Following the fantastic meal at Californios the prior night, I had high expectations for the 3 macarons Benu especially given the esoteric-ish pricing of $295/Person pre-tax and tip.
Let’s see what it’s about:
3 macarons
Sneak peak of the beautiful kitchen from the street. The guy with his back facing the window is EC Corey Lee who was the former CDC at TFL
Courtyard where they ferment some of their ingredients
Table setting. These metal chopsticks weigh a ton and I had trouble using them because of my improper techniques.
Complimentary bamboo leaf tea…light, earthy and grassy in a pleasant way!
Small delicacy #1: home made thousand-year-old quail egg, bacon cabbage potage, cabbage juice, ginger sour cream, pickled ginger
Small delicacy #2: beausoleil oyster, pork belly, kimchi foam, kimchi “glass”
Small delicacy #3: marinated mussel stuffed with assorted “glass noodle” vegetable
Small delicacy #4: dried jelly fish wrapped shrimp, seaweed
Small delicacy #5: pork and sweet rice blood sausage, squid, pickled radishes, sesame leaf, fermented pepper sauce
Small delicacy #6: glazed chicken wing stuffed with abalone and abalone liver mousse
The glaze overpowered the abalone and abalone liver mousse but delicious nonetheless. This was the ONLY minor misstep of the night.
Small delicacy #7: “shark fin” soup, dungeness crab, jinhua ham, egg white custard, black truffle
Hydrocolloids are used in a broth so fine brown strands of “shark fin” can be pressed out and they’re then cut at a bias to mimic the shape and elastic snap of real shark fin. It took Corey Lee a year and a half to get his “shark fin” to the “right” texture.
Ginseng infused orange blossom honey is drizzled on the honey comb shaped butter
Sprouted grain bread
It was impossibly crunchy on the outside without hurting your gums while it’s super soft on the inside. The ginseng honey butter paired perfectly with the slightly sour tasting bread.
lobster coral xiao long bao, homeade soy sauce and vinegar
It’s got an incredible amount of lobster consomme inside those thin, elastic, and slightly chewy skin. No XLB ever came close to this.
Benu’s take on banchan
seasonal fish roe with hand-pressed sesame oil, sesame leaf, daikon
sea urchin marinated in fermented crab sauce, thinly sliced kohlrabi
lightly-cured horse mackerel, fresh ginger, sake lees pickles
Koshihikari rice with green onion dust
This was so best rice I’ve ever had outside of rice at Mori. Superb texture.
At this point, we’re presented with this Wolf Ranch quail which will then be carved up for our next course.
barbecued quail
By far the best cooked quail I’ve ever had. Crispy skin was crisped up by pouring hot oil over them. Incredibly juicy and meaty flesh.
This black truffle sauce with caramelized bamboo shoot and lovage puree is paired with the barbecued quail.
black truffle mantou
Impossibly soft and moist with a hint of black truffle flavor. No mantou I had ever came close to this. Does it get any better than that?
The black truffle mantou is paired with chives and black truffle cream to bolster the black truffle flavor!
Moving on to soup!
double bouillon of quail with mountain yam
I can drink this all day. It was well balanced, savory, and complex. It also had a lot more finesse compared to the double smoked chicken broth I had the night before so my palate wasn’t tired out after a few sips.
On to our final savory course!
scallion and perilla salad
pear kimchi
duo of braised riblet and charcoal-grilled beef rib steak
Perfectly cooked. I wouldn’t have mind if this was A5 Wagyu instead, but I guess you can’t have it all.
omija sorbet, malt rice water, olive oil
winter melon, chrysanthemum flowers and leaves, lightly frozen meringue whipped with cream
In place of the usual petit fours…
fermented sweet rice tea with pinenuts
Super refreshing, light, and delicious
rice ball, glazed walnut, dried persimmon
mint flavored meringue ribbon
This meal was tour de force and possibly the most perfect meal I’ve ever had. In a way, Corey Lee is doing a French interpretation of Chinese/Cantonese and Korean cuisine which is similar to what Thomas Keller did with American food. The texture, mouth feel, balance, and complexity of each bite were superb.
On the other hand, I can easily see how some would be disappointed by Benu’s food. The meal lacked traditional luxury ingredients, with the exception of black truffle, that many high end restaurants use like Osetra caviar, foie gras, and A5 Wagyu. I can also imagine that Benu’s probably quite polarizing for many since a lot of courses are a play on familiar flavors which can be a double edged sword. However, I think everyone should be able to appreciate the sheer amount of techniques in the meal and how incredibly difficult it is to execute it with perfection.
Benu
22 Hawthorne St
San Francisco, CA 94105
I maintain that Manresa, after several visits even after obtaining 3*, has always been comfortably a 2*. Also, lots of the California 1* are very questionable. But then again, I’m not Michelin!
Looks like you were served ~80% of the same dishes we got earlier this year, which is still fine considering how great they were. 
