I've been to Per Diem a few times now and the food is always amazing! Everything we've ordered has been so good, and the restaurant itself has such a cute vibe. The service is always great and everyone is super friendly. Definitely a great spot for dinner and drinks, I highly recommend it! read more

Max and Kelly are amazing! I always feel welcomed, and they both are really great about taking the time to explain the menu, make recommendations, and accommodate off menu drinks. Careful on first Thursdays, it can be a bit crowded, but otherwise 5 out of 5. read more

Per Diem is one of those low-key SF gems that's perfect for a business lunch, happy hour, or grabbing a drink before catching a train. The service was genuinely amazing, friendly, welcoming, and attentive without being over the top. Also, fun to sit in the "Library" for the ambiance! I have to agree with my fellow Yelpers... the Chicken Parm Salad absolutely lives up to the hype. Great flavors, generous portion, and one of those dishes you'll probably end up ordering again. If you're around the Transit Center, this spot is an easy recommendation. read more

Stopped by for some wine and snacks for Happy Hour. Small place, but very nice - I loved sitting at the bar. The little bites were very tasty and the wine.... always tasty. Bar staff were very attentive and had great recommendations for food and wine. Would I go back? Yes read more

per diem never disappoints!! i've been here like 8 times in the past two years and have basically tried the whole menu! wine selection is top tier, ambience is soooo rich and julio always provides an amazing experience for myself and my guests!! read more

Per Diem - Transit Center - New American Near Me - San Francisco, California

Party of two, 4:30 p.m., We had a resy. We were able to sit in the bar for happy hour. I love the mid-century modern design! Our server was so friendly and attentive. The bartender and the bar server really worked well together to make sure everyone was taken care of. I ordered the cab and we started with the margarita pizza, truffle fries and short rib bites. My goodness, those short rib bites were absolutely delicious. And that margarita pizza got devoured. I can give or take trouble fries but these are really good and not to overbearing and flavor. We ended our meal with the creme brulee and vanilla ice cream. Such a great decision. Absolutely delicious! Anyhoo, I will definitely be back for happy hour again and again and again. Great food, Great service and great vibes! read more

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I'm obsessed with their new Parmesan chicken salad! Will definitely be stopping by soon for that dish. Service was great per usual and they have nice outdoor seating. read more

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Met up with a couple of friends here after work. I had their PD Old Fashioned and a share of truffle fries, which hit the spot. Overall, good vibes and friendly staff in a conveniently located bar. read more

Per Diem - Transit Center - PD Old Fashioned - New American Near Me - San Francisco, California

Date of Visit: 1/15/2026 Per Diem is one of our favorite restaurants in San Francisco downtown. And we visited the one at Transit Center beneath the SalesForce Park about two weeks ago. The restaurant was lively and we decided to sit inside at the large table. Passive Nature $18 I got the fruity cocktail made with strawberry, tequila, citrus, hibiscus, coconut and rose tea syrup, fire bitters, and toasted coconut. PD Old Fashioned $18 Husband got the iconic old fashioned, made with Elijah Craig: bourbon, toasted barrel bourbon, barrel proof bourbon, and rye, demerara, bitters. Shrimp Cocktail $16 We ordered the shrimp cocktail with lemon and house cocktail sauce. The shrimps were quite big and fresh. Linguine ai Frutti di Mare $32 I ordered the linguine with mussels, clams, shrimp, salmon, and in tomato broth with breadcrumb gremolata. The FiDi Cut $48 Husband got the FiDi cut of the 16oz T-bone steak, cooked to medium rare. And on the side there were three-cheese-potato gratin, roasted rainbow carrots and cipollini onions, bacon and mushroom red wine demi. Tiramisu $14 We got the tiramisu as dessert. The soft and delicate tiramisu was made with coffee, lady fingers, mascarpone, and cocoa. The second best we had in the past few months! read more

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I was in the Financial District of San Francisco today. This place Per Diem was so lovely and well lit. The menu looks wonderful, it's intimate and small, trendy and serious. I hope I can dress up and return to try dinner here on my next visit to this great town, San Francisco. read more

Per Diem - Transit Center - Per Diem - New American Near Me - San Francisco, California

Great food and service as always! Their Parmesan chicken salad is incredible and I crave it constantly! read more

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Lunch in the City with coworkers was memorable because of the well-presented food, solid flavors, and excellent service. I liked the Shrimp Cocktail and the Short Rib appetizer... and I had the Steak Frits for lunch which was a treat (forgot to take a photo bc I was too busy eating). Will be back! read more

Per Diem - Transit Center - Shrimp Cocktail - New American Near Me - San Francisco, California

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I've been to Per Diem Transit Center a couple of times while working downtown. It's always been great. The last time I was there I just sat at the bar and I asked one of the servers who was walking by for some recommendations. Julio recommended the Short Rib Bites and the Brussels Sprouts with bacon. They were fantastic! I wasn't sure if Julio was assigned to the bar but he came by twice to see if everything was satisfactory. It certainly was. The food and the service were top notch and the decor of the restaurant is pleasing and inviting. I will definitely be back. read more

Food: I got their seafood linguini. It was good but not very flavorful despite all the seafood. It was also on the saltier side. 3.5/5. Service: Seated quickly, ordered within 5 mins. The food took about 30-40 minutes to arrive. We got a salad and the linguini. Since the restaurant had opened for about an hour, it was busy but not full. 3/5. Location: Per Diem is a nice restaurant at the first floor of the transit center. It's a little difficult to find, but like most upscale SF restaurants in FiDi it has dim lighting and a bar. read more

Per Diem - Transit Center - New American Near Me - San Francisco, California

Everything from the ambiance which is perfect for group dinners or date night. To the quick and attentive service from staff. This place was great. The food was delicious and came out at a perfect pace. We had a preselected menu and everything was delicious. The mushroom Gnocci and fish of the day were quite memorable. The crab arancini was simply amazing. The mango sorbet was the perfect ending for me too. The cocktails were delicious but the food was the star of the show! It's a must I return back in the future. read more

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I came back again for the First Thursday block party, and once again Ben and his team absolutely took care of us. From the second I walked in, the energy was electric. The music, the laughter, the glow of the lights reflecting off the bar it all set the tone for another incredible night at one of my favorite downtown spots. I kicked things off with a margarita rimmed with Tajín (perfection, by the way) and followed it up with a crisp vodka soda both balanced, refreshing, and served with genuine care. The bartenders here are in their own league smooth, quick, and always keeping an eye out to make sure everyone's glass stays full and the vibe stays high. The bar area looked amazing as always, warm lighting, gold fixtures, and a crowd that was nothing but good energy. People were chatting, dancing, and just enjoying the moment. It's rare to find a spot that can keep the same magic every single time you visit, but Per Diem nails it. Ben deserves all the credit for leading a team that knows how to make people feel welcome. Whether it's your first visit or your fifth, you'll be treated like a regular. The space is clean, the drinks are stellar, and the atmosphere? Unmatched. Huge shoutout to Ben and his crew for another amazing night, can't wait for the next First Thursday! read more

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We stopped by Per Diem for a quick happy hour. Our group sat in the shaded outdoor patio where we enjoyed the perfect 70 degree weather. Food came out very fast, and I found our servers to be highly attentive. I ordered a couple of gin drinks off their cocktail menu, and I had the pleasure of trying a couple of shareables. Loved the arancini. My mother-in-law used to make them with ground beef, so having it with crab at Per Diem was a lovely change. I also was obsessed with their truffle fries. The texture of the fries were so crispy, and the truffle/shredded parmesan ratio was perfect. read more

This place is under the SalesForce park/transit. I've been here before, so it was definitely good enough to come back! I went during lunch on a Monday. If you go in the evenings, it may be more packed. I made reservation for lunch, but there was plenty of seating. The place seats quite a lot of people and the service was great. BURRATA: love this appetizer! It's so good! I could eat 2 orders of this! CHOP SALAD: Salad was good. No complaints. WILD MUSHROOM PASTA: my friend ordered this. She loved it and was surprised it was topped with an egg, which made her day. I would recommend this place. What's great is that you can walk it off at the Salesforce park just an escalator/elevator away! read more

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Staff is always friendly. Great cocktails and beer selection. Food is excellent. Same goes with the sutter location. Can't go wrong!

Really creative cocktails, fun bar bites (truffle fries, burrata toast, and short rib bites are a must!) and friendly staff; Kelly and Max give great recommendations. It can be crowded on first Thursdays, but otherwise it's a great place to get after-work drinks. read more

Fun happy ambiance with a good pulse. Sat at the bar, good service. We really enjoyed our drinks & the pork chops were very tasty. read more

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Excellent food, delicious cocktails, and such a great hidden gem! The service was incredibly friendly and welcoming, and the atmosphere was perfect--not too noisy like many bars can be, so you can actually enjoy your food and have a conversation. It's also conveniently located near public transportation, making it very easy to get to. Great food, great drinks, great service, and a wonderful vibe. I'm definitely looking forward to coming back and highly recommend giving this place a try! read more

I attended a private party at Per Diem recently, so let's run down the basics. *** Service- *** Top Notch. Attentive bar and wait staff. They went out of their way to find substitutes for folks with dietary issues. Perfectly on point. *** Bathrooms *** Clean and elegant. *** Interior Decor*** Very nice, cozy, and welcoming. Lots of warm wood tones and some leather. *** Get This Mocktail *** They have this thing called The Refresher. I drank two of them. Refreshing indeed! and I was ever so grateful because Dry January can be just an awful load of FOMO when everyone else is enjoying the booze. *** Food *** Caesar Salad- Kinda dull. I thought it needed more pepper, anchovies, and parmesan. Not bad, but not really a standout compared to other restaurants. Meatball Starter- Bland. Just lacking flavor. Brussel Sprouts- Nice flavor and zesty. Salmon with Ratatouille- Perfect. Cooked perfectly and absolutely delicious. Big hit! Flourless Chocolate Cake - Good. A nice treat for our gluten-free folks. *** Price *** A bit high in my opinion, but I recognize that rent in that area is probably no joke, so forgiven. read more

Per Diem - Transit Center - Flourless chocolate cake. - New American Near Me - San Francisco, California

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Headed there for a girls dinner on a thursday night. Service was ok, ambiance was nice (we say outdoors) though music got a tad loud. Food was good, we got a couple appetizers to share, a drink each and a main. The ahu tuna tartar was solid, crab arancini was decent, truffle fries we delicious. I got the mushroom pasta and they were able to swap out the sheep cheese for me, which was great. I got a dirty martini which was shaken well with the right amount of olive juice. Parking was ok given we ate 6:30. Many loading zones became available. If u r there first thurs of the month, there is a flea/night market thing on 2nd and Howard. Avoid going that direction or u may need to route around to 3rd and right on W to come back. Pricing is traditional downtown price, so came to $80/person. Pretty pricey but u fortunately a norm in SF. Sigh. read more

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Food wise, this is not the place to impress your date. The food is very mediocre, expensive but nothing special about it. This place has a good ambiance and if you are a Manhattan drinker, then this could be your place. We ordered Ahi Tuna Tartare for the appetizer, Pan Seared Salmon and Pork Chop for the main dishes, all of them are very ordinary, nothing special about them. The Pork Chop was dry, I couldn't finish it because of how dry it was. Our server was new, as she mentioned. Overall, I'm not impressed. There are plenty of options to choose in SF and I'm not coming back. Meh ! read more

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Came here for a team lunch and it was okay. The plate was bigger than my dish (got the pasta). Nothing really stood out to me about this place but I love how they were able to sit a big party and the appetizers were much better than the entrees. read more

Excellent place with good food and good service. Our waiter helped us decide on what to get and ensured our waters were topped off. Nice ambiance and great location as well. Clean bathroom and fitting decor. Will come back! read more

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Pros: nice decor & comfortable seating with enough space to have a conversation. Cons: They messed up our order and were surprisingly rude about needing to fix it. The pasta sauces were way too heavy & oily, and the delicata squash appetizer had a weird aftertaste. read more

Refreshing drinks, short ribs were tender and flavorful, the pasta was a nice accessory but not overly heavy. Would definitely order it again. Good spot for a team dinner if you're in the financial district / downtown. Spacious and modern interior. read more

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Great spot for a business lunch. The Mushroom Pasta and Brussel Sprouts (surprise) are great. Food is presented in a fancy fashion. We sat outside and it was a little cold, but this place does have blankets. read more

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Came here for a team lunch around the holidays. From the outside the location isn't anything special, but once you walk inside, you're transported into a swanky bar/lounge setting. I think all of us were pretty surprised at just how nice the interior was. We ordered a pretty good variety of items between everyone, and the reviews were mostly good. It seemed that for the most part the entrees were the winners. We started with the beef carpaccio and crab arancini. The carpaccio was fine but could've used a bit more flavor and the arancini was good but tasted kinda like a tater tot. We also ended up ordering a side of the truffle fries, these were perfectly crispy and super flavorful. I tried the kale salad with chicken added and the mushroom pasta. The salad was a little bland, but the chicken livened it up. The chicken was cooked pretty perfectly - slightly crispy on the outside, but tender on the inside. The mushroom pasta was really good, though I wished that it had just a little less truffle. It had plenty of mushrooms that already offered a great umami, so the added truffle was a little much. Coworkers who ordered the sandwiches liked them. Those that ordered salads and weren't sharing another entree with someone else ended up leaving hungry. The slada on it's own wouldn't have been enough, so I'm happy I was able to share it and another item. Service was okay, not bad, but not super attentive. We had empty water glasses for a lot of our meal, we offered to keep the carafe and just pour it ourselves, but they were insistent on pouring it for us. For sure would've preferred to have our own. Overall, not a place I'd come out of my way for, but definitely somewhere I'd want to come back for another team lunch! read more

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Came here around 5pm on a Wednesday for a quick drink with some coworkers. Location is pretty convenient since it's below the Salesforce transit center. There wasn't any bar seating available when we arrived so we asked if they had any space in the lounge since we were only grabbing a drink and would be done quick. I ordered a Passive Nature, 2 people ordered Espresso Martinis and 1 of us doesn't drink so enjoyed their water. Our drinks came out quickly and the server came to refill waters frequently! Vibe here was pretty quaint. The crowd here is definitely mainly fidi workers. Would come again for a quick drink in the area! read more

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I don't leave a lot of reviews and generally am forgiving of mistakes given that I also work in hospitality. This one unfortunately has to be left to warn anyone trying to plan a private event at Per Diem. tl;dr: don't. Their general manager will ghost you and ignore repeated emails to confirm space + menu, even if your event is less than 24 hours away. I tried to book a space for a corporate event. Was told that the space is available and I needed to send a cc authorization form to confirm. I did. No response. I ended up trying to get ahold of Naomi at least 4 times via email to confirm. 5 days later (and the day before my event), I give the restaurant a call directly, and someone on the phone said that the space was actually booked by someone else weeks in advance. Cue hard pivot + trying to find a brand new space for 30 with less than 24 hours. All of this could've been avoided if the general manager of the restaurant didn't completely ghost me for 5 days, but apparently that's the standard of hospitality that Per Diem holds themselves to. YMMV read more

Had an incredible meal at Per Diem at the Transit Center with some guests! The food was exceptional across the board, but the highlight was the service. Big thanks to our server Kyle for taking such great care of us--his service was excellent and made the whole experience seamless. Highly recommend!" read more

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Decided to do an impromptu date night since my partner and I were both in the city. We had reservations for Wednesday 6:45PM but it wasn't necessary. There wasn't too many people in the restaurant, so you can get by with just walking in. I do like that the menu is small and simple. It makes deciding what to eat a lot easier with minimal choices. However it doesn't encourage me to come back because there are only few items I want to try and I tried most of them. They do have specials that change not listed on the menu. Wild Mushroom Pasta: this was SO delicious. The sauce was creamy and cheesy. I don't think the egg did too much for the pasta. Maybe the runny egg yolk added to the creaminess, but I could live without the egg white. The mushrooms were plentiful and have good flavor. I love bucatini noodles too bc the sauce gets in all the noodles nooks and crannies. I probably could've have finished the entire dish but I had to save room for dessert. Burger: I'm not the best reviewer of burgers as most burgers taste the same. This burger is no different just a simple burger. Had it cooked medium rare and it was very wet/juicy. The fries were good but a little soggy. I wish it had a smidge more time in the fryer with some salt. Strawberry Tiramisu: this reminded me of a strawberry tres leches cake. The cake was very moist and wet. The cake was delicious and had good strawberry flavor. Definitely wish it was a bigger portion since I split it with my bf. Parking: since this location is located in the transit center parking might be hard to find. I recommend taking public transit and walking there from bart/muni. Street parking in this area is limited and hard to come by. read more

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Love Per Diem. Have come here a few times for lunch with colleagues and it never disappoints. The service is excellent, eloquent atmosphere, and the food is exceptional. Their menu has plenty of delectable items to choose from, but my favorite item so far is the Steak Frites. It was cooked perfectly (medium-rare) and their fries are delicious. Perfect combination of steak and potatoes, my favorite! You have plenty of places to choose from in SoMa, but I highly recommend checking out Per Diem! read more

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Great looking spot and cool vibes in the bar area and the library room. Only tried the burger, which was average. Hope to come back and try more of the food. read more

Per Diem - Transit Center - New American Near Me - San Francisco, California

Came to Per Diem for a work lunch, and was pleasantly Surprised. We ordered a bunch of stuff. For starters we got the beef carpaccio and the crab arancini. The beef carpaccio had little to no flavor and would probably skip next time around. The crab arancini was really tasty, came with topped with a good sauce, could definitely crush an order of an order of these myself. For my main meal, I got the ahi salad. I think portion size wise, it's ok for a normal appetite, but for me it required ordering truffle fries to feel fuller. The salad itself was pretty basic, not much of a flavorful dressing and like 6 small pieces of ahi. I think if it had a more flavorful dressing and more greens, it could elevate it. Walking in, the aesthetics of this place is really nice and well decorated. For a business lunch it's a solid spot with an affordable (by SF standards) menu. Plenty of indoor, bar, and outdoor seating. Bonus points since they take reservations. Overall, solid spot if you work in the area and need a place for a team lunch. Service was alright, and they do add a 20% automatic gratuity for parties up to 8 and 22% for parties of 9 or more. read more

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Pierdiem has officially stolen our hearts -- and our appetites. My fiancé and I absolutely love this place. We've dined here multiple times and keep coming back- which tells you just how much we vibe with the energy here. The food? Incredible. Their burger is one of the best I've ever had -- juicy, flavorful, and unforgettable. And the flatbread? A total standout. It's familiar comfort food with a gourmet twist that keeps you coming back. The staff is phenomenal -- friendly, attentive, and genuinely passionate about what they do. You can feel the love in both the service and the kitchen. And let's not forget the wine list -- they carry my favorite Pinot Noir, which is just the cherry on top. Pierdiem is one of those rare spots that hits all the marks: food, ambiance, service, and soul. Highly recommend it whether you're local or just passing through. read more

Per Diem was a surprising find at the Transit Center. Working a few blocks from here has made this a great spot for after work drinks/small bites with a smaller group (2-4 people) It's also been a convenient lunch location for when colleagues from other offices are in town or for smaller client lunches. So far their soups and salads have not disappointed, nor have their old fashioneds. Service is always friendly and efficient too. Weekday lunch was a little busier and after work was less crowded. Pros: Convenient cozy spot for lunch, drinks, and small bites. Cons: NA read more

Per Diem - Transit Center - a bar with lots of counter space - New American Near Me - San Francisco, California