Felt motivated to post another recent-ish experience at Benu (after posting my SingleThread experience) for our Anniversary in June
Wife and I have made a visit to Benu every 5 years for our Anniversary, we’ve visited for our 5th, 10th and now our 15th, hence our 3rd visit. Many restaurants come and go, food trends rise others become passe. Same applies for fine dining. Even though we’ve come to love every visit to Benu in the 2 times we’ve visited, times have changed. I’ve noticed it’s easier to get a reservation, it fell off the top 50, it’s 13 years old, change to a “3 course tasting menu”. Honestly some red flags, but we still went forward with our tradition.
I’m happy to report that Benu still has *it*. The food is amazing, if anything it continues to challenge diners with exciting and unique dishes. Even though it’s *only* a 3 course meal, the parade of small bite dishes before the main courses are a collection of greatest hits and experimental dishes, some amazing stuff. The courses rotate through the seasons, but the raw spot prawns was our first selected choice, which was amazing. We then had the turbot and river eel, which were tasty. The final savory we both had the braised beef rib jeon, interesting but the accompanying beef soup was especially texture-wise something other worldly.
I would say that fine dining Korean and Japanese fusion cuisine is a bit played out in recent years. But I will say that Chef Lee’s fusion of Chinese, Korean and Japanese keeps it fresh without getting over played and boring. This is what I felt SingleThread should’ve been.
Other than the food, the experience overall was still phenomenal. The staff went out of their way to recognize our repeat experiences and highlighted dishes that were new and dishes that remain on the menu. Very impressive, they seemed genuine about it too, and didn’t make it seem they were trying too hard. They even made us a chiffon cake, which other tables did not get even though they were celebrating something (not sure if that’s a good thing).
Just love this place, I highly recommend giving this special place a try if you’re ever in SF
by justawineguy