Atelier Crenn - San Francisco
Not much of a view of the street
Rating: 18/20
Where: San Francisco, CA
When: Dinner for 2 on 12 March 2025
Cost per Person: Tasting menu $395, Wine Pairing $250-$475
Accolades: 3 Michelin Stars, #96 on World's 50 Best Restaurants list (2025)
Why: Californian seafood-focused cuisine with some truly impressive dishes
When I started this blog, I figured that I'd write about every restaurant just once. Because, well, barring dramatic changes, why say the same things twice? It's not hard to see the fallacy in that reasoning. First of all, even gradual changes can be meaningful (as in my recent revisit at Odette). Secondly, the absence of major changes over several years might be significant information in and of itself (see, e.g. The French Laundry). And finally, more recent snapshots are generally more useful to prospective diners than a three-year-old review.
In that spirit, we recently revisited “Atelier Crenn”, a restaurant in San Francisco run by Dominique Crenn that has held three Michelin stars since 2018. Our last visit had been almost three years ago, and I had heard that the menu had changed completely since then - in my mind, a great reason to return.
The restaurant's location in San Francisco's Marina district (i.e. close to the northern end of the city) and its interior design hadn't changed much. The ambiance was surprisingly dark - the walls were painted in darker colors, and the slats on the street-side windows remained closed. So even though there was bright daylight during our 5pm reservation, it didn't feel like that inside the restaurant. Maybe curtains or frosted windows would have been a less stark way to keep out the sunlight?
Foodwise, there was still a single tasting menu, which was entirely pescatarian and could be made vegetarian upon prior request. Back in 2022, the menu was delivered as a poem, with every line of the poem representing a single dish. That might have sounded like an interesting idea in theory, but in practice felt more cryptic rather than informative. In 2025, we were still handed a poem, but its relation to the menu (if any) was never mentioned by the staff. I didn't exactly mourn the loss of the poem, but I do wish that there had been some other way to tell us about the “whys” of the menu - why were the dishes the way they were?
There were two wine pairings available, priced at $250 and $475, respectively. I tried the lower-priced option, and it consisted of generally pretty good wines, that - with one exception - went well with the food. A non-alcoholic pairing was available for $130. Curiously, the very same pairings were cheaper when prepaid during reservation time ($210, $395 and $110, respectively). Moreover, an ultra-high-end pairing for $1225 was offered only at reservation time. I have to admit that I haven't noticed such “preorder discounts” elsewhere before.
Every meal I've had at Atelier Crenn started with the same dish based on a Kir Breton. Traditionally, a “Kir Breton” is a cocktail made with cassis and apple cider. At Atelier Crenn, it was based on a cassis gel and apple juice, served as a liquid inside a little edible sphere. A fresh beginning to our meal, with a shell that was light enough not to distract from its filling. However, the apple juice made this seem a bit like a kid's version of an adult’s dish. Good, but maybe this could be even better with some alcohol 17. Along with the Kir Breton, we received two more bites. The first was a gougère filled with a Mornay sauce and caviar, and topped with slices of black truffles. The “bread” part was lightly crunchy, maybe a hint sandy in texture, and the truffles added some nice texture as well. Overall, a nice, cheesy bite 18. Lastly, an “acorn” made from mushrooms, a chanterelle mousse and Douglas fir powder. The mushroom flavor was light, but definitely noticeable - more elegant rather than rustic. Creamy, and with some acidity, this was another nice dish 17.
The next dish was also small, but presumably the first “official” course, since it was accompanied by the first glass of the wine pairing. Two Miyagi oysters from British Columbia were served with a plankton/oyster mousseline, a seaweed salad, a pickled Hakurei turnip, and a vinaigrette made from oysters, mussels and tarragon oil. The oyster had only a light flavor by itself, which was arguably upstaged by the rest of the ingredients. Usually, I'd consider that a waste of a good oyster, but in this case, the rest of the dish tasted not just of oysters, but of the sea. It felt like an edible tide pool - assuming that one found one that actually tasted this amazing. There was some sweetness, some acidity, and an effortless blending of different flavors that made the dish feel very elegant. Only a small bite, but very, very good 18.
Next, we got a single raw scallop that had been sliced into thin strips, and then terraced on the inside of a tall bowl. The scallop was topped with some nori chips, micro lemon balm, cilantro and a powder made from dehydrated scallops. At the bottom of the bowl was a Thai mandarin/fish sauce vinaigrette. The scallop was creamy, the nori added some crunch, but the star of the show was the sauce. Acidic, fruity, and bursting with flavor, it went amazingly with the other components of the dish. Lovely 20.
A four-week dry aged Pacific bluefin tuna had been sliced and interleaved with kohlrabi slices, meant to be eaten with chopsticks, one pair of slices at a time. The whole came with a “house vinaigrette” made from fish sauce, seaweed vinegar and sesame oil, as well as a black sesame sauce. This was a lovely fish: fatty and of good quality, but its flavor was definitely overwhelmed by the sauces. The kohlrabi added some acidity and texture, while the sauce was acidic and tasted noticeably of sesame. An interesting taste combination that worked quite well 18.
King crab meat was topped with a mandarin salad, caviar and wood sorrel leaves. It came with a clarified butter and a butter and caper reduction. On the side, we were served a crab bouillon seasoned with ginger, garlic, lemongrass, shallots, tomatoes, coconut oil and lemon juice. The secret behind the broth was apparently to layer the ingredients in one-by-one and reduce them overnight; the coconut oil and lemon juice were added at the very last minute. The resulting broth had a wonderfully intense crab flavor that was enhanced, but not upstaged, by the other ingredients, with a notable mouthfeel added by the coconut oil. Very, very good. The slightly warm “crab salad” was also lovely - it was buttery and creamy, but with enough acidity to balance the dish 19.
The next course was served in a dish jokingly referred to as the “Death Star” by our server. A potato chawanmushi was served with a beurre blanc, a buckwheat tuile, pike roe and marigold flowers. The five-fold symmetry of the orange pike roe made this dish look a bit like a sea urchin. The creamy chawanmushi was pretty lightly flavored and the fish roe salty and fishy - together, a nice combination in which nothing dominated. (Based on the available evidence so far, balancing flavors was something that this kitchen did exceedingly well.) The soft cracker added a bit of texture 18.
Bread time! A loaf of brioche came with a butter seasoned with fines herbes. The brioche was lovely - buttery with a nicely crunchy crust. The butter was “only” very good, but otherwise this was an excellent bread with a neutral enough taste to be useful in sopping up the following sauces 18.
One dish that has been on the menu ever since the restaurant's opening in 2011 is a French onion soup. However, the exact form of this “soup” has gone through many iterations over time. At this visit, it was a course served in three parts. The first one (and most time-sensitive to eat) was an onion ice cream served with burnt sourdough, pickled onions, onion ash, onion pearls, a Parmesan cheese custard and chive oil. This dish was quite light overall and only had a touch of onion flavor, a bit of umami and savoriness. More flavor might actually have improved this dish 17. The second, and main part of the presentation was an actual French onion soup made with caramelized onions, onion jus and Parmesan cheese fat. This dish was bursting with flavor, had lots of umami and mouthfeel. It was hard to believe that the broth did not contain any beef stock - it was so strongly flavored. The added Vacherin cheese brought just the right amount of cheesiness to the dish. Now we only needed some bread… 19 The final part of the course was a tree-shaped cracker made out of onion puree and seasoned with Parmesan fat. Crunchy and lightly sweet, it only had a light aftertaste of onions 16.
A filet of confit black cod was served over a broccoli puree and topped with watercress and two foams: a green lemon grass/jalapeño foam and a white yogurt foam. The buttery, creamy fish had a nice texture, but did not taste of much by itself. However, the sauces were lovely. Their flavors were balanced, without one dominating: the broccoli was pretty light, and the jalapeño brought only a hint of spice. The watercress provided some texture. Overall, a lovely dish. The only wrinkle was the paired wine, a French Chenin Blanc which didn't go that well with the dish. My wife's Sonoma Chardonnay (ordered by the glass) happened to be a much better match 18.
The last savory dish was a mousseline made from Spanish turbot and lobster stock. It came with a squid-ink-colored “pain de mie” (a thin cracker) topped with daikon and some edible flowers. The surrounding sauce had been made from mussel jus, smoked cream and black olive oil. A seafood mousse sounds like an odd choice for a main course, but this one not only had a perfect texture, but was also delicious. The sauce was buttery, creamy, but had some acidity for balance. The black tuile added some crunch to a dish that otherwise wouldn’t have required any chewing 19.
The fact that we had already reached the end of the savory courses was a bit of a surprise to us - we could have kept going, both because the food was so good, but also because we were not particularly full. The end was also unexpected because it was hard to detect a progression during a series of nicely balanced seafood dishes, and there was no crescendo that might have signaled “this is the main course”. Instead, the savory courses simply ended at a seemingly random point.
There might not be a cheese course at Atelier Crenn, but we still got the salad than often comes with one. A spinach meringue was topped with micro greens, carrots, and several other salad-y ingredients that were unfortunately recited too quickly for me to write down. Upon eating this dish, the first taste impression was of savory herbs, but that transitioned to sweetness and creaminess - pretty much exactly what a pre-dessert is supposed to do 17.
Two small-ish sweet bites were served together. What looked like an olive was actually a pistachio sorbet covered with olive oil. The taste impression started with a light olive oil flavor that transitioned to pistachios 16. In a hollowed-out egg shell, we received a yuzu/coconut custard seasoned with shiso (and other ingredients, also recited too fast to follow). The main flavor here was of coconut, but there was also some crunch and maybe some dried fruit. A nice, uncomplicated dessert 16.
The main dessert was still pretty light, and was served in a wine bottle that had been cut in half length-wise. A Castella sponge cake was topped with pears, a pear espuma and champagne pearls. Light and creamy with a noticeable pear flavor 16.
We received six chocolate pralines at the conclusion of our dinner. From the top in the picture, going clockwise: a strawberry “whopper” was thankfully based on the candy and not the Burger King staple. It had white chocolate on the outside, a light strawberry flavor and an airy center 17. A wasabi pea covered in white chocolate had only a tiny bit of spice as an aftertaste 16. Next, a dark chocolate covered blueberry had a darker chocolate than I would have expected, and the fruit flavor was very light 16. A “Black Forest” praline was a bit crunchy and had a nice cherry liquor flavor 16. An Oregon hazelnut praline didn't have an actual hazelnut inside. Instead, it tasted more like the literal praline flavor, similar to a hazelnut butter 17. Finally, a chocolate-covered coffee bean was crunchy and coffee-flavored 16.
Dominique Crenn was making the rounds during our meal, and we had a long chat afterwards, where she came across as wonderfully genuine and unpretentious. If the old adage of “the food is better when the chef is around” is true, then we had indeed been very lucky: this had been a great meal.
Overall: An amazing meal that was more Californian than French, and full of local, seasonal produce, and some excellent seafood. The flavors were impressively balanced in every dish - something hard to do once, let alone many times over. My favorites dishes were the ones with the boldest flavors - those were truly outstanding. Others had a bit too much restraint for my liking. That included the desserts, which were good, but unfortunately didn't quite reach the level of the savory dishes before them. Especially here, a bit more flavor “oomph” would have been great. But all nitpicking aside, this was a wonderful meal that I wouldn’t have minded to go on even longer 18.
