Hi @BradFord,
Good to know they take some dishes out of rotation, but bring it back later.
That Indonesian curry and the duck liver toffee sound amazing! 
We talked more about soccer than anything else. 
Considering Single Thread for my anniversary. Anyone have a more recent experience to share?
Can do LA or SF, so we have a fair amount of choices. My credit card # was outdated in my Resy account and by the time I corrected that, I missed (by 1 minute) being able to secure an N/Naka reservation this morning! Thinking SF area has more âspecial occasionâ type places anyway and Single Thread was very appealing.
Did you end up going to single thread? iâm think of getting tickets and was interesting in your thoughts. Thanks.
I have a reso for this Saturday night. Super excited!
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Interested in reading your thoughts too.
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Hi @djquinnc,
Nice! Me, too! Let us know how it is.
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I ended up not getting tickets yet, as we postponed our Wine Country trip until later this summer. Itâs ok, Iâm not fond of the whole ticket thing, and now I donât mind to wait to see a few more reports before checking it out.
Interested in your report, @djquinnc !
Something Saison related (cross-post from my report back from Chefâs Table at Brooklyn Fare). Comparing the uni toasts.
Saison
âLiquid toastâ of Mendecino uni with Tartine bread soaked in âsoyâ
Brooklyn Fare
Hokkaido bafun uni on brioche toast with preserved truffle
The preserved truffle was maybe unnecessary, IMO. But itâs a great dish anyway. Though it sounds similar to Saisonâs uni âliquid toast,â the two are quite different. At Brooklyn Fare, what you notice is the great combination of the uniâs ethereal sweetness with the briocheâs yeast flavor. Itâs a luxurious bite. At Saison, the proportions are different, and you notice more the contrast in temperature and layers of textures between uni and the rustic, âsoy sauceâ-soaked Tartine bread.
I actually think Saisonâs works better with the Hokkaido bafun uni version - Iâm too lazy to dig up old pics now, but itâs one of those close your eyes bites. That warm toast and cold, velvety uni contrast. Thereâs more bread in proportion, too, so you notice the crisp more.
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Hi @BradFord,
Wow, they both look so great. I loved the Saison Uni Toast (2 servings of it! 
). I hope to try Brooklyn Fare one of these days. Did you think it was worth it?
Iâll definitely return to Chefâs Table at Brooklyn Fare (now in Manhattan) and I consider it worth it for me. âWorth itâ is always subjective, but I liked it a lot, and compared to many other fine dining menus around that price, it compares very favorably in my book. To a certain extent, the flavor combinations may be a bit more tried and true (but not stolid at all like Le Bernardin). However, the dishes are very well executed, and they spoil you with luxury ingredients - we had fluke, bafun uni, a big dayboat scallop, nodoguro, a generous serving of caviar, madai, king crab, uni/foie/abalone risotto, duck, a5 wagyu, and dessert, and the price was all-inclusive. Wine was reasonable. The last time I had a tasting menu with those kind of ingredients was Vintage Caveâs Kazuma, which was just about twice the price. CTBF is a fun, relaxed meal (David Bowie and 'The Stones playing while Iâm eating some grilled madai with chanterelles), a relative âvalueâ compared to some others which have a menu at ~the same price, and a true 3-star, IMO.
Saison and Chefâs Table have their own individual DNA, of course; their respective menus are quite different - even the uni toast dish has a very different take and emphasis. What Saison really has going for them is the live hearth, their own garden, and some brilliant flavor combinations.
Itâs almost Summer - excited to see what they do again with SungoldsâŚand the smoked caviar with corn custard and tomato water gelee was one of my top dishes in years.
Nodding off with some Talisker now, but I could go for some of these:
(biscuits made in the hearth)
and a bowl of this:
(antelope broth with blue sage)
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Thanks @BradFord, I definitely canât wait to try it now.
And whyâd you have to go and remind me about the amazing Biscuits and Antelope Broth at Saison?! 
Now Iâm craving it! Loved those dishes the last time I was there. 
I went to Single Thread a couple months back an really enjoyed it. Perhaps one of my favorite meals in the past few years. Flavor combinations really came through for me. Around that same time I went to Benu and Quince as well. I would say my favorite was Single Thread, followed closely by Benu and then Quince.
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I am heading up to the Sonoma Valley area for work in mid-October. I have always wanted to try Meadowood, but am apprehensive to throw down a ton of cash sight unseen. My mind is vacillating between the shorter bar menu or the regular dining room experience. Wondering what are your thoughts.
I havenât tried the bar menu, actually. I believe it used to be just bar snacks but it looks like thereâs now a 3-4 course option. The bar drinks are quite good at any rate - even some nonalcoholic beverages like âFlavors of Cabernet,â if you want to keep it light.
Iâve done the regular dining room and the Chefâs Counter. Both are excellent. I consider Saison and Meadowood my two favorite high-end places in Northern California (I havenât tried Single Thread yetâŚmaybe some other time). FWIW, we did Meadowood and Manresa on back to back nights and personally my party and I had a strong preference for Meadowood. I also did that back-to-back Manresa and Saison and Saison blew me away. Manresa is still quite good and I know that all 3 kitchens are very talented, that was just my experience with those particular menus (and I understand that each menu changes frequently). I mention that to say that Meadowood has hit all the high points for me and I would want the full experience. Iâm not sure if the bar menu has different portion sizes, but 3-4 of Meadowoodâs tasting menu courses would not fill me at all. A lot of the tasting menu courses are pretty small.
Btw, Meadowood releases reservations for its â12 Days of Christmasâ in December, if collaboration dinners are your thing.
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great report as always @Chowseeker1999. that lobster looks awesome, whatâs that on top of the tail meat?
was the skin edible? it reminds me of the awesome meat fruit i had at dinner by heston blumenthal.
their pricing seems to fluctuated more than any restaurant iâve been to.
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Hi @PorkyBelly,
Thanks. Thank you again for the great recommendation! Itâs so special.
For the Lobster, it was really amazing. What was on top of that? Magic sauce. 
Seriously, I donât know. The server went over all of the condiments and explained most of the dish but I didnât remember if he said what was on top. It added enough savory seasoning (not spicy) to enhance each bite (even without the rest of the condiments), but that 10 Hour Roasted Pineapple was definitely the winner! 
For the Sumo Orange Creamsicle, no the skin wasnât edible. Your dessert at heston blumenthal looks amazing! What was inside?
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Great report, @Chowseeker1999! Yes, Saison is world-class, indeed. One of the very few.
They tweak their sauces here and there, but I know that in the past, they used a homemade âX.O.â style sauce on the lobster. It contained peanuts, so I asked them to omit it. Instead, I was served lobster sashimi with a broth of the shells, meyer lemon, butter, and wakame salt (basically the condiment to one of the renditions of live diamond turbot sashimi). Iâm not sure if the above is the same XO sauce, but it looks similar to me.
Cedric Grolet of Le Meurice is the master pastry chef who does trompe lâoeil fruit. Though, I know that Heston Blummenthal and The Fat Duck have a sterling reputation for not only whimsy but also technique.
Ok, I have to visit Saison again soonâŚ
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That lobster dish is insane. Loved the pineapple sauce that comes with it as well.Usually not a huge fan of uni, or maybe just had a bunch of bad experiences at other places, but the liquid toast at Saison is amazing. Iâve seen them teasing these giant slices of it on IG as wellâŚ
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Hi @BradFord,
Ooh! Homemade X.O. Sauce⌠done with the mastery and care of Saisonâs kitchen / Chef Skenes?! 
That sounds amazing! I think @A5KOBE @JeetKuneBao and our hardcore FTCers would love that.
Thinking back on it, Iâm not sure if that was an X.O. Sauce, but it was so good either way. Looking forward to your next visit (and thank you again for your recommendation that brought me there)!
Hi @SFDiner,
Wow! That looks ridiculous.