Went to Kiln recently during a trip to The Yay Area. Was blown away by this place. Next Michelin guide it should easily get a star. It deserves 2 stars, but y’all know how Michelin rolls. They don’t love letting a restaurant enter the guide with 2 right off the bat, even though it does happen.
Kiln is one of the newest tasting menu spots in San Francisco. Lead by Chef John Wesley, whose resume includes Sons and Daughters and Commis, their menu is informed by French, Japanese and Scandinavian cooking styles. The space they are in is a 1910’s auto repair shop. It’s very minimalist with exposed white walls, huge grey canvases and large round tables with classic white cloth.
The hospitality is incredibly strong here. It reminded me quite a bit of my experience at Reale in Italy. The pacing of the meal was quick. The explanations of each course were taken seriously and were very concise. This meal could have easily taken 4 hours else where, but we were done in around 2 hours. Alanna and I loved that. Sitting around between each course is always a bummer for me and that never happened at Kiln. Another thing to note that I love about this place is that there were snacks woven in and out of the entire meal. Usually a few or even a fleet of small opening bites come at only the beginning of the menu. Here, you open with several snacks, then every few courses you go back to a small bite or 2.
Forgive me if there’s a way to put descriptions on pictures, but I couldn’t figure it out. These descriptions correspond with the order I posted the pictures.
First was potato with Andante Dairy Minuet cheese, lamb heart and malt vinegar. An explosion of rich and acidic flavor that felt like they were trying to make it well known that big and bold is their philosophy.
Then beef tendon with roasted onion and sweet potato. This is early on one of their signature dishes. It has a pork rind vibe happening. They make noodles from sweet potatoes, puff beef tendon by frying them, pulse in a blender to make a crumb, dust the noodles in them, then fry to order. They top with dollops of thickened roasted onion vinegar, dust with dehydrated onion powder and then finish with fried chive blossoms. Wasn’t even near my favorite bite of the night, but it was still incredible. Very fun snack.
Next was shima aji with thinly sliced white asparagus, preserved pine mushroom and spruce. An incredible dish.
Croustade of Sacramento smoked sturgeon, white verjus and fried kombu. Are you even New Nordic if you don’t do a croustade, brah? This bite was explosively flavorful. I mean this in the best way possible, the first flavor comparison that ran through my head was those pickled sausages you buy in the country stores in the south. IYKYK
Maine scallop with plum wood, redbud blossom and peas. This was maybe my favorite dish of the evening. So simple, but the flavors and textures were unreal.
Cornette of grilled beet. Bone marrow, sherry and maple. Having eaten the classic everything bagel cornette the night before at TFL, it was very cool to see what the cornette has become in the hands of young chefs 30 years later the very next night. This was awesome.
Dungeness crab with dill, ossetra caviar and horseradish. The dill and horseradish combo is something we’ve been seeing a fair amount of lately. They didn’t disappoint. This one was another menu highlight.
Portuguese blue lobster with green garlic miso, roasted yeast and pilsner. Perfectly cooked blue lobster with thick pillowy sauce poured over top. Heaven. Bread service comes with the lobster and you definitely want to hang onto this guy for the rest of the savory courses if you can. It’s fermented potato bread with beef dripping and caraway seed. Asked for another one halfway through the following savories because I went a little too hard.
Norwegian mackerel with caramelized cream and pine. This one was a banger. Explosively acidic and rich.
Blue mussel in a rye bun with pickled thinly sliced turnip on top. This is one of those many snacks that kept getting thrown into the mix between savory courses. Fun little surprises
Modesto squab with huckleberry hazelnut and birch. Simple and amazing
California iberico pork with cauliflower and mustard oil. They used this iberico pork in many different dishes throughout the night.
More surprise snacks. Iberico pork cured in juniper. Grass fed retired dairy cow.
Aged ribeye. For this they used the eye of the ribeye and the cap. Never seen this done. Loved it. Served with sweet cream, a fried sweetbread and licorice.
More Andante Farms cheese with perigord truffle and iberico in a tartlet. The savories ended with a snack. Perfect. This bite was amazing and an awesome way to head into dessert.
Broth of smoked pork trotters and koji oil. Lip moisturizing porky goodness.
Started with an olive oil sorbet, bergamot and rose hip.
Next was sourdough custard with cocoa nib.
Then toasted hay ice cream. Might sound a little odd to some, but this was fantastic.
Then to end the meal we had some fun little Mignardise. Hazelnut and white chocolate, elderflower salted butter toffee, a dark beer chocolate and meadowsweet pate de fruit.
Best meal I’ve had in The Bay Area. Michelin will let this place enter the guide with 2 stars if they know what’s good for them. Highly recommend getting into Kiln while the menu is still relatively cheap and it’s easy to book. Curious what other people think who have been.
by EntertainmentUpset49