Millennium
San Francisco, California

Ate here two years ago and was our best dinner in SF so had to return. Still wonderful, expensive decor and high end dining. Excellent service and informative waiters, great wine and champagne selection. Highly recommended if you are looking for a high end dining experience. Not all vegans are after cheap eats and Millennium thankfully recognises some of us are happy to spend decent money on a decent dining experience! Didn't notice the $1 water charge and really doesn't matter to me - and have only ever had one waiter per table serve me so surprised at some other comments on here.

I had high hopes that Millennium would be the first all-vegan truly upscale restaurant that I have visited. While it didn't live up to those expectations, it still served one of the best vegan meals I have eaten in a restaurant. Sure, I was disappointed that we were assigned to one waiter, rather than having a team of waiters to announce each dish and serve it to everyone at our table at exactly the same instant. On the other hand, I was also happy that the meal was $70/person rather than $300.

I'm surprised at the number of negative reviews. I think a lot of the other reviewers are being unfair in their criticism of Millennium. It's not trying to be Charlie Trotter's (as evidenced by the prices and the a la carte ordering), so I don't think it's worth criticizing Millennium for not upholding the same standards. The food at Millennium is substantially better than any of the other restaurants that I tried in the San Francisco Bay Area, so I fail to understand why the average rating is so much lower.

That said, the only negative experience that I had at Millennium is that I didn't like one of the entrees. The pecan-crusted tempeh was sliced pretty thickly and didn't absorb as much of the flavor of the apricot sauce that I would have liked. However, the corn pudding that accompanied the tempeh was delicious so the dish wasn't a total disappointment!

My appetizers were both very well-executed. The summer melon salad was crisp and, at times, both sweet and tangy. The black bean torte tasted like caramelized onions with a hint of lime and had a wonderful texture.

Millennium has a great selection of drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. I tried a rosemary and fig-infused gin-and-tonic (made with high quality tonic water) and a decadent coconut and strawberry elixir.

The desserts were the best part of my meal. I couldn't decide which one to order, so I ended up ordering two: a trio of sorbets and a plate of miniature cookies and truffles. The sorbet flavors of the evening were sage, white apricot cardamom, and peach liquor. The white apricot cardamom was my favorite - a perfect blend of aromatic spices and fresh fruit. The plate of cookies and truffles consisted of two buttery-tasting cookies, a brownie, a dried cranberry chocolate chip "blondie," and two truffles: a "milk" chocolate truffle filled with peanut butter and a rich dark chocolate truffle.

Overall, I had a very pleasant dining experience. I found it refreshing that Millennium has gilded, Old World decor rather than the hipster vibe that most vegetarian restaurants seem to have.