Dinner @ Sons & Daughters in San Francisco, CA

Over four years ago I was able to hit up Sons & Daughters in San Francisco.  Some friends wanted to hit up the restaurant (partially based on my recommendation :-) and wanted to see if I wanted to come along.  I couldn't say no.

When I first went, the restaurant was amongst the cheapeast tasting menus in San Francisco, I believe $105 per person.  It's a bit more expensive now, clocking in at $145 a person.  However, the menu is a few additional courses with the ability to pay for an extra supplemental course.

So here's what we had tonight.

1) Ratatouille with grilled focaccia and basil

First up was this amuse bouche of foccacia bread toasted with some basil cream kid of sauce.  It was pretty good.  My friend joked if the above had edible rocks.  They were not edible :-)

2) Multigrain sourdough with cultured butter

Not much to say here, good.

3) Caviar d'Aquitaine Perlita with chicken stewed in chase-peanut milk and crispy chicken skin

So this caviar course was the supplemental course.  It's probably the most interesting caviar course I've ever had.  So the caviar is on the left, on top of stewed chicken, surrounded by chicken skin "crackers".  To the right is some nuts/herbs.  I can't remember the sauce though.

Overall, the course was delicious, the flavors were really good, but I think it drowned out the caviar a bit.  I did find the chicken skin "crackers" really interesting.

4) Chilled melon soup with horseradish cracker and sea urchin

When the staff first mentioned this first, my thought was "melon and uni?".  It didn't seem to match, until I thought of melon and prosciutto, which somehow matches.  Overall, not a bad dish, but not my favorite. I think it was hard for me to process the combination.

5) Halibut crudo with August Glo yellow nectarines, poppy seed and almond

This was delicious, loved the poppy seed sauce on top of the crudo.

6) Deconstructed samosa with warm potates and nepitella

This wasn't considered an official course, but a random snack.  It tasted just like a samosa.  I enjoyed the texture of the fried dough ribbons on the bottom.

7) Summer squash with raspberry relish, Brokaw avocado and tamarind

I think this was sort of like a fancy plated squash salad, with squash on the bottom, then some raspberry sauce, then avocado on top, and some fried squash blossoms to boot.  Overall pretty good, but I felt the raspberry drowned the other flavors a little bit.  I would love to see these flavors together in a bigger entree-ish salad somewhere.

8) Octopus katsu with tomato-bean puree and borlotti lomi-lomi

I wasn't sure what lomi-lomi was, but it's apparently a Hawaiian salad made with salmon and tomatoes.  Overall pretty good, although I might be biased because I recently had some incredible octopus at Mourad and Roister.  Any octopus dish right now would have had a hard time matching those dishes.

9) Tamal of king salmon with smoked trout roe and corn succotash

This was possibly my favorite course of the night.  Perfectly cooked salmon in a sauce of corn, trout roe, and (IIRC) clams.  I loved the crisped salmon skin on top.

10) Egg salad toast

So instead of butter, they presented us this egg salad made with quail eggs to be used on top of our next bread course.  Surprisingly simple, yet delicious and a nice contrast to the typical bread & butter.

11) Hibachi-grilled quail with 'cang ying tou', five spice seeds and fermented soy bean

Another contender for best course of the night.  The quail was stuffed with rissoto and had an incredible rub on the outside.  I didn't pick up what the greens were, but I think it could have been lightly fried (or baked) kale.  It sat on a bed of "cang ying tou", which is a pork and (I think) chive Chinese dish.  Overall, delicious.

12) Huckleberry sorbet with spiced granola and buckwheat custard
 

I love sorbet, and as far as palette cleansers go, this was delicious.

13) Peaches and lavender cream with blackberry oolong tea

The last time I was at Sons & Daughters, their dessert was amongst my favorite of all time.  This one missed the mark for me, but it may be due to my personal tastes.  You see the compressed peaches on top and the white is the lavendar cream. The bottom layer (which I assume was the blackberry oolong tea) was an icy popsicle like layer.  I would have much preferred a cake-like layer, as the lavender cream and icy cold of the bottom layer just wasn't to my taste.

14) Financier with strawberries and white chocolate

Finally, our mignardise was this cake with white chocolate and strawberries on top (I assume macerated and cut up).  Tasty, although I thought it was interesting they offered only this one mignardise.  It ends up it was because ...

16) Duo of chocolate truffles

We were given this box of chocolates to go.  The one on the left was caramel, but can't remember what the one on the right was.

Overall a good second meal at Sons & Daughters.  I think it's interesting to compare and contrast this meal with the one I had in 2015.

In 2015, I think that Sons & Daughters presented a very good meal that was a bit more traditional American in its ingredients and flavors.

This meal, perhaps as a sign of the times, was clearly aiming to be more experimental and international.  The experimental was clear in the chicken skin crackers, egg salad on toast, and popsicle in the dessert.  The international flavors were clearly there: samosa -> Indian, katsu -> Japanese, cang ying tou -> Chinese, tamal -> Mexican.  I think it leads to a meal that had a few non-hits along the way (I wouldn't call them misses), but overall makes the meal more interesting along the way.  With those changes, I can see myself coming back to see what they come up with in a few years.

Dinner @ Roister in Chicago, IL

Me and my +1 were going out to a show in Chicago and needed to get dinner before hand.  Since we were on a bit of a schedule, this meant we couldn't go to a longer tasting menu and had to find something a bit more casual.  My first thought was to hit up the famed Girl & the Goat, but reservations were already taken (> 1 month ahead too).

I considered a few other options, including The Publican, but eventually settled on Roister.  It's the casual restaurant by the folks from Alinea.  So I figured why not.

The restaurant offers a very simple a la carte menu and concentrates on many items being grilled in their wood fire oven.  Here's what we ended up getting.

1) Hearth Grilled Shishito Peppers - yuzu, togarashi aioli

We got this starter almost exclusively because we regularly bake sweet peppers when they are in season.  When I bit into these peppers, all I could think is "I can't do this at home".  Throwing these onto their wood fired oven to get that really quick char makes these really good.  Add into the aioli and lime, really good.

2) Mediterranean Octopus - fennel, nicoise olive, aleppo chili

This may be the best octopus I've ever had, but with an exception.  I assume many other gourmet restaurants sous vide their octopus or braise it in some slow cooked way to make it so tender.  It's not clear to me if Roister does that beforehand and chars it at the end, or cooks it all the way on the oven, but the char from the oven gives the octopus that extra flavor.  It was still very tender and delicious along with the sauce.

The exception to everything I said above is that parts of the octopus were overly charred, especially the "skinny" parts of the tentacle.  Still an overall net win, but it is what it is.

3) Chicken & Chamomile - braised, poached, fried with sunchoke

I did a bad job photographing this dish.  This dish comes with chicken prepared two ways.  One is the fried chicken thighs you see in the front.  The other way is the grilled chicken breast underneath.  As you can see, it's accompanied by some hot sauce and gravy.

To be honest, I was a bit skeptical of ordering this dish because, well, it's fried chicken and grilled chicken.  However, the dish is highly recommended per reviews online.  I will say that the fried chicken did not disappoint.  I don't know that it was about it, the crust, the juiciness of the chicken, or the gravy, it was just delicious.

The grilled chicken breast was also very good, although a slight notch below the excellent roast chicken I recently had at Mourad.  The charred skin was delicious, but it just didn't quite have the same juiciness as the one at Mourad or the fried chicken.

Overall, I loved the gravy and was a little meh on the hot sauce, but I'm not a big fan of hot sauce overall.  My +1 enjoyed the hot sauce more.

4) Grilled Asparagus - jambon de bayonne, meyer lemon vinaigrette

Similar to the shishito peppers above, these are simply excellent asparagus.  The vinaigrette really stood out and my immediate thought is "how come my grilled asparagus doesn't come out like this".  Are they picked at their peak?  Is it simply shaving the fibrous parts on the ends?  The vinaigrette brings out some flavor?  I have no idea, but it was really good.

5) Hearth Roasted Banana Split - passionfruit, macadamia nut, caramelized white chocolate

Finally, we decided to share this banana split.  It comes with a brown butter ice cream, some dried banana chips, roasted honeycomb, macadamia nuts, and chocolate pearls.  I'm mildly allergic to tropical fruit, so the passion fruit was not included.  I really liked the roasted banana, giving it this creaminess to go along with the ice cream.  I felt there were too many crunchy textures going on (honeycumb, banana chips, nuts), but perhaps that's just my quirky tastes.  My +1 loved it.

Overall, I really enjoyed Roister.  Nothing here is going to wow you with originality, but you can really taste how many dishes are just elevated and better than your average restaurant.

Dinner @ Mourad in San Francisco, CA

A couple of years ago I was able to hit up Mourad for a friend's birthday.  I was able to dine there recently for another birthday, this time for 6 people.  So we ended up ordering a lot more food than last time.

One of the coolest things they have at Mourad is a family style meal called "la'acha".  Basically, it's a large family style protein served with sides.  For 6 people we ordered two of them with a bunch of appetizers to share.  It ended up being way more food than we could eat.  This is an overview of what we had.

1) Eggplant - cucumber, oregano, pepper, flatbread, za'atar, pine nuts

We ordered two of these appetizers for the group.  The flatbread was particularly delicious, which I used the soak up all of the pureed eggplant from the main dish at the top.

2) Duck liver - citrus, ginger, rye, pistachio

We got just one duck liver appetizer, which was perfect for 6 people, as each person could get about 1/2 of a scoop of duck liver on a piece of bread.  Overall, quite good, although I felt the liver overpowered some of the other ingredients.

3) Octopus - brussel sprouts, cauliflower, mustard, preserved lemon

We ordered two of this appetizer for the group as well.  I didn't catch what the server said about this dish, but I believe the sauce in the middle was a mushroom ju and the white sauce is a cauliflower puree of some sort.  The octopus was incredibly tender and flavorful.  Along with all of the sauces and the perfectly charred brussel sprouts, my favorite appetizer of the night.

4) Lamb Shoulder - tangia, moyer prune, cumin, almond, chicories

The first la'acha main dish we got was the lamb shoulder, which you can see in the middle nestled on some seasonal greens.  You can also see almonds and the moyer prunes (covered in sesames) nestled on top too.  It's hard to see how much food there is since a lot of it is covered it, but it was a sizable portion for 6 people and probably would have been perfect for 4 people.

The lamb was really tender and not to "lamby" compared to the lamb I normally cook up from Costco.  Overall really good.

5) Chicken - preserved lemon, gaeta olive, cipollini, marash pepper

The second la'ache main we ordered was the chicken.  Normally, I'm not a big fan of white meat on chicken.  It's typially dry and (IMO) just not that tasty. 

I took one for the team and grabbed some chicken breast so that everyone else get get more dark meat.  It's probably the best chicken breast I've ever eaten in my life.  It was juicy, not dry in any way, and just delicious with whatever glaze they put on top.  When I told everyone at the table how good the chicken was, they didn't believe me at first.  In fact, I might have preferred the white meat to the dark meat in this case.

It's worth noting at this point that there was no way the 6 of us were going to finish these two la'achas.  Each was probably the perfect size for 4 people, and with the appetizers, we had left overs.

6A) Kale - olive, harissa

6B) Potato - hollandaise, preserved lemon, tarragon

6C) COUSCOUS - brown butter

6D) Heirloom beans - shakshuka, feta, sumac

The la'acha comes with the 4 sides above.  I will repeat a comment my friend told me from the last time I ate here.  The sides are all relatively plain ingredients, but all the little additions (hollandaise on the potatoes, preserved lemon the kale, feta on the beans, etc.) everything is just a little tastier than you would expect.  Of all of the above, my favorite was the potatoes.

7) Honey & Almond - beeswax, orange blossom

We were completely stuffed after ordering too much food.  Since it was a birthday dinner, we got one dessert for everyone to share and take a bite of.  The waiter recommended this dish.  As far as I can tell, it's a honey flavored ice cream-ish thing (searching online it might be sabayon), with almond granita, and some crispy bits on top.  Overall, I loved the flavors in this dish, really good.

8) Sesame fudge

Finally we got some mignardise (I took the picture after many pieces were yoinked), which was some sesame fudge bites.  After biting into it, it immediately reminded me of several Chinese flavored desserts that have sesame flavor.  Overall, really really good.

Overall, a great meal at Mourad.  I can't recommend it enough.  The price is not too exorbitant given the quality of the food that you're getting, especially when getting the la'acha family meals.

Dining @ Rich Table in San Francisco, CA

I first heard of Rich Table around 6 years ago when the San Francisco Chronicle pondered why they weren't given a Michelin Star.  Well, they eventually captured a Michelin Star in 2017 after many years of praise locally.  Reservations are hard to come, as Rich Table has regularly been considered one of the best gourmet-casual spots in the city.  But I was finally able to snag a reservation for a Saturday at a time I could make.

Rich Table's menu is divided into four chunks: snacks, appetizers, pastas, and mains.  The pasta is said to be "primi" sized and not really entree sized.  There's also a chef's picks for $99 per person for about 6 courses.  The chef's pick apparently goes with both menu and off menu dishes.  If you go the a la carte route, the waitress recommended 2-3 snacks, and an appetizer, pasta, and main to share.  We followed her suggestions for the a la carte route, and here's what we got.

1) Sardine Chip - horseradish creme fraiche

This is apparently a signature snack from Rich Table and it's priced $2.50 per chip, which you can see is a chunk of sardine weaved into a potato chip.  We didn't know how many to order and just ordered 4 for the two of us.  I think that was the right amount, as 1 each would have been too little.

Overall quite tasty.  The horseradish creme fraiche was delicious, with a bit of kick, but not so strong as overtake the dish (e.g. like horseradish wasabi can).  I would love the horseradish creme fraiche as a general dip for chips.

2) burrata, bbq leek, romesco, everything crumble

This dish was the appetizer that we ordered, the restaurant brought all the snacks and appetizers out at the same time.  I had expected the dish to be more "balanced", like a salad, but the dish was mostly burrata.  But this ended up not being an issue, because the burrata was delicious.  I can't remember having a burrata that was quite light in this flavor and creamy as well.  I think I would have enjoyed it paired in a typical salad instead of with roasted leeks though.

3) Dried Porcini Doughnuts - raclette

This is apparently another semi-well known snack from this restaurant.  Doughnuts, lightly sprinkled with dried porcini powder, which you can dip into melted raclette cheese which you can you on the right.  Overall, lots of umami in this dish.  There are 5 small doughnuts served, which maybe is a tad high for 2 people.  It would be better for this to be ordered in a group.

4) aged beef wonton - chili oil, sesame

The wontons were listed at $5 each, so I didn't quite know what to expect.  I had expected them to be huge, but these were more medium sized.  Overall tasty, with a lot of umami from the chili paste on top.  The dumpling skins were particularly good, chewy but not too thick.  Good, but I'm not sure these were worth $5 a piece.

5) tonnarelli, sea urchin cacio e pepe, idiazabal

Other than the fact that this was a pasta dish with sea urchin, I had no idea what "cacio e pepe" or "idiazabal" was.  Well, the former is a type of pasta and the latter is a type of cheese.  Overall, really good dish, creamy, rich, with the pasta perfectly al dente.  I appreciated the fact that the dish was a "primi" size portion of pasta, and not some gigantic pasta dish.  Otherwise we wouldn't have been able to eat ...

6) 21 day aged ribeye, RT "Poutine"

So we picked this entree somewhat at random, just b/c we hadn't had a steak in awhile.  It was topped with the restaurant's version of poutine.  You can clearly see the gravy sauce, but there are pieces of fries on top with cheese and some vegetable (perhaps a swiss chard or kale).  I thought the topping of the poutine was an interesting choice.  I actually enjoyed eating the poutine a bit by itself, b/c it was really good with perfectly crisp fries.

But in combination with the steak, I'm not really sure I enjoyed it that much.  I should say the cheese as a sauce for the steak was good but was a bit perplexed by the combo.  The steak was cooked a perfect medium.

I should mention that this steak was gigantic.  I think we were expecting around a 8-10 oz steak to share, but this was more like a 14-16 oz.  If it were a steak by itself, that'd be one thing, but with all the fries on top, it was more food than we expected.

7) Coconut Cake - lime curd, brown butter ice cream

Due to the gigantic steak, we decided to just share one dessert.  Given it was cold and raining this day, we rejected several of the other "cold" desserts and went with this coconut cake b/c we figured it was the least cold dessert.  This cake was delicious, which sprinkles of coconut, frosting, and lime curd dotted all around.  I didn't think the brown butter ice cream had quite the flavor I was hoping for.

Overall, a great meal.  We put the meal on a similar level of Aster and Al's Place amongst the city's gourmet-casual dining spots.

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Dining @ Trestle in San Francisco, CA

About two years ago I dined at Trestle and loved it.  For a very affordable price (nowadays $38 dollars), you can get a good three course price fixe meal.  For an extra $10 you an add an additional pasta course.  For San Francisco, it's a great deal for a meal.  It's regularly been listed in Michelin's Bib Gourmand listings for years and the San Francisco chronicle's top 100 restaurants list.

Here's what we had this time around.  It's worth noting that you can request some bread, but we had a late lunch and elected not to have any.

1A) Leek & Fennel Soup - Fingerling Potato, Black Pepper Crème Fraîche, Caviar

1B) Pear & Chicory Salad - Guava, Coriander-Lime Yogurt, Pecans, Ginger Vinaigrette

I had the soup on the top while my +1 had to the salad on the bottom.  The soup was rich, hearty, and delicious.  There were potatoes, creme fraiche, and caviar in the soup.  My assumption is that potato was used as the thickener for the soup as well.

Unfortunately, I can't comment on the salad as I didn't try it because I'm allergic to guava.

2) Garganelli Pasta & Shrimp - Bottarga, Spicy Tomato, Basil, Caper

Not much to really say about this dish, as it was good.  The pasta was perfectly al dente.

3A) Ginger-Scallion Crusted Salmon - Swiss Chard, Shiitake Mushroom, Huckleberries, Butternut Squash

3B) Pork Loin - Persimmon, Braised Savoy Cabbage, Mustard Jus

I had the salmon on top while my +1 had the pork loin below.  Just like my last visit to Trestle, the salmon was absolutely amazing.  It was barely raw in the middle and perfectly soft.  The ginger / scallion crust was crisp and added a good hit of flavor in the middle of bites.  This is despite the fact I'm not a big fan of salmon.  (Although, at some point, I'm going to have to realize that my general dislike of salmon may simply be that I need to have really good salmon more times.)

Of the few bites of pork loin i tried from my +1s, it was also quite good, although not quite as good as the pork loin I had from a recent trip to aina.

4A) Anson Mills Polenta Cake - Kaffir Lime, Satsuma Mandarins, Meyer Lemon

4B) Milk Chocolate Custard - Pomegranate, Pinenuts, Kabocha Squash

I had never had polenta as a dessert before, but this the polenta cake was delicious.  I'm having trouble describing the texture, but it was certainly something I hadn't had in a dessert before.  Along was the citrus sauce and orange chunks on the side, it was delicious.  My immediate thought was I had to try and bake this at home.

The milk chocolate custard below was also good, although I felt it was a bit rich after a few bites.

Overall, another great meal at Trestle.  Can't wait to hit it up again.  It's worth noting that we were in and out of Trestle in about 1.5 hours.  So it's a pretty quick meal as well.

Dining @ Mingles in Seoul, Korea

While in Seoul we wanted to go on a food adventure. Unlike Hong Kong (but similar to Tokyo), it seemed to be harder for a non-local to get reservations.  While its not surprising to find restaurants without English on their website, I found it even more surprising that a nice chunk of restaurants didn't even have websites.

So with some English and minimally e-mail reservations a requirement, as well as getting a meal that is Korean or Korean fusion (i.e. no pure Japanese, Chinese, or European food),  I eventually got reservations @ Mingles.

Mingles is one of the most talked about restaurants in Seoul and listed on pretty much all of the "best restaurants in Seoul" lists I found.  At the time of this writing, they're listed as the #11th best restaurant in Asia on the Top 50 Asia list, are #89 on the Overall Top 50 list in 2017, and got 1 Michelin Star.

For anyone who may be wondering how I got reservations, I e-mailed Mingles via the e-mail address on their website.  They take reservations 1 month ahead of date on the 1st of the month (i.e. for a June 10th reservation, you can e-mail them on May 1st).  From what I read online, reservations can be hard, so you should e-mail them early.  There's a $100 USD deposit via Paypal for reservations.  You are refunded this deposit when you show up.  In addition, about 48 hours ahead of your reservation, you have to e-mail them to let them know you're coming (i.e. b/c you probably don't have a local phone number for them to re-verify the reservation).

The menu at Mingles is a set tasting menu with a few options for the main and dessert.  There are also some additional courses you could pay more to simply add on.  I wanted to try the extra courses but wasn't sure if it would be too much food.  The waiter recommended we share these additional courses so as to not get too stuffed.  Of the extras, there was 1 consomme / vegetable dish, 1 noodle dish, and 1 broth / noodle dish.  We ordered the first two to avoid too much cross over (i.e. not two soups, not two noodles).  But I think we could have ordered all three and still not left overly stuffed.

Here's what we got.

1) Amuse #1

The first amuse course we got was beef tartare.  It was set in between two different seaweed crackers, one sweetened and one not.  A good amuse, a nice texture difference and the sweetness from the second seaweed didn't overpower.

2) Amuse #2

 

The next set of amuse dishes started off with a corn soup, with crab and some type of vegetable.  I'm not sure what kind of vegetable it was, but I really enjoyed it.

The tuna carpaccio came with some seaweed paste and some pickled vegetable.
I really enjoyed the tuna carpaccio.  I'm not sure what type of tuna this was, but it was delicious with the seaweed paste.

3) Summer - Summer clam carpaccio, seasonal herb pesto, asparagus

This was the first official course on the menu, with clam underneath this pile of asparagus.  The staff said the pesto was made with some korean herb that I don't know.  Overall, tasty and a good refreshing dish.

4) Zucchini - Zucchini Seon, Zucchini consomme

This dish was one of the two extra courses we ordered.  It's small enough that we probably should have both gotten one instead of sharing it.  It's some cleverly plated zucchini (two types) in a consomme of zucchini and pumpkin.  Good and light.

5) Abalone - steamed abalone with dashima, napa cabbage soon, and zepi broth

Next up we have this abalone steamed in kelp, nestled on top of some cabbage in a broth.  I'm not sure what a "soon" is and what "zepi" is.  Some minimal online Googling has not gotten me far.  I will say that the dish was delicious.  The broth definitely had some flavor that was wonderful, but I was not familiar with.

Included in this dish was some rice cakes to absorb the broth up when we were done.  The rice cakes were also stuffed with abalone and shrimp.

6) Jeju Island - fresh seafood & zucchini flower from jeju island

So this fish was apparently croaker, along with some bamboo, a stuffed zucchini flower (the staff said stuffed with shrimp and pumpkin), and beneath this all was some anchovy risotto.  Overall, the fish was delicious but I especially loved the risotto.  There were little fruit chunks in the risotto that gave it a contrasting texture and flavor I really enjoyed compared to most risotto.

7) Fish Mandu - mingles fish mandu that is reinterpreted Korean court food

Another great dish, the fish was flavorful and stuffed with (I believe) zucchini and shrimp.  To the right is white asparagus and based on the taste, I think the broth is clam or oyster based (although probably has some fish in there too).

8) Jang Noodle - squid ink & seaweed jang sauce, seasonal sea food and mingle's style pasta

This was our second extra course of the night, so we shared this semi-large dish.

This was delicious, probably my favorite of the night.  These noodles were delicious, with good texture, and far better than the typical trash squid ink noodles I've eaten.  The seaweed jang added some good umami flavor.  On top is lobster and uni.  The lobster was amazingly tender, I'm not sure what they did to manipulate the lobster to give it that tenderness of if its some variant lobster breed in Korea.

9) Egg Custard

This is apparently a signature dish from the restaurant.  I missed the details the staff said when describing the dish.  I picked up truffle while eating it.  Online, various ingredients are listed, it might be the case that this dish is altered depending on the season.  There were some crunch bits at the bottom, that might have been chorizo.

I was a little surprised when I dug into the egg, as the white above is mostly foam.  I was expecting something "thicker", so I think I messed up and didn't quite collect all of the flavors at the same time.  Some good flavor here, but the foam sort of threw me off.

10A) Lobster - Organic Vegetables from Junhyuk's Farm, egg yolk-doenjang sauce

So I missed a lot of the details the staff said when they brought out the dish, so I'm not sure what the sauce in the middle was.  But going off the menu, it's a combo of egg yolk with doenjang, a fermented bean paste.  Regardless, it was tasty.  The lobster was tender and not as chewy as I'm normally used to, although had more chew than the lobster in the jang noodles above.  Unsure if that's due to the cooking technique or a different lobster type.  Either way, very good.  Off to the upper left is a whole bunch of squash, tomato, and something I'm unsure of.  It looks like leek, but had a starchy texture.  Perhaps some potato or yam that was put into a swirl.

10B) Korean Beef - Charcoal grilled 1++Striploin with soy sauce

My +1 got the steak and of the few pieces I tasted, it was absolutely amazing.  I don't know what cow this came from, it wasn't wagyu / kobe, but it was incredible.  The sauce was made with soy sauce, citrus, and truffle, although I don't know what the white stuff in the middle is.  There's also some potato and carrot.

11) Vegetable - Cold soy bean soup, seaweed noodle & tomato tart

Next up we had a (I think) traditional soy bean soup that had seaweed noodles and some other vegetables in it (I recall cucumber and a lima-bean-ish bean).  I tried cold soy bean soup for the first time during my trip to Korea, and this was probably the second time I ever had it in my life, so it's a little hard to judge.  It tasted fine I guess.

The tomato tart apparently had tofu in it as well, but we couldn't quite pick it up.  We were wondering if it was not what we thought of tofu, but some alternate soy product.  Overall, pretty good.

13) Fruit / Palatte Cleanser

This was brought out as (what I assume) was a palate cleanser of sorts before dessert.  It's a cherry and what I believe is called "mountain strawberry", although it looks more like a raspberry.

14A) Jang Trio - Doen-Jang creme brulee, gan-jang pecan, gochu-jang blackrice, vanilla ice cream, whisky foam

So I had to look a lot of this stuff up, doenjang is a soybean paste, ganjang is soy sauce, and gochujang is red chili paste.  I guess the ganjang was used to marinated the pecans and the gochujang was used to flavor the rice above.  Included on top were also the ice cream and whisky foam.

While I have little knowledge of "jang", I loved this dessert.  All the different textures and flavors mixed together were wonderful, the ice cream being thick, the whisky foam being foamy, the crunch of the brulee at the bottom, and all the rice and pecan textures.  Just delicious, it'll definitely crack my top ten desserts of all time.

14B) Summer Citrus - hallabong (jeju orange) sorbet, mango, orange, lemon basil compote, creme anglaise

So I can't comment on this dish because I didn't try it b/c of my tropical fruit allergy.  My +1 said she loved this dessert.  She said the sorbet was more foam-ish than sorbet-ish.

15) Sweets

Finally the mignardise.  Some cookies at the top, some type of root flavored jelly at the left (Korean ingredient I'm not familiar with), and some sesame cookies on the right.  They also served us tea as part of the meal, which I won't bother to post a picture of.

Overall, this meal was wonderful and I can understand why it's ranked so highly.  This reminded me a lot of my meals at Benu and VEA, a French / Western styled meal with strong Asian influence, in this case specifically Korean influences.

Unlike those other meals, I was not as familiar with Korean food or Korean ingredients and did not get as much emotionally out of this meal.  Minimally I didn't know a number of ingredients, and without the Korean cuisine knowledge base, it's hard to know where some of the dishes/ingredients/reinterpretations are coming from (e.g. the fish mandu or the soy bean soup).  If you read the details in my pictures, you can tell I missed a lot.  Perhaps the next time I visit Seoul, I'll be more prepared and can appreciate the cuisine far more.

It's worth noting the price of the meal as well.  In USD, this meal would be a little under $300 for two people if no extras and no drinks were ordered.  That's a pretty good price given this restaurant's reputation.  Even with the additional supplements we paid (two extra shared courses, lobster supplement, beef supplement), the price still came to about $335 USD without drinks.