Michael Mina San Francisco
written by John Chow
Last night, Sarah and I were went to dinner at Michael Mina with Allen Young and his wife. Allen is a long time reader and when he heard that I was coming to San Fran for Ad:Tech, he rung me up and offered the invite to what is arguably the best restaurant in all of San Francisco, if not the entire United States.
Michael Mini is one of the biggest names in the fine dining world. His flagship Michael Mina restaurant in the historic St. Francis hotel is the very definition of high end dining at its very best. The room is a huge space that features dramatic, soaring, 20-foot Ionic columns. Think grand hotel lobby and you’ll get the idea.
Michael Mina’s signature technique is preparing each dish three ways. One luxe ingredient is prepared three different ways and presented in concert on a specially designed plate. Presentation is right up there with Toronto’s Susur Lee. I would rank Michael Mina among the top five best restaurants I’ve ever dined at.
Dayboat Scallops - Spring Vegetables
- English peas, Nantes carrots, onion soubise
- Fingerling potato, young leeks, black truffle
- Fava beans, applewood smoked bacon, pork jus
Hudson Valley Foie Gras - Hot to Cold
- Huckleberry gastrique, Belgian endive - seared
- Pickled strawberries, oat streusle - “Chuad Froid”
- Poached rhubarb, pistachio crumble - terrine
Premium Beef Tasting
- Grass-fed rib-eye, creamed spinach, sauce au poivre
- American Kobe short rib, horseradish whipped potatoes, natural jus
- Japanese Kobe sirloin, pickled mushrooms, bordelaise vinaigrette
This was a standout dish. The rib-eye was so tender, but then you bite into the American Kobe short rib and it was even more tender! Just when you thought it couldn’t get more tender than that, you bite into the real Japanese Kobe sirloin and oh man! It literally melts in your mouth.
Alaskan Halibut - Salted, Poached, Seared
- Brandade, haricot vert nicoise olives
- Noisette, spring garlic, Serrano ham
- Seared, Razor clams, chowder sauce
Chocolate
- White chocolate rose panna cotta, hibiscus, almond
- S’more, saffron marshmallow, pistachio puree
- Chocolate ice cream, lavender, shortbread
Artisan Cheeses
- Haystack peak - blood orange, yellow beet
- Malvarosa - dried fig, red onion marmalade
- Pleasant Ridge Reserve - Kalamata olive, pomegranate
I wan to thank Allen for the inviting us to dinner with him and his lovely wife. We had a great time and I look forwarding to taking them out when they visit Vancouver.
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(7 votes, average: 3.43 out of 5)
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Just could be… Though I’ve never been to San Fran, it looks not only delicious but artistic
I certainly went to SF, but never ate food like THAT!… The hotel we stayed in made us eat breakfast in the foyer during January… it was COLD! And rude of them…! I think it was Holiday Inn, but I can’t remember. I should have complained, but I would not hesitate to complain now.
That dinner is absolutely amazing.
Why did you eat at the hotel if you didn’t like the food they can’t force you to eat there.
Man, those desserts are looking delicious!
i am getting hungry too!
I wonder if you have to take notes at a dinner like this John. How can you remember everything you ate, and then be able to spell it.
I don’t take notes. To remember the menu, just take a picture of it.
I guess that would work, duh, didn’t think of that.
I would hate to eat it! It looks like they put a lot of effort into presentation. If they spend that much time on presentation, I am sure the food is unbelievable! John, any recommendations or favorite restaurants in Austin(assuming you have been down here)?
If only John is single
The” Chocolate ice cream, lavender, shortbread” on the vid does not look too attractive.
http://www.swearpidia.com
Chow I hope the steaks were cheap. ….
Grain fed beef is the top price and tenderness on the market…
Several years back I ran a chain of service station that had kitchens and a full menu.. The Thursday $3.99 special was char grilled rib-eyes with fries, salad dessert and drink. The steaks were grass fed .99 to 1.99 lb wholesale. Grass fed …..LOL that’s funny at a high end restaurant.
you always take good pictures from the food… delicious
lovely
OK.. that does it. No more no more of the image.. i can’t stand it anymore, those food on the image are look too delicious until i am hungry now. Get me some of those dishes chow. Please
The fine diners seem to be more interested in setting up the decoration of the dishes than its taste.
Triplets of everything looks cool
double that.
http://www.swearpidia.com
4 times better
[...] Mina for its excellent food. If you want to see more pictures of our meal, check out John’s review. We had a great time with John and Sarah and look forward to trying some fine dining in Vancouver [...]
The pickled strawberries minus the oats looks good.
The meat also looks great. I haven’t had steak in so long.
Hi John,
I have been following your blog since you launched it. Not sure if you have been following mine at http://blog.mindvalleylabs.com. I will be in Vancouver in about a month and would love to catch up.
Mike
Co-Founder - MindValley
Being famous sure has its advantage.
It smells delicious!
Not only smells it also tastes
John, with all the great food you have been eating lately you are going to get fat!
I’m just jealous I guess.
The question is “How much John Eat from those dishes”? If you see those dishes are too small
I still wonuldn’t mind a taste!
I don’t subscribe to this for food reviews. I never read food reviews.
I feel I have wasted almost a full minute of my time looking at this.
Wow! You could have stopped before you started! You mean yo could’t figure out it was a food review at first glance?
John should become the Shoemoney of the past. Does anyone remember how fat Jeremy was before?
lol yeah I do … sad john’s wife is not a doctor so he won’t be able to get skinny.
no…………lure us with food again……….hahahaha
And again quite not bad pictures
The food looks nice, looks like when i visit San Francisco i’m going to dine there
Once again, quite the presentation there. Everything looks great!
Looks good but small portions
[...] fascinating nobody cares and we all know he really wants a Quarter Pounder but instead eats this horrible food that I pretend to like so I can look snobby [...]
John - looks like a great time. Next time you’re in LA let me know and I’ll take you out to dinner. There’s more than a few killer places here in LA, too.
Absolutely amazing post again, John. Very interesting and useful. Glad to see what you had for dinner. If you want a few pointers, come on over to JakePitt.com. I won’t even charge ya.
Here’s the menu from Michael Mina
http://www.michaelmina.net/mm/pdf/Prix%20Fixe%20Menu.pdf
Everything looks so perfect and delicious!
~Terry
Dinner looks (must be in taste too) delicious
I can see web 2.0 looks in food decoration 
I am hungry now .. these pictures are delicious
yum yum, water licking from my mouth.
John are they paying you for makig videos for restaurants or you do it 4 free?
THis food looks awesome
Just out of curiosity, where would you take them out to here in Vancouver?
[...] you rich!!!!? Where else would you be able to get an intimate look at what the rich and famous eat for dinner when they aren’t busy counting their [...]
[...] week that provides a cool trick to build traffic, rather than a bunch of off-topic posts including what I ate for dinner. No offense to John Chow and his dinner parties, but in all honesty I don’t think my readers [...]