Saison - San Francisco
A perfect view of the kitchen from every seat
Rating: 17/20
Where: San Francisco, CA
When: Dinner for 2 on 10 October 2024
Cost per Person: Tasting menu $328, Wine Pairing $198-$268
Accolades: 2 Michelin Stars
Why: Califonian cuisine with local ingredients prepared in an open kitchen
The restaurant “Saison” in San Francisco has seen a number of changes during its 15 year life - a veritable eternity in the restaurant business. I have dined here several times, most recently in 2015 when the kitchen held three Michelin stars. After a nine year hiatus, I was curious to see how things had changed (or not). After all, much had happened: a global pandemic, two chef changes, and (unfortunately) the loss of the third Michelin star.
2009-2019
Saison opened in 2009 in an unusual location: behind a coffee shop in San Francisco’s Mission District. Accessible only through a shared courtyard, it was a charmingly homey and unpretentious setting. The first space of the restaurant that one entered was technically still outside: several counter seats faced an open fireplace under a corrugated roof. That setup made sense for the restaurant’s cuisine, which relied heavily on cooking ingredients - often vegetables - over embers or an open fire. The restaurant’s signature brassica broth elevated this cooking style to the highest levels. Unsurprisingly, the restaurant soon gained one and then two Michelin stars. But founding chef Joshua Skenes had his sights set even higher, and Saison’s improvised location soon became a liability. So in late 2012, the restaurant moved.
Twelve years later in 2024, the restaurant’s original space was occupied by a plant nursery. Seeing plants grow in the famed fireplace reminded me of science fiction movies where vegetation was reclaiming the space once occupied by human civilization. Well, thankfully the next-door coffee shop was still going strong and the courtyard was full of the usual San Francisco coffee shop crowd - either chatting or engrossed in their laptops. None of them might have suspected that one of the city’s best restaurants was once right where they were enjoying their lattes on a warm fall day.
In early 2013, Saison completed its move to a new location in San Francisco’s SOMA district. A glitzier space and a fancier cuisine soon made Saison one of the city’s first restaurants to attain three Michelin stars. But while a star was gained, much of the original atmosphere was lost - the new Saison was arguably a more generic restaurant than its first, more seat-of-the-pants incarnation.
Chef Skenes left a few years later, and is now running a more casual restaurant in Los Angeles. Saison went through two chef changes, and unfortunately lost its third star in the process. Today, the kitchen is helmed by chef Richard Lee, who worked at Eleven Madison Park before joining Saison in 2019.
2024
Stepping into Saison for the first time in nearly a decade, it seemed that not much had changed. The location was still the same - close to the ballpark. On game nights, one would have to budget plenty of extra time to get to dinner, but (for better or worse) that wasn't an issue during our mid-October visit. After entering the restaurant, we found ourselves in a lounge next to the restaurant’s bar. It’s possible to enjoy the full dinner or an abbreviated menu in the lounge, but the best seats in the house were definitely in front of the open kitchen. All seven dining tables were placed purposefully to offer good views for every diner - nobody needed to sit with their back to the kitchen.
Dried herbs hanging from the ceiling and a large hearth recalled the restaurant's original “fire-forward” cuisine. And at our table, there was a pronounced smell of smoked, cooked meats throughout the entire evening - a good thing or a bad thing depending on one's preferences. Speaking of, the single tasting menu could be adapted to dietary restrictions, but there were some limits, for example it could not be made fully vegetarian.
We were offered two optional add-ons for the tasting menu: an uni toast and a Japanese A5 wagyu steak, with corresponding - also optional - extensions to the wine pairing. Strangely, no prices for any of these supplements or the wine pairings were given proactively, and we also had to ask to see the wine list. But on the positive side, the prices for the add-ons were all “reasonable” by fine-dining standards ($48 for the uni, $78 for the steak). No $250 glasses of champagne here.
There were two wine pairings to choose from, a “nightly pairing” and a reserve pairing. The price difference of $70 was pretty modest, and both featured decent, if not particularly memorable, wines. The reserve pairing was indeed a little better than the regular one, but not by enough to make it a strictly better choice. Oddly, when my dining partner asked to replace the pairing’s dessert wine with something else, we were informed by two servers that no changes to the wine pairing were permitted. That sounded like an oddly restrictive policy for a two-Michelin-starred restaurant that had almost a dozen wines available by the glass. In the end, the sommelier relented and poured a glass of rose champagne in addition to the dessert wine, leaving us even more confused why the initial hard push back had been necessary.
Our dinner began with a cup of chilled tea. This tea was made from dried flowers, mint, eucalyptus, honey and melon. Essentially, it tasted like a ginger honey tea. A pleasant welcome and an elegant way to bridge the time until the wine pairing started after the amuse bouches 15.
Speaking of appetizers, four of them arrived at the same time. A tomato pate de fruit was a jelly made from clarified gazpacho that contained a currant tomato in its middle. This was a lovely bite - the jelly was quite acidic/vinegary and had lots of tomato flavor. After hearing “pate de fruit” I expected something sweet, but this dish was entirely savory, with a bit of fruitiness coming from the tomatoes 17.
An oyster on the half shell was served with pieces of gooseberries. This made for a fruity dish, but the oysters were relegated to a light aftertaste 16. Chopped blue fin tuna, watermelons and sansho pepper were served in a cracker shell. This was a nice bite: the cracker had just the right amount of crunch, but the tuna supplied texture rather than taste. There was a light peppery note to the dish 17.
A stroopwaffel sandwich was filled with duck liver and topped with huckleberries. Also pretty good - fruity, but not too sweet, and surprisingly light for a liver-based dish 16. The pescatarian replacement for this dish had a cashew cream instead of liver, which made it nicely nutty and creamy, but also a bit lighter in flavor than the liver 15.
While still nibbling on the initial bites, we were served a laminated brioche made with bread miso. It was served warm, and was quite crunchy, feeling more like a croissant than a typical brioche. There was only a hint of sweetness. Very nice 18.
The first “real” course of the evening coincided with the beginning of the wine pairing. A bowl contained some local caviar, corn (both as a cream and sliced), clams and a broth made from sturgeon bones. This was a diverse range of ingredients, but they were nicely balanced and each contributed something to the whole. The corn was both creamy and crunchy and provided a bit of sweetness. The clams were nicely chewy, and the caviar added some saltiness to the dish. A nice combination 18.
One of the additions to the restaurant since our last visit was a live sea tank that contained several spiny lobsters. (The contents of the tank vary according to the available seafood.) The next course used those spiny lobsters in combination with lamb - not a very common pairing, for sure. The lamb had been dry-aged, and was served chopped, mixed with the (also chopped) spiny lobster. The tartare seasoned with fermented pepper and yuzu, and topped with green herbs. On the side was a tapioca cracker dusted with a root vegetable dust. We were told to use the cracker to scoop up the lobster/lamb mixture. The cracker itself was quite dry and bland. The blend of the two meats actually worked quite well - they went together seamlessly, but the result was pretty light in flavor. A tad more seasoning might have improved this dish 16. The pescatarian version replaced the lamb with a dry-aged amberjack, and kept everything else the same. I liked this variant a bit better: it had a notable spiciness to it, and the fish was of good quality 17. After we finished the dish, we received a broth made from the spiny lobster’s shells, seasoned with black cardamom. It was poured from a glass teapot filled with the lobster shells and the broth had a strong lobster/seafood flavor - very nice, but ideally it would have been served hotter 18.
Next up: a dry-aged black cod that had been grilled over cedar wood. It came with summer beans, broad beans, and summer peppers. The fish was cooked perfectly, and melted in one's mouth. The sauce had a hint of acidity, and there was a foam that felt like a light potato mousse. The two kinds of beans provided crunch and creaminess. Lovely 18.
One of the optional dishes was a sea urchin (uni) that was served atop a grilled sourdough bread that had been soaked in browned butter. The uni was of good quality, and went nicely with the umami notes of the bread. A good combination, but I wasn't blown away. The bread was pretty heavy thanks to the butter, and its very spongy texture was an unusual combination with the creamier uni 17.
A palate cleanser consisted of cider apples, ginger, napa cabbage and fresh apple juice. Pickled and sweet flavors made for a pleasant dish 16.
The first of several meat courses featured bacon-wrapped rabbit. It was served with a piece of rabbit belly, roasted chanterelles, mashed potatoes, leeks and sweet garlic. The rabbit was flavorful and smoky - very nice. The rabbit belly had a bit of a crunch, and the mushrooms were nicely smoky as well. Compared to all of these pronounced flavors, the leeks were a bit on the light side 17. The pescatarian alternative was an entirely different dish. A dried carrot had been rehydrated, smoked in the hearth with harissa and then served with a carrot puree. The rehydrated carrot was very, very chewy - too much so, in my opinion. The dish had a bit of spiciness, but other than that was merely ok 15.
Meat course number two: a duck whose crispy skin had been coated with five-spice and honey. Next to the duck was a sauce made from the duck bones. Also present: several types of pears, baby turnips, a duck heart and a duck gizzard. This dish might have been the clearest combination of the cuisines from the “old” and the “new” Saison. Cooking a gamey meat and offal over the hearth was something Skenes might have done. But chef Lee’s addition of the five-spice and honey gave the dish a decidedly Asian touch. The duck’s meat was quite lean, but also a bit bitter/gamey. Its skin was marvelous: crunchy and carrying flavors of both five-spice and honey. The pickled pear was lovely as well, cutting though the heavier remainder of the dish 16. Interestingly, this dish was paired with two beverages: a cider and a syrah, and both could be considered decent accompaniments. Double pairings are a nice idea that I've seen more and more frequently recently.
The pescatarian replacement for the duck was again an entirely different dish. (Incidentally, that's something the kitchen should be complimented for - too often the “replacement” dish simply swaps out the protein, frequently leading to a subpar experience.) Here, a lobster tail was served with a sauce made from lobster shells and ember-roasted tomatoes. In a separate cup were some grits and chunks of lobster leg meat. The lobster was cooked very nicely, and the fruity, slightly spicy sauce was a terrific match - very good. The grits were not quite as spectacular, but still fine. I'd give this dish the edge over the duck 17.
The second optional (and final savory) dish was an A5 Japanese wagyu steak served with roasted bok choy and a mushroom sauce. The lightly salted and sauced bok choy was lovely, reminiscent of the vegetable dishes that made the original Saison so famous. The beef was good, but a bit too fatty for my taste. The best part of the dish was the flavorful mushroom sauce that had a hint of sweetness. I appreciated that the meat was not drenched in sauce - good Japanese beef should be able stand on its own 17.
Another palate cleanser followed, this time heralding the transition to the desserts. A slice of melon was wrapped around a melon sorbet seasoned with shiso. Altogether, a cold bite that was only lightly sweet 16.
The main dessert came in shades of brown. A date cake was surrounded by a brown butter cream and topped with a smoked tonka bean ice cream and a tobacco crisp. The date cake was quite sweet, tasting a bit of molasses, whereas the ice cream was not very sweet at all, making for a good combination. The “tobacco crisp” was indeed crispy, but thankfully (?) didn't taste of tobacco 16.
Since we were celebrating an anniversary, we also received a lemon and poppy seed cake made with white chocolate and elderflowers. On its inside, the cake had several layers. A fine (but not amazing) lemony dessert 16.
Our meal ended as it began - with a cup of tea. This time, it was a toasted buckwheat tea that was accompanied by three petit fours. A dark chocolate “Linzer cookie” was made with figs instead of the more traditional raspberries. In fact, raspberries might have been a better match the chocolate. As it was, this cookie was more chocolaty than anything else 15. A pate de fruit was the jellied version of a “Last Word” cocktail, incorporating chartreuse and maraschino liquor. This was a slightly bitter gummi candy 14. It probably would have been more appropriate to have the “Last Word” to be our last bite, but we reserved that honor for a hazelnut cannelé. This cannelé got the outside crunch right, but its inside was not particularly undercooked, and it tasted more chocolaty than sweet. An interesting version of the classic pastry 14.
It was tempting to comparing this dinner to the “old” Saison, especially in its original Mission location. It turns out that they were very different. Sure, the center-piece open-fire hearth was present, so there were several dried and smoked ingredients. But whereas the old Saison put these front and center and built a whole menu around this conceit, the current incarnation incorporated them just as part of the package. Chef Lee’s use of Chinese influences was promising, and if used more pervasively, could yet create a unique take on Californian cuisine. But it felt that there was still some way to go. As it stood, the current menu menu felt less opinionated that its previous incarnations.
Overall: An enjoyable dinner with a good, but sometimes a bit inflexible, service. Many dishes used the open-fire hearth, incorporating smoked and dried ingredients, but in a subtle way. Light Chinese influences (in particular for the duck) showed the current chef's imprint on the menu. More elegant than the “old” Saison, but also somewhat less distinctive 17.
