First Night in San Francisco

(early evening of the 18th)

Tragedy! We missed the free wine tasting at our little boutique hotel! Nob Hill Hotel so far seems really cool, although there’s very little access to internet here. Not sure when I’ll get this posted…


We got here safe and sound, and have had enough of a break between our Hon’s lunch that we’re even hungry again. Which is cool, because we have reservations for Jardiniere (www.jardinere.com), the sustainable (although not financially—for us) restaurant.

(Late evening of the 18th)

We dressed up and took a cab to Jardiniere and discovered shortly after our arrival that an 8:30 reservation is still unfashionably early for most locals. The place still had empty tables, and didn’t get really hopping until about 10:30 or 11:00.

I had promised myself I wouldn’t order the $99 tasting menu because I had to pace myself, at least somewhat. But when I saw it, I almost cried:

First course: Carpaccio of Maine Diver Scallops with Hearts of Palm, Asian Pear and Ginger Vinaigrette, Tsar Nicoulai Caviar
2nd course: Local Petrale Sole with Pork Cheek Raviolis, Bitter Greens and Local Dungeness Crab, Shallot Bacon Broth
3rd course: Liberty Farms Duck Breast and Seared Foie Gras, with Chestnut Puree, Roasted Apple and Huckleberry Jus
4th course: Dry Aged New York Steak with Bone Marrow Gremolata, Chanterelle Mushrooms and Creamed Nettles, Perigord Truffle Jus
5th course: Abbaye de Belloc Natural Rind Raw Sheep’s Milk Cheese from Pyrenees, France
6th course: Pumpkin Crème Caramel with Pecan Shortbread and Cranberry Compote

Foie gras! Scallop carpaccio!! Truffles!!!

And yet I’d promised myself. Luckily, the a la carte daily specials were also beautiful. It’s not as hard to say no to foie gras when I could have Burrata cheese and house cured charcuterie with a salad of Concord grapes and toasted walnuts. I love walnuts in California. They’re so fresh—I didn’t even think I liked walnuts until I tried them in California and learned that every walnut I’d ever eaten until then had been stale.

Kelly was tempted by the pâté plate that included rabbit with fig preserves, country pork with apple salad, with whole grain mustard. I knew I wanted fish, and the main course special was an Alaskan sablefish with savoy cabbage, roasted root vegetables, smoked bacon and red wine-crab sauce. I also managed to talk Kelly into the dry aged steak dish that was both an evening special and part of the tasting menu (I really wanted to try it).

And they had fresh oysters, too. I had promised myself one other thing—that I would eat as many oysters as I could while on this trip. I ordered four.

I enjoyed my charcuterie plate, which included a prosciutto, a cracked pepper salami (delicious), and another dry cured ham. The salad was fresh and light—with lovely flavours of thin-cut fennel shining through. It went very well with a lively Alsatian Pinot Blanc recommended by our server.

Kelly’s pâté plate was interesting, but not as good as mine. The rabbit pâté was silky and delicious—the flavours of several herbs swam around in my mouth. With a bite of fig conserve, which tasted like it had been simmered in veal demi-glace, it was wonderful. The pork pâté, however, just tasted like ham. Tragically, Kelly’s cold had flared up with his first glass of wine that evening, so he was having trouble tasting anything. He wondered if he had suddenly ended up in Hell, being in a place where the food was so good, and not being able to taste it.

The service slowed noticeably after our appetizers, and we were beginning to feel the two-hour time difference. Our servers knew we’d been waiting a long time, and made it up to us with a little amuse bouche that rocked my world: a seared scallop on a truffled pommes purée. Really just a scallop on mashed potatoes, but it was a perfectly caramelized scallop, on potatoes that had more cream than potato and a beautiful dose of earthy, mouth-exploding truffle. They made up for the lapse in service, I’d say.

Our main dishes arrived shortly after that. There’s something about the way truly high-end restaurants prepare fish that I can never get enough of. It was caramelly on the outside, and had a perfectly creamy texture on the inside. The surrounding glazed roasted vegetables, cabbage and bacon were all very homey, with textures and flavours that perfectly complemented each other—I’d get smokey notes from the bacon, followed by slightly bitter ones from the cabbage and turnips, then sweeter notes from the carrots. Very wholesome and satisfying—and paired with a Sonoma Pinot Noir.

Kelly’s steak, which was free-range, tasted remarkably like my Dad’s homegrown beef. That’s something we don’t expect in restaurants. The nettle purée reminded me of a toned down shot of wheatgrass—a very ‘green’ flavour. The chanterelle mushrooms were the fattest, firmest, freshest chanterelles I’d ever tasted. Once Kelly had put his fork down, I stole all the remaining mushrooms off his plate.

By the time we were done eating, we were extremely wiped out. We perused the dessert menu, but couldn’t justify the gastronomic effort or the time to try one. We were duly impressed with the 22-page menu, though. Only one page was devoted to desserts. The rest was devoted to bar items—ports, sherries, dessert wines, scotch, grappa, bourbon, and on and on, with a three-piece tasting menu for all of them. Oh, all so tempting.

Luckily for our pocketbooks, we left it at that, which kept our bill just barely under $200. Had we ordered the six-course tasting menu, it would have been over $300, so I felt both satisfied with my meal, and pleased that I’d kept my promise.