The Conical Glass: Food, glorious food

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Food, glorious food

I may not be getting a luxury car with a giant red bow on it for Christmas, but I did have one extravagant holiday wish. Ever since it opened a couple of years ago, I've wanted to go to Michael Mina, which has been hailed in some quarters as the best restaurant in San Francisco (it received a two-star rating in the recently published Michelin Guide, one of only four SF establishments to be so honored; only the famous French Laundry up in the wine country scored higher). It's also one of the most expensive, which is really saying something in this pricey town.

Joe was kind enough to book a reservation at MM for our wedding anniversary, so we went last night. The eateries we frequent tend to be more along the lines of our neighborhood Chinese joint and the IKEA cafeteria, so I was pretty nervous that I'd be spotted as a fancy-dining impostor. Joe reminded me that as long as we could pay the tab, we deserved to be there. Happily, our waiter was incredibly nice and helpful and put me at ease; he didn't have a trace of condescension or attitude. He described the two possible methods of ordering: we could either go for the pris fixe menu, or the six-course tasting menu. The pris fixe is almost $50 cheaper per person than the tasting menu, making it the obvious choice for the budget-minded MM diner. We chose the pris fixe.

With the pris fixe, you get to choose three courses: a starter, an entree, and a dessert. And here is where MM's innovation comes into play: each course consists of three different preparations. MM is worth the high price because the food is so incredibly labor-intensive. For instance, I ordered the salad course for my starter, and received a plate divided into three sections. At the very top of the left-hand side was a portion of mixed greens; beneath it were three discs of beet, each about the size of a quarter. One was topped with pomegranate seeds, another with a miniature baked slice of goat cheese. In the middle was a miniature Caesar salad: romaine leaves at the top of the plate, followed by a little mound of parmesan and an artfully curled anchovy. On the right was a pile of watercress; underneath it was a tiny fan of pear slices topped with a pecan, a bit of Gorgonzola, and itsy-bitsy round apple bits that appeared to have been cut from the fruit with the world's smallest melon baller. Each lettuce was mixed with its own subtle dressing. Here is a blurry camera phone pic, taken by Joe, so this is what it looked like from across the table:

Before the first course, we received a complementary amuse-bouche of lobster prepared in three different ways: sashimi, perched on half a cherry tomato; cooked; and a mini-lobster corn dog. (Here's a photo I found on the web -- the preparation pictured on the left was different than what we received, but the corn dog and the sashimi were the same.)

The food was so minimalist I thought I might still be hungry at the end, but the meal was paced in such a way that we weren't even able to polish off all of the ice cream bon-bons we received with our check. One of my big pet peeves with dining out is that the portions are so huge; at MM, you'll never get bored with your food since the different preparations are all so uniquely flavorful.

I had wanted to wait to go to MM until Joe's leg had healed enough to allow him to drive, in case I had a few glasses of wine and wasn't sober enough to get behind the wheel. However, when a single glass of wine costs the same as three or four of the bottles I usually buy at Trader Joe's, I found that I was happy to stick primarily to ice water. (They do serve the free kind of H20, although many people at the tables around us were drinking from super-snazzy-looking bottles of designer water. Personally, I think San Francisco tap water tastes just fine.) I did indulge myself with one glass of white burgundy.

If you are celebrating a special occasion, or (even better) you're in San Francisco and have a generous expense account, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Michael Mina. Those willing to drop a pile o'cash on dinner are in for a memorable and fun dining experience.

posted by 125records @ 10:02 AM

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