The same brass coat hooks that lined the walls when the restaurant opened 32 years ago are still there. An ever-increasing number of autographed photographs of musicians who've stopped in over the decades, each taking advantage of Hayes Street Grill's location at the nexus of the city's cultural institutions, hang nearby.

Here, the seasoned waiters wear white button-downs and ties, stir a perfect martini, and recognize that good service is an art.

Dining trends are mercurial, but the food here has never played to what is current. Just as in 1978, the best way to begin a meal is with a platter of oysters on the half shell, an expert rendition of a Caesar salad ($10) or, in season, the cracked Dungeness crab ($18).

The restaurant was one of the first to focus on just-caught fish cooked on a grill, and though the selections have changed over the years (owing to the restaurant's decades old commitment to serve only sustainably raised and harvested seafood), a simple piece of grilled fish, paired with your choice of sauce and a dish of some of the city's crispest French fries, is still one of the greatest meals in town.

Other stalwarts, like Rex sole meunière ($24) and that old Bay Area workhouse, the warm goat-cheese salad ($11), are always available. And eating a grass-fed beef burger ($13) at the bar, chatting with a waiter who remembers when Hayes street wasn't lined with boutiques and the Symphony House that stands opposite hadn't yet been built, is one of the city's most wonderful dining experiences.

Lovers of innovation and novelty may disagree, but we think that a restaurant this good is best left alone.

Hayes Street Grill, 320 Hayes St.; 415-863-5545 or hayesstreetgrill.com