The Gipsy Darling

I really loved this place for brunch. The owners were very accommodating, and the food is really delicious. We went there for brunch and I really wanted a salad that was on the dinner menu, so they made me that salad! (I’m not a snob, I swear). My GF’s ordered the skillets and they were the perfect portion, not to mention, sooo tasty.
I will say it was a little loud. It could be because it was Saturday, the bottomless mimosas were flowing, and we weren’t participating. Sigh.
Definitely looking forward to checking out their dinner.

I really wanted to like this spot. But here are my issues:
1. The food was void of any flavor. I ordered one of their specialty Benedicts. The hollandaise sauce was super runny, the eggs were over cooked, and the potatoes were bland.
2. The mimosas were «bottomless,» but we had to keep flagging down the waitress when our carafe was empty. There was only 2 of us and there were only 2 other tables occupied.
3. The décor is an eye sore. They need to sue their designer and hire someone else. It’s really distracting and takes away from the ambiance of a dining experience.
Try Blackwood, the Dorian or Stock and Trade before you try this place.

Oh how I wanted to love this place so much. I really hate to go on Unilocal and complain but here it is. I go to barre classes around the corner and always walked by this place but have never been in. So I decided to come in on a Friday early evening and sit at the bar. Thats my thing, I love to sit at the bar, have a drink, and a bite to eat. The space is spacious, decorated pretty whimsical and modern. I was warmly greeted by the owner who made me feel welcome. I found my spot at the bar. I was a little bummed that the bar is only wine and soju so I had to adapt. I just had a glass of sauvignon blanc and ordered the mussels with fries. Here’s where it goes south. Service is meh as you have read in other reviews. Food came out slow and its ok, a little bit bland.
The bartender doesn’t know how to consolidate his steps. My food was served but I didn’t have any utensils or a napkin. It’s common sense to give your patron a table setting once you’ve ordered food if you’re sitting at the bar. I had to ask several times for water. I asked several times for condiments. I also ordered a specialty cocktail that took forever to make. I don’t think the bartender had much experience because my lemon garnish still had a sticker on it and the garnish was sliced really huge! Also he was very neglectful. I know this place hired him for eye candy but his personality lacked AND I sat there for over an hour and realized some suspicious transactions with the bartender and other patrons. I hate to say it but I think people sit at the bar to party candy from the bartender as he spent most of his time paying attention to them and all in all they all acted quite strange, constantly putting money and god knows what in a glass that is used for checks. I had a friend tell me he had witnessed a similar incident at this bar and thought it was suspicious YET entertaining! We found humor in it and it was weeks and weeks ago so I let that impression out the door and gave Gipsy Darling a chance anyways. I’m afraid he is correct: (. The owners are nice, and the spot is nice but Gipsy Darling just turned into Icky Darling. Get a barstaff that is competent and not shady.

Oh Gipsy Darling, thanks for making this darling (aka me) a little tipsy for the day! My friends and I decided to not be basic for a day and try this hip cool looking place called the Gipsy Darling. First of all, it has your basic brunch essentials but they try to make it all green and healthy by adding kale chips to almost every freaking thing.
In terms of food, do not get their skillets — so small and huge waste of money if you are expecting an actual meal. Additionally, their food is affordable but the portions are not that huge. I ordered the skillet and ended up ordering their chicken and waffles Benedict. This probably was the best dish out of all my friends as their chicken has a light and healthy breaking to it!
Despite desperately wanting more food, my group got the bottomless mimosas or bellinis for 20 dollars per person — which were really strong and also come in guava flavor! In addition to that our server was very accommodating, but the food and drinks took way too long — which is okay since they are new.
I hope to come back to Gipsy soon, but hope they improve their service. Overall the décor and drinks are very charming-​to say it nicely!

Check your credit card statements!
They charged me $ 21 over what I wrote. I called to have them review, talked to the manager who said he’d fix it and call me back. neither of which happened.

Came here for breakfast. It was very good. Had some Eggs and bacon on French baguette. Somewhat expensive but I still found a good deal on the menu. Fruit was also fresh and delicious. Coffee decent.
Yum yum.

Terrible service, average menu.
The waitress who sat us waved her hand dismissively at the almost– empty floor and said «sit wherever.» So we did. 15 minutes later we were asked to move elsewhere. The waitress unceremoniously picked up my friends umbrella to begin moving it while she was telling us we had to move. Rude. Not only that, but I had a simple order of bacon and eggs. 2 sides, that’s it. The eggs came out on their own, and when I asked for the bacon she said «there was no bacon.» Yes, there was. I wasn’t trying to get into a slap fight about it– just bring me my damn bacon.
Spilled water and ice on my shoes as she was pouring water too; thanks for that. Not coming back.

the gipsy darling is where it’s at in the marina. Come for brunch & bottomless mimosas, appetizers & a glass of wine, or dinner — you can’t go wrong!
I highly recommend —
Rib eye Benedict — brunch
Chicken & waffles –brunch or dinner
Chefs savory seasonal toast — brunch
Brussels sprouts — dinner
Grit fries — dinner
Tomato bisque — dinner
Burrata — dinner
Artichoke — dinner
Clearly I can’t get enough of this place. Do yourself a favor & go eat at the gipsy darling!

Not up to the hype. We walked in and waited for 10 minutes before a hostess even greeted us (wtf you saw us standing there).
Now to the food: everything was super under-​seasoned. The avocado toast had like half a teaspoon of avocado smeared on it, although it was a pretty presentation.
The French toast had zero flavor, which is hard to do since it’s freaking French toast.
The eggs Benedict was also tasteless and my husband found himself adding salt.
Lastly, the grits are NOT cheese grits they are plain regular old grits. Cheese grits have cheddar cheese melted on the top and are oooey-​gooey goodness. As a southern woman, I am calling you out on false advertising of cheese grits.

I give this place 4 stars! It was my first time coming here and I found out about the place through a Gilt offer I got. $ 60 worth of food/​drinks for $ 30. I was very early before my scheduled reservation at 5. I walked in and they hadn’t opened yet but they were kind enough to let me sit at the bar.
Immediately, I was greeted by whom I believe is the manager/​host. Very friendly and he asked about my special request stated on the reservation I made on Unilocal,which was to be seated directly in front of a tv to watch the playoffs between the Warriors and rockets on game 3…
He offered me the menus and I told him I needed a drink, but needed something that did not emanate the smell of alcohol. The bartender provided me with suggestions and I settled for the Average Joe, a concoction that had Korean Soju in it.
My friend arrives and we stay seated at the bar, for a more fun and relaxed dining experience. We ordered the Cioppino Fries which were AMAZING. I ordered The Gipsy Steak and she had a Caesar Salad. Three soju drinks total between the both of us… bartender made a margarita-​like drink for the last libation. The steak was cooked to perfection and the chimichurri sauce was decadent! It came with potatoes, cherry tomatoes and broccolini… fabulous.
Her Caesar salad was tasty as well, the grilled chicken strips were tender and had a nice bbq grilled stamp on them. It was done just right.
Kind of pricy… the people are friendly, I enjoyed sitting at the Bar talking to other patrons about delectable items on the menu, and the atmosphere and décor somewhat resembled that of a Nuevo-​Latin inspired restaurant. When in fact, all the food was new American.
And the bartender was cute. Lol.
BTW total meal and drinks cost $ 70 with the gilt coupon. $ 20 tip bringing total expenditure to $ 90…good luck Gipsy! You have a promising future… looking good.

I always feel a little guilty giving a bad review to a new place where the owners are there trying to butter up patrons, but life is too short for mediocre brunch. Especially in SF you can get some damn good brunch for what Gipsy Darling charges and the only advantage Gipsy Darling has is there is not a wait and they take reservations.
My average sized female friends who were foolish enough to get bottomless mimosas for $ 25 reported needing to have 5 – 6 glasses just to catch a buzz… or maybe they just got a sugar high first. Everyone’s breakfast was ok, but below the enjoyment level of say… a roadside diner. They try way too hard to be fancy and justify the quite high prices by adding unnecessary things to their dishes. Do I want burned ass kale on my corned beef hash? No. I don’t… just make good hash. Do I want burned ass kale with my eggs Benedict?.. nope! I get it… kale is cool and healthy but cut it out.
Oddly, the service from the waitress was pretty lackluster (also meaning bottomless mimosas isn’t really bottomless when you get one carafe) but then the owners would come by and ask how things were. We saw them and their apologetic faces more than our waitress. I enjoyed hearing the bartenders audibly make fun of the bachelorette party that came in there to have breakfast too… that was classy.
Overall, I would not come back here. Brunch in SF is a special time to enjoy friends and the day. Gipsy Darling ruins the sanctity of brunch.

5 stars for the Red Eye Benedict, and bright open space & décor.
4 stars overall. Wine & beer only.
3 stars for the service which was friendly, but apologetic and lacking.
Regarding the Red Eye Benedict, I love eggs benedict, but don’t eat much fried chicken because it’s fried, and this benedict knocked my socks off. It was unique and hit all kinds of amazing notes with the red eye hollandaise sauce, crispy kale chips, cornmeal like butter. I’ll be back for this dish, for sure.

This place is always pretty empty and I’ve figured out why–
Drinks aren’t their strong point: they only have a really limited selection of wine and beer, and weird sangria. No cocktails or hard alcohol.
Food isn’t their strong point either, unfortunately: nothing tasted good or unique enough to get again, and it was overpriced.
For example, their chicken and waffles had a lot of both, but the waffles were grainy, dry and very wheaty, and the chicken was over fried. Kale chips aren’t the best garnish for chicken and waffles. The «Darling» salad was flavorless, full of water all over the leaves, and once it had spiced cashews but the next time I went, it was filled with old plain walnuts. The grit fries were crispy, but really bland. The artichoke came with some odd tasting lemon dressing.
Service was average, even with only a few other tables filled each time I went. The servers hide in the back corner of the restaurant. I talked to the general manager about some feedback I had, and was met with a dismissive «meh» attitude– he obviously did not care about feedback or customer service at all.
It was as if the owners of this place had a ton of money to throw away, and having no experience in the restaurant industry or know anything about good customer service, decided it was their dream to open a restaurant to cater to Marina folks (I know! They like an overloaded burger and brunch foods! We will be successful for sure!). They did okay renovating the space (which looks a lot nicer now), but then decided they knew what was «in» (no, I don’t want to spend $ 65 on caviar on your very minimal Happy Hour menu) and wanted to attract the Tipsy Pig crowd, but failed. I gave it a few tries since I want to see a new business do well in the neighborhood and it is an easy walk for a happy hour, but will not be returning.

Walked in on a Saturday a couple of weeks back at 2pm, looking for a cocktail and a small bite. We were greeted and seated quickly, but it took forever for someone to come back to us to take our order. The same guy that seated us (I think he may be one of the owners?) walked up with a small plate of free banana bread and said he could take our drink order while we waited for the server. Now mind you, there were only 4 other tables occupied at this time and a server was nowhere to be seen since we’d walked in. We ordered a round of one of their special sangrias and decided to hold off on the food, as unfortunately all their brunch items were egg based and we’d already had breakfast and were more so in the mood for a sandwich or salad. 5 minutes later we get informed by the same guy (still no waiter in sight) that they are out of their two sangria cocktails. None of the other house cocktails stood out, so we settled for two lattes. He walks away and 3 minutes later a waiter shows up to take our drink order (???). We inform him we just told his coworker that we’d like 2 lattes, no food.
Now the lattes are the only reason this place gets two stars instead of one. They were served in huge bowl-​like mugs and had the perfect ratio of espresso to milk. While sipping on them, we observe two parties come in and leave as no one attends to them after they got seated. When we’re ready to settle up for our coffee drinks, no one is paying attention to us and the waiter has disappeared back to who knows where. Even the guy who greeted and seated everyone is gone. After 10 minutes of tapping our fingers, we walk up to the bar and ask for our check and pay right there — a process that took another 5 minutes as apparently no one was quite familiar with the system yet.
This place has tons of kinks to work out, mainly in the service department. Might try it again when I’ve been day drinking in the Marina and don’t care about being served food or drinks in a timely manner and just want to take a nap on their bench cushions…

A nice new addition to the Marina for brunch. I can’t remember what the former space used to be, but The Gipsy Darling looks like a chic, welcoming addition to the food scene in the Marina. They’re recently opened, so they’re still working out some kinks in service — I made reservations but the owner let us know that we’d have to wait a bit for food since they were accommodating a larger party.
They have a fun twist to brunch classics such as omelet with shaved strawberries (genius), pastrami lox (so good!), and avocado toast with pickles. Everything was tasty, and the service was friendly. If I had to grumble a little I would ask them to add some ice so I can get my ice coffee already :)
The restaurant is just off of Chestnut and Fillmore, so it’s perfect for people who want to hit up the Marina after.

So, even though I had never heard of this place, I decided to stop in because we found parking right in front and there was a sign for happy hour. it was 6:50 and happy hour was til 7. SCORE!
The restaurant is bright, open, and inviting. Definitely a good spot for girl’s night out and small groups, or a casual date.
The GM greeted us as we walked in, and as they’re a new restaurant, they’re definitely focusing on stellar service and are succeeding so far :)
We opted for the HH $ 20 pitcher of sangria, and it was definitely enough for 4 – 6 servings. It was fruity and deep, fairly light and served in the two biggest glasses EVER. Perfect for a warm Friday evening. They also had a strawberry jalapeño sangria that the bartender let us try, I often don’t like jalapeño flavors in my drink but this one was actually really good — it hit your mouth first with heat but ultimately ended with a nice strawberry flavor and aftertaste… surprisingly good!
We got the HH cioppino fries (I think it was $ 6 or $ 8) — these were shoestring fries topped with some cheese which sat in a shallow a cioppino broth with a few clams and mussels on top. an interesting take on fries! They could have been a bit crispier but it was still delicious and perfect with our drinks.
This was just a happy hour stop for us, but after reading their menu and seeing (and smelling!) the food come out to other patrons’ tables, I would be open to coming back for dinner. Everything on the menu sounded delicious and I appreciated that they have their own spin on ‘normal’ sounding items that you typically see everywhere else.
I think they just opened a couple of months ago, so interested to see in how this place will fare!

This place had such great potential. We stopped in for brunch around 12:30 on a Sunday and were informed we could sit down immediately but the kitchen was running behind and it would be 45 mins before we got our food. Fair enough, we appreciated the warning.
It did indeed take that long if not longer to get our food, which was fine by me. Two things that frustrated me though: 1) it took us about 15 minutes to even get our coffee, and 2) when the food arrived it was totally meh. I don’t mind waiting, but expect the food will be worth it after 45 mins. The eggs in our Benedict were basically hard boiled and our avocado toast was just bizarre– they had put it on a very sweet bread containing walnuts and cranberries– not a good combination.
This is a super cute spot with a solid menu, but with the wait and the so-​so food, I can’t justify coming back when there are so many great spots to check out.

Duh, yeah I was in the band in high school. You thought I just warmed the bleachers at our basketball games? Or handed out gatorade? Or shot the t-​shirt cannons? Beezy pleezy. That’s why the marching band (!) version of Marvin LGBTQQIAS was so sick during my brunch. Actually every moyolotown /​soul /​jazz /​likeabossanova track came correct at this resto.
Décor & music are 4 stars. Also token black employee. #diversity But the food… you might want to give this place time. If you go anyway, get the Grit Fries & just drinks or sth. Somebody text me when the entrees catch up to dem fried grits doe plznthx.
(^_​^) Grit Fries $ 8
Team Jenga vs Team Hashtag, bizznastys.
(^_​^) Iced Tea $ 3
Secret menu. But it’s never a secret to me.
(-_​^) Red Eye Andre Benedictjamin 3000 $ 16
Deece texture but blandy. Potatoes underfried.
(-_​-​) Our One Worthy (Fork & Knife) Burger $ 21
Ironic highbrow american cheese just felt cheap, plus the #basic bun. It can improve.
Just a few centering x spacing issues with the menu; otherwise, other businesses could learn from this so Gipsy so clean clean typography.
Only real snafu was I specified (with words and hand gestures) really super rare for the burger… and it came medium well or whatev. I’m not the type to send food back, so I didn’t trip. But still.

With the Marina, it’s sometimes pretty hit or miss, with restaurants coming and going fairly frequently. This is one we want to stay and believe that they will. I am bummed that they are not open on Mondays though.
I’ve been here a few times since they have opened now and have to say that it hits all the marks. It’s got a great ambiance — a pseudo 50’s jet setter kind of thing and it is one of those few spots that works great to meet with friends or on a date. The food is fantastic, like the chicken and waffles (maple, check, dill pickle, check — wait, pickle? Yeah. And it works.), their whimsical burger, and an amazing brunch selection. Amazing brunch, seriously. We had the benedict, totally out of this world. As was both the breakfast and dinner versions of the buratta.
And the staff hits it out of the park. A lot of times in your neighborhood you want a guy that owns the place that you feel like you know. Who may comp you an appetizer or drinks and becomes your friend. You don’t just get treated well here, you get fed well too.
At the end of the day, most folk’s are looking for particular things and reviews are subjective, so, I always check out the pictures of the food. I added pictures of our breakfast the other day. Mainly because I wanted to share them on IG, but still, you get the feeling.

I live down the street on Lombard and was curious to try out the new local restaurant– The Gipsy Darling. I’m so happy I ventured out because it instantly became one of my new favorite joints.
The food is so refreshing with new, interesting options as well as your classic burger. I love having the option to either try something new or play it safe. Imagine having all your comfort foods but with new exciting additions that will make you want to come back for more.
The design and style inside is welcoming, intimate, social, and classy :) The servers were all very polite and engaging (especially for being a brand new restaurant).
I came back to do their brunch tasting and they had bottomless mimosas! Along with the essential mimosas, their breakfast was to die for. I had the Eggs Benedict and they were on point. Another reason the Gipsy was great for brunch was because so much sunlight comes through in this building. I hate going to brunch and feeling like I am stuck in a dark hole. It’s a perfect place to socialize with your friends and not feel like you’re «wasting» your day away at a bar.
Five stars from me! Excited to see this place really kick off!
OH and it doesn’t have a TV, but it has a projector screen for big games (Two thumbs UP!)