Pleasantly surprised! Tucked away in portrero hill, Besharam is a solid vegetarian dining spot. The malai kofta and cheese garlic naan combo is out of this world. We also enjoyed the pani puri. The mushroom was just okay, it had a rich sauce and complementary toppings but the mushroom itself was bland. Didn't try too many of the Gujrati specialities as our initial order was plenty filling for two. Service was okay as well. My drink did have a fly fall in a little more than halfway through and they did not replace it. read more

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For a vegetarian place, I did like it enough. So i'm not evaluating this as "how good as a vegetarian place is it" and just as a meal. It sort of feels upscale from the pricing, but I thought the atmosphere didn't really match up. It kind of was in the middle, but the prices didn't reflect it. Nothing really stood out here and was meh. read more

Terrible communication, very rude, incredibly arrogant and inconsiderate staff. Paresh in particular was intentionally arrogant and clueless in regards to basic customer service. Don't waste your time here, try Udupai palace for fantastic pure veg and great service at reasonable prices. These guys are so rude, they won't last in SF. Please see all of the other bad reviews, especially regarding food poisoning and terrible service. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! read more

Besharam is a gem. I love the beautiful and vibrant wallpaper. Chef and co-owner Heena is stunning, with a glow reflected by the kitchen light. She ensures every plate comes to your table perfectly garnished. Her creativity and bad ass vibes are inspiring with each menu item. She'll come over to check on you during your meal. I'm star-struck every time! Shyrissa welcomed us, sharing some of her personal faves. We decided to take her journey through the menu and were not disappointed. Shyrissa shared that's it's their 5-year work-iversary! Kudos to her wonderful communication and kindness. Food: The mango salad sounds too simple but I think it's one of my favorite dishes. So light and refreshing. The sesame dressing is bright, with crunchy bits sprinkled on top....its a balanced start. Pakora's were crunchy and I loved the sauce it was served with. I kept the rest to eat with my meal. It felt naughty to eat my vegetables this way. The smokey eggplant is always a silky dream. Who knew eggplant could be so good...Chef Heena knew. arancini korma...my mind is blown. Shyrissa said it was their favorite and it's now mine! Gooey oozy cheese filled arancini, still crunchy but sitting in a perfect sauce. This is what dreams are made of. I had a side of the perfectly cooked rice and hot chai. This was a great meal on a cold summer afternoon. Besharam continues to serve incredible food with creativity, fun, and heart. read more

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Had a great experience dining at Besharam last weekend. Honestly I was a bit skeptical since it's vegetarian, but the food blew my mind away. For Appetisers we started with the Mango Salad, the Kulcha with Mole sauce, Pani Puri. All of them were really good but the Kulcha blew my mind, it genuinely tasted like heaven with the Mole sauce. What a unique fusion dish and one of the best things I have had recently. The Pani Puri was a close second favourite. For mains we got the Pav Bhaji and Malai Kofta. My favourite was the Bhav bhaji, it was so unique and every bite was filled with flavour. I had the Mango Margarita and it was really yum and strong. For the desert we got the Shrikhand cheesecake and omg it was out of the world. The crust was filled with Parle G biscuit and it was so good. We also met chef Heena and thanked her for a wonderful meal. Definitely 10/10 will be coming back for sure. read more

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I'm a sucker for indian food, especially a place that reinvents classics (ROOH also comes to mind here!) We ordered some drinks and the drunken pani puri, sabudhana vada, maska paneer, pakora (i forget the full government name but attached a picture), pav bhaji, and cheesy garlic naan. My favorites were the pani puri, sabudhana vada, and the pav bhaji!! I'm a huge fan of pav bhaji in general but it is so ripe for innovation and I love the twist (and the pat of butter) that they put on the dish. It was really flavorful and I loved eating every part of it! The shrikhand cheesecake was also really tasty but I think my friends hyped it up for me too much so my expectations were too sky high. Unfortunately the maska paneer fell a little flat, but I still enjoyed having it with my cheesy garlic naan. I definitely want to come back, this time to try the dahi vada (seems like a lot of folks enjoyed that dish!) read more

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We made a reservation for a Friday at 5:15pm. We found all the staffs to be friendly. We ordered the following: Drunken Pani Puri 3.5/5 - I liked that it was crispy but I wasn't a fan of the raw onions. The "water" that is served with it didn't add anything special. Supposedly there's gin in it? I would have liked a yogurt sauce or chutney to go along with it instead. Masala Mushrooms 4/5 - it's like a stuffed mushroom. Tasty. The blueberry was pretty but I thought it was a weird combination. The mushroom sauce was really delicious. It had me wanting to lick the whole plate. Dahi Wadi 5/5 - this was our favorite appetizer. Deep fried lentils topped with creamy yogurt and tamarind chutney. This was a flavor bomb in my mouth. Ringan No Oro 4/5 - spicy, garlicky eggplant. I wish it had some yogurt to cut through the spiciness. Vindaloo Koftas 3.5/5 - the meatballs reminded me of, Beyond Meatballs with some chili mixed in. Another spicy dish. There's plenty of sauce so a carb is much needed. Jeera Rice 4/5 - a good side dish. Paratha 1/5 - haven't had this style of paratha before. It was dense. I prefer ones that have flaky layers and are soft. Even though we didn't get any desserts, we received complimentary Mukhwas, a fennel candy that had flavors of rose, coriander, mint and fennel obviously. We've never had it before, and found it interesting and fun to eat. Overall I'd come back to try their other small bites. Food came out in a timely manner especially the first appetizer which came out within 10 minutes of ordering. read more

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This was my first time at an Indian restaurant that didn't offer any kind of curry. I usually go for butter chicken, but I decided to branch out and try something different. Since I wasn't sure what to order, I went with the $85 tasting menu, which included three appetizers, an entree, and dessert. I also noticed a lot of people ordering the garlic naan, so I added that along with pani puri. The dishes were a bit saltier than I prefer, but still packed with flavor. I got full after just a few bites of the entree, so I ended up taking the rest to go. Even though I was full, I still had a little room to eat dessert. I chose to get try the cheesecake which had a strong cardamom flavor. At this point, I was way too full so I couldn't finish but I loved that it wasn't too sweet! read more

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Cute space for authentic Indian dishes with a full bar full of Indian liquor! I enjoyed most of the appetizers here. They were full of flavors and was fun to eat. The main was a bit forgettable unfortunately. Service was topnotch and I world be back to try all the other apps. read more

I came here with a friend, and we had an absolutely wonderful dinner! The staff were very kind, and took the time to answer all questions and explain the dishes to us. The food was really good, and it was great to be able to grab many plates and share them. The price point is a bit high, but it is worth the full experience. We were able to still walk out with leftovers, and we look forward to coming back. As someone who eats meat in moderation, I appreciated this all vegetarian menu! The dessert was my least favorite dish of the evening, I look forward to trying others. read more

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This place is amazing! Gujrati food in SF? Sign me up! Delicious khandvi- really just fab! Owners are super nice. Service was exceptional. Nostalgic- thank you! I read more

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My husband is Gujarati and we have been meaning to try this place out for a while, and were happy to have gone during restaurant week. Every single item was delicious! The serving sizes were very generous for the price you pay--we had to take home so many leftovers! We can't wait to return to try their other offerings. read more

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Tried this place and was skeptical about vegetarian Indian food, but I didn't miss the meat here at all! All the dishes had different flavor and texture. Everything was presented beautifully. I only wish the pan puris had more structure because it was quickly soggy and leaked when you pour the chutney in. read more

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My parents were in town for the weekend of Diwali and we figured we would finally try out Besharam after months of wanting to. They had a special menu which we didn't order from BUT even with a smaller a la cart menu, we had an amazing time. The service is great, with the right amount of both follow-up and space. Its a little bit pricey but honestly, some of the uniqueness is worth it. The vibe is also very new yet old at the same time, and I found myself picking out plenty of pieces of decor that I know my grandma has, or that I know we used growing up which was a nice touch. Plus, plenty of parking. Now the food. They have a decent wine selection and we had a few cocktails that were very tasty but back to the food. The drunken pani puri is a refreshing start and the puris were SO crunchy! I also added on the candy Karela which somehow is my dad's favorite vegetable and if it was made like this growing up, I also would agree, another winner. We also had the Vindaloo Koftas, Dal Makhani, Maska Paneer and a cheesy garlic naan. Everything was very tasty and had a slightly different approach to dishes you've eaten before. I know the menu changes so I cannot wait to go back and try more food that as a fellow Gujju, brings back memories and also let's me make new ones! read more

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Tried this pure veg place the first time as I love Pure veg restaurants. First off need to give props To the owner for the courage to open an all veg fine dining restaurant - I really applaud and appreciate that. We went for brunch which has limited items and I will reserve full judgment till I go for the full menu. From what we had the dahi vada, cocktail samosas, dhokla, the mango salad, mango lassi, and papdi chaat, the dahi vada was the star of the show. It was so good we had to order a 2nd one. It's not your typical Vada, more a Maddur Vada style, that is a flat crunchy Vada which paired perfectly with the cool sweetened yogurt and chutneys. The endive salad was decent but not noteworthy. The dhokla had a bottom crispy exterior which gave it a nice crunch but it didn't have the typical sweet and sour taste that is typical of the dish. The papdi chaat had papdis which were stale and not crisp though the overall taste was decent. The cocktail samosas were good as was the mango lassis. Overall the food was decent but what made me not go higher than 3 stars was the price to portion to innovation ratio of the food. For 12-20 dollar appetizers it just didn't justify the cost. The waiter was nice but not attentive. There is a 20% surcharge and 5% mandate on top. All in all for 2 adults and 2 kids we paid $260. For this level of cost the flavors need to pop, the portions need to be larger, and/ or the dishes need to need to be more innovative with better service. Plan to visit again to give the full menu a shot as the food is decent, but at this point for me not worth It for what you get overall for the price. read more

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Incredibly disappointed. We were forced into a $100-per-plate prix-fixe menu with no a la carte option allowed, which is a major turn-off. For that price, the execution should be flawless, but this was the most average, overpriced vegetarian food I've ever had. It started with soggy, not-so-crispy kachoris, followed by dishes that were consistently oily and mediocre. It ended with some completely uninspired, okayish desserts. Mandating a premium set menu just feels like a way to guarantee a high check average while letting the kitchen's quality slide. Definitely not worth the money. read more

Besharam - Indian Near Me - San Francisco, California

Some delicious flavors, thought I did want a bit more balance. I really enjoyed some of the appetizers. The besan rolls were delicious and refreshing. The masala mushrooms were also quite good. For the mains, the eggplant and the lentils were flavorful and just spicy enough. Their stuffed naan was also a hit. Where the meal came up a bit short was that a lot of things were quite oily, even the rice we ordered was quite oily, meaning it clashed with rather than enhance the rich curries and stews. Some of it was our own doing in terms of what we ordered, but there were not too many options. I enjoyed the cocktail I ordered as well. I'll definitely return and be extra mindful of what were order. It's a slam dunk for drink and some bar bites. read more

This place has been on my list forever and was finally able to dine here! We set out without having a reservation and then called in to get a table for 3 - this worked very smoothly. The restaurant is located on a street just off the 280 freeway so there is nothing much outside. As you walk in, the interior is really well done, with eating area just overlooking the fast paced kitchen and a bar area on your right. The service was really awesome, as we were explained all the dishes. They have both a 6 course meal menu and an à la carte menu. The 6 course meal is around 95 per person. We chose to go with the à la carte menu, as it had some interesting options which we wanted to try rather than a fixed set of options. Of all the small plates, we tried Corn pakoras, Pav Bhaji and Paneer Satay. My favorite was the corn pakoras - they were so light and crispy with some corn kernels in them making them sooo yummy! Paneer Satay was really good, with some great sauce on the skewered paneer and bell peppers! As for the pav bhaji, I think instead of the puff pastry, they have now changed the pav to be a Dhokla style short cake which worked really well with their spicy bhaji. Only down side is that you need to order chutney on the side for some small plates which don't come with a chutney - this was my first time seeing chutney priced separately!! Finally, in the main dishes, we tried maska paneer, Samosa Dhokli and Malai Kofta. My favorite was the Malai Kofta - simply slicing through the koftas was so heavenly soft! Maska paneer was alright, didn't get any particular flavors there! The samosa Dhokli was very interesting with a lots of components and definitely stood out! read more

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Wow! This place has gotten so bad after my last visit 2 years ago. We ordered paneer tikka rice bowl from their special lunch menu this afternoon and the paneer was not cooked in the gravy!! The paneer was a pale white color. They also forgot to give us gravy. The table next to us also had to go back and ask for gravy. The food has gotten less Indian and more sweet, creamy and orange which is not authentic to Indian food. The portion size has reduced dramatically, and felt like lunch for a child. Will not be back. Where's your sharam, Besharam? :/ for this price the quantity and the quality are not a match. read more

Besharam is a vegetarian restaurant serving elevated Gujarati cuisine. The mains shone with creativity and balance, while the small bites fell short of expectations. The interior is modern, though a bit sterile, and service left something to be desired. Our menus arrived with food stains, dish explanations were rushed and unclear, and we found ourselves flagging down staff after being left unattended for quite some time. For a restaurant positioning itself at this price point, those details made the evening feel less polished. Drunken Pani Puri: A boozy take on a classic pani puri. While tasty, the spiked mint water was no more than a gimmick. Paneer Satay: Peanut sauce was great although I wish there was more drizzled on. The paneer and peppers had a nice char. Dahi Vada: The yogurt and chutneys completely overwhelmed and masked the vada, leaving little nuance in the dish. Tandoori Elote: Smoky, sweet, nutty, and generously portioned. A lovely decadent curry. Vindaloo Kofta: A hearty plant-based meatball curry. While milder than the "spicy" label suggested, the texture of the kofta was impressive. Drinks: We tried the That's Craaaazy and the Besheram Boulevard. Both sounded promising, but the flavors were muted and didn't live up to the menu descriptions. read more

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Oh this place was so good We ordered - Appetisers 1. Pakoras - I liked them, they were sweet and crispy 2. Drunken Pani Puri - we got the non-alcoholic version, I really liked it. It had the green chutney water or teekha paani and some dal in it and it tasted good (I'd love it more if there was the sweet-tangy tamarind water with it too) 3. Kulchas - I thought the kulcha was alright but the dal mole it came with was good, it was also more on the sweeter side but I like the curry leaf taste in it Mains - 1. Undhiyu Pie - This comes in a puff pastry or it had a pretty thick layer of it. I thought it was alright, it didn't stand out as much for me and for $28 it was pretty small (this should be an appetiser for how small it was) 2. Masksa Paneer - I thought this might be something different but it was palak paneer except the paneer was scrambled in this, I think this was my least favourite dish out of all. 3.Vindaloo Koftas - Oh I loved this dish soooo much, the plant based meatballs were a lot like Seekh Kebab ( in terms of texture and flavour) and the overall taste of this dish was so gooodd. 4. Cheesy Garlic Naan - this was alright and I couldn't believe it was $12 Overall the vibe was great, it's very easy to get to the restaurant. The service was also very good. I thought it was more on the pricier side, the portions were very small and for most of the things I felt they were overly priced. But I think it was still a very good restaurant. (If I go back it'll be only for the Vindaloo Koftas) read more

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I've eaten from Besharam a few times now, and the food has always been fantastic. The three stars I'm giving here are entirely for the talented chef who makes those incredible dishes. Unfortunately, their customer service tonight left a very bitter taste. As a new mother, sitting down for a proper meal at a restaurant is nearly impossible right now, so I was really looking forward to treating myself to takeout. When I called to place a to-go order, I was met with a incredibly firm, rude, and dismissive response from the man on the phone, stating they don't do takeout. Hoping it was just a policy against phone orders, I politely asked if my husband could drive down, order in person, and bring it home. I received the exact same rude response--completely lacking in basic courtesy. I understand restaurants have policies, and if they don't offer takeout, that's fine. But had it been communicated with just a little bit of politeness or empathy, it would have been a completely different story. Instead, the interaction felt incredibly cold. It's disappointing when great food is ruined by poor service. Because of how dismissive they were tonight, I'm really not sure if I'll be supporting Besharam again. read more

Had a really tasty meal here, I'd definitely visit again. The restaurant is towards the outskirts of the city and doesn't look like much from the outside but we were really pleased with the food. I'm not sure how "authentic" everything is but I thought it was all well seasoned and flavorful. We really enjoyed the pani puri and maska paneer. Overall, the food is really flavorful, a bit pricey, but great to try. read more

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Eylan prices for really average food. The food was really good the one time we had visited a few years back. This week was extremely disappointing. Nothing really hit the mark. We will not be going back. read more

Came here for a solo dinner after a long work week while I was trying to kill a few hours in the evening before catching the red eye to the east coast. As a solo diner I was only offered a seat at the bar - which was totally cool. I got the corn fritters and samosa dhokli - but super delicious. I wish I had something to scoop the dhokli with! Would love to come back with more people and try the other dishes on the menu. read more

Besharam - Samosa dhokli - Indian Near Me - San Francisco, California

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Enjoyed this place! My friends invited me to try this place and I would definitely come back again. The food was amazing, good flavors. Not 'authentic' but really enjoyable. Would order everything we got again. Service was really good and the restaurant itself was pleasurable to sit it. read more

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Besharam has hit all the points throughout my dining experience: unmatched Gujarati dishes, goodwill customer service, and a Spacey laid back atmosphere which leaves a unique mark that'll linger for years. Indian spices are what pleased my tongue the most. Before a really good meal, a hot cup of masala chai would be a good start for my palate. Sweet, less bold, but almost like a lamb smell. Though not as good as Kasa's Indian chai, I still believe it's excellent. For my appetizer, I chose the drunken pani puri, without the alcoholic content. Why choose a mango salad when I have a grainy vegetarian dish. Love it when I pop the bite size puri filled lentils with a bit of tangy water in my mouth before chewing. For my main course, Malai Kofta with the side of cheese filled garlic naan. A trio of fluffy plant based fritters on a sea of cashew cream was worth my time when it comes to spices and texture, yet very filling (looks like I have to wipe a sweat on my forehead). Garlic naan, when dipping into the cashew cream, was amazing. It's like pizza, so exquisite and cheesy. Before I asked for a dessert, I watched chef Heena Patel on my left side, then she looked at me with a graceful smile. She asked how I like my food. I reminded her that they're fantastic. The way she speaks in her accent, she's soft spoken. The lovely star of her kitchen was full of surprises. Anyway, I completely finished the Shrikhand cheesecake. Its spoonful of saffron flavor with blueberry Capote was so enchanting, it made my palate go to and fro. Gotta have a carnival of flavors to excite my taste buds. Nothing matches with Besharam when it comes to shameless food and drink creations. Though this restaurant was a bit towards the high end, I enjoyed good vibes from people I was surrounded with even when I was sitting at the bar. read more

Food and service wonderful!! 5 stars Except...got here 4 minutes before 5, twice. Each time the doors are open and no sign to wait. So you walk in and then someone says, we are not open, and they direct you to walk about again, both times seeming sort of annoyed that we didn't know to not walk in through the open door until exactly 5:00:00. I suggest keep the doors closed and locked until you want us to walk in. Otherwise the first impression is a restaurant that is annoyed with you for not knowing the rules. -1 star So 4 stars. read more

I had visited Besharam twice before and had an amazing experience, so I was excited to take my daughter. We both left feeling unsatisfied and unimpressed. The only dish we enjoyed out of all that we ordered was the pani puri. The main complaint -- all the food was dripping in butter. That's just lazy cooking because even dirt will taste delicious with enough butter. The parathas and kulchas seemed to be simply soaked in butter. The cheesy kulchas felt like we were eating a block of cheese. The Wellington dish came out presented beautifully but the stuffing was dry and powered with chilis. The malai koftas were basically swimming in oil and again all we could taste were the chilies and no other flavors. For $210 for two, this meal was a massive disappointment, but our server was wonderful. read more

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This place is fairly near the RH store so we made a slight detour for a quick lunch. This is a fairly large space and when we entered at 12:30 PM on a Saturday it was probably 70% empty. Although there were plenty of four Tops available, we were seated at a two top. Nothing necessarily wrong with that, but my philosophy would be to seat customers so that they can enjoy a little more space. The tables are placed pretty close together so when it's crowded, it's crowded. Our server was a pleasant person who greeted us and filled our water glasses. We ordered some masala chai since the room temperature was cool, but not unpleasantly so. The first thing to know is that the masala chai is made in a large batch and is heavily sweetened. That would be the "street" way to do it, so I guess that's what they're aiming for. Most Indian restaurants, in my experience, do not follow this practice and instead allow you to sweeten to taste. I would suggest they follow this practice, perhaps by bringing some honey or agave syrup and some turbinado sugar to the table. My wife was not happy. She asked for unsugared but was told they make chai in a single batch and she could not accommodate. For $8 you should be able to make a custom cup. My wife ordered the masala mushroom omelet and I ordered the avocado toast and we also ordered the samosa bites. And they were small and sadly with even less filling than you might get at, for example, Rooh. Strangely, they only serve the samosas with the green sauce and not also the red. My avocado toast was served on half a ciabatta and piled high with rocket. The egg was in there somewhere as I discovered once I tried to slice in along with some tomato. The rocket gave a nice peppery taste and I enjoyed my meal. My wife's omelet was mildly salt-forward as it should be, although she felt it a little too salty. it's a matter of taste, but generally in an Indian omelet, you can notice the salt. At least that is something I've always noticed. It was filled pretty well with mushrooms, which may explain why in appearance it looked more like scrambled eggs made in an omelette pan. That brown aspect wasn't there, but it was still good. They automatically add a 20% tip along with what they say is a 5% charge mandated by San Francisco, so our total meal of two masala chives, the Samosa bites, omelette and avocado toast came to a total of $95. Wow! Of course, we knew it was going to be something like that from the menu prices, but the additional 25% was still a little surprise for us suburbanites Perhaps it is disclosed at the bottom of the menu, but I didn't notice it I believe this placehas great reviews on check please for dinner, so we may come back for that. For our next visit to RH, we will probably eat there. :-) I'm sure it will be as expensive or more, but there is more space between the tables and it is a beautiful space and you might even be able to take your food up to the roof. You're allowed to take your drink up there at least. The view from the roof of the San Francisco skyline is pretty spectacular. I should note that next-door to the restaurant. There are several galleries that were open and so we had a nice little stroll through a couple of them after our meal. read more

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I went to this restaurant without a reservation on a Saturday evening. It was not full but still the owner was kind of cranky about not reserving before. We checked if they could do jain food, not only they were not ready for any customisation but also the waiter was super rude about this. We ordered the dhokli and Mango salad. Both were decent nothing great about it. read more

Besharam - Dhokli - Indian Near Me - San Francisco, California

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Probably worst places I have been to in recent time in the Bay Area. The dinner gave me food poisoning. Appetisers were soggy and very average. Entrées were hard to eat, very oily and not well cooked. We paid almost $900 for our group of 6 and it was a horrible experience. They should shut down the place honestly. Sad to see them defaming Indian food experience read more

The food here was wonderful and creative. I loved that it was all vegetarian. The dinner for 3 of us was spendy tho $200! Service was fine (20% service charge included in the bill) Ambiance nice especially with early dine time. I'd go back read more

Drunken Pani Puri - 4* for taste (but puris had hole in bottom very quickly :( - so eat them super fast) Pakoras - 7* Undiyo Pie - 2* Samosa Dhokli - 3* Chole + Paratha - 5* Nice ambience and good service . read more

The first thing we knew to do when coming to SF was going to Besharam and it went above expectations. We had to change our reservation to another day and they were very accommodating. On top of that, we arrived 45 minutes early and they made room for us, the service was exquisite. There wasn't a time we had to look around for them. We wanted to eat everything, but started simple. We had a drink each - the khoobsurat and kabhi khushi kabhie gham. Both were amazing. We started with the drunken pani puri and gobbled those up within minutes. How they were able to bring in all that flavor was amazing. We ordered dahi vada which was the perfect crispy and yogurty! The next app we had was dabeli parantha. Another item that was packed with flavor. We went with one last app the kachori dumplings and three words - OH MY GOD! We had one entree- samosa dhokli - two things we both love. Such a unique take and tasted better than the OG! We finished off with shrikhand cheesecake! The berry compote was an amazing addition that provided the amazing tart! We loved it! Too bad Chicago is so far away, otherwise we would be here everyday! We wanted to do the tasting menu, but chose a la carte instead and as Gujaratis loved all the food! Great work Chef Heena! We will be back (but please come to Chicago!) There was plenty of space and the noise levels were perfect for a romantic dinner. read more

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BEWARE - CONSUMER FRAUD - BEWARE They offer an a la carte menu and they offer a 2- or 3-item menu for slightly more. What they don't tell you anywhere on the menu is that if you order the 2- or 3-item menu, you get a *much* smaller portion (about half of the size) than if you had bought them a la carte. Instead of getting a bargain, as you would expect, you get ripped off. I asked for the owner and not only did he not apologize, he said that's the way they do it. I agree with one of the other reviews that said Paresh is pompous and rude. If he worked for me, he'd be fired in about two minutes for his attitude towards customers. If they had said on the menu that it was a smaller portion, I wouldn't have had an issue. This is consumer fraud and I will be reporting it to the city and state. Consumers should not be deceived like this. read more

Besharam - Indian Near Me - San Francisco, California

Besharam was a stunning experience. Roughly translated to "shameless," Chef Heena Patel shamelessly rocks these traditional Gujarati dishes with her own stunning twists. We went with a party of 3 and ordered a total of three apps and three entrees alongside rice and cheese naan which was the perfect amount. For starters, we had the Dahi Wada, Pakoras, and Paneer Satay. The Dahi Wada was a culmination of Indian chaat flavors - tamarind tanginess combined with chilled and tangy yogurt. It's a flavor journey but it's a shame that though plating was beautiful, the entree itself was quite small. The pakoras were a bit more dense and filling, and the hot honey drizzle was impactful. However, in my opinion, the star appetizer was the Paneer Satay. The sear on the paneer was absolutely divine and there was a surrounding sauce that tasted like sriracha mayo but much more elevated. Moving on to the entrees, we had the Maska Paneer, Malai Koftas, and Tandoori Elote. The Maska Paneer, as mentioned in previous reviews, has paneer crumbles as opposed to cubes which was a fun twist. To me it was a great dish but felt like a much tamer saag - I feel like I've had more flavorful spinach dishes elsewhere. The Tandoori Elote was certainly a surprise and cannot be found anywhere else. It featured corn bits in a peanut sauce, and the corn was sweet. If you've had corn soup at Chinese restaurants it tastes rather similar in sweetness. Great dish as well and a welcome new addition to Besharam's menu. The standouts of the night, however, were the Malai Koftas and the Cheesy Garlic Naan. The Malai Kofta had a cashew sauce that was immaculate - it tasted EXTREMELY like butter chicken but much better (that's the best description I can do!) It was paired extremely well with the cheese naan which had an insane cheese pull. The naan itself was huge like a pizza, and it was like if a mozzarella stick and naan made sweet love to make this precious baby. Seriously - every slice had cheese pulling out without being overly obnoxious and it was amazing. I used the entrees of the Malai Kofta, Maska Paneer, and Tandoori Elote as sauces for the naan. It reminded me of Cheese Board pizza in Berkeley, quite honestly (that's a compliment!) Service explained the menu extremely well and was kind and apt. Ambiance had the restaurant in a rather dim, but intimate space. Art murals were cool and it's next to an art gallery. 25% surcharge added to bill which makes this on the pricier side but I'd recommend this spot for weekend nights out. Too long to read? Get the Malai Koftas and Cheesy Garlic Naan. They'll blow you away. Everything else is just extra credit that'll leave your stomach happy. read more

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The partial owner (slash "door host") Paresh is pompous and rude. For parties of 6 or more, the ONLY option is their pre-set tasting menu, running over $100 each once you factor the mandatory tip, etc. That is all fine, until/unless you don't like what's on the tasting menu -- and particularly when the reservation option distinguishes pre-fix versus dinner -- AND WE specifically chose the dinner option, so we wouldn't be locked in. No problem spending money for a good meal, but I want to PICK my meal. But to make things worse, when showing the host the CLEAR RESERVATION, be not only refused to budge, but literally laughed in our face -- like "what are you going to do about it." With all that said, Food was DELICIOUS, and server (Shyrissa) AMAZING, which salvaged this from a one star, (yes, Paresh was bad enough to truly taint the evening). But Paresh needs to go back to school and learn about proper guest treatment. Hate to even suggest this, but have to wonder if being a table of gay guys led to "special treatment" from this guy. But based on some other reviews specific of Paresh, it seems he is just equal opportunity rude. read more

This place has a nice ambience, staff & above all - it has a great quality food. A little bit pricy but it's the quality & taste what makes it worth. I appreciated the creativity & deliciousness that was pulled in the lunch we had. read more

Besharam - The shrikhand cheesecake - delicious - Indian Near Me - San Francisco, California

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Went with a couple of friends who together ticks off quite a lot of dietary restrictions (either due to allergies or life choices) and we were accommodated with no problems! We had the tasting menu, and each person got the dishes adjusted to fit their dietary needs. All the dishes were super flavorful and with just a hint of heat. The location is a bit out of the way, but the space is great - intimate yet energetic. In the same building there are art galleries, so it's a nice place to walk around before your reservation. The only slight downside to our evening was the waiter service. Unfortunately it was slow, and with long periods of complete inattentiveness to our table. Overall though a great experience and I'll be back for the delicious food. read more

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