Saison 🇺🇸

178 Townsend St, San Francisco · ⭐⭐ Michelin · saisonsf.com

So even in a city like San Francisco, a place embarrassingly rich with world-class restaurants, there is always room for exceptional, extraordinary, amazing. Saison is all of those things. A simple concept of incredible products treated to wood, smoke and fire - served inventively and with confidence by a remarkable Team of craftsmen.

Saison is nothing less than one of the finest restaurants in the country.

For reasons not entirely clear, I had not yet made it to Saison. Usually one of the first picks a for a food driven traveler when in "The City" (apologies to NYC, but thats just how they roll out West). I'd been to many of the well known gastronomic temples... Benu? ✅, Atelier Crenn? ✅, Heck even the roast chicken at Zuni Cafe is a pilgrimage in this town. I'd dined well and experienced many of the best tables in town, but not yet here. Well, it was time to rectify this oversight and with a recent trade show giving me 4 nights in The City, I was determined to make Saison part of my visit.

Anticipation and expectation are funny things. Simple nouns which are often interwoven and yet remarkably hard to satisfy. Saison is a place that easily surpassed both. A fabulous example of California cuisine conceived with French precision and flawlessly executed, Saison makes excellence seem effortless.

One quickly notices that your vintage Krug — Champagne royalty, and virtually never poured by the glass — arrives here with a quiet nonchalance that raises eyebrows around even the most knowing tables. And of course it's served in white burgundy glasses custom made by Zalto, bearing an etched "Saison" on the foot. 😅

The card itself is a surprise as the menu is not offered to you in advance, which only serves to heighten the anticipation. My meal began with a carefully considered tea course, segued to various presentations of crudo and really began to ascend with the caviar — a Saison signature, and one of the great California acts in all of fine dining. Local kelp, wrapped around private-batch caviar and kissed by the embers to draw out its full briny, textural punch, then ceremoniously unwrapped and plated tableside. Old World tradition, quietly reimagined — and presented not as provocation but as simple fact. This is how it's done now. Saison knows it, and so will you. .

Colors, textures, temperatures... Chef Joshua Skenes and the Team were putting on a show. The plating may be the finest in the country — Le Bernardin its only true peer — and each dish felt like another frame in one of the most memorable meals of my life. Various presentations of seafood, each more elegantly prepared then the next, late summer vegetables and sauces with impeccably French credentials provided a consistent drumbeat of wonder and surprise. This was a kitchen in full flower and at the top of its game.

Transitioning away from seafood and serving as the centerpiece of the card was a presentation of Bison served in the donburi style. Notable flourishes such as custom knives and artisanal salts contributed to this amazing focal point. A savory, smoky filet with incredible balance, draped in a velvety sauce redolent with berries and Cabernet - a wonderful accompaniment to the slightly gamey flavors of the protein.

Desserts were the usual suspects, fresh berries, gelatos, slightly savory cakes... and as any of you who follow my blog know, dessert is really not the highlight of any dining experience for me? 🤷🏻‍♂️ In fact, I'm usually plotting to see if I can "calorie-swap" the dessert(s) for more wine :-)

But one thing really stood out to me and I believe it encapsulates the whole service profile of Saison very neatly. A gelato dish offered, flecked with cocoa nibs and covered in THE MOST amazing butterscotch sauce known to man. Seriously - I thought about calling my Mom as I was eating it. Simply astonishing. Deep, buttery, savory and sweet all at once. I remarked to my server that I was amazed by the sauce and that "I could probably finish a gallon of it". Well, lo and behold, what appeared minutes later in a beautiful copper saucepan? Yep, my own (almost) endless supply of the butterscotch with a ladle the size of a small dinner plate. Its those things, the thoughtful, anticipatory and whimsical pieces that set restaurants like Saison apart. So few have that - Saison is one... Frantzén and Single Thread are others - but it is all too rare, even at the Michelin fueled heights that Saison competes in.

This was a Top-10 meal for me and a place that I would highly recommend. @saisonsf is excellence, passion and craft defined. It is a benchmark, a standard and it demands your attention. After my experience with this world class Team? I say simply… Bravo.

Editor's note: Saison has since transitioned to Executive Chef Richard Lee and continues to hold two Michelin stars.