The menu at Atelier Crenn arrives as a poem written by its celebrity chef, Dominique Crenn. It’s the first sign that dinner at this fine dining French restaurant is a highly personal affair that’ll have you fully invested in the lore behind each of the 17 courses. That, and the art by her father hanging in the bathroom, along with anecdotes about her childhood spent shucking scallops on the coast of France. The Cow Hollow restaurant is about as well-known as fine dining in SF gets—and those storytelling touches, along with pristine seafood and vegetable dishes, make it worthy of its bucket-list status.
What lands on your table changes every season, but the $395 menu revolves around from-the-sea dishes that reflect the chef’s upbringing in Brittany. Expect plates that are heavy on the purees, foams, and tableside pours, produce shapeshifted into every form imaginable, and walnuts and edible flowers from the restaurant’s own garden. It’s all as self-serious as you’d expect from a multi-hundred dollar meal, but the attentive, yet easygoing staff keep things from crossing into stuffy territory.
video credit: Taylor Gomez
photo credit: John Troxell
video credit: Julia Chen
The menu has some forgettable dishes, like abalone with rounds of kohlrabi or the sweet lettuces for dessert. But odds are you’ll also encounter some of the prettiest things you’ll ever eat, like the subtly briny steamed crab topped with a squid ink pain de mie in the shape of a perfect crescent moon. Next time you want to spend hundreds of dollars on gorgeous plates of seafood and vegetables, or have the urge to see if everything is as photogenic as it was on Chef’s Table, your next big-deal dinner should be here.
Food RundownTasting Menu
Your only option, and at time of writing, $395 per person (reservations require pre-payment). The 17-course menu is headlined by seafood and vegetables that vary depending on the season—you might get plump shrimp with the tail painted gold, or a scallop topped with geometric radish and carrot slices in the shape of a pinwheel. Whatever lands in front of you will be whimsical and meticulously executed, down to the liquid nitrogen champagne balls and array of different chocolates for dessert.
photo credit: Julia Chen
Dining and Cooking