Special Feature: Products Sally Recommends
The Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton
600 Stockton St.
San Francisco, CA 94108
(415 ) 773-6198
Cuisine: Asian inflected French fine dining
Pluses:
Don't Miss: the buffets, especially on holidays
Prices:
Overview:
Celebrity chef Ron Siegel built a name for himself; both at French Laundry and at Charles Nob Hill where he practiced his craft producing faultless French cooking, and then at Masas and the Iron Chef competition. Siegel was the first American chef to beat the Iron Chef, battle lobster. That fateful visit, not only made butter-poached lobster a must-have item on menus throughout the country, but it proved a lasting inspiration for Siegel. Since that visit Japanese ingredients and techniques have enlightened his cuisine.
Siegel also borrows ingredients and ideas from Italy sculpting a multi-faceted menu layered with tantalizing and innovative creation. Diced bluefin tuna tartare is combined with avocado, heirloom tomato compote, micro greens, and aged balsamic vinegar marrying a Japanese idea with Italian ingredients. Whereas beef filet with bone marrow, porcini mushroom, red onion marmalade, and bordelaise remains faithful to French tradition.
Luxury ingredients litter the menu, showing up occasionally in unexpected places such as lobster paired with braised pork belly or jalapeno inflected masago caviar with squid sashimi.
This opulence extends into the dining room where the surroundings are overly ornate and a bit stuffy. Service is as polished as the gilt, performing with choreographed precision and fading away seamlessly only to reappear from nowhere when needed.
With such stellar service and inspired cuisine, it is no surprise that GaultMillau called the restaurant was one of the top forty restaurants in the US for 2005.
Note: This information was accurate when it was published. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the businesses in question before making your plans.
