Feast Blog

Benu has been the most anticipated restaurant opening in recent memory. Without a question. I was pretty thrilled to get one of the first seats on its second night. Unfortunately, it was a 9:00 seating so I knew it was going to be a late night considering I was going in for the full tasting menu. Walking up to the restaurant, there is an array of light beaming from the kitchen as large panels of glass separate the kitchen staff from the street-side gawkers. An austere and elegant courtyard welcomes the visitor, with the interior of the restaurant clean and similarly somber in its muted, beige and cream tones. For future bloggers, be warned that the ambient lighting late in the evening is not conducive to great natural photography so I apologize for the darkness of the images.

Sesame Lavash – served in a specially carved box which separated out the dark, crispy thin rectangles. Black sesame and salt was the predominant flavor and it would be a precursor to the evening that sesame was one of the most-used Asian ingredients.

2008 Alzinger Grüner Veltliner – Showing a tremendous amount of mineral and spicy qualities, I enjoyed this wine tremendously, but found it a bit too strong with too many citrus components for the following two dishes.

Thousand-year-old quail egg, black truffle, ginger, scallion – Our first taste and somewhat disappointing. I could not detect any black truffle and the extremely texture of the egg masked its flavors. Moreso than any ginger or scallion, it was the flavor of citrus oil with predominated.

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I love last-minute restaurant jaunts with my buddy, Lisa. We have such similar palates and usually are always hungry for the same type of food. It is especially more fun when it is a last-minute decision and no reservations are made and we just figure out what is in the neighborhood. Today, for example, I was working at the library when she texted and we decided to find a place to eat. Both of us had been curious about Charles Pham’s Heaven’s Dog and were very surprised, when we arrived at 6:15, to find the place practically empty. Except for two people at the bar, we literally had our choice of seats in the restaurant. Stylistically, it is a pretty establishment, but I have to admit that I find the dog paintings slightly ominous, distracting, and generally unpleasant.

We decided to start light and order more as our hunger dictated. Both of us loving egg-white cocktails, we wanted to start with their two choices; the Gin Fizz Tropical with Plymouth gin, Small Hand Foods pineapple gum, orgeat, lime, egg white, mint, and soda and the Bumble Bee Cocktail with Appeltons V/X rum, Smith and Cross rum, lime, honey, and egg white. Food-wise, only a few dishes were to start the meal; Marinated Eggplant with soy, toasted garlic and pine nuts, Braised Pork Belly in clam shell bun, and Blue Crab Meat with sweet corn and scallions.

The eggplant arrived first and was decent enough — tender and made that much more interesting because of the pine nuts. We were more than three-quarters the way finished with the eggplant when the pork belly buns arrived. Frankly, after the superlatively tender pork belly bun I experienced in Austin from a trailer just a few weeks ago, what I was eating this evening was sadly disappointing. Here the bun was gummy and overwhelming in size to the pork belly, which was lacking in enough sauce or flavor to do the composition justice.

While we were lamenting the mediocrity of our first two dishes, the cocktails arrived. Yep – what should have come out first didn’t arrive at our table until we were more than half-way done with our meal. But to their credit, the cocktails were outstanding and would be worthy of a trip, regardless of the food.

The main entrée arrived, described as Blue Crab Meat, sweet corn, and scallions. We had debated a bit with the waitress about an accompaniment and she suggested brown rice. Much to our chagrin, we again had our hopes dashed in this simple dish as the brown rice was incredibly mushy. Lisa commented if we both hadn’t already served half of what was brought out and topped it with the entrée, she would have returned it. We did mention it to the waitress who offered a replacement, but we were too far gone with the dish anyway. Of that accord, the Blue Crab Meat dish was sorely lacking enough crab to be noticeable and what was there was too muddled and similar to the sweetness of this giant platter of corn. There simply was not enough contrasting flavors or ingredients with sweet crab and sweet corn and a smattering of scallions which seemed more of a garnish than a flavor component.

Debating a dessert, we opted to head to Thermidor instead and was terribly sorry we didn’t eat our entire meal over there. But I got a fabulous Fried Dough Ho entry out of that trip.

Just came from the soft opening of Nombe…

I started with a pretty amazing offering of Brussels Sprouts served with mint and yuzu. I don’t miss the fact that SPQR isn’t serving Brussels Sprouts any more. These were incredibly fresh and the combination of mint and citrus awakens the palate and is comforting at the same time. I also ordered the sashimi sampler and couldn’t be happier; toro, sake, hamachi, and another.

Being adventurous, I of course ordered the “challenging” dishes; chicken hearts yakitori, beef heart served with onion and bonito flakes. The chicken hearts were perfectly grilled and so tender — which can frequently be ruined with over-grilling. The beef heart was served in chunks; rare and rich.

As I was finishing, because this was the soft opening, the kitchen sent out a few tastes for those of us sitting at the counter to taste; grilled black cod and the pork belly. The grilled black cod was intensely rich and complex with the pork belly providing that unctuous, fatty decadence.

Yes, it was a soft opening. The opening night is not for a few evenings but based on an early test, this will be a consistent favorite for me. Sozai was hard for me to get to and I will desperately miss Chef Nick at O Izakaya, but getting the best of both worlds is a stroke of brilliance. Bravo!

I have often lamented the lack of a true yakitori here in San Francisco. And truth be told, we only have two izakaya in the city; O Izakaya which is close to me in Japantown and Sozai, in the Inner Richmond. It took me a long time to get to Sozai because of its location. I’m sorry it took me so long to get there and I genuinely wish it were closer, despite some minor shortcomings which I’ll touch upon later.

But first, the sake. We each ordered a sampler, giving us six different tastes; Yuki no Bosha, Dassai Nigori, Tama no Hikari Yamahai, Take no Tsuyu, Urakasumi, and Tengumai. They were all distinct and enticing, but the Yuki no Bosha was the smoothest and easiest one to get in trouble with. In ordering a lot of food, we were grateful that the owner guided us through the menu on what to order.

We started with an assorted Sashimi platter as we were there the only night they serve sushi. The pieces were not cut perfectly, but the fish was fresh and good. Next came oysters and we loved the presentation; a bit of tobiko and a side of ponzu granita. This was delightfully innovative for the oysters, which were of great quality. A whole sample of yakitori came next; chicken gizzards, hearts, livers, thigh (negi-ma), and meatballs (tsukune). Not quite the quality of Shin Sen Gumi (my favorite in the state), but very respectable.

Our next offering was a slow cooked pork belly shichimi which was out of this world. So tender and rich and very, very satisfying. Lisa always has to try whatever uni is on the menu, so a single nigiri order arrived. Ankimo was next in the offering and I’m sorry to say this was not of great quality. It seemed a bit on the grainy side for my tastes. Some vegetables were recommended and the grilled Japanese eggplant were a pleasant surprise. Grilled to give a sugary, candied exterior, it did not hide the succulent eggplant creaminess inside.

Seeing how much we were enjoying the evening, the owner sent out a treat, the name of which I know not; squid brains in fermented squid gut sauce. The squid was tender enough, but the sauce was a bit too overpowering for me.

We finished up with dessert; a sweet-ish unfiltered sake (came in a frosty, pin, bottle) paired well with chocolate ginger cake and green tea tiramisu. Now I was reluctant on the tiramisu; making it with a green tea flavor seemed rather contrived but both Lisa and I were pleasantly surprised. It was not as kitschy as I thought it would be. The chocolate ginger cake, on the other hand, was superb; decadent hint of ginger in the redolent rich chocolate. Not too dry, not too sweet, and although garnished with a berry sauce, would have been better with simple whipped cream.

On the very minor downside to the restaurant, it is far from elegant. The tables are close together and the bizarre selection of 60s music in the background can occasionally glare a bit loud. But I don’t need elegant or appointed to enjoy good food and the service was exemplary. And the good news is that just a day or so before, Eater announced that the Sozai owners and the chef from O Izakaya are going to get together for a third venue in the Mission. Hoorah!