All About Herbs @ Paris Cafe

Unfortunately closed… and I miss them!

All About HErbs CLOSE 2 months ago,
Paris Café still open during the day
HOW DO we contact the web master?

This review is for All About Herbs, their evening Thai Vegetarian restaurant, not for the daytime Paris Café. I want this place to thrive… not become impossible to get into, as it already has very limited seating… but to live long in our fair city.
The two women team who serve and create the meals could not be sweeter, warmer or more welcoming. They will make you feel special. And the food! Fresh, creative Thai done differently than your average Thai joint: for example, a papaya salad (Som Tum) made with slivers of green apple instead of papaya. The curries are fabulous (such as the faux duck special we had one night). Everything tastes healthy but not granola — just vibrant and fresh. And I’m not even a vegetarian!
One of the best vegetarian and best Thai restaurants (and an under-​the-​radar gem) in SF.

Super tiny, super cute, the best thai in the city! Then again, I don’t want it ruined by Unilocalers, so… don’t go! Never go! It’s my secret place!
The only time I’ve been there, the food was BANGIN. However, we had an interesting experience at our table when a man (presumed mentally ill), who had occupied our table before us, stood outside the window of the restaurant and glared at us for 45 minutes, pacing and cursing at us. It was a little scary. He eventually left, but we watched our backs on the way home.
Well worth it though for the food.

The first and only time I went here, everything was spectacular!!! Everything was cooked to perfection, perfectly and delicately spiced, and it was extremely amazing quality for the price — not your average, fast and greasy Thai food… And it was a block away from Millennium so I could grab dessert there after a yum-​tastic (and cheaper than Millennium) meal at All About Herbs. I couldn’t wait to go back.
Yeah, I passed by this place hoping to fill up on their clay pot dish, but sadly, they were closed… Hopefully they’ll come back? I don’t know. I guess, since someone else found that All About Herbs was closed that they’ve gone away forever, but my wishful thinking has got me believing the two (or maybe more?) sweet people who run that tiny spot have just gone on a short vacation. *Crosses fingers* Please come back!!! I want your yummy food…

My new favorite spot for a healthy, fresh meal. My favorite items so far are the hotpot and the SF Sweetheart, perfect portions, great flavors and healthy to boot.
Really though, my boyfriend and I come here for the ambiance. It’s tiny, comfortable, and the woman who owns the place is very cute and charming.
Another reason why this place is my favorite: everytime I’ve been in here, there is this french song playing in the background, basically on repeat. It makes me think of a parisian carnival at night. This is purely my imagination working though, because I have never once stepped into a parisian carnival. But now I want to.

Super cute place. The tables are entirely too small if you intend to be a pig and order everything on the menu like my friend and I did. Our waiters did sort of disappear in the middle of our meal, no really they left out the front door and hailed a cab, but the cute owner lady took care of us. It was a tiny cute place and I hope to go back when I move into my friend’s closet
Ginger tea — was way too tangy for me
Tom Khaa Soup was yummy
Apple salad was delicious except for the celery (which I HATE), but hey you can pick it out, just like i did.
Roti dish was amazing… I want it again now…
Terryakki was pretty good

it is *all* about the herbs here! It’s tiny, but charming. Vegetarian, but who cares – it’s freakin’ delicious!
I recommend the tom yum soup, herbs fried rice, and fresh rolls. YUMMINGTONS.

The teriyaki is delicious. The herb rolls were lacking the avocado that I was promised on the menu. That was a bummer. The peanut sauce they were served with wasn’t the best peanut sauce ever. I think they’d go better with plum sauce. But you know what? They have apple in them. That’s neat.
Also, the soup. I forget the name but it’s the one that’s not Tom Ka Kai. It’s like hot and sour. It’s really tasty.
The little lady who took my order was sweet and each table had an adorable bok choy bouquet.
The food is light and seems quite healthy. The location is great for take out but the ambiance is very relaxed as well.
Wow, this is one boring review. What can I say to spice it up? I have no idea. What I’m really thinking about how no one uses the word «reckon» and I wish they would. What a great word.

Ultra Cute & charming place… there are about 6 tables so space is limited. Luckily we went on an evening when there was no crowd, so the service was not a problem. But I can easily see the waitress lady (who is very very sweet) get overwhelmed when there’s more than two tables to wait on…
The food was great though highly tofu dominated. We tried the Indian rosti, rainbow curry, fried rice and the herb rolls. The herb rolls and the Rosti were hands down winners… the rest was pretty awesome too though not different from other places.
Great place to go to but make sure you go there during the off peak hours else you might be put off by the slow service.

After so many excellent reviews, I was eager to try this place. My husband and I were going to an 8pm play a few block away. So we got there at 6:45 and ordered right away.
and then we waited…
after 15 minutes we got our drinks
and then we waited …
we asked about the food — explaining we had to leave before 8pm… the woman working there repeatedly told us that it was ready and she was going to go get it … it wasn’t and she didn’t…
after about 45 minutes one entrée arrived
we couldn’t wait for the second entrée, but that wasn’t a big loss for us because the second entrée they were planning to bring us was not what we ordered… «but your fried rice is almost ready!» … «uhh… but we ordered curry»
There were about 4 tables full in the place and almost everyone of them had a similar problem … people either did not get part of their order or they were given the wrong thing… three of the tables (including ours) told the waitress just to give up on what ever they were waiting for.
She apologized saying that there were just so busy! There are only about 6 tables there and most of them were full, so I kinda understand — the people next to us did not, stating «How could they be less busy?»
On the plus side, they did bring us together as a community as we all chatted with each other marveling at the slow arrival of food and mistakes.
Now I understand that a little family run place with fresh food can be slow … I am prepared for that… it was the feeling that we were being misled that really bugged me… continually telling us that the food was ready when it was not…
why even two stars? benefit of a doubt and potential… the place is pretty cute. it is very intimate and somehow kinda nice even though it is a counter service place during the day. The food that we got was decent. I may even try again one night if we were the only people in the restaurant and I’m not starving
warning for dates: there was one couple there on a first date. not a bad locale for it. Who cares if the food is slow when you have so much to learn about each other? BUT — everyone in the place could hear every word of their awkward get to know each other discourse…

Thanks to Wakako’s suggestion, I gave All About Herbs a try.
I liked All About Herbs. The staff was very nice. (There were only 2 people worked there and the service was a bit slow though) They do not have beer /​liquor license but they let me bring in Kronama (Japanese dark beer). The food was very fresh and light.
The Spring Rolls were very fresh and tasty. It had nice peanut sauce on the side. The Hot Pot was full of flavor– Nice soy sauce base with a little sweetness with a hint of lemongrass. It had soft silver noodles, semi hard tofu and non-​overcooked vegetables.
I also had Fried rice which was spiced by curry powder and lemongrass. Vegetarian dishes can be boring but they used brown rice and added cashew nuts in the dish which gave it a very nice nutty flavor without adding too much oil. Only a complain I had was that they didn’t put vegetable protein (I think they meant Seitan) even though there were listed on the menu.
The bottom line, I will go back when I want to eat clean tasting food.

I love this concept. Baguette and pastry shop by day. Vegetarian restaurant by night.
As darkness descends not only does the cuisine change, so does the name of this tiny hole-​in-​the– wall restaurant — from Paris Café to All About Herbs. It is cute and quirky. I couldn’t resist giving it a try.
The menu is limited but good. And the ingredients are fresh, fresh, fresh. They were bringing in shopping bags of groceries as we were waiting for our food.
I myself am not a vegetarian, but the table next to us was. They were completely ecstatic about the place. I guess there aren’t as many good veggie spots in the city as I had thought.
This place is cool. Too cool.

Wildly delicious!
We ordered half the menu; it ranged from addictively tasty (various soups and curries) to addictively inventive (the apple salad! Dear god! The kind of thing you never want to stop eating).
Dessert (some type of sesame dumpling — sesame paste inside rice flour dough — in a tangy ginger broth) was also unique in a very very good way.
Hopefully this place will stay open, because I’m totally hooked, and don’t know where I’d find these things elsewhere. I want to eat there every night. I might do that this week since I know I won’t be able to stop thinking about it.
And it doesn’t hurt that it’s an adorable space with two sweet, attentive women running it.

Umm, I’ve been here 3 times in a week. It’s devastatingly good.
In fact, don’t go… I don’t want to have to wait.
I keep thinking, «this is Thai food?» Everything is perfectly spiced and nothing is greasy, not even the fried rice.

Really super good food and really great service. I hope they do well enough to get their own real and larger space instead of sharing it with the Paris Café which from what I can tell is nasty.
UPDATE: Sadly they are now closed

Everything about this tiny café is perfect, at the level of restaurants twice as expensive. Décor is comfortable, serene, and timeless, enhanced by dim lighting and dreamy pop music. Food is clever in conception (apple salad, for example, and tempura-​style mushrooms). As the name implies it’s all about the herbs. Every dish features them, and because it’s basically Thai food (with snippets from Japan and India) that often means basil and lemongrass, aromatic to the point of therapy. Maybe good medicine but also kick-​ass tasty. Best of all the presentation is amazing. If you like your food to look good you’ll break out grinning to see the plates. So color saturated and carefully arranged, it is as pretty as the pictures uploaded here on the site.
It didn’t matter to me that it’s vegetarian, but the tofu they use is good and plentiful, and one or two dishes have mock meat.

EDIT 12÷13÷07: I bypassed this place after a shopping spree downtown the other day. I had a craving for cheap Thai (surprised?), and knew I’d spend close to $ 20 trying other items on the menu if I came back here. But I felt a guilt over me as I walked down to Bang San, which turned out to be packed – I wasn’t so much as even acknowledged. I left before I could place my order, and crawled back to All About Herbs. I got the attention I deserved, with complimentary homemade tea that was absolutely delicious as I waited for my order. I tried the Hot Pot, which was good, but not enough to satisfy my hunger. I’m starved for more, and told the lady that I’d be back to try the Roti (which suggests that there’s more than just Thai cuisine), and then again to try the Teriyaki Tofu… and the herb fried rice, and…
Bottom line: They easily earned their fifth star.
— — — — — — —
Someone’s opened up another Vegetarian Thai joint in this town. Someone up there must love me.
I like All About Herbs for its simplicity. The menu list is small, but has enough appetizer, soup/​salad, and entrees to keep you slightly indecisive (seeing the mouthwatering pictures to accompany it isn’t any help). I found a few surprises in the dishes: Sprouts in the spring (herb) rolls. And lychee in the fish sauce free curry.
Décor is almost nonexistent. No signage is on display to inform passerbys from afar that a restaurant operates in the same space that houses Paris Café. Because past 5 p.m., the glass case showcasing pastries is covered over by a dark floral sheet, and the light is turned down low… really low. Otherwise, it’s still the same tiny lil café it is during the day, menu boards and all.
Service was as hospitable as you can imagine; the owner here can easily pass off as anyone’s loving grandma. Sit down, relax, and trust that she’ll have something nice and hearty fixed up for you. It lacks the pretentious vibe that I’ve been seeing from newly opened establishments featuring Thai food, such as Grand Pu Bah and Tara.
Only open a month, I hesitate to give it a fifth star. But they’re on the right track. A sign to expose their restaurant would only help the word of mouth advertising they’ll be receiving (such as through review sites like Unilocal). Even with Mekong as its closest competitor in veggie Thai cuisine, AAH’s non-​use of fake meats and sole vegetarian menu keeps them in their own league. I’d say the prices are higher than I’d like, but I’m cheap, and the food is worth it. Averaging out to $ 20 per person, they should soon consider accepting credit cards.

What was that that just rode by? Oh right, it’s just the four horsemen of the apocalypse.
Never did I EVER think I would knowingly and willingly eat at a vegetarian restaurant. My middle name is actually Pastrami. But hell, I like to try new things, so I gave it a chance.
And I’m glad I did. They were having a special tonight – the hot pot. It was like a flavor explosion, and I didn’t even miss the meat. It was healthy, delicious, and not oily at all.
It was very fancy food, but it was served at a price that regular schmoes like me can afford.
Minor minor complaint-​it was almost a little too herb’ed up, which was great at the start, but got to be a little much at the end.
Otherwise, it was sup-​herb. *you may roll your eyes now*
PS. My deepest apologies for triggering the rapture.

This vegetarian Thai restaurant is a labor of love. Started by the former director of cuisine at the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok. the dishes all prominently feature, um, herbs. If the aromas wafting out of the kitchen don’t make you fall in love with the place, than the exotic ingredients will. Things you don’t often see in Americanized Thai food – such as galangal.
Don’t let the awning that says «Paris Café» throw you off the trail. You’ll want to get to this place before the word gets out. That way, when everybody talks about this place as a badge of hipness, you’ll be able to lean back and talk about how you’ve been a fan since before they even had a sign.

I live right around the corner from this little place and have been meaning to stop in so when I found myself home sick from work (cough, cough) I decided to do just that. I ordered a large nonfat mocha and was pleased to find that their prices are far cheaper than your mega chains like Starbucks or Peets; $ 3.53 for a large mocha including tax. They also have FREE WiFi! I eyed the donuts and pastries which looked really good but, having eaten an entire pint of Haagen Daaz the night prior, decided that I didn’t want to further stretch my ass to jean ratio. They also serve Vietnamese sandwiches which will please my roomie to no end as he loves them and currently walks several blocks to get his fix. It’s cash only and it’s family run so I intend on supporting them. The only gripe I have is that they used Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup in my mocha… it tasted alright but it just felt WRONG.