Six Test Kitchen - Paso Robles
Everyone has a front row seat to the kitchen action
Rating: 15/20
Where: Paso Robles, California
When: Dinner for 3 on 17 August 2023
Cost: Tasting menu $125, Wine pairing $130-$225
Accolades: 1 Michelin Star
Why: Some nice Californian dishes, neighborhood full of hip wineries
About half-way between Los Angeles and San Francisco lies Paso Robles, one of California's main wine growing regions. Wine and fine dining have a natural relationship, so it was only a matter of time until Michelin would coming looking. So in 2021, “Six Test Kitchen” became the first local restaurant to receive a Michelin star. Located in “Tin City”, an industrial wine production and tasting area south of the city proper, its location might look a bit inauspicious. Situated in the back of a parking lot behind a winery, the restaurant's only decoration was a sign bearing the word “six”, a Michelin star on the door and a note declaring walk-ins to not be welcome - reservations are a must. Luckily we had one.
The dining room doubled as the kitchen, and sported a minimal warehouse-chic aesthetic. Twelve seats were arranged at a counter surrounding the kitchen action. Cookbooks of several three-Michelin-starred restaurants and a copy of Modernist Cuisine were shelved in the kitchen island - speaking of the staff's ambitions (see picture above). On our visit, there were two seatings of six seats each, spaced half an hour apart. There was just a single tasting menu, payable upon reservation. Contrary to most Californian fine-dining restaurants, no changes to the menu were allowed - pescatarians, vegetarians, and vegans were all equally unwelcome. Since almost all courses contained meat, leaving out a course or two would not have been a viable strategy for those dietary restrictions, unfortunately. Two wine pairings were offered, and we all chose the less expensive one, since picking one of each pairing was (surprise!) not allowed. The wines were generally decent, but not amazing. At this price point, going either way (pairing, by the glass, bottle) is probably reasonable.
A welcome drink, an elderberry soda, was served before our meal. Lightly sparkly and fruity, it was a fine palate cleanser 13.
Three small bites appeared next. A Morro Bay oyster was topped with meyer lemons and a tomatillo-based hot sauce. With toppings like these, no wonder that the oyster played only a supporting role. The hot sauce was very (too?) spicy, and a tad bitter - maybe there was too much lemon zest? This bite went down more easily with the paired funky Gamet champagne, but this was still a wild beginning to the meal 14. More traditional was a tostada cup filled with a trout mousse and trout roe. The cup was lightly crunchy, and the mousse a bit smoky and quite nice. The roe didn't have much of a popping texture, making the ingredients combine seamlessly 16. A sphere of duck liver pate was served on a cookie and adorned with chopped pistachios. The heaviest of the three bites, it was slightly sweet, maybe even chocolaty. The cookie base seemed a bit too big relative to its toppings, and therefore dominated the texture. Fine, but not amazing 14.
Lightly cured seabass from Santa Cruz island was served with raspberries, tomatoes, shiso and a raspberry broth. With the plain, almost tastefree fish, this dish for all practical purposes tasted just of raspberries. It was a bit disappointing that most of the ingredients merely supplied texture, if that 14.
A chawanmushi (Japanese egg custard) was served with a dashi made from house-cured fish, and topped with chopped shimeji mushrooms, pork belly, beans and scallions. The base of this dish might be Japanese, but no one would mistake the end result for being Asian. This was a very hearty course, not very subtle, but quite tasty in a rustic way. The bacon flavor was by far the dominant one here, with the other ingredients merely supplying texture. Great for fans of pork, not so exciting for everyone else 16.
A piece of black cod was served with eggplant, summer squash, and shishito peppers that were stuffed with a pork and clam sausage. A slightly spicy sauce made with gochujang was poured over the fish tableside. This piece of cod was the single best thing served throughout the entire dinner. Cooked perfectly, it was flavorful, melted in one's mouth, and went perfectly with the delicious sauce. Easily an 18 when scored individually. Most of the sides were less impressive, unfortunately. The lightly pickled zucchini were nice, fresh and crunchy. The eggplant was slightly lemony, but otherwise not very flavorful. Another condiment was spicy and tasted a bit like ajvar. The filled pepper was very (too?) spicy. Overall 16.
A duck breast came with a corn puree, a peach, a fried ball containing duck thigh rillettes, and a sauce made from roasted duck bones. The duck was nicely prepared, not too fatty with a crunchy skin, but unfortunately a bit chewy. My favorite bite on the plate was the breaded meatball that was well seasoned - I only wish that it had been a tad juicier. The peach was very sweet, maybe too sweet compared to the rest of the dish 16.
The main savory course started with a bizarre exchange. Our sommelier poured a Nebbiolo and proceeded to talk about the pros and cons of pairing this wine with wagyu steak. (According to him, white wine would be the “correct” pairing for wagyu.) This was followed by a serving of... pork loin. Huh?! It turned out that the wagyu was a possible upgrade from the pork. But, again somewhat unusually, if that upgrade hadn't been ordered at reservation time, then it was not offered at dinner time, either. Given the restaurant's visibly well-stocked meat fridge, it was a bit odd not to offer customers the choice of paying $40 more for their dinner - at no extra work to the kitchen. Well, anyway, pork it was for us.
A pork loin was served with a charred onion, hazelnuts and a brown butter sauce. The pork on my plate was criminally overcooked: not pink, but almost white. As a result, any juiciness was gone. It was still possible to see that otherwise this was a nicely seasoned piece of meat, making the failed preparation feel even more tragic. Some of my dining companions were more lucky with their pork servings, though, for what it's worth. The almost chocolaty tasting sauce was interesting, but felt like an odd complement for the meat 14.
Then it was on to desserts. A white chocolate bavarois was garnished with pieces of melons, cucumbers and lime leaves. The crunchy cucumbers were a slightly odd standout, but the combination of melon and white chocolate was quite nice 16.
Next, we got a goat milk ice cream served with caramelized figs, condensed milk, honey and aniseed. I couldn't tell that this dish was made with goat's milk, to me it was just a sweet milk ice cream. The figs were sweet and tasty, and there was a bit of crunch in the dish as well 15.
Three small bites concluded our dinner (mirroring the three bites at the beginning). A strawberry pate de fruits tasted more of strawberry jam than fresh berries 15. A white sphere was filled with an earl gray milk tea and topped with a Buddha's hand citrus fruit and lavender. The inside of this ball was half liquid, half creamy - an odd texture 14. And lastly, a salted caramel and peanut butter crunch was nicely creamy and crunchy, the best of the three 16.
Overall: Californian cuisine that included a few nice dishes, but unfortunately also several that didn't work quite as well, and even a poorly executed one (the pork). Based on a Michelin rater's mood this might deserve either one or zero stars. Given the uncompromising reservation procedure (no adjustments of the menu, dinner starts right on time, being late means missing courses), I would have expected an equally fastidious approach to the cooking, but apparently that was not the case today 15.
