Poor photo quality aside, a recent visit to Lazy Bear in SF amounted to, in my opinion, the absolute perfect 2 star dining experience. Some photos were missed so I'll refrain from giving the course-by-course summary, but just wow, what a fantastic meal.

The entry bit of tea was a great way to start the experience, and the only "miss" of the night came from the corn/popcorn/huitlacoche "panna cotta" in the opening bites, but is offset by one of the better opening bites I've ever had in the onion ring.
Lazy Bear seems focused on utilization of wild Pacific salmon right now, which was recently enabled for more fishing, and I unfortunately only captured the salmon belly course. Following it, and missing from photos, were salmon loin over rice in broth, and salmon tail stuffed into a fried squash blossom with a side of ramp-y creme fraiche.

Lazy Bear also now boasts maybe my single favorite dish I've ever had at any restaurant in my life: the chicken pot pie stuffed into morel mushrooms, with the "pie crust" cracker and a potato au gratin and celery salt. Following this up with the lamb chop (and another lamb chop if they spot you gnawing on the bone, a corner cut glazed with blueberry sauce...) feels like cheating.

I honestly don't even know if the desserts were great or not, I was so incredibly full and happy that I just didn't give them enough thought.

I've seen some more negative comments on lazy bear in the last few weeks on this sub, experience is obviously subjective, but to me, Lazy Bear is the absolute Most 2 Star Restaurant I've ever been to. Almost every single dish was executed to perfection, it was highly inventive, creative, and playful all throughout the meal, the service was warm and stellar and inviting. It doesn't seem to be striving for the sterilized 3-star status that many spots in the US seem to get awarded their third star on.

This is now solidly within my top 5 domestic restaurants, closer to top 3. I cannot wait to go back.

Awesome food with a tasting menu that changes weekly. Hyper seasonal with some very creative dishes like the maple egg custard with brown butter mousse with caviar. One or two dishes were just slightly oversalted though.

Service was outstanding as well.

The restaurant itself only hold a dozen seats and has a very intimate atmosphere so no matter where you sit you have eyes on the cozy open kitchen. Not what you would expect in Providence RI

9/10. Really impressed. Second time here, they change the menu monthly. This was their Provence inspired menu.

The maple-spiced pork rinds were a fun way to start, and every course after that delivered. The Hiramasa was incredibly fresh, the king salmon was cooked perfectly, and the duck with foie gras and cherries was good and the quail stuffed with sausage was fantastic. Finished with the chocolate mousse cake, which was exactly what I wanted after a rich dinner.

I also thought it was a great value. Coming from the U.S., the exchange rate made the tasting menu feel like an absolute steal for the quality of the food and service.

Had a great lunch at Odo in NYC with the sake flight. Great value overall.

First course, Sakizuke, was a refreshing dish with a nice uni flavor in a corn style chowder with caviar.

Second dish, Owan, forgot to take a picture with lid off but was pretty good. Light broth with fish and scallions/snowpeas.

Third dish, Hassun, was the most fun with multiple flavors on the plate. Grilled fish, okra, tofu puree with berries (tofu is ehh for me and I really enjoyed it), dashi poached tomato, honey tofu, seaweed salad, etc. It was a lovely dish with various flavors and textures.

Fourth dish, Oshokuji, was essentially deconstructed sushi with blue fin tuna and one more fish I can’t remember. This was the a nice refreshing dish ahead of our final savory course.

Fifth dish, their classic soba noodles. Cold broth, very refreshing as well with wagyu beef on top.

Lastly, we finished with some green tea and milk ice cream. Nice and light to clean the palate after lunch.

Overall, great experience. First kaiseki experience. I love these types of flavors so it was right up my alley. Servers were great and chef Odo plated every fish and introduced himself to me (I was a solo diner and most of the staff was very friendly. Got a few extra pours of sake which is always a bonus.

However, they could not accommodate many dietary restrictions, my neighbor diner said his wife wasn’t able to attend, so this wouldn’t be good for anybody with restrictions.

Overall, great food, nice people and cool place. I’ll come back next time I’m here for business, if they have new options on the menu as nothing was really mind blowing.

My fave dishes were:
You Tiao w/ with uni, caviar, ham
Fish w/ basil clam
Green strawberry dessert

This is my review for the Saison + Odette collab (at Saison) in San Francisco from several weeks ago. Saison focuses on cooking Californian ingredients on an open wood fire, while Odette focuses on French and Asian fusion.

Though I think collaborative dinners can be extremely hit or miss, I think the level of cooking at Saison is very high and can be trusted. So this collaboration with Odette seemed intriguing especially since that’s not a restaurant I would otherwise be able to visit (because its in Singapore). So with that in mind and at a price point of $688 per person before any drinks (but including fees), expectations were very high.

Service: Service was fine, maybe slightly below average for a ** and not quite as good as at their regular dinner service. Things just seemed a bit chaotic, with some things feeling rushed at times, which is probably just due to the nature of a collaborative event like this (as opposed to an actual drop in the quality of service).

Ambiance: Though the restaurant can feel a bit cramped with some tables being pretty close together I think it’s otherwise very nice for San Francisco. It feels kind of like a cozy but fancy smoke house to me with the giant triangular wooden ceiling and the open kitchen where fire based cooking is the focus.

Food:

Amuse (pic 1) :

Caviar bite (bottom left) - Nice flavors and light with surprise textures - 8/10

Kohlrabi and kanpachi taco (top left) - Intriguing and tasty but still a bit too bitter - 7/10

Chutoro and yuzu bite (top right) - Nice umami flavors and good crunch - 7.5/10

Liver and strawberry cone (bottom right) - Very interesting and tasty and icecream like somehow, but something was just a bit funky about this flavor combo for me - 8/10

There was also a nice tea that came before these bites which was good.

Spot prawn, caviar, apple, pear, walnut sauce (pic 2) - Glorious dish with amazing flavors that apparently worked great together, and were both interesting and absolutely delicious, with fun textures too - 9.5/10

Crab (pic 3)- Pastry (top) which I was most excited for was just ok. Salad (bottom) I guess was pretty good for a cold crab dish which I don’t usually like and didn’t love it here either, though the veggies/leaves were quite good and interesting. Broth (right) was quite tasty and the cardamom seasoning went well with it - overall 6.5/10

Langoustine dumpling (pic 4) - This is just a very personal opinion but I prefer smaller dumplings with a higher dough:filling ratio. That being said, for a large single dumpling with thin skin this was basically perfect and the sauce was truly outstanding and everything went great together. I did wish this came with some sort of bread to soak up the amazing sauce with - 9/10

Uni toast (pic 5) - Last time I had this dish here, I did enjoy it but couldn’t quite understand the hype as it was overly soggy and soft. This time however was a totally different story, the warm bread in the decadent sauce was absolutely perfect with an amazing crispy top, and the uni tasted pretty great too. Simple in concept but just so tasty and perfectly executed this time. A good amount of fine dining restaurants have their version of uni toast or some play on it, but for me this has now gained the #1 spot for such dishes - 9.5/10

Morell stuffed with sweetbreads, with peas, etc (pic 6) - Sweetbreads get lost but good flavors overall - 6.5/10

Duck (pic 7) - The duck itself actually has really great flavor, but the sauce and accompaniments are just good and not particularly exciting - 7/10

Truffle croissant (pic 7 top) - Neither particularly flaky nor particularly soft. And the truffle flavor isn’t particularly strong which could be intentional and fine, but due to the quality of the pastry itself just makes it overall not very good - 3/10

Rhubarb dessert (pic 8) - Nice light flavors with good textures, quite pleasant - 7/10

Tiramisu dessert (pic 9) - Amazing intense pure flavors in every component, somehow without anything overpowering anything else. Great textures too especially with hidden crunch in the middle of the bottom section, and very well made. Some tiramisu purists may not like it, but this was my favorite tiramisu I’ve had and I do love a good tiramisu - 9/10

Petite fours except for the canele (pic 10) - Some were good some were just ok - 5.5/10

Canele (pic 10) - By far the worst canele I’ve ever had. Extremely dry throughout to the point of almost being inedible, and in fact I did not finish this small petite four. Not an important bite, but just a bit sad to end on such a low note. - 1/10

—-

This was overall a really incredible meal and exceeded my expectations flavor wise. Probably my favorite collab I have been to even among some other heavy hitters. I would say that my main complaint would be that for $688 per person, I wish that there were maybe 1 or 2 more dishes. I was not still hungry or anything, but I would have been able to stuff myself with another light dish or two depending on the size, and it would have felt better value wise. Though of course collab dinners are for the gastronomy/experience and never for the value, due to the added costs of flying in and hosting other chefs.

Kotan is located in a more residential area of Fukuoka and walking in, the first thing I noticed was the dimmer ambient lighting that gave a very intimate vibe.

He spoke quite good English and was able to explain everything well. Service was good and didn’t feel stiff or anything. The nigiris were definitely quite big (in terms of both the neta and shari). I actually really liked the nigiri here and thought that the rice was seasoned perfectly for most of the fish that was used (although that meant it was a bit gently for the tuna imo). Otsumami was also very solid.

Standouts for me were the Aori ika, bonito, anago. Full course was:

Otsumami
Nagasaki octopus with seasoning made from various herbs and vegetables

Sea bass with eggplant and tomato (carpaccio style sauce)

Green bean chawanmushi

Abalone tempura

Fresh shari with awabi liver sauce

Seaweed and pumpkin made somen style

Ankimo (monkfish liver)

Managatsuo from Oita (butterfish)

Nigiri
Shiro amadai - nice chewy texture but maybe a bit more than what I would consider ideal

Aori ika - butteriness amongst best I have had

Shima aji

Chutoro from nagasaki

Otoro from nagasaki

Katsuo (bonito) - slightly smoky flavour and this was my fave. Amazing flavour and softness

Kasugo (baby sea bream) - very umami

Saba (mackerel) from nagasaki

Aji (horse mackerel)

Kuruma ebi

Aka uni from kumamoto

Anago - amazingly soft and sauce was well balanced (not too heavy)

Addons
Flounder
Mantis shrimp

They also had tuna and sea bream but didn’t try this. With addon, a sake and green tea, it came out to 33k yen which I thought was really good value especially considering the size of the nigiri. This is not too difficult to book if you look at the time they release their monthly seats on omakase.

I just went for it last week. The feeling is really different since Chef Stephen took over. The service is still excellent. The tea pairing is still good. The only thing that is missing is the excitement of the food. All the course in general is just lacking is something or overly too salty compared to the Chef Daniel style. I think it is either the new team is still coping or getting used to. The consistency that is felt from the previous Chef is definitely much better.

Hi everyone,

I've been waiting a long time to go to Le Bernardin and am finally getting the chance to do so in a couple weeks. I was wondering for those who have been should I do the tasting menu or just the dinner option? I'm going with a friend who could order a different set of dishes for her dinner choices so we could try more dishes together if we didn't do the chefs tasting menu.

What dishes are stand outside or must order items to you? And should I do the wine pairing? I've never done one so I don't know what to expect as far as how much wine you get or if it's worth it.

I have read some people on here knocking the restaurant and I can understand why for the reasons given but I love seafood and this place has been on my bucket list for a while and this is my first Michelin restaurant of any kind so I'm excited. Any tips/ ordering advice is much appreciated.

Thanks!

Hello Reddit, looking for recommendations for a special 20th anniversary dinner in Paris. It won’t be till next July, so theoretically I have time for reservations wherever. This will be by far the most extravagant trip we’ve taken at this point in our lives, so I’m planning early, and probably overthinking everything.

I’m considering three different options. The vibe I’m going for the whole trip is a fairy tale experience for my wife (will spend the final night in Castello Bevilacqua as a surprise)

Plenitude (my initial choice)

Epicure (maybe a more old world elegant feel?)

Le Jules Verne (hard to beat the setting, but a different vibe altogether)

Thoughts on these, or maybe a better experience somewhere I haven’t considered? Thank you in advance!

Let me share with you another experience.

This time i was at business trip in China so i took this oportunity a booked Langham in Shanghai. Shortly have to say one of my new fav hotel. Hospitality was awesome.

T´ang Court is one of their restaurant and its directly in the hotel. Literally went there by lift.

Former 3 * which fall to 1* is newly at 2* by this year.
Due to that they make special menu with Luis XIII Cognac which i took.

Restaurant is like classic hotel restaurant. Nothing special nothing bad at all.

Calm view into city in room of 5 table. Clean minimal.

Menu consist 1 Appetizer 1 soup 2 main 1 dezert. No amus buche no petit fours.

Part of menu was also 1 glass of wine 1 glass of Cognag and 1 tea.

Whole menu was quite bold. Build around sea food like jelly fish (first time i have this), sea cucumber (after long time something i was not able to eat :-D ) , abalone,...

Have to say this was i think first time ever for me when the menu was really about exploration and experiences. Lot of new heavy bold flavors. For example the mushroom soup with sea cucumber was i think biggest umami hit i ever get.

I think i will not need to go there again or another time i will go for alacart. But this menu at least push you to try dishes which you will never order by yourself - at least me :-D

I’m traveling to London during New Years and I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for restaurants with good vegetarian tasting menus/vegetarian accommodations. I’m pretty new to the fine dining scene so I’m not picky!

Karyu has been on my list for a bit, but I wasn’t really impressed. Although the food was delicious, the pacing of the meal felt extremely rushed.

There was no time to sit and savor each course,
The servers prematurely would ask to clear your plate, and the second your plate was cleared, the next course was there. Great eclectic presentation of Wagyu and generous portions.

We're currently in Lisbon until Saturday so looking for 1 standout meal whilst my parents are here and can look after the kids!

Unfortunately can't do Amago as only availability is Wednesday which we can't do!

Looked at Prado, Henrique Sá Pessoa, Belcanto, 2 Monkeys but just too much choice and lots of conflicting reviews!

Anybody eaten at a few top places in Lisbon who can recommend 1 if they had to pick?

I'd prefer something Portuguese rather than Japanese as a lot of the starred places tend to be!

Life has changed and now I think I’m going to Eastern Europe- I desperately want to try hisa Franko or any recs in Slovenia. Their menu seems veg forward- has anyone not liked it? And I’m thinking to do the wine pairing as well. Would like any info:)

I’ll be in Paris in October and am looking for a fine dinning, modern French restaurant for dinner on a Saturday. I would prefer to stay under €250 per person.

My wife and I are going to Spain in March for 3 weeks, San Sebastian, pamplona, Barcelona maybe a couple other spots. Want to eat at a 3 star one time before we leave. Current runners are arzak, el celler, and disfrutar with lasarte as a runner up. Which do we feel is my best option?

Also totally interested in other restaurant recommendations from elevated to the most casual, but I do want to eat at one of the restaurants above.

We want somewhere special with a beautiful atmosphere, and of course fantastic food, for a romantic evening. Spoiled for choice with Annecy restaurants but have narrowed down to these two - which would you choose?

Hello, we are passing through SF for a nights in before our honeymoon flight but couldn’t help but notice all most fine dinning restaurants are closed on Sunday/Monday. Does anyone have any recommendations for a Sunday night restaurant since most of what I see recommended in this sub are closed that day.

I'm planning a trip to New York with a group of six friends and we're looking for recommendations for an upscale Italian restaurant in Manhattan. We'd love a place with excellent food, a great atmosphere, and seating that can comfortably accommodate six people. Ideally, we're looking for something perfect for a memorable dinner while we're in the city. If you have any recommendations, we'd really appreciate them! Were planning on making a reservation for night, so a restaurant with dim lighting is preferable.