Birdsong (), San Francisco

This is my review for Birdsong in San Francisco. Overall several dishes were really really great and exactly the type of thing I like, but I found the service and desserts lacking.

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Service/etc:

Upon walking into the restaurant I walked up to the hostess who simply said literally “hello”. I kind of expected a warmer welcome, but anyways I just stated my first and last name and she became warm as expected and showed me to my table. I always wear business casual everywhere so Im always a bit underdressed as compared to most people in these kinds of places. So I kind of suspect that maybe the hostess didnt think i was dinning there at first, so not the best first impression but anyways not a big deal.

After sitting down and getting the drink menu I asked if there were any cocktails, to which they said no but they had some NA drinks that were kind of similar to that, so I ordered one of those. Then someone came and poured what was the least generous pour ive ever received of a NA drink or cocktail. There was even like 25% of the liquid left in the decanter thing he poured the drink from, but he just left without pouring that part. It was a grapefruit and dill drink, and the flavor itself was actually pretty good (picture 1). I guess they were treating it like they would treat wine, but for the price of $18 (plus fees bringing it closer to $25) it just felt a little weird to basically just get a couple sips of juice. Anyways, fine its a fancy place so ill accept that as part of the experience, but in my mind the rest of the service from here on out better be perfect to match the expectations of such an experience then (it wasn’t).

The main waitress was pretty friendly and was trying her best, but just wasnt quite at the level to deliver a top experience. For example at one point I went to the bathroom (which she did lead me to) and when I came back my napkin was just gone. The intent was probably to get me a new folded napkin like many such places do, but in this case my napkin was just never to be seen again. A few courses later, no one noticed and a course I had to eat with my hands came, so i finally just asked for a napkin when someone asked me if everything was ok. Is that really a huge deal? No, but again if im paying like $25 for a few sips of juice then they better not make mistakes like this.

The real issue with service however was the in inconsistency in quality of descriptions/explanaitions of each dish. When the waitress described a dish, it was about 1/5 as long and detailed of an explanation as when the chef did it. This is even for the same dishes when I overheard it from the people sitting next to me, the difference was wild. The waitress had a very heavy accent and was hard to understand, so I dont know if she just wasnt confident enough in speaking in such a long/detailed way or just wasnt given the information or something, but either way the experience was definitely impacted and the waitress even missed some very important details such as how to eat some of the dishes. They should really fix this and get every person serving food to give the full explanations.

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Food:

Tuna marrow and seaweed in bone vinegar (picture 2):

I really really loved this dish, it was very interesting and unique and kind of felt like eating the deep sea, but in a good way. I wouldnt be surprised if other people think its too weird and dont like it, but for me it was very memorable and great, basically a perfect dish for what I am looking for. 10/10

Radishes with butter(pic3):

For a radish dish is was really good and well thought out with all the differently aged radishes and everything, and i guess one of the best radish dishes ive had. I just dont think radishes are very tasty. 7/10

Tomato dish with beef heart bits (pic 4):

Not bad but just too one-tone for me, and ive just had much better tomato dishes. 5/10.

Red abalone dish with livers,etc (pic5):

Most of the magic is underneath what you can see in the pic and its hard to explain if you havent had it, but this had the most amazing flavors and textures. The best abalone dish ive ever had, which is quite a statement since every fancy restaurant has an abalone dish. 10/10

Mushrooms with pine (pic6):

I didnt care for the mushrooms themselves and thought they were too chewy, but the broth with pine needles and other tree parts were so good that I still really really loved this dish and remember it fondly. This one felt like eating the forrest in a good way. 9/10

Black cod and bread (pic 7 and 8):

The fish was perfectly cooked, the bread was super soft, the broth was extremely rich (maybe a little too rich for the fish but great for the bread). It was a really good dish, but not memorable at the end of the day. 8/10

Uni creampuff with butterscotch filling (pic 9):

A great and memorable bite that is one of my favorite uni dishes ive had even among so much uni competition. 9/10

Squab with XO sauce, squab broth (pic 10 and 11):

An expertly prepared squab thats hard to fault, but other than the presentation isnt very memorable and doesnt necessarily taste better than a well prepared duck. I think other people may like this dish more than me if they are looking for just great cooking. 7/10

Lamb (pic 12):

Hard to fault the cooking or ingredients, but ultimately just forgettable. This restaurant seems a bit similar in concept to Saison to me, and i think the meat dishes in Saison were just better overall. 6/10

Pine popsicle (out of the frame of the picture) with cottage cheese and persimmons (pic 13):

Nice presentation and most of the popsicle was fine but there was some second flavor with it that I really didnt like at all. The cottage and persimmons were fresh and light, but a bit too mushy for me. 4/10

Pomegranate mousse with mochi and pomegranage seeds (pic 14)

A bit too tart, and its pretty big so it got a bit boring half way through. 5/10

Wafer and frozen Madeleine (pic 15):

The wafer was pretty good but the frozen to eat at first thing was too frozen and not especially tasty. 4/10

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Summary:

Overall there were several dishes I absolutely loved which definitely made the meal worth it and worth a follow up visit. I kind of wish i had the menu in reverse order so that I ended on the high note instead of the low note, but the highs were just so high that it made the lows less important. I think this restaurant is most similar to Saison, and I think the meat dishes there were better there, but the other savory dishes were better here, and I didnt like the desserts in either place. Overall I actually prefer the food here, though the service there was way better. I may have just been unlucky and came at an off day for service but it was definitely my least favorite service experience in a ** restaurant.