I can’t believe anyone likes Meadowood. As a longtime member, I get 10% off the check, free corkage for unlimited bottles, and I still choose not to dine there. Please share what you like about it. It is, admittedly, perhaps the most beautiful dining room in our Valley. But…
I’ll third Chapeau. I love when chef comes out and mingles/pours wine. Combo of haute and brasserie. Very filling 3 course.
Atelier Crenn. Cannot imagine going to SF and not eating there for a nice meal.
Love rich table, but it’s super casual.
Nice to see Perbacco still hitting on all cylinders. I was last there several years ago and thought it was incredible.
Ate there for the first time in August. Probably one of the best meals I have had in the United States. Each course was perfectly presented, the intensity of the flavors was outstanding but always in balance. The use of seasonal/fresh ingredients from their garden, the inventiveness of the dishes without being over the top, the service, the wine list (although it is expensive) the ability to bring our own wines, the room, the atmosphere, the view… Amazing place.
George
George–This is why I tend to be leery of set tasting menus at some restaurants. Some restaurants are very reasonable/understanding/flexible, and will work with you if you have dietary issues (or just can’t stand certain kinds of food). Other places treat their tasting menus as something engraved in stone and brought down from a mountain top by the chef in consultation with his/her favorite deity; they refuse to accept even the most obvious/reasonable accommodations to diners’ needs. It sounds as if Quince is more in the latter category, from your experience.
Bruce
Same here… Love that place.
JD
My favorite high-end restaurant in the country. I will be in San Francisco next week for business, not entertaining clients, and am going one night by myself, as none of my SF friends like to eat at that level.
Had a fantastic dinner at AQ about 6 months ago. Service was OOC. Well oiled and smooth. Creative and delicious. A bit on the pricey side though. I’m missing Baker and Banker. Don’t forget La Folie. Best meal last year for me.
You’re joking, right? I mean, I can believe that someone doesn’t like Meadowood. But I can’t believe that there is anyone out there who has ever been to Meadowood who can’t at least understand how others could like it, even if she does not. Start with your recognition that its beautiful. Next step: acknowledge that techniques are being employed there that require a tremendous amount of skill (both cooking and presentation). Take another step: one or more dishes served every night is unlike anything you can get anywhere else. Finally: consider that both professional reviewers and the vast majority of people who have dined there have concluded that it is one of the finest restaurants in the world.
If you’ve taken those steps with me, might you reconsider your disbelief and perhaps just explain why you don’t like it?
Both of the issues mentioned here, about Quince and Meadowood, seem in line with a growing trend of resistance to high end establishments. As prices escalated (I figure real “middle class goods” inflation at about 7% annuallyfor the last 15-20 years) the day gets closer that we’ll stop and say “What exactly am I getting for my $1000 dinner for two?”. Every chef wants to be Thomas Keller, and every wine buyer a Raj Parr. Nobody serves anymore, and the customer is no longer king. Culinary Academies have turned the restaurant business into a game of sucking the most money out of customers (how to position items on the menu, offer “special” amuse bouche at $5-10 a pop, use cheap ingredients and doll them up, then charge extra for “truffles” or Foie Gras), winemakers have pushed the prices up so high that at a restaurant Opus One is $495, and waiters don’t even have to bring you your food anymore (they have runners). You add surcharges, tax and sometimes mandatory tips, and the hangovers are now caused by the bill rather than ingesting alcohol.
This is out of control, and nobody is calling them on it.
So no, when you go to Quince or any other restaurant of that caliber, you are but a supplicant there to receive for a few brief moments a glimpse of their artistry which, as you know, is always in the control of the artist. Asking to change the tasting menu is like adding a few dabs of red on that Matisse in the Modern. It also mucks with their pricing model. It is simply not allowed. Unless one pays enough extra money.
*OK this is a rant. There are plenty of good restaurants that offer value for money. I’d say Boulevard (and it’s wonderful wine list pricing, check it out) in SF is at the forefront of a new trend. But for now it is too easy to fall into the money pit when looking at fine dining. This was not always the case, and I’m sad to see the service oriented restaurants of yesteryear fall away in history.