Birthday Dinner at Saison

Shweetie took me to a new restaurant in the Mission District, called Saison, for my birthday. Like many restaurants in the Bay Area, their focus is on serving the best foods of the season, and most of their ingredients are grown locally or are from their garden.

True to its claim, all of the produce at Saison was incredibly fresh. The colors really popped on our plates. Meats and fish were perfectly cooked. We gave the food an 8.75. Shweetie was especially impressed by the presentation of the asparagus, which they had sliced length-wise with a mandolin slicer. Shweetie declared that that is how he would like to present asparagus from now on, but I'm worried that he'll accidentally slice off a layer of skin as well. *shudder*

Wild Caviar en Gelee


Farm Egg, Smoked Butter, Golden Trout Roe


Halibut, with Fresh Greens


Asparagus Roasted with Benito and Grains


Spring Peas, Lobster in its Bouillon, Sea Urchin, Nasturtium


Crimson Beet Hibiscus and Bone Marrow


Four Story Hills Sweetbreads, Roasted with Caramelized Honey and Douglas Fir


Strawberries in their Consommé, Vanilla Bean Ice Cream


With Chef Joshua Skenes

The service was friendly and unintrusive. Although they only serve an eight-course prix fixe meal and nothing à la carte, the place was casual and unstuffy, and the service matched that atmosphere. We liked that the sous chef, who brought out one of our courses, chatted about their asparagus-slicing techniques with us when we asked him about it. We gave the service a 9.00.

The place was pretty tiny, seating only 25 people, and more than half of the space is actually devoted to the kitchen. I know this for a fact, since you actually enter the restaurant through the kitchen, which was neat. It also made us feel less awkward to ask the chef for a picture at the end of the night, since we had to walk through the kitchen and right past him in order to exit. The doors between the kitchen and dining area were also wide open throughout the entire evening, so you could see what was going on in there at all times. We gave the décor a 9.00.

Overall we gave Saison an 88.25. We'll be back, even though I found a tiny neon green worm wiggling around on my dress after using the restroom. I took that as a sign of how fresh their produce must be. Good stuff.

*For a refresher on our rating system, check out this previous post.*