BIN 38 Restaurant and Wine Bar Review

Don's wine flight

We went to BIN 38 in San Francisco last Saturday. We took Elli with us, which probably wasn't the best decision, but we were eating early (5:45pm) and thought it would be fine.

We rarely go out anymore. But now that I'm working again (woo hoo!) we decided to treat ourselves to a day in the city. Don did a quick search of places in SF and found BIN 38. We love wine so it sounded great to us. It was listed as a $$ price point. Which is a little misleading unless you're very careful with what you order.

It turns out BIN 38 is quite the happening singles scene and it's more wine bar than restaurant.

They made an amazing plate of pappardelle noodles with an alfredo sauce for Elli. It was super tasty so she was happy. Don and I each had a different wine flight, w shared the olive tapenade appetizer, and each of us enjoyed a really yummy entree. He had scallops. I had chicken.

Burrata $14

Castelvetrano olive tapenade, garlic puree, charred bread

Diver Scallops $25

Parsnip gratin, sunchokes, leeks, american caviar, celery, hollandaise

Wine Pairing: Domaine des Baumard Sauvennieres

Mary’s Chicken Roulade $22

Ricotta gnocchi, cipollini onions, artichokes, king trumpet mushrooms, truffle jus 

Wine Pairing: Michele Chiarlo Barbera d’Asti

The food was delicious, although my chicken was a tad salty. The wine was good. But the service was really slow and uneven. They were so busy on Saturday when we got there they didn't have any clean wine glasses. It took about 15 minutes for us to get wine. That doesn't seem like a long time, but it felt like a really long time as we sat there looking at everyone in the dining room drinking wine!

Our entrees came really fast - which made us feel rushed. Don ordered another glass of wine just to send a message that we were there to enjoy ourselves.

I guess they had the last laugh though. The wine Don ordered, which was part of the flight he sampled, turned out to be 20 bucks a glass. It wasn't even a big pour.

Needless to say, our bill was quite a bit bigger than we anticipated.

Olive tapenade appetizer

Chicken with gnocchi, artichoke and mushrooms

Scallops

The couple sitting next to us had a mix-up with their order. She ordered scallops and he had the burger. They brought her a salad, which was wrong. They took the salad away. It took FOR-EVER for them to bring her scallops. Her poor date sat there staring at his burger get cold. They nibbled on all his fries while they waited for her entree. It was uncomfortable to watch. The server should have kept his burger warm.

I wasn't being nosy. The tables are tight in the dining room so it was impossible to miss what was going on at their table.

Overall, the place was fun - if you're young, single and have a lot of disposable income.

I don't think we'll go back anytime soon. Or ever. Unless someone else is buying.

BIN 38
3232 Scott Street
San Francisco, CA 94123
Reservations are strongly recommended. Kids are not.