was really good! A cute, little restaurant in the middle of eclectic Haight Street.
I ordered the yogurt chicken and the dish was fantastic! The sauce that covered the rice yogurt and chicken was delectable, and the presentation was nice as well. Some others in our group ordered a pasta, the ratatouille, and a cheese plate. Everything tasted really good!
The restaurant had a mini bar with a variety of wine selections as well. A great place to come have dinner with friends!

While wandering around the Haight on Sunday we decided to stop in here and have a glass of wine.
For some reason, I didn’t check the Unilocal reviews, (even though my guy has a brand spanking new Iphone.)
There were a few people eating, a couple playing cards, and a few tables having wine.
I chose a rose, which unfortunately, I wasn’t too fond of. It was a bit too sweet, and bit too chilled.
Speaking of chilled… Even though it wasn’t that cold outside, it was very cold inside! I mentioned it to the server, and he said something about a fan in the back… Not sure then why it was on?
Anyway, we finished our wine, and continued wandering around the neighborhood.
Probably wouldn’t return, although I was pleased to see a sign outside claiming they serve all organic food.

My boyfriend and I came across this place by chance. We initially came to the area to try Cha Cha Cha, but after seeing the menu decided to go against that. (We really didn’t have a good experience with tapas at this other restaurant in the Sacramento area, and just don’t know if we can even get ourselves to try it again … let alone PAY to try it again.)
So we went walking down Haight to see what other food places it had to offer and this place caught our eye. It was happy hour as well so we thought we’d give it a shot. First walking the place was REALLY quiet, with what looked like only one guy working the entire joint. We were greeted unenthusiastically and were told to take a seat at any table we liked. The place as a rustic, earthy type feel to it … which can come off as dirty.
The menus are already on the tables so we were able to look through them and chose what we wanted to order. It took about 5+ minutes for the server to come back around to us to take down our drink and food order.
We ordered the pitcher of sangria (~$ 15 happy hour price), rigatoni, and the burger (added pepperjack cheese) with fries. My boyfriend and I thought the sangria was great! Not sure why no one else did … it wasn’t drowned in ice, tasted very fresh, and definitely had my boyfriend and I stumbling out of there. The rigatoni came in a really small portion and my boyfriend was able to finish it within 5 minutes of getting it. The burger however was a little big for me, and ended up giving half of it to my boyfriend. The pasta was OK, nothing special. The burger was GREAT! Cooked perfectly and the fries, OH MAN THE FRIES, they were amazing. Tasted so fresh and perfectly cooked.
If I ever return to this place it will be during happy hour for a pitcher of sangria and their burger w/​cheese and fries. YUM!

It’s a restaurant with no frills, mediocre decoration and a mediocre waitstaff. Yet I can’t shake the fact that the dish I ordered, the Pasta Rigatoni, was absolutely delicious.
We walked through Haight after touring the de Young and stumbled upon Bia’s. The menu is pretty standard for a typical lunch spot, with a couple surprises (lamb burger, anyone?). On weekends, their brunch lasts until 2:30, which is nice for those wanting a breakfast treat.
Again, there’s nothing too terribly special about this place, but I’m still in love with the rigatoni. Despite a strong opinion that all pasta should be covered in red tomato sauce, the garlic-​wine based sauce was absolutely incredible. Don’t discount it when I say this may be the best dish I had during my visit to the Bay.