San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
The very best of splurge dining
The nature of a splurge is that you're not going there every day: It's a meal you save up for so you can celebrate something special. For most people, a meal at a fine dining restaurant is a heavy investment — so it'd better be good. It's here that a critic is most valuable, I'd say, because a bad slice of pizza is much easier to laugh off than a bad $200 meal.
To that end, I visited many of the high-end restaurants in the Bay Area to find out what's actually worth the price tag. Thanks to the wine industry and the tech boom's wave of new money, fine dining has become a key part of the Bay Area's culinary reputation. Though the genre waned during the leaner times of the pandemic, fine dining has eased back into action. I found that in the right hands, the experience can still transport you: The restaurants on this list don't just indulge the diner — they surprise and challenge the palate as well.
Below, find a sampling of my picks for the best special occasion restaurants that the Bay Area has to offer. For the full list, go to sfchronicle.com/ holidays2021
Avery
The nine-course tasting menu ($159) at San Francisco's Avery is one of the hidden gems of the city's dining scene. At this miniscule restaurant on Fillmore Street, chef and owner Rodney Wages and his skeleton crew serve exquisite and imaginative haute cuisine: tortellini as delicate as cats' ears; Harbison cheese tarts; and miniature Toaster Strudels with lingonberries. Japanese culinary touches manifest subtly, as tempura-fried nettle leaves, a takoyaki-like oyster “aebleskiver,” and silken chawanmushi with umamirich abalone. While sake is a particular focus of the beverage program, the nonalcoholic drink pairing is full of surprises, like a drink of fermented pineapple with sauerkraut essence that goes great with cured Iberico ham. 1552 Fillmore St., San Francisco. 415-817-1187 or averysf.com
Birdsong
Everything touches the wood-fired oven at Birdsong, a SoMa restaurant inspired by the flavors of the Pacific Northwest. Black cod is served in a dish redolent of the resinous aroma of Douglas fir. Parker House rolls are grilled on a wire rack over hot embers and paired with pickles and stickysweet, Peking duck-style quails. Chef Chris Bleidorn's intense “trout sequence” deconstructs a fish into its constituent parts: its roe with an apple cider sabayon and silky spaghetti squash; its tail cured and served on a piece of puffed skin; its tender and fatty collar and loin grilled over fire.
This 11-course menu ($255) is a stunner. Sit at the chef's counter if you can, so you can catch all the action. 1085 Mission St., San Francisco. 415-3699161 or birdsongsf.com
Commis
While Commis' takeout was some of the best in the field, the Piedmont restaurant has now shifted back into in-person tasting-menu ($189) dining, where diners can dig into more than a dozen technically refined dishes. Executive chef and owner James Syhabout's restaurant has evolved from intricate, classically European-style cuisine to a menu with Southeast Asian touches. Now, he starts a meal with a Lao-style dumpling: The kitchen enrobes a chicken and shiitake mushroom filling with a translucent tapioca wrapper and christens it with peppery nasturtium. The menu takes some fascinating turns: A raw oyster shimmering with vivid green pea-leaf ice might be followed by silky brown rice congee enriched with duck fat. You can also dine in the restaurant's courtyard. 3859 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. 510-653-3902 or commisrestau rant.com
Delage
Like its sister restaurant Utzutzu in Alameda, Delage departs from the typical omakase-style sushi bar by embracing local, seasonal produce. Chef Mikiko Ando integrates ingredients like height-of-summer corn and tomatoes into his eight-course omakase ($100), presenting them with reverence usually reserved for the rarest imported delicacies. A dumpling course includes a purple sweet potato wonton topped with a dark tapioca chip reminiscent of fried fish skin, and juicy slabs of watermelon are served as carpaccio on a dish of translucent crystal. The climax is a
chirashi duo of pristine fish, rich with umami and served in delicate blue glass bowls. 536 Ninth St., Oakland. 510-823-2050 or delageoakland.com
Kaiseki Saryo Hachi
Ramen shop owner Yuko Nammo and her husband, chef Shinichi Aoki have backgrounds in traditional kaiseki-style cooking, the Japanese equivalent of haute cuisine, and their experience and comfort with the genre are in full view at the cozy strip mall restaurant in Burlingame. The $200 per person menu showcases a variety of techniques in its multicourse progression. Golden-eyed snapper comes simmered in soup with winter melon and makrut lime, while soft scrambled eggs accompany tender barbecued eel. Seasonality is a major theme in kaiseki meals: In the summer, expect preparations like tomato gelee with fava beans; in autumn, grilled duck with simmered yam. 1861 El Camino Real, Burlingame. 650-239-9391 or ramensaryo.com
Michael Warring
In a Vallejo strip mall space with hardly any signage, Ali and Michael Warring work together to produce a thrilling New American tasting menu experience, which comes in a sevencourse ($84) or, on Thursdays, 12course ($124) format. The open kitchen setting is intimate, with just a counter and a few tables in the dining room, and the couple offer a personable level of service that fits the restaurant's small scale. The menu changes frequently to match the season, and Warring doesn't hesitate to include French, Korean, Spanish and other touches to the table. You may see heirloom tomato sorbet crowned with chilled sabayon in August, or tart strawberry kimchi with peppery nasturtium flowers in June. Look forward
to beignets, prepared with potent components like sea urchin creme fraiche or peanut butter cup-flavor ice cream. 8300 Bennington Court, Vallejo. 707-655-4808 or www.michaelwarring .com
Press
Naturally, St. Helena's Press is all about Napa, Napa and Napa. Its cellar is packed with Napa Valley wines, and locally foraged and grown ingredients are handled with a global mindset: kampachi collar ($16) with deeply savory sea lettuce butter; organic dressed greens ($16) with sourdough croutons; succulent rib eye cap ($98) perked up with a Japanese-style Meyer lemon pepper paste. Wine nerds will love the opportunity to eat alongside Napa's vintners while gazing out at the Mayacamas mountains, a historic center for regional winemaking. 587 St. Helena Hwy S., St. Helena. 707-967-0550 or pressnapavalley.com
Sundance
Sundance exudes a steadiness that speaks to its status as an elder statesman in the restaurant world. Opened in 1974, the steak and seafood restaurant has racked up nods for its stellar service, clubby atmosphere and reliable menu of premium beef, dry-aged for at least five weeks. The toothsome slow-roasted prime rib ($29.95/$39.50) is a best-seller — one that you'll likely see on every table if you dine on the restaurant's patio. Each of the steaks is served a la carte, and the side dish menu is impressive in itself: You've got the loaded baked potato ($6.95); sweet, organic tomatoes with balsamic reduction ($4.50); and an excellent wild rice pilaf ($4.95), which gets an earthy, forestlike aroma from fresh thyme and mushrooms. 1921 El Camino Real, Palo Alto. 650-321-6798 or sundancethesteakhouse.com