Atelier Crenn - San Francisco
Beautiful presentations abounded
Rating: 18/20
Where: San Francisco, CA, USA
When: Dinner for 4 on 2 June 2022
Cost: Tasting menu $410, Wine Pairing $250-$625
Accolades: 3 Michelin Stars, #72 on Top 50 Restaurants list (2022)
Why: French-Californian cooking that stays inventive with novel preparations that are (mostly) delicious
Atelier Crenn is located in San Francisco's Marina district in an outwardly unassuming location. Only a careful look reveals the signs that proclaim the restaurant's name and its three Michelin stars. I first encountered the chef's cooking in 2009 at the restaurant Luce in the Intercontinental San Francisco, and have been several times to her eponymous restaurant since its opening in 2011. Our last visit was almost four years ago in 2018, right after the restaurant received its third Michelin star. Clearly it was high time for a revisit.
The space is modern yet understated. Poems grace the walls, tables and chairs are made of wood. The outside is kept at bay by permanently closed sunshades. With only about ten tables, the restaurant is relatively small, but that is matched by a pretty compact kitchen. The pastry kitchen actually occupies a larger room.
Changes since our last visit in 2018 were (a) greatly increased prices: the tasting menu (the only choice for dining) is now $410, and the wine pairings clock in at $250 and $625. Yes, tips are already included, but this is still a hefty price tag. And change (b) is that its sister restaurant Bar Crenn next door has not yet opened after the pandemic and is currently used to serve the desserts after dinner. On the "plus" side, this allows the restaurant to have two seatings per night without unceremoniously kicking the first seating to the curb after three hours. We spent a total of five hours on our dinner, feeling only a little bit rushed during our time in main dining room. If you want a more relaxed experience, I recommend making a reservation after 6pm.
The tasting menu is introduced by a poem, where each line corresponds to one of the dishes. Compared to our previous visits, the poem was only available online with a QR code scanned at the table. The poem is now accompanied by drawings of each dish, making it a bit easier to guess what a "wild dance together" might mean (some examples above). I appreciate that the chef likes to convey the feelings behind or reasons for the dishes on the menu, but I feel that a poem is not a very effective way of doing so. "The efflorescing beauty with rosy cheeks rises" doesn't tell me nearly as much as our server saying that the chef loves oysters and rose wine, so she has created a dish that includes both.
What hasn't changed since our last visit is the beginning of the meal. Kir Breton is a classic French cocktail with apple cider and creme de cassis. Atelier Crenn's version is a small sphere of butter and white chocolate that it filled with apple juice and topped by a dollop of cassis. Eaten in one bite, it explodes in one's mouth with a burst of delicious apple juice. Very refreshing, with the sphere's cover being nicely unobtrusive - often an issue with these kind of preparations, but not here. Virtually no alcohol in this "cocktail" 18. (I forgot to take a picture of this dish, but it looks virtually identical to the photo above from our 2018 visit.)
Next came a dish that looked like roses. In actuality, these were crackers topped with sushi rice, brown butter poached uni, geoduck and a citrus mousseline. A very pretty presentation, and I liked this quite a bit, but it mostly tasted of citrus with a nice cracker underneath. The uni and geoduck were close to undetectable 17.
The chef loves oysters and they appeared in the next two dishes, in quite different preparations. First, the previously mentioned oysters and rose wine, which always go great together. Here we had raw Village Bay oysters with a rose wine gelee, and what looked like frozen sea water on top of the dish. This was an excellent dish: the gelee very flavorful, with a hint of pepper, and the saltiness of the frozen sea water a nice addition. I wish the two oysters had been a bit larger, but that's just saying I was sad for the dish to end so quickly 19.
The second oyster preparation was grilled and served with grilled tapioca pearls, an oyster mousseline and (I think) an oyster leaf on top. Whereas the previous dish was meant to evoke France, this one was all California beach bbq - bold smoky flavors abounded, the sauce was much heavier and fattier than the previous one. A very good dish, again I only wished that there was more of it 19.
Next came spot prawns. On a plate we found spot prawn tartare with seaweed, sea lettuce powder and yogurt whey foam. Unfortunately, this was among my least favorites of the dishes, the texture of the tartare too slimy/mushy, and the rest of the preparation not very flavorful. The German Riesling served with the dish was also an exceptionally poor match, being way too sweet 16. Much better was the accompanying broth of spot prawn heads served in a bowl. Our servers added some coconut oil infused with coffee to it tableside. I couldn't really taste the latter, but it was still a wonderful flavorful dish with a great use of spices 19.
A new addition to the menu (and not part of the poem) was shiso leaf tempura with Mexican spices in the tempura batter and chili aioli on top. This reminded me of a fatty, crunchy potato chip with lots of spices. Very nice, maybe a tad too fatty, but a great way to reset our palate between more delicate courses 18.
Beets were the stars of the next two preparations, again drastically different as we had seen in the previous courses. First, there was a beet "ceviche" with huckleberry gel. A lovely, sour ceviche, balanced by a hint of sweetness. Beets sometimes seem like a vegetable of last resort in winter menus, but they held their own here 18.
Following this: roasted beets that had been dehydrated and then re-hydrated to concentrate their flavors. Very creamy and meaty, this was enjoyable, but not as good as the ceviche. Whereas the ceviche had been bright and elegantly balanced multiple flavors (sour, sweet, salty), the roasted beets felt much more subdued and narrow in their taste profile 17.
White asparagus was the common ingredient in the next two dishes. First came a "tea" (really a soup) of truffles with green garlic oil and a dumpling made from white asparagus and truffles. The tea was wonderful with strong truffle flavors (maybe 18 if scored separately). In comparison, the dumpling tasted pretty much of nothing, it was very bland. I suspect that an ingredient as subtle as white asparagus generally doesn't do well next to a strong truffle soup, which makes me wonder why this was attempted here 15.
More successful was the following smoked white asparagus mousse served on a buckwheat cake. A much richer dish than the previous one, with great smokiness, and a good crunch in the cake. The optional caviar addition for this course really took this to another level - very, very good 19.
A deconstructed French onion soup came next. In a bowl we found concentrated onion broth with a bit of cheese fat - simple and simply phenomenal (20 by itself). Next to it was a (dry) presentation that looked like a flower, consisting of burnt bread, onion, cauliflower ice cream, escargot roe, and a side of buckwheat crepes. This was also very well done, very oniony, and was best eaten together with the broth. A beautiful presentation, different and delicious 19+.
Warm bread was served at this point. A brioche and a seeded epi baguette were both pretty good, the house cultured butter also lovely 18.
Going from French to Japanese influences, we were served a yakitori abalone. It came with sauerkraut, a dehydrated savoy cabbage leaf, garlic aioli and a sauce made from the abalone and parsley root. I loved this dish, and especially liked the sourness contributed by the sauerkraut (although some at the table thought there was too much of it). The sauce was lovely and creamy. The abalone was prepared to be soft, without any bite, but not too soft like we previously had at the Harbor House Inn. I'd prefer a bit more of a bite in my abalone, but this was still very good 19+.
The final savory course was a six day dry-aged black cod, with a vin jaune sauce. It was served with a side of porcinis, radishes and other vegetables. Aged fish is not too common a dish, and this was truly excellent with a wonderful sauce. The vegetables seemed cooked separately and perfectly. Most were great, but not all of them worked well with the fish 19+.
A cheese and salad course was next, but this was a far cry from the French cheese cart course it was inspired by. A simple salad with boho belle cheese, salt, and pepper. Pleasant 18.
At this point, we were guided via the kitchen to the adjacent Bar Crenn, after about 3 1/4 hours for dinner.
Desserts followed: a sea buckthorn sorbet was decent 17, but better was a cotton candy dumpling with sunflower ice cream. A very unique and clever dessert, quite a feat to pull these separate flavors together and have them work well 19.
A leaf shaped ice cream sandwich incorporated matcha, douglas fir, huckleberry and cherry blossoms. Nice, but almost melted by the time we tried it 18.
Lastly, a Michelin star shaped chocolate cookie with matcha and hojicha ice cream was very nice and crunchy. It was served on ice and had to be eaten right away lest it melted 18.
Three chocolate pralines with ganache, sesame ginger, and peanut butter pretzel flavors concluded out dinner. Fine, but not mind-blowing 17.
Overall: Atelier Crenn serves a delicious tasting menu, mostly inspired by French cuisine and/or the chef's upbringing in France. Elegant preparations that are novel without being too adventurous. We had many dishes that were really, really good, and a very solid three stars, but on this particular visit there were also a number of courses that fell somewhat short. That drags the overall rating down a bit, but should be considered in context - the kitchen is clearly experimenting instead of just playing it safe with a greatest hits menu, as so many three star kitchens do. That’s something to be applauded 18.
