Tawla SF

Something different and special in an ocean of so many mediocre new restaurants in SF. Definitely memorable.

Good food. Inattentive and impersonal service. Poor ambiance and energy level at the restaurant.

All of the food we had was delicious. The service was excellent too.

Premise that I have DAIRY , EGG, RED MEAT allergies.
I'm writing reviews after 2 visits just to check that the experience is consistent.
First time we were a table fo four, and yesterday a table of 3.
Ambience: great, chill, good choice of lounge music, as well as beautiful wall decor.
Food: everything is to share and prepared well. Few adjustments can be made but the menu is varied enough that give choices to vegetarians, vegans as well as pescatarian (squid, tuna and fish available). The small bites are tiny but provide a tie over while waiting for the Mezes. I would personally recommend the peppers as well as the chilled marinated cucumbers.
Service: attentive without being intrusive.

My boyfriend and I dined at Tawla this past Sunday, and had an awesome time. Our server explained the family-style dining option to us, and since we had never eaten there before, we agreed it would be a fun way to try a bunch of things we'd never had before. Also, unlimited bread. Sold. The food was coursed really well, never too much on the table and never too little. Ask to see the full wine list--the wines from Morocco caught our attention and the Cab Sav/Syrah blend was the perfect fit for our dinner. I love that the family-style menu isn't set in stone. We were able to request dishes that we absolutely had to have, and note which ones we didn't want. Really lovely ambiance (and playlist) topped everything off. Super fun spot for dinner. Thank you, Tawla team!

We'd heard good things about Tawla and we're disappointed. Both food and wine were not good enough for the price. For example, the lamb shank was bland and tough. Staff and service were great though.

I didn't feel that our group received a good value in our meal.

The restaurant is loud the chairs on the floor mute our most other sounds. Service started out attentive but then seemed a little
Pushy and then was lax. Bathrooms are uncomfortably dark.

Food was great and the menu is all family style so it's a fun way to dine. The service is very slow and when asking if they were short staffed for the evening, the waitress confirmed the two waitresses to the entire restaurant is part of the "family style vibe" they're going for. Seems a bit silly. Food is great but expect slow service.

Loved the experience of this place - as there is definitely the intention of offering an experience rather than just a meal. Food was so good!

Food and service are always absolutely amazing. This place is getting more and more popular for a reason. It is a unique little gem.

Good spot for tapas and light Mediterranean fare. We got the lamb which is super filling so if you do that go lighter on everything else. Kind of noisy but was okay. the decor is great. Good service.

Delicious mezes - Muhammara was a favorite. Interesting wines by the bottle. We really enjoyed our choices. Menu changes a lot, but cant go wrong with the featured proteins. Great service.

This place is a GEM! The food is amazing and so is the service. Put this place on your must-try list. Go for the tasting menu.

Went for Sunday brunch. Food was fresh and delicious. Service was great too. Will go again for dinner.

This place is amazing. The food is unique and delicious. Very vegan and vegetarian-friendly even though I am not either. The tasting menu is the way to go. You get TONS of food and it is only 39 or 49 dollars (if you want the extra special option). It is an incredible deal. The service is amazing too. I love this place.

Tawla was delicious. We got their Feast, pre-fixe family style dinner, and it was such a fun adventure. I would definitely return, though I’m a little worried I would eat my weight in their homemade breads and dips.

I really wanted to like this restaurant, I love middle eastern food and grew up eating it. For starters the host was rude when I arrived, our server couldn’t pronounce properly half the items on the menu and when we ordered a “light” dinner he seemed to be upset and say that’s all? He also seemed not happy we didn’t order drinks. Was very pushy!

The food was okay, but I can make better labneh at home and my bread was burnt on the top and bottom.

Like I said I wanted to love this place but will not go back.

My first time at Tawla was fantastic! The food, service... everything. This was my second time and the food was not nearly as good as I had remembered, the dishes also seem to have gotten much smaller, the service was not as great, and it was very quiet in the restaurant for a Saturday evening. Sadly, it was not worth the amount we spent.

What a wonderful place for a birthday celebration! The food & combination of flavors were simply exquisite & Alfredo, our servir, was very attentive. So glad we dined on the early side for dinner because the place filled up & got louder as the night wore on. Love to go back again soon!

The food was good although too great for multiple plates/dishes. The only restaurant that charges for a dip of olive oil.

Our brunch at Tawla was very enjoyable. We dined on the Batata Harra, brunch salad and levantine pancake. I also had the white sangria, which was very floral and fresh tasting with mint. I will be happy to return.

Food as always was great and service, also as alway, atrocious. We’ve had the same server (larger, older, brunette) and every single time she is abrasive, rude, and one of the worst hospitality employees I’ve encountered. Amazing that she is still there when others are so much better

Food was very good, lots of small bites and string flavors and tastes that are unique to most SF menus. Some items were very good, some items did miss though. $$ bread but $ apps equaled out.

Wine List was good, but really top heavy on the pricing, although strong wine selections from around the world, Chateau Musar and more.

Service was a little slow to start, but made up for it with strong wine and food insights. Ambience is nice, and the Manager was very nice and friendly.

Overall, a great place to nosh and try unique food and flavors.

way overpriced and most things in the tasting menu weren’t very good

All was great except for it took a long time to put in our drink orders. Great dinner!

Adorable place, with fresh and sexy interiors, great service and an admirable wine list. Had some amazing flavors (we ordered basically all the varieties of skordalia and they were all amazing). Vegetarians will be super happy here, but there's plenty of protein too. I'd skip the meatballs (needs acid) but everything else was great and we will be back again soon.

The bread and spreads were great. If I come back I'll mostly be getting those. I wasn't wowed by the Fattoush salad or any of the meat medium/large plates, and the portion sizes on the mains were incredibly small compared to the price charged.

Excellent food and excellent service. This is my second time and I will be back for sure

My husband and I ate at the chefs table. We had a blast. My husband has some food allergies so we were a bit limited but the manager and host were amazing in accommodating and taking care of our needs. We felt very at home and welcome. Great food and especially the most amazing bread and dips!!!

Had heard good things about Tawla, but our experience was not actually that great. Ther service was attentive & the interiors nicely done, but the menu was confusing with few explanations, so the staff pushed the tasting menu, which seemed the simplest in order to avoid the high priced & small a la carte items. Some of the dishes were indeed delicious, but most were mediocre, with emphasis placed on plating rather than taste or portion size. The unfortunate part was if you are going to offer a tasting menu, give your patrons ample time to enjoy it. We felt a bit rushed out with servers loudly doing sidework & cleaning up at only 9:30, like they were anxious to get out. :( With as much as I take clients out, I will go elsewhere.

Meh.

This place was disappointing.

Being Turkish, when I saw Turkish words on the menu, I was excited to check this place out. My partner and I went for brunch. I ordered the red shakshuka with "sujuk," the Turkish sausage that was an add on. It came without sujuk, which was disappointing. I thought I'd get the sujuk as a side, but our server never came to our table to check on us to see how everything was/if we needed anything, so I had to go without it. When the server finally appeared (not to check on us, but to bring us another item we'd ordered), when I was nearly done with my meal, I asked that I not get charged for the sujuk. I was told she'd never put it in the system, so I wouldn't be charged. What I didn't hear in there was an apology. Food was decent, but service left a lot to be desired. I think I'll go back to making my own shakshuka with sucuk (how it's spelled in Turkish) at home. If the service had been friendlier and more attentive, we would have given Tawla another chance during dinner, but at the end of our meal, my partner and I both thought we were ok with not returning.

Since we had a 6 person reservation, we were forced to go with Prix Fix, but we felt the portions of the delicious dips and spreads were too scant and the service very slow. We were then shocked by the enormous serving of meat at the end, which was beyond what is fitting for our party, especially since we expressed that only half of the group eat meat. It was not as good as our previous experience where we were able to order a la carte. We felt like we spent way too much for the quality of the foo we accessed.

Enjoyable dinner with combination of flavors I never thought I would like.
Financial transaction was muddled in the restaurant's favor and never straightened out to my satisfaction. Service should be streamlined - too many servers are covering too many bases.

Had been previously but it didn’t have the same exceptional experience as last time.

We have dined at Tawla a good number of times. We always order more food than we can eat mostly because we enjoy the fresh baked bread. Some of the dishes are excellent others not so much.

The wine list is utterly stupid. Too many bottles at >$200 too many at >$100 and far too few at <$70. So, in a practical sense, the wine list is useless with little to choose from. There are so many excellent wines in the world for <$70 that Tawla should offer many more. If you have a palette that can discern the quality of a $250 bottle of wine, maybe this is the place for you...

Good food and restaurant. Thought that waiting staff try to over sell you on food and drink to juice up your bill

Greaaaat food. Staff sooooo rude:(

This was our first time here, and we were very pleasantly surprised. The food was really quite unique and tasted amazing. The portions looked small initially but the food just kept coming and we all left very full. The bread was especially good, freshly made and delicious.

Tawla is good. Food is good