Atelier Crenn

Happy 2022 everyone!

It has been a long hiatus since I’ve last posted, and gosh has the world changed since the last time that I posted. I’ve officially been welcomed into the third decade of my life, and we’ve made some moves around Northern California – now living in Everyone’s Favourite City, San Francisco.

It’s not a coincidence that I mentioned my age either, as it was my birthday recently! In preparation for my birthday, I’ve been wanting to visit Atelier Crenn, a 3-star Michelin star restaurant since 2019, owned by the renowned Dominique Crenn.

Booking Reservations

This is not the typical walk-in type of restaurant that you are familiar with. For Atelier Crenn (as well as for many other well known restaurants), you will have to book your spot at the restaurant months in advance. For Atelier Crenn, they usually drop their open reservations a month before via Tock. A good way to keep up with the schedule and know when they drop their dates, follow their Instagram. Be on your toes for when the reservations open up, they go fast. By fast, I mean within 10-15 minutes!

We unfortunately didn’t secure a spot through the initial reservations. The nice thing though, is that despite not getting a spot, we had the option to join a waitlist on days that we preferred. Essentially, anyone who isn’t able to make their original reservation can cancel, and the system will notify everyone on the waitlist about the now open availability. And it really does work if you’re lucky! That’s what we landed our spot there.

Getting there

Aterlier Crenn was my very first 3-star Michelin restaurant, so I was really thrilled we managed to get a reservation. It’s located in the heart of San Francisco in Cow Hollow, and owned by Dominique Crenn – the first and only female to earn three stars in the United States.

Finding parking in Cow Hollow was challenging. I recommend that if you’re driving, to give ample time for parking since it’s a pretty busy neighbourhood. Taking a rideshare is probably a good option to getting to the restaurant too.

Storefront of Atelier Crenn

In regards to finding the restaurant, I’ve gotta say I felt kind of silly. We made a few rounds up and down the street with no luck finding it despite Google Maps telling us that we’ve arrived at our destination. The storefront is totally humble and unassuming. There is absolutely no signage and indication that the restaurant is what it is. Despite the modest entrance, entering really felt like we were being warped into fantasy wonderland.

We opted in for the Moveable Feast ($395 per person): which started off in the main dining room for a 14-course tasting menu, which we had an option to accompany the experience with a sommelier hand-picked selection of wine. Afterwards, we were guided for a neat tour through the main and pastry kitchen where all the magic happens. The journey ended at Bar Crenn with a wide selection of dessert items.

Dining – Main dining room

The restaurant is pescatarian, only serving seafood in effort to battle against the environmental impact of animal agriculture. This was not at all an issue for me, since seafood is my go-to preference in terms of protein.

So without further ado, I’ll go and share the beautiful creations Chef Crenn put on the table for us the day we visited. I’ll also try my best to describe the dishes’ ingredients/flavours (not that I will do full justice) as these dishes may be hard to distinguish by their eye-catching abstract appearances.

A take on Kir Breton – this was a magical sphere of chocolate that encapsulated frozen cider and wore a little creme de cassis jam hat.
This was an impressive way to kickstart the meal. I was stunned by how such a thin chocolate was kept whole with a fully liquidated centre. Popping it in my mouth left a splash of sweet and refreshing sensation!

Seafood tart – A layered tart with alternating thinly sliced citrus, sea urchin and geoduck. Topped with mousseline cream.
The presentation of this was astounding, with the tart surrounded by a mysterious misty fog reminiscent of Crenn’s childhood memories by the water. The tart itself was a beautiful combination of colours and textures, let alone its meticulous detail and design. The tart was thin and buttery, which rounded out nicely with a balance of flavour between seafood and citrus.

Oysters done two ways. Way one: oyster & rosé
Presentation again went over my head – this was plated with a bowl of lush succulents! And what neat play on presentation! Don’t be fooled of the white oyster-like form, it’s a mould from the rosé reduction. It was safely blanketing over two miyagi oyster bellies, which I learned of how tender and soft oyster bellies were!

Oysters done two ways. Way 2: Grilled oyster
Here was a sleek presentation of another oyster belly grilled to perfection. Complementing the protein was a delicate oyster leaf, pickled tapioca for a unique texture and smoked oyster cream.

Spiny lobster, seaweed & whey – this was definitely one of my favourite dishes.
This was an abstract dish that I would’ve imagined being served when going to a fine dining restaurant. Starring the spiny lobster tartare which was surrounded by a ring ginger foam and seaweed powder. Every few bites were interrupted by a blast of flavour from the curry spots. Served alongside with this (not pictured) was bowl of delicious lobster broth brewed with the lobster shell.

Intermission: Shiso leaf tempura
A simple and refreshing bite between our meal. Simple as it is, who would’ve ever thought to tempura shiso? It was quite fascinating how deep frying it changed the entire flavour profile of the leaf — it became faint! Can we just appreciate how artistic this looks?

Beets course
If I had to choose, this would probably be one of my least favourite dishes, but I’m also biased because I’m just not a huge fan of beets. In the wooden receptacle was a sour, fresh salad. On top of the green leaf plat was a smoked beet paired with the smoked crème fraîche. The charming glass art was specifically made in collaboration with Atelier Crenn by a local glass blower in Oakland.

We opted in for the optional course for an additional $40 per person. This course’s theme was around squashes: one being a yolk-like kabocha squash dumpling, which the server pours in a butternut squash consommé and topped with a generous shaving of truffle. Served on the log dish was a pumpkin seed cookie compressed into the shape of a leaf. It was fascinating to see how they managed to crush and compress the seed into a cookie format! Finally, the last dish of this course was a savoury acorn squash tart topped with golden flakes.

French onion “soup” – escargot caviar sitting on picked onion petals. In the centre was a delicate cauliflower ice cream sitting on top of a layer of extremely concentrated caramelized onion essence.
This is arguably the most beautiful dishes. I mean, look at how meticulously placed the caviar is on the onion petals! This dish was also a lot of “firsts” for me, first time having escargot caviar (it was a extremely chewy texture) and savoury ice cream!

Abalone swimming in smoked mussel crème fraîche and pickled tapioca and a deep fried napa leaf with a golden glaze.
This abalone was cooked to perfection, juicy and tender. It was a variation of surprises in a terms of textures – from crispy to chewy to soft; and in flavour – from smokey to sour to sweet. It was an excellent balance of complexities of ingredients, from the rich sauce to the light airy cabbage leaf.

Brioche bun and sesame epi baguette served alongside with cultured butter from the local garden.

Trout cake topped with a squid ink cracker, accompanied with trout caviar and smoked mussel crème.
This was definitely one of my favourite dishes (how many times have I said favourite by now?)! Every bite would kind of just meld in my mouth, perfectly. Not pictured here was a salad tossed with truffle shavings and liquid cheese. All harvested locally in Crenn’s farm garden and a cheese farm in Sebastopol.
A brilliant tip that our server gave us was to save the brioche bun (served along with a yummy sesame bun) that was served to us prior to this course to savour the sauce. And gosh, did I wipe that plate clean😅.

And just when we thought we had reached the end of the meal, the server came to take us on our next adventure. First, he escorted us to the main kitchen, where the magic happens from the cooking of foods to assembly. It was quite a sight as it was my first time ever really making it to the back kitchen to see how everything is done. Afterwards, we walked through the back alley, the corridor which is often occupied by staff scurrying from one part of the restaurant to the next. Next to the main kitchen was the pastry kitchen. The kitchen had photos of Willy Wonka hung around the room for a themed inspiration. In order not to spoil our surprise desserts, we didn’t overstay to get a full grasp of what they were in the process of assembling. We then reached out next dining experience over at Bar Crenn.

Desserts – Bar Crenn

The desserts for the evening were led by the head pasty chef, Juan Contreras. We had been transported to an entirely new environment. The environment was quite snazzy, almost like a very fancy library haha. We were seated by the bar, where we enjoyed the rest of our experience that day, followed by several fun desserts. They were all themed to the winter season, and made from very unique ingredients which one would not normally make desserts with.

To kick things off, we were served a beautifully shaped snowflake, retaining its chilliness thanks to the dry ice sitting beneath it. The texture of this treat was very reminiscent of white chocolate, except the flavour was a fantastic balance between sweet and tart. The pear snowflakes had a lasting hint of eucalyptus and almost minty(?) sensation that was ever so refreshing.

The next dessert course was split into two little bites. First, was one shaped like a dumpling. This was Contreras’ take on the Asian dragon’s beard candy. His take included a cotton candy encased with a variety of seeds/nuts in the centre. I thought this was a nice and authentic twist to the original treat. Next was an egg nog pavlova, a festive bite that ended in a crispy yet airy mouthful.

Next was arguably the star of the show in regards to desserts, the snowman!!! He was soooo beautifully crafted that it almost felt sinful to break him up into bites. What made matters worse was that our server had even given him a name, “Jacques” 😂.
He was a perfect “not-too-sweet” bite of yogurt marshmallow ice cream, sitting in a bowl full of sorrel ice crumbles and meringue crisps. His scarf was a thinly sliced piece of apple dyed in red. Boy, was he a treat (sorry, Jacques)!

The finale of our dining experience at Atelier Crenn was topped off with a beautiful trunk serving us a variety of chocolate confections. Can I have a moment to talk about how cute this prop is? I can’t help but think this looks like a tree painter holding paint palettes, haha. We closed our journey with a lemon cream drop, chocolate & toffee and chocolate & marzipan. It was a clean and delightful finish!

Overall

If you’ve made it to this part of the post, thank you for reliving our journey with us! Not only was this place a location where we had dinner, it was also a performance. Every dish not only challenged our taste buds, but it was also extremely beautiful to look at! It was an extravagant experience, showcasing a complex repertoire of cooking techniques that Crenn has mastered.

The environment of the restaurant was very refreshing, transporting one from a regular San Francisco day into to an exclusive dining experience putting all the senses to the test! The staff working there completed the experience with their warm welcome and friendliness. One of the most memorable parts of the dinner for me was moving from the restaurant, through the kitchens and into the dessert bar. That was for sure a first time experience that felt very special to me.

The one and only arguably contentious point was around the price point. Yes, this dinner definitely wasn’t cheap; it ended up being $600 per person at the end of the day (we opted in for some additional items). But, I would definitely say it’s worth the experience, and a place to go for a special occasion with that special someone.

With all things considered, I can truly appreciate the overall performance and understand why Atelier Crenn has consistently been awarded with multiple Michelin Stars and is the talk of the town. I would totally recommend this for anyone looking for a unique fine dining experience!

Hope everyone is staying safe out there! Let me know which dish you’d like to try, or enjoyed the most!

– ksdn.

Fugetsu

As you guys may already observe with the ongoing trend, I love Japanese food.  When I heard about the original hype of a local okinomiyaki specialty store opening up, I was stoked!  As possible it is to find this dish in some Japanese restaurants around, there has yet to be one that specialized in okinomiyaki, until today – Fugetsu!

For those of you who don’t know what okinomiyaki, it’s a Japanese pancake that originated mostly from Kansai prefecture and Hiroshima.  The variety between the okinomiyaki’s can vary very greatly, but the primary ingredient is made up of a batter of cabbage and nagaimo (Japanese yam).  It’s coated in a okinomiyaki special sauce that tastes similar toWorcestershire sauce and Japanese mayo…just the thought of it makes me hungry!

The restaurant is quite small, and cozy. I would definitely recommend going with a small party of 4 or less.  The tables are not really portable, they all have heated trays on them for your food to keep warm. This follows from original traditions of Japanese okinomiyaki restaurants. Usually in Japan they will cook it completely in front of the customers at their table. However, as we learned from the restaurant owner, because of health regulations in California, this was prohibited, so they could only put the cooked food displayed on a heated pan to recreate the experience as closely possible. To try to replicate the experience and fulfill the curiosity of people who want to see how it’s made, they’ve opened up the kitchen with a glass wall to watch the chefs cook the okinomiyaki first hand. Another observation about this restaurant is that it takes some time for the food to come. The owner is well aware of this and is working to optimize the process, but because all the food is raw to begin with and made to order, it will take a bit longer. Please be patient!

Okinomiyaki spatulas and hot griddle setting.  So fun and interactive, right?

Ok, enough about logistics of the restaurant, let’s get onto the food.

N and I went for lunch and we went at around 1pm (dodging the main lunch hours as it gets really busy).  Fugetsu has a specific lunch menu with the opportunity to try many different things at once for a reasonable price.  Each dish was under $15 dollars during lunch.

I opted in for the lunch special of half an okinomiyaki and a small portion of yakisoba.  I’m a huge fan of okinomiyaki, so I’ve got to say that was the better of the two, but both are similar but unique in their own ways.  The noodles that are found in the okinomiyaki are actually different noodles that are used to make the yakisoba.  The yakisoba noodles are more firm and textured whereas the okinomiyaki’s noodles are more soft and resemble a mochi like texture.  The shop owner was explaining to us that it took around 3 months to engineer the desired texture and flavour.  The noodles come from an original recipe brought from the Japanese Fugetsu!

Lunch combo #1: Small portion of yakisoba and original okinomiyaki ($11.95)

N went for the modan order of okinomiyaki, specifically the negi tsukimi, which is okinomiyaki topped with an egg and generous amount of green onion.  Upon trying this one versus my original okinomiyaki, I really felt that the negi tsukimi is the definition of a hot mess, haha.  The thick layer of okyinomiyaki, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, along with the gooeyness of they egg and freshness from the green onion, really was a complexity of flavours and textures.  These modan okinomiyaki really don’t mess around.  Would definitely recommend it!

Negi Tsukimi Modan ($13). Green onions for days!

All in all, I thought it was a refreshing and fun experience that is different from other restaurants around.  The wait is long, I agree, even when the restaurant wasn’t full of people, but I truly felt it was worth it.  The store owner was welcoming, and humble — looking for criticism in order to grow customer satisfaction.  If you are thinking about coming here, you can read more about the menu and ingredients here!

– ksdn.

Yayoi Japanese Teishoku Restaurant

After having several thoughts about returning to Japan, I’m glad a restaurant like this popped up around the Bay Area.  There are two locations open today, one in Palo Alto, and one in Cupertino.  During this trip, we visited the Palo Alto location.  It’s really neat to see that the restaurant culture and the technology behind this place really reminds me of Japan.  Behold, travels to Japan in the blink of a second!

The whole atmosphere of the restaurant is super simple and minimalistic – very similar to the “muji” look, y’know what I’m saying?  It can get pretty busy though, so if you wanna sit down ASAP, I recommend giving them a call before heading there.  What’s really cool about the menu is that all the prices that you see in the menu (and in this post) are all tip inclusive, meaning you don’t have to worry about how much tip to give them and just pay the taxes on top of the prices.  I’m SO glad something like this finally exists in America!  This really follows how the restaurant etiquette in Asia is like, and I’m so sick of trying to math how much tip I should give TT.  So grateful for this!!

The ‘technology’ side of Japan is demonstrated by the way you order the food.  Each table is accompanied with a tablet, an electronic menu.  Customers will then go through the menu and choose the items that they want, add them to the cart, and order when ready.  The ordering style is much like AYCE sushi tablet ordering (at least back in Toronto)…except not AYCE..haha.

The process is all very seamless.  Ordering is quite self explanatory, with detailed descriptions and nice pictures.  Everything looked very appetizing and it was hard to decide what to eat.  Food didn’t take long to be served.

Self ordering technology

For starters, N and I got a salmon carpaccio to share.  The kick of flavour in the ponzu and thinly sliced red onions, along with the texture of the pea sprouts, went very well with the thick slices of raw salmon.  I think the amount served in the appetizer was really a balanced amount to begin the meal.

Salmon Carpaccio ($9 USD)

For mains, I ordered myself the Hatsumabushi, which is a meal with eel served Nagoya style. Although ingredients very similar to the Eel rice which was a couple dollars less, I chose to go for this dish because it was a little more creative and it almost seemed like it was three individual dishes. The meal comes with an instruction card, showing you how to eat it in different ways.

1. You can eat it plain eel with rice as it is already served in the bowl.
2. You can add the condiments (green onion, wasabi, pickled vegetable, soft tofu) to the eel rice.  What I thought was interesting was the tofu on the bottom right, the dish was a cold dish and the tofu was very fragile and soft.
3. You can eat the eel rice along with dashi stock on the top right.  Eating it this way reminded me of a very yummy congee.

Hatsumabushi ($22 USD).  Eel over rice in 3 different ways 🙂

My favourite way to eat it was to eat it in the 2nd way.  Dry and with the condiments.  All the condiments added a new depth to the dish, and I thought it was very fun in general.  Don’t forget to add the mountain pepper, it’s an awesome addition to the dish!

N got a Yakiniku Ju, a simple grilled slice beef rice dish.  It is served with a miso soup on the side, which is super flavourful (and in my opinion, almost too salty ><).  You can replace the miso soup for asari miso soup for a couple of dollars, which is a clam miso soup.  This dish was a bit of a disappointment to me.  The mushrooms were very tasty, but I found that since the beef slices were so thin, it would easily overcook (which I thought it was), which in turn resulted to be a bit too dry for my liking.

Yakiniku Ju ($17.50 USD)

We ended our meal off with some matcha warabi mochi, which is what I like to call a “water mochi”, powdered in matcha.  The texture of warabi mochi is very interesting.  It’s not dense and chewy, but it feels like gummy water that isn’t very wet..if that makes sense at all..haha.  For extra flavour, it comes with brown sugar syrup which you drizzle on top of the warabi mochi.  Such a light touch to end the meal – I really enjoyed it.

Matcha warabi mochi ($6 USD) (omg sorry for out of focus-ness)

All in all, I really enjoyed my visit.  It really felt like I was reliving in Japan for a moment.  Although a bit disappointed in the Yakiniku Ju, I really enjoyed the Hatsumabushi and will definitely be back to try out other items on the menu.  And let me take a moment again to express how grateful I am that a restaurant that includes the tip into the price exists in North America!  Amen, sista!

-ksdn.

Nom Burger

Happy New Year :D!

Since I’ve moved to the Bay Area, I realized that I’ve never actually posted anything about any restaurants nearby.  Well, we’re about to change that!  Sunnyvale has been doing a lot of revamp for their downtown area, and a lot of local restaurants have recently (recently, is within the lifetime of 2016) opened.

 

Upon entering Nom Burger, I wasn’t sure what kind of expectations to have.  The decor was really nice, and everything was really modern.  Prior to coming here, I read about how the buns are all handmade – but y’know, you don’t believe until you see it.  Right where we were seated, there was someone working on glazing the buns with egg.

He noticed we were taking photos of him, hehe.  Glowing buns being glazed *yummeh*

I would classify this restaurant as one that served gourmet burgers.  Prices were all within the range of $15, which is kinda expensive in my opinion given that you have to pay additional for sides…that is, until the burger came.

Every month they have a special burger.  This month they have the Hella Dank Burger ($15).  This is a banh mi inspired burger

California Love ($14)

Do you see how huge these burgers are?  They really were a mouthful to eat.  And as much as they were delicious, I would definitely not recommend on your first date.  You will be a mess!  Our waiter knew this ahead of time and presented us with a ton of extra napkins xD.
Of the two burgers, N and I both ended up agreeing that the California Love was the better of the two.  Its freshness of local ingredients, balance of sweet and salty, and of course, avocado, definitely won my love.  That doesn’t put the Hella Dank out of competition, though.  If you’re up for a challenge and want to try different, I would definitely go with this burger.  The compilation of the pickled radish and pate brought out its own type of umami.

Nom Fries ($5)

We ordered one side for the two of us, and wait a minute, did you guys hear what I said – SIDE?  This is huge!  We order Nom Fries, which is essentially garlic fries.  So apparently, this photo is taken when the food arrived, which a waiter dropped by telling us that we have been lied to, and splat on some sort of sour cream, which went really well with the fries (such great service, right?!).  The fries are chopped finely, and really good…*drool*.  The aioli sauce on it was a tad spicy, but totally tolerable.

I honestly feel like this place is not here to jip you.  The food is good, service is wonderful (shoutout to our waiter, he really enhanced the experience), and atmosphere is great.  It’s nice to know that more of these kind of restaurants are opening up around the Bay Area.  I would definitely come here again.

-ksdn.

All Around Japan

As you guys already know, I like to take my camera around everywhere I go and capture the moment.  As I’ve gotten older though, I’ve found that I’m falling out of the habit and it’s just so much easier to live in the moment.  I’ve always battled between whether or not I should bother taking time out of enjoying myself to capture the moment.

Pictures are nice, but videos capture the mood so well and can really allow people to relive the moment.  This is more so for myself than for anyone else, but I’m trying to get into the habit of vlogging on my traveling adventures.  Vlogging really isn’t easy though – from capturing content during the time of the trip, rewatching your clips and awkward self (xD) a million times, deciding what content is quality and sharable content, and putting it all together in one clip.  The most satisfying though, is when the video is compiled all together – and rewatching the entire length of the video is like being in the moment all over again.

Since there are so many things that I like doing on my spare time (of course, blogging as one of them).  I thought it was still slightly relevant since there are lots of clips of eating involved with the vlog.  So without any further ado, I would like to share my first (and very late) ever vlog of my friends and I traveling around Japan!  This includes – Tokyo, Sapporo, Osaka, and Kyoto.

Please enjoy our adventure in 2015 and let me know if you would like any detail reviews on any area specifically!  We ate and tried a lot of cool stuff.  Here’s just a little sneak peak of some good food that I would really recommend you hit up if you ever have a chance!

 

Wagyu beef in Kyoto.  While very expensive, you will never get a chance to indulge in such fatty and delicious meat that simply melts in your mouth!

Tsukemen at Menya Musashi, Shinjuku.  All noodles are handmade.  Dipping the warm ramen into the cool soup was an explosion of flavour and texture.

Osaka version of sushi – pressed sushi.  Did you know that the beauty of Osaka sushi is that it’s has lots of layers of different ingredients?  And yes, all fish in true Osaka sushi is COOKED!

Shirako. Shudders, still building up courage to take this one on.  Anyone have guesses on what it is? Cod milt!  Find this in some revolving sushi restaurants if you want to give it a try.

-ksdn