Great food

Group of eight for supper. We had a great spot on the second floor. Everyone was thrilled with their food. We pretty well covered the entire menu. Solid service. Quiet setting made it possible to chat and catch up as a group. Lastly, nice cocktail menu.

Loved it!!

This is a well kept secret in SF. This was my first experience and it was an amazing one. The food is outstanding and the ambience, superb.

Make your reservations!

Christine greeted us warmly at the entrance and quickly seated us upstairs. It was quite noisy at the bar downstairs but noticeably quieter upstairs. Still had to speak up to be heard.

Luxe took our dinner order promptly and was present and attentive at the right times, without hovering. When asked for suggestions, she didn't just suggest the most expensive items on the menu. She gave a nice selection, even noting that the least expensive (a vegetarian pasta dish) was the most popular.

Food was served within a reasonable time, was piping hot, adequate portions and delicious.

Great business lunch option. Decent meals but sandwiches are made with bread that is too hard.

Only one lunch pasta option. Good food, not much choice. Lovely place though

Great ambiance, great service. The apps and a steak and lobster entree were lovely, but the two pasta dishes while attempting to be creative were bland.

Excellent food but service was a bit slow for business lunch

I made a reservation at Per Diem on a night we were going to see Book of Mormon. My mistake, I was one week early. They did accommodate us with a great table upstairs that was quiet. The decor is like being in an old mansion, and a bit eclectic. The food was incredible, very creative, and delicious. Both food and wine were reasonably priced. I would go back again!

Enjoyed our lunch. Great place, energetic and busy, small menu, but excellent food. Bree provided us great and professional service. We'll be back.

Food was tasty but the "hot food" was COLD! Service was very poor. We had to go look for someone more than once.

I was really surprised by my experience at Per Diem, I had pretty high expectations based on their current ratings and location. I came here for a dinner date and was pretty disappointed. I arrived before my date so the server had gotten my glass of wine while I waited. Then, once my date arrived she checked in with us, but then forgot about us and by the time my date was able to order his drink we had flagged down another server to take our dinner order, as well. I ordered the roasted chicken, and when we were served my plate was cold. I didnt want to make a fuss because I didn't want seem high maintenance, but I definitely made a mental note. Given the price point of the restaurant, the service and food did not match up/ meet expectations.

Everything exceeded my expectations. I was looking for a relatively quiet restaurant where it was possible to have a conversation without shouting or struggling to hear. Not only did Per Diem provide that experience, but the food and service was terrific. Thanks!

A first visit to Per Diem, and disappointing. To our eyes, not an attractive space at all, and only minimally comfortable. Pleasant and efficient service. French fries were good. Tuna sandwich mediocre. Mussels copious but not good at all, with little flavor. At least ten mussels had not opened, and should have been discarded when the dish was plated. The location is convenient for FiDi, but the are other and much better options nearby.

What a nice surprise for a belated holiday lunch. Service was fanastic. Food was delicious. And the cocktails were great. It is such a nice little spot and a pleasant surprise.

My first experience at Per Diem was for a business lunch and it was perfect! While there is moderate noise, it's not so overwhelming that you can't engage in conversation. The seating was great too. I felt comfortable and not packed in like a sardine in a can. The service was among the best I've experienced in San Francisco and the staff is warm and welcoming. The food was worth coming back for. I had the Kale Chicken salad and it was fabulous. For the quality of service and food, the prices are reasonable. I'll definitely go back.

Great tasting food and the ambiance was nice. Waitress was extremely polite

The mains - short ribs, chicken, squid ink pasta - were all amazing. Mussels were decent too but not as special. Love the ambiance.

Per Diem is consistently perfect. The food is delicious, the staff is attentive and friendly and you can actually hear the person your dining with.

I walk by this place a lot and took my team here for lunch. VERY good food, and a cool atmosphere.

Great food and ambiance. Nice place to have dinner and good conversation.

Food was great. Wait service was excellent. However, the bussers constantly asking if you were done made me feel like we were being rushed out.

The meal - tuna sandwich and a side of Brüssel sprouts was very tasty- even better than I expected. The ambiance was welcoming, particularly nice on a very rainy day.
This was the kind of lunch worth facing really wet weather.

Great super fresh menu that never disappoints. Good drinks/Wine and great ambiance for a business dinner or a date.

Good, but not mind-blowing food.

I really like the consistency of the cooking with a solid wait staff and nice wine list. The atmosphere can be a bit loud at times but this particular evening we didn't have to compete over the noise. The place is well-designed and carries itself in a more gentlemanly, tastefully crafted ambience. Not a man's den but a somewhat sophisticated air of nostalgia in a very modern sense. For those who want to enjoy dinner without the pretense this is a perfect place.

Hostess was kinda weird. Maybe she's new. Didn't seat me even as i stood at the reception for a while.
Waitress was excellent! Checked on us, and really made our experience.
Food was really blah. The nice location and decor didn't make up for it. I would say their food on a scale of 1-10 is a 2.5. Very bland and low to no sophistcation. We had 5 dishes to share and only the mushroom pasta and chocolate cake were good. I would not come back and i would not recommend this place for dinner. Maybe drinks only.

We showed up at 6 for a 6:15 reservation. Lights were out, not a person in sight. It was our holiday night out and had to find a new place to dine for 5 people. Called and went straight to voicemail. Not sure what happened but put our holiday tradition in jeopardy.

Great attention from our server.
Quick service.

My favorite spot!!!

We were looking for a place on Sat night and Per Diem was reccomended to us. The food was delicious and they had an interesting choice of drinks. Definitely would come back again.

Thoroughly average, almost awful. Everything was over cooked with little flavor. The charcuterie plate looked like it had been cut by a hatchet, bad quality, really thick. The soup looked like a chunky tomato stew. All of the drinks are short pours. Martinis fill about 1/3 of the glass - might as well use a smaller glass and make it look good. Save your money and try someplace else. We ended up leaving and going to Gapar to the street.

We were made to feel very welcome, the staff was friendly and efficient and the food great. I’ll be back for certain.

I was disappointed in this restaurant. The greeting from the host was unbelievably cold. I came in alone, very wet from walking from BART in the rain, he simply said: "Can't seat you until your reservation time and your other guest arrives". That's fine but no offer to take my wet coat, where to sit, would you like to wait at the bar-nope...really unpleasant first encounter. At this point, no matter how good the food was I wouldn't return which is too bad because the decor/ambiance is warm and inviting on a rainy day. BUT, the chicken dish I had at lunch was dry, the brussel sprouts were hard and tasteless, I couldn't even finish it. The service was OK not too friendly either. Sorry to say we won't go back.

Food was outstanding as was the service. We were seated quickly and taken care of immediately. I actually ate here 2x this trip to San Fran. Had lunch there and had to go back for dinner

Absolutely not recommended. Don't know why this place is so popular. My chicken sandwich was dry. McDonald's serves a better sandwich at about $10 less. The waitress was curt and never returned to our table between the time she took our order until we were finished eating (a busser dropped off our food). Didn't refill our drinks until after we were thru with the meal. You sit so close to other tables, that it was impossible to block out the personal conversations on either side. The mindless thump-thump-thumping of some bad house music they pumped in to make the dark place even more hip just added to the tries-so-hard-to-be-cool vibe and just made the ambiance more chaotic.
Such an utter disappointment. Do yourself a favor and go elsewhere.

In the desert of downtown eating, this was an oasis.
a vegan, a vegetarian and 2 meat eaters, all enjoyed the selection and the ambiance. Each dish had extra accent points that made you feel this was a non-corporate special place.

Really enjoyed this place! Great food happy hour .. all night long. Good drink happy hour but only for 2 hours. Favorite was lobster fries and burrata toast.

Definitely would come back!

First the good points: nice, cozy restaurant space with great atmosphere that seemed very promising when we first arrived. My food was tasty and the menu had a good selection. Not-so-good points: the service was among the worst I’ve ever experienced. Upon being seated at our table we sat for at least 15 minutes before anyone talked to us. A server finally rushed over to us and asked if we wanted our check. Confused, we said check? We just sat down. He then apologized and took our drink order. From that point on, a different server took our order and delivered our food, but was highly inattentive. My partner’s entree had a hair in it, so that ruined it for him. It’s a shame because the place could be better, but our experience was very poor.