Left Bank

Pros: Covenient to shopping
Cons: Poor value and mediocre food and service

My wife and I dined at the Left Bank on Santana Row in San Jose. I hadn’t heard of the place before, but live nearby and thought we’d give it a try. Basically we both found it mediocre, expensive, and it left us both wishing we’d dined ...

Pros: Excellent French food and menu selection
Cons: Service can be brusque

There are three locations for this venerable French eating establishment - the original in Larkspur (Marin County), Palo Alto (near Stanford University) and Pleasant Hill (Contra Costa County, East Bay). All three have similar menus and are the product ...

Pros: Great food; nice atmosphere
Cons: Expensive; poor service

My husband and I have this talent, see. We get hungry on a weeknight and decide that all of our cooking options suck, and so it is time to find a restaurant. Most of the time we do the fast-food route, which is cheap but disgusting -- an opinion I will...

Pros: Trendy and Roomy Environment
Cons: Hit and Miss Dishes

I really wish I could give Left Bank the credit the critics think it deserves, but that will only mean I have to dine there again, and right now, that is the last thought on my mind. My experience at Left Bank probably could be described as "I was...

Pros: The menu features highly accessible French cuisine success stories.
Cons: The menu does not change often.

Menlo Park location
A little bit "swanky" but you don't pay too much extra for it (relative to the over-produced theme restaurant set, such as Piatti and Il Fornaio). Sure, you pay the usual "good place" prices, ~$20 for a dinner entrée, ~$10...

Pros: food, atmosphere
Cons: price, noise level, reservations usually needed

Although my experience is with the Menlo Park location, I believe this review can be accurate of both. The atmosphere is trendy and loud, but very relaxed and fun. The noise level may present a problem for some, but I find it not too much. I can't...

Pros: nice dining room
Cons: inattentive service; better service at In and Out Burger (and better french fries too)

We were seated promptly for our reservation at the Larkspur Left Bank and given menus -- whereupon we sat for about 15 minutes wondering if we were invisible. No water. No bread. No wait person. No smiles or nods or hellos from any of the staff of which there were plenty. At first we thought it was kind of funny. We contemplated dehydration and then starvation as we attempted to make eye contact with one of the employees. We considered fashioning rescue flags out of our dinner napkins. It was ridiculous. The restaurant wasn't even busy! We left.

As best as we could tell, the restaurant was about a third full. There seemed to be plenty of busboys and wait staff on duty. A well-dressed manager was roaming cluelessly. And the two mannequins at the host station simply said "Oh, we're sorry" when I stopped briefly to explain -- as politely as I could -- that we were leaving because we'd waited for 15 minutes without so much as an acknowledgment of our existence by our staff, some of whom were outside smoking as we left.

There are plenty of great restaurants in Marin.