{"id":229,"date":"2012-12-11T08:20:23","date_gmt":"2012-12-11T08:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raccoonstar.com\/?p=229"},"modified":"2013-04-16T17:43:10","modified_gmt":"2013-04-16T17:43:10","slug":"atelier-crenn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.raccoonstar.com\/?p=229","title":{"rendered":"Atelier Crenn"},"content":{"rendered":"

After reading about coworkers’ glowing recommendations of Atelier Crenn, Shamiq and I ate there this last Saturday. We opted for the shorter 5-course, $95 menu. Overall I found the food satisfying, inventive and well matched.<\/p>\n

I did have a major case of menu-envy as I watched the tables around us enjoy the longer Chefs Grand Tasting Menu ($160). I’d like to go back and try the longer menu since the presentation seemed more whimsical and over-the-top. Four of our five dishes were from the longer tasting though, so I’ll wait till the menu changes, perhaps to spring or summer.<\/p>\n

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Amuse Bouche: White chocolate shell filled with apple cider.
\nI managed to explode the first one on myself, so they brought me a new one. Lesson learned, keep your mouth shut.<\/p>\n

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First course: Grains & Seeds, Dashi, Yuzu Kosho<\/p>\n

I wish I could eat this for breakfast everyday. I found the broth very slightly too salty, but I tipped the bowl away and the mix of grains was both interesting and delicious.<\/p>\n

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A palate cleanser of hibiscus and some sort of sorbet. I don’t remember. :( But it was lightly flavored and I love the flavor of hibiscus.<\/p>\n

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Second Course: The Sea. Grilled shellfish, fish, uni & fennel.<\/p>\n

The seafood was perfectly grilled, the uni was super fresh (none of that hint of sewer) and the fennel was a great pairing.<\/p>\n

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Brioche. I found it lacking. The crust was a bit… mealy, I’m not sure why. It was warm and soft, so not too many complaints, but I thought it was the weakest part of the meal.<\/p>\n

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Course Three: Walk in the forest<\/p>\n

A mix of mushrooms, pine\u00a0meringue & lots of other subtle but unique flavors. Most interesting was that it was a horizontal plate, and the flavoring of the mushrooms seemed to go from savory to sweet from one end to the other.<\/p>\n

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The other side of the walk in the forest. One mushroom tasted like steak.<\/p>\n

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Course Four: Ocean & Land<\/p>\n

Quail, squid ink, black sesame and sea grapes. The quail was perfectly cooked, medium rare with crisp skin and appropriate garnishes. The sea grapes were a novel and interesting touch,\u00a0textually… but they don’t seem to taste like much.<\/p>\n

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Our Cheese course, a $20 add-on. Three cheeses, walnut bread and wild flower honey.<\/p>\n

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Course Five: Betterave (Dessert)<\/p>\n

I’m not sure why the course is called that on the menu… But, beet sorbet, grains (a nice book ending touch with the first course) and a chocolate beet root. I love beets. I want more beet sorbet. But less chocolate roots.<\/p>\n

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Mignardises: Strawberry gelee, some sort of citrus marshmallow and a salted caramel that didn’t fit my Santa-Gnome theme so I didn’t include it in the picture.<\/p>\n

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And an obligatory slightly creepy photo of Crenn from a distance. She did stop by our table twice, make small talk with us and was really nice (and told us all to eat more).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After reading about coworkers’ glowing recommendations of Atelier Crenn, Shamiq and I ate there this last Saturday. We opted for the shorter 5-course, $95 menu. Overall I found the food satisfying, inventive and well matched. I did have a major case of menu-envy as I watched the tables around us enjoy the longer Chefs Grand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[22,21],"class_list":["post-229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food","tag-dinner","tag-san-francisco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raccoonstar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raccoonstar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raccoonstar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raccoonstar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raccoonstar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=229"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.raccoonstar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":614,"href":"http:\/\/www.raccoonstar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229\/revisions\/614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raccoonstar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raccoonstar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raccoonstar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}