Tag Archives: San Francisco tasting menu

Dining at Nightbird

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A riff on takoyaki, capped with uni and truffles, at Nightbird.
A riff on takoyaki, capped with uni and truffles, at Nightbird.

It’s elegant yet whimsical, with a name inspired by the chef-owner’s fondness for owls.

Kim Alter’s Nightbird celebrates eight years this year in San Francisco with an exciting development. Alter took over a space next door in late November, allowing the restaurant to expand its footprint. The new space will be used for private dinners, as well as occasional pop-ups by Nightbird’s pastry chef, vintage boutiques, and potentially even members of La Cocina’s food incubator.

It joins the restaurant’s other adjoining business, the Linden Room, a swank cocktail bar perfect for a pre- or post-dinner libation.

Last Saturday, my husband and I enjoyed the $195 tasting menu and $130 optional wine pairing. Alter added a few extra morsels on the house. The restaurant does include an automatic service charge, which is an increasingly common practice at many fine-dining restaurants. What’s out of the norm, though, is that it’s only 16 percent.

General Manager Ron Boyd and Chef Kim Alter.
General Manager Ron Boyd and Chef Kim Alter.

The minimalist, graceful dining room is compact and intimate. There’s a good number of staff, overseen by General Manager and Director of Hospitality Ron Boyd, that delivers an attentive yet unobtrusive service experience.

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Dining At the New 7 Adams

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An elegant pork collar at 7 Adams.
An elegant pork collar at 7 Adams.

Illuminated in neon, the lucky number “7” can’t be missed, indicating that you’ve not only found your destination but are fortunate to be in for a real dining treat.

That marks the spot of 7 Adams, the new restaurant by a former Michelin-starred power couple, that’s actually located at 1963 Sutter St. in San Francisco. Chef-Owner David Fisher, who opened it in November with his wife, Pastry Chef Serena Chow Fisher, named the restaurant for the street that he grew up on in upstate New York. Peninsula diners may also recognize the duo from their stints at Bird Dog in Palo Alto.

The couple previously operated Marlena in San Francisco, which earned a Michelin star in 2021 just a year after opening. But they decided to leave that restaurant last summer when a dispute with the owner came to a head.

The sign from the sidewalk.
The sign from the sidewalk.

It’s nice to see them rebound by teaming up with the Hi Neighbor Hospitality Group, which operates such successful establishments as Trestle and The Vault, both in San Francisco.

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Nouveau Vietnamese Fare at Khai

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Under glass -- white seaweed salad at Khai.

Under glass — white seaweed salad at Khai.

 

With the exception of sushi, we’ve become so accustomed to cheap Asian food in heaping quantities, that we fairly balk when we come across an Asian restaurant daring to focus on premium ingredients, handled with precision, and plated with finesse and restraint.

Khai, which opened in December in San Francisco’s Design District, is a modern Vietnamese restaurant that serves only one menu — a 10-course tasting for $95. If your eyes are already rolling back in their sockets at the thought of just how much food you could get for that price at your neighborhood pho joint, you are missing the point. Because at $95, this dinner experience is a relative bargain as far as tasting menus go in the Bay Area.

For a dozen years, Chef Khai Duong oversaw Ana Mandara in San Francisco. After it closed, he traveled around Asia, reconnecting with his roots. He even won a gold medal in the International Beijing Culinary Competition, besting 200 other chefs.

At 58, he opened a very personal restaurant.

At 58, he opened a very personal restaurant.

A candle illuminates each table.

A candle illuminates each table.

He always knew he wanted to come back to San Francisco, though, to open something unique. At age 58, he did just that.

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Sons & Daughters: Grand Food From A Tiny Kitchen

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A trio of amuses starts off the night at Sons & Daughters.

A trio of amuses starts off the night at Sons & Daughters.

 

When you step inside the doorstep of San Francisco’s Sons & Daughters, you can’t help but notice the open kitchen smack in front of you — mostly because of its size.

Put it this way: Walk-in closets are larger.

To see four chefs working so seamlessly in such close quarters gives you pause.

And to see the caliber of the food they manage to turn out there takes your breath away.

The elegant restaurant, dressed up with charcoal linens, chandeliers and large framed mirrors, was opened in 2010 by chefs Teague Moriarty and Matt McNamara. These days, McNamara also lives on and works the 83-acre Dark Hill Farm in the Santa Cruz Mountains, which supplies the Sons & Daughters Restaurant Group that also includes The Square in North Beach.

A sliver of a kitchen.

A sliver of a kitchen.

A 2015 Holm Oak Pinot Noir from Tasmania as part of the wine pairings.

A 2015 Holm Oak Pinot Noir from Tasmania as part of the wine pairings.

I had a chance to dine at the cozy 28-seat restaurant, when I was invited in as a guest a week ago. When you are seated, along with the menus (which have the name of your party printed at the top in a welcome message), you are presented with a leather-bound booklet that includes information and photos of the farm. Food scraps are composted on the farm, which produces fruits, vegetables, herbs, eggs, honey, and rabbits that inspire every menu. Indeed, on the back of the menu is a list of the season’s harvest that may be in the dishes that night — everything from redwood sorrel to apriums to ice plant to Buff Orpington eggs.

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