COI
We finally made it to Coi. This is my new favorite fancy restaurant within the San Francisco city limits, and definitely one of my favorites anywhere. This was the most amazing meal we've had in a long time!
One of the reasons we didn't try Coi earlier is that we're generally not a big fan of tasting menus, so the thought of an 11-course tasting menu put us off. Generally we have two problems with tasting menus: 1) there's too much food, and 2) there's so much going on that it's hard to remember what you had; all the courses start blurring together.
Coi avoided these problems deftly. Each dish and the menu as a whole is constructed very thoughtfully - in a way that the thinking behind it was apparent, but not in a way that compromised the sensual aspects of providing a delicious meal. The dishes were all distinct enough, and the flavor trajectory clear enough, that you could keep everything straight. Every single dish was excellent, and most were thought provoking in terms of individual ingredients or combinations.
The intellectual aspects announced themselves in the very first dish: a "frozen mandarin sour" that explicitly combined sweet, salty, sour, and bitter tastes together. Another great feature of this menu is that it was perhaps the best job of using seasonal December ingredients that I've seen in the area. Citrus, mushrooms, shellfish, and root vegetables all played prominent rolls. Seasonal places will often over-emphasize the root vegetables this time of year, but not here.
The second course, oysters under glass, continued the multi-taste theme of the first dish with the sweet tang of yuzu citrus combined with the saltiness of the oysters, but the presence of the oysters started moving us into less light territory. Shellfish appeared again in the fourth course, the Dungeness crab melt.
I'm not a huge beet fan, but I've found that fancy Bay Area places do wonders with this vegetable. Here the beets were roasted in hay, providing a nice smoky flavor, then chopped fine in combination with fresh cheese, topped with beautiful looking - and tasting - wild sprouts and flowers. This dish was the best match overall with my first wine, a delicious rosé champagne. My wife's glass of prosecco went best with the oysters.
After the crab melt, we moved on to a slow-cooked farm egg with a fabulous nettle-dandelion salsa verde. Then we had too mushroom courses. First was "Earth and Sea", a mushroom dashi with yuba, seaweed, tofu mousseline, and pickled watermelon turnips. This was a high point among a meal of high pints. Next was a chanterelle porridge with root vegetable chips, cress, and a sherry foam (the one foam of the night). The vegetable chips were great either on their own or combined into the porridge.
The largest portion of the night was the Prather Ranch beef done two ways: some exquisitely salted and seasoned tenderloin, and a cheek/oxtail combination with a variety of vegetable purees and garnishes. This was of course a great match with our red wine choices: a Pelerin Syrah and a Sean Thackrey Pleiades blend. My Pleaides also went great with the earlier mushroom courses.
An amazing thing about all these savory dishes is that the dishes nearly all tasted better when eating the ingredients in combination rather than alternation. So many places put tastes together that are nice complements, but cancel each other out a bit when eaten together in one bite. Not here!
For the cheese course, we broke out of the California ingredients for a Reblochon served with mixed chicories that brought out some interesting flavors in the cheese. We then moved to the two dessert courses. The first was a lime sherbet with frozen yogurt, pomegranate seeds, and douglas fir appearing in several accompaniments. The final course, bread and chocolate, had carmelized brioche for the bread. We were a little concerned about the tarragon listed in the ingredients, as we are no fan of the savory dessert trend. However there was just one single tiny leaf to accent the bread and another to accent the chocolate - it worked just great.
I'm sure glad we finally made it to Coi! With the wonders they work with winter produce, we can't wait to see what they do with other seasons, especially late summertime!
Michael
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Coi
373 Broadway, San Francisco, CA 94133
By mdg
on Dec 28, 2010 11:09 PM
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Great report. Out of curiosity, how full was the dining room?
I was much happier with Manresa a few months ago on a non-full Tuesday night when they had a (non-eating) party in the back room, so the kitchen seemed less rushed.
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Manresa Restaurant
320 Village Lane, Los Gatos, CA 95030
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The dining room was full - good for them on a Tuesday night! I didn't check to see how busy the lounge was.
Michael
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The Chron reports that the lounge will be converted into more dining room and the a la carte menu will be discontinued.
http://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com/blog/...
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As one of the major cities in the States, I find it surprising that San Francisco does not really have any “best” restaurants. The restaurants that many foodies love in the Bay area happen to be located off SF, such as French Laundry, Manresa, and Ubuntu. Gary Danko or Fleur de Lys does not really make the ‘cut’. During my SF trip in 2010, my friend and I made a last minute decision to try something fancy and Coi, located on financial district, was possibly the best choice available (Benu by Corey Lee may have improved SF dining scenes)
Food (and wine) – 90/100
Coi does not leave you with any choice on what to eat – only 11-course tasting menu was available. Price wise, it’s not too bad but we knew that each dish will be quite small. The meal here focused on a combination of local aromatic ingredients, inventive flavors and beautiful to gaze upon. Obviously, the kitchen labored very hard to produce the dish. However, what matters is always the palate which is usually very subtle and relatively clean/light here. We did not have any dish that’s outstanding, however there’re a few that we thought nice.
- the geoduck clam has firm texture, combined with crunchy almond in the background and refreshing cucumber
- ‘Spring’ dish has beautiful plating, inside we would taste fresh pea soup along with decent butter milk mousse
- my favorite dish was butter-roasted morels (from Oregon). The morels are flavorful, integrated by tarragon. The fava beans showed some nice contrast
- it’s hard to go really wrong with slow-cooked farm egg (with runny yolk). The star happened to be the ‘buckwheat soup’ and shiitake, not the egg itself
The main course (beef tartare) was rather disappointing. The beef, while containing some fat, was rather sour. When I saw roasted young carrots with radish powder and sprouts, they looked beautiful and interesting. However, the carrots were too soft and not that flavorful (I had imagined tasting similar carrots served by Passard, perhaps it’s an unfair comparison as Arpege probably served the best carrots in the world). The dessert was quite pleasant; we got smooth & sweet white chocolate pudding contrast with sour and ‘crunchy’ blueberries and lemon verbena.
The food served by Chef Daniel Patterson is clearly not for everyone. You need to be able to appreciate the unique ingredients as well as the preparation’s complexity. The chef is probably still fine tuning his cooking and can definitely improve further. The food is in the level of 2-star (90 pts) and I know chef Patterson would work hard to keep these stars. I don’t see him to gain the 3rd one yet in the near future.
Service (and ambiance) – 91/100
The décor at Coi, an intimate restaurant with 30 seats, is minimal and modern. It has no window and not-so-high ceiling, generating calm atmosphere (as the name of “Coi” suggests - tranquil). The service is professional with staffs that are competent and diligent, the napkins were always replaced and the water was filled all the time. But they don’t really ‘connect’ to the diners, just doing their jobs – hardly any meaningful conversation. The overall experience here is 90.5/100 and Michelin got it right with the 2-star
Pictures of the dishes: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7124357@...
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Coi
373 Broadway, San Francisco, CA 94133
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Bu Pun Su, I believe Saison is a "best" restaurant. It's above COI and in the same league as anywhere else.
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Thanks for your info bbulkow
I don't always travel to US, so never heard about Saison
Do they serve similar food to Coi? I suppose it's your favorite in SF?
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I'm not entirely sure of the timing, but your review seems to be of an experience from 2010.
If I recall, Patterson was in the process of opening 1 or 2 other projects, and about to hand over much of the Coi kitchen oversight to another Chef. I believe he's also closed the kitchen for at least one overhaul/renovation since then. Patterson is known to get bored, and react to food trends, or interests or disinterests. I don't know if any of this effects the overall accuracy of your review, (probably not) but it's worth noting.
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Brief review of Coi from this month: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/8258...
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