Grand Pu Bah, San Francisco

welcome to Grand Pu Bah

Grand Pu Bah is a stylish, new-ish Thai restaurant in the Design District, sort of between Potrero Hill and SOMA. We WC’s have been several times since they opened, most recently on the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend. The restaurant has a beautiful look. There’s a huge flat screen TV at the entrance that is always showing exotic photos of far off places and things. The bar is very modern, with lots of recessed lights shining on a sweeping expanse of illuminated counter. It seems to have almost everything that you could desire in a cocktail. I’m sure that it’s popular. Though a bit slow the night we were there, on other visits, I’ve seen it packed all evening with some of the stylish folk who work at the area dot com’s.

I have mixed feelings about the dining room. It looks stunning with bamboo and dark wooden chairs and benches, plush silken pillows, sculptural hanging lamps, gleaming flatware and glasses, etc. My beef with the place is that I’m a little sensitive about what I sit on. The wooden benches don’t always work for me. I end up placing one of the pillows under my seat which helps. That night, after I had a Gray Goose Martini with a twist, it didn’t seem to matter as much.

Grey Goose Martini with twist

The menu is contemporary Thai. We ended up ordering the Fresh Spring Rolls, a fairly typical tofu, cucumber and basil affair. It came with a delightful peanut sauce and we requested some pepper sauce. We like Siracha. Grand Pu Bah makes its own versions of pepper sauces that are amazing. But be careful! These folk really are Thai, which means that they can tolerate a lot of heat.

We liked the Papaya Salad. It’s modernized with the addition of cashew nuts and fried Spanish anchovies instead of peanuts and dried shrimp. This is one of those dishes where the waitperson asks you what level of spice you prefer. We went for the “medium.” It was really spicy, though in a good way. I don’t think that I could tolerate the “spicy” at all.

Fresh Spring Rolls

The Seafood Salad was full of large prawns, calamari and scallops on a bed of lettuce in a spicy vinaigrette. It was very fresh tasting. We desperately wanted the Singha Crazy Crab. It’s this whole Dungeness crab cooked in a spicy Singha beer sauce. We’ve had it once before and simply adored it! Of course, you need to use your hands to manage the thing, so it’s really messy which contributes to the fun. Unfortunately last week, they’d run out of the crabs. Instead we had the Thai Style Pan-Seared Halibut, the Pad Thai and the String Bean with tofu in spicy garlic sauce. All of these dishes were delicious.

By the end we were totally stuffed! Instead of dessert we sipped our tall beers, chatted about our day at Gloria Ferrer and Cline and anticipated seeing New Moon the following afternoon.

Grand Pu Bah’s service is erratic and sometimes the food is off. It’s improved a lot since first opening and now is generally good. If you’re just looking for somewhere cool to meet for a drink that’s a bit off the beaten path, this is the place. Try the Singha Crazy Crab if you can. It’s an experience!

Grand Pu Bah bar

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