DISAPPOINTING visit to a 3 MICHELIN star restaurant | ATELIER CRENN

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today we’re in San Francisco California
And we’re eating at one of the 
country’s most celebrated 3 Michelin star  
restaurants Atelier Crenn! Chef Crenn’s rise reads like 
a Hollywood movie she’s the only American woman  
to win three Michelin stars in history she’s 
been named the best female chef in the world  
she has her own Netflix documentary been an iron 
chef and even consulted for the acclaimed horror  
movie the menu… with these credentials we expected 
this meal to be near perfection by the end of the  
meal we realized our review is going to be a 
little controversial. Walking in Atelier Crenn
the space is smaller than you expect the tables 
are closed together and unique design elements  
underwhelm in real life. Today we’ll be eating 
a 19 course pescatarian dairy-free tasting menu  
highlighting regions in Central and Northern 
California at a price of $475 usd per person  
Let’s get started! First a play on the cocktail 
Kir Royale here apple juice instead of champagne  
incase in a cocoa butter shell Chef Crenn is from 
Brittany so we call kir Britton instead just  
got to pop right there on your palette… refreshing 
nice cocoa butter on the outside it’s a shot in  
the sphere beautiful really fresh and quickly 
to follow our first dish two small recreated  
cherry bombs or roasted peppers from San Joaquin
Valley when you sit down at a restaurant of  
this caliber you expect to be ‘wowed’ the opening 
sequence of a 3 michelin restaurant is their  
opportunity for great first impressions just 
look at Crenn’s colleagues in California this is
Addison and look at what’s waiting for you  
when you first sit down and Single 
Thread and at Crenn this is the opening sequence
We travel to Point Reyes along the 
northern coast to enjoy one of Crenn’s favorite  
ingredients the oyster faux oyster shell from 
Champagne mignonette that we’ve frozen with liquid  
nitrogen, oyster belly from point reyes, lemon gel we 
have loveage gel and a champagne mignonette gel  
so it sort of tastes like a fully loaded oyster… 
that’s a lot of sea that’s too much sea one of  
the rare times Laila I disagree, I love that dish 
if you were on the beach it was in the winter  
cold salinity to it so it’s very creative next a 
carrot and pea taco with produce from Chef Crenn’s  
own Blue Bell Farm in Sonoma that uses organic and 
regenerative practices to produce the freshest  
ingredients to supply to the restaurant there’s 
a smoked carrot puree in the Middle with some  
botargo, english peas tossed into sherry vinegar some 
cured egg yoke as well… when you eat vegetables  
picked fresh from the chef’s own farm you expect 
an explosion of flavors, this was a bit soft un-dimensional 
and frankly lacked the flavor we 
were expecting now it’s off to Monteray where  
they source crab for this next course this is 
three unique preparations of dungeness crab this is a  
savory ice cream with trout row and fennel flour,
tapioca crisp tomato chili and crap powder with  
a crap miso underneath and finally just a very 
humble broth… the ice cream almost has a semifreddo
consistencies, cold ice cream hot broth crispy 
cracker everything in between bit of pop of roe this  
a great dish… it’s back to Blue Bell farm for a 
beet course beet ceviche huckberry Jam preserved  
plum powder overall this was extremely acidic 
and mouth puckering sour not much else going on  
to be honest a roasted beet dehydrated fermented 
reconstituted in fortified wine and beet juice  
again we’re at one of the best restaurants in 
the country and they’ve chosen to highlight a  
single bee the Beet is poorly peeled with gouges 
and they’ve chosen to use one garnish but it was  
wilted the third dish interestingly not a beet 
a tempura fried perilla leaf or shisho, mole made  
from black and pepper and spices a tomato dish 
showcasing the different flavors and varietal of  
tomato and basil roasted pickled stuffed with 
trout and marinated the recreated Vine from  
basil puree top with nasturtium flowers and fresh basil 
trout broth puff quinoa and salty trout flakes  
so as soon as you eat it you get a very 
heavy smoke trout flavor it disappears  
immediately and then it’s just tomato acid 
and crunchy basil very creative very fun  
trout with plankton I mean at face value there’s 
not much going on here the trout is fresh it’s  
a bit bland for me… the abalone brings her memories 
of being back at home in Brittney France mustard  
seed, tarragon, abalone livers and then abalone XO 
underneath everything a little bit of sauerkraut  
made with cabbage from our farm… the next sequence 
was build your own boa, dry age black cod glazed  
in a caramel sauce grilled over binchotan this was 
served with a fresh steamed boa bun kimchi marigold  
flowers preserved plums and sesame vinaigrette 
herb salad this looked like it was going to be a  
lot of fun unfortunately this is what happened ….
we’re going to… it’s okay…. just for the record I  
don’t know what I’m doing with the rest of that 
fish…. it’s not ‘smoosh-able’ oh no….. this is a mess  
flavor profile the boa was dry and overall 
the dish was very salty the single tiny boa  
you can see was not nearly enough to hold all 
the ingredients on the table now you’re going  
to say just ask for more boa… reasonable but this 
is a three star Michelin restaurant they should  
have thought of that for you … maybe this is a 
good time to talk about service here you can  
see Adrian asking the server to remove the 
prior course because he almost walked away  
leaving dirty dishes on the table…. okay if you 
can believe it that’s the end of the mains just  
to recap the only substantial amount of protein 
we had this whole meal was a one 4oz piece of  
cod okay transitioning to desserts replacing 
the traditional cheese course we had a small  
leak tart creamy leak mousse charred leak and 
buckweat tart and dehydrated leaks on top is  
it’s very bland… I can’t distinguish a flavor… I have a 
couple of guests coming through the kitchen
this is the courtyard which connects 
everything together as you can see a  
pretty high traffic area especially this time 
of night when we’re getting everything ready  
for a whole second seating and moving other 
people from the first one over to Bar Crenn  
where we’re on the way right now after a 
gracious tour of the kitchen we were led  
into the adjoining space Bar Crenn to enjoy 
a dessert sequence we were not expecting  
this space was a wonderful contrast to the main 
dining room and a very nice way to end the meal  
the vibe was a 1950s Tokyo music bar with 
beautiful elements including Moroccan rugs  
and Ottomans and a old ceiling the desserts 
were created and made by Dominique’s longtime  
partner Juan Contreras who worked with her for many 
years prior to opening Atelier Crenn together in
2011 five desserts were presented in 
sequence first a tequila press Korean  
melon a wonderful start exceptionally crunchy 
with a fresh lingering tequila aftertaste next  
a playful take on Pina Cola where even the 
wrapper was edible made from rice paper stone  
fruit tart Peruvian mint and peaches, kakigori
traditional Japanese shaved ice topped with  
strawberries basil from the farm and a coconut 
condensed milk base a strawberry tomato basil  
Mochi incredible Chef Juan is on points a 
sweet corn marshmallow ice cream flavors  
of olive oil and lemon and is salty finish 
I am so into these desserts very Whimsical  
finally some petit fours to end the wonderful 
dessert sequence… based on our ranking system  
Atelier Crenn gets an S1 to find out why please 
visit our website thanks for watching!