Cafe Europa

Great polish spot tucked away among the many Chinese, Thai, and Japanese restaurants in the Richmond District. The wait time may be a while but it will be worth it. If you have a large group, probably best to make a reservation, otherwise you can get away with cramming by the front door and waiting for the host to notice you’re there — trust me, it will happen eventually.
Once seated, the service was good. The goulash didn’t disappoint, they serve it with potato dumplings and some rye bread (not the marbled rye you may be used to). The real surprise here is the cabbage rolls. Don’t let the cabbage scare you away, these are delicious balls of meat, spices, and rice wrapped in cooked cabbage. Try it with the tomato sauce on top. Both dishes are great for sharing.
For desert, we had the poppy seed strudel since they were out of apple and it was another tasty surprise. Just couldn’t figure out exactly was in the stuffing, but it was delicious.
Pro tip: wash down dinner with a honey beer.

Rude servers, we were treated as if we did them a huge favor of walking in this place. Horrible customer service.

The food here is the best hardy soul food, you will be satisfied with whatever you order, the stroganoff is one of the best, but what really makes it is the owner. He is so easy going, and makes comfort food even more comfortable. Highly recommended and they have a very cute back room that’s intimate and home-​y.

What a disappointing experience. Reading these reviews makes me think they are fake or someone was paid to write them. The place is quite run down on the inside, old and scratched and stained floors, dim lighting, chipped plates and tarnished silverware. For the prices on the menu this should be a much nicer and more upscale environment. There are no tablecloths and it feels like you’re eating on someone’s old dining room table that they forgot
The food is sub par, definitely not what I was expecting from a European restaurant. The soup was good but I would leave it at that. The owner/​manager is passive aggressive, definitely doesn’t understand the concept of customer service in America. This definitely left a bad taste in my mouth, and not just from the food. Save yourself the money and go to Cinderella café for a pleasant and genuine european meal.

Delicious food and excellent beer selection. We ordered a beet salad and it was so good we got another. The schnitzel is wonderful and so are the cabbage rolls and sausages. It has a cozy atmosphere and it’s simply a great place to have (what I feel is) underpriced European food. Will return as often as I can.

My favorite restaurant in the Inner Richmond hands down. The food here is always amazing and you can find some unique European beers that I’ve never seen anywhere else. I’ve been going here for over 2 years now and have never been disappointed. Alex the owner is extremely generous and really makes you feel right at home.

Extremely disappointed with both quality of food, cleanliness of the establishment, etc. Everything seemed to be way below what one might expect given other Unilocal reviews for this place. Their china is chipped to a point where it may not be safe to eat from it. The food lacks flavor, the portions are small. We found a human hair wrapped around lamb sausage, and the owner stated that they didn’t have anyone in the kitchen with that type of hair — that definitely makes you feel better, doesn’t it -:))))).
I am never coming back.

We cleared our plates in every course! And any lack of options due to finite ingredients or crazy customer volume is quickly made-​up by the ambiance, including vinyl music records and nice cutlery.

I really like this place. It’s not upscale, just a casual place to get some really good food and a beer. The owner is super nice. It’s pretty close to my house, so I’ve met friends here for dinner many times. Love the cucumber dill soup, beef tongue with horseradish, the leg of lamb with mash potatoes, and the dessert blintzes. Try it out!

Great service and huge selection of beers and classic German/​Polish/​Czech food. House made sausages (if you like lamb it’s a must) huge schnitzel that’s super crisp. And the apple cake dessert is phenomenal and a wonderful way to end your meal. The host was a younger gentleman that was very attentive and eager to advise us on the food/​beer menu.

I wish the schnitzel we got, which was tasty, had been as huge as the ones in the pictures posted here, but the one we got was like half that size. The owner/​manager/​waiter is great and obviously very concerned about service and food quality, and does a good job… the waitress person is efficient, but could use an upgrade in cordiality (she does warm up a bit more after a while.) Our goulasch was good, though lacking in spice, and the cabbage rolls were (I’m sorry to say) kinda nasty. Potatoes and beer were good and the rye bread served spectacular. Overall though, overpriced (ok, I realize this is SF so prices are high) for the amount of food you get (check DJ’s Bistro in Pleasant Hill for really great Eastern European food, huge portions and cheap prices, that’s the way restaurants of this type should be run).

Amazing food and service! The schnitzel was humongous and sooo tasty. The goulash with potato dumplings was such a great comfort food. It was like eating at your grandma’s kitchen! The complimentary sweet wine at the end of our meal was a really nice touch. We love this place and definitely will be back.

It’s gotten hard to find a good place for borscht and pireogi since Old Krawkow closed years ago in West Portal. There is Cinderella Café that’s delicious but isn’t exactly a sit-​down-​dinner place.
So Café Europa is good news to me. It’s nothing fancy, just comfortable enough for you to feel like you are tucked away in a little unassuming restaurant in Eastern Europe. Since I am not picky about the authenticity of the schnitzel or brauswurst or pireogi or whatever, it wasn’t important that the restaurant description is both German and Polish.
We were warned that the kitchen was slow that night, but it’s never easy to wait a long time for your food to come out. I pretty much inhaled 90% of my borscht and pireogis before I caught the taste of both. They were both good. Satisfying. Definitely felt like comfort food.
If time permitted, I’d love to try their dessert next time.

We ate here with a friend about a week ago & were pleasantly surprised. Since we’ve been traveling around Hungary every year for almost 20 years & have become addicted to their food as well as Polish & German cuisine we were excited to try Café Europa.
We were there on a Friday night & it was fairly busy but the noise level was quite manageable. The waiter could not have been more helpful nor more friendly. Service by him & the waitress was very good.
The food was outstanding. We loved the dill cucumber soup & borscht. For main courses we had the Pork schnitzel, homemade lamb sausages with kraut and the nightly special which was a huge lamb shank on a bed of mashed potatoes with a delicious gravy. One of the sides, the spaetzle was a little bland, but a little salt & mustard turned that around.
Dessert was a very nice, warm, apple cake.
We are already looking forward to our next visit!

This is a really cute home style German restaurant. Forget about going to your local pub for a nice beer and brat. Why not venture down the road to warm up by the fire at Grandma’s house with some hot borchst followed by schnitzel and beef stroganoff? The staff here are extremely friendly and eager to show off their delicious menu. They have a pretty good beer selection as well. We came by on a Sunday evening for dinner and didn’t have to wait to get seated.

Great food and absolutely amazing service. Anything we ordered had an exquisitely well-​planned character, taste and presentation. Highly recommended!!!

Great casual spot for Eastern European fare. The owner is half Belarusian and half Polish but 100% proud of his food.
He recommends and I really enjoyed his pork schnitzel. It’s probably the best in SF and certainly the meat itself stands up to some of the best in Germany. It’s not dried out and it comes with some less traditional accompaniments that are healthier like broccoli.
The goulash in less of a soupy hearty kind and more of the reduced sauce with some tender meats and potato dumplings. I thought this was good but not as good as I’ve had in Eastern Europe.
The cabbage roll is interesting. Apparently the tomato sauce is the most traditional/​authentic according to Polish people but the mushroom sauce one is also excellent.
I think the real discovery here was the honey beer. It’s beer that tastes like light honey. Amazing!
This place is all small business charm and I look forward to returning.

I can’t say no to Café Europa. It quickly became my favorite in the west end (sorry Aziza), and we go for dinner about once a month. Rus and I have tried pretty much everything on the menu except the sausage.
We start every meal with a bowl of borsht. The schnitzel is pretty special, and the goulash takes me back to Prague.
The owner is warm, welcoming and clearly devoted to both service and quality, comfort food.
Even when it is busy, the wait is not bad for a SF restaurant, less than 15 minutes.

I’ve been to Café Europa four times in the past year and each time I’m amazed at how delicious the food is.
I always order the meat and potato periogis and the beef goulash– I am never disappointed. The goulash is melt in your mouth amazing and the texture of the potato dumplings around the plate is spongy and soaks up the sauce.
The atmosphere is dim lights and a very cozy feel with a small bar full of different beers in the back.
The owner/​manager of this establishment is always very friendly and on occasion with a very large group has let us sample some of the European beer brands until we all found one we liked.

I’ve never been to Germany or Eastern Europe, just eaten my body weight in German food from Texas’ Hill Country German restaurants. But here’s my review anyways!
Small, comfy space. Dimmed lights but not dark. I enjoyed the music; it’s a mashup of music you’d imagine in a silent film, bossa nova-​ish jams and classical fusion of film soundtracks I believe. Friendly and attentive service.
I tried a Polish honey-​infused lager and it was flavorful and decently strong. They also have Czech, German and other misc. beer.
Pork schnitzel: uuunnnnnnfff! Bigger than my face, not dry or thin, nice and flavorful. I had mine with potatoes and sauerkraut but you can sub the sides for whatever they have (garlic mashed potatoes are on point, and they offer spatzle).
Warm apple cake for dessert (with cream on the side): aaaggghhhhhh! So good… I’m a sucker for warm apple desserts and this really delivered.
I’m not sure how authentic this place is, but I don’t care. The ambiance and wait blow Suppenkuche out of the water imho. Can’t wait to come back!