Coi

As one of the major cities in the States, I find it surprising that San Francisco does not really have any “best” restaurants. The restaurants that many foodies love in the Bay area happen to be located off SF, such as French Laundry, Manresa, and Ubuntu. Gary Danko or Fleur de Lys does not really make the ‘cut’. During my SF trip in 2010, my friend and I made a last minute decision to try...+READ As one of the major cities in the States, I find it surprising that San Francisco does not really have any “best” restaurants. The restaurants that many foodies love in the Bay area happen to be located off SF, such as French Laundry, Manresa, and Ubuntu. Gary Danko or Fleur de Lys does not really make the ‘cut’. During my SF trip in 2010, my friend and I made a last minute decision to try something fancy and Coi, located on financial district, was possibly the best choice available (Benu by Corey Lee may have improved SF dining scenes)

Food (and wine) – 90/100

Coi does not leave you with any choice on what to eat – only 11-course tasting menu was available. Price wise, it’s not too bad but we knew that each dish will be quite small. The meal here focused on a combination of local aromatic ingredients, inventive flavors and beautiful to gaze upon. Obviously, the kitchen labored very hard to produce the dish. However, what matters is always the palate which is usually very subtle and relatively clean/light here. We did not have any dish that’s outstanding, however there’re a few that we thought nice.

- the geoduck clam has firm texture, combined with crunchy almond in the background and refreshing cucumber
- ‘Spring’ dish has beautiful plating, inside we would taste fresh pea soup along with decent butter milk mousse
- my favorite dish was butter-roasted morels (from Oregon). The morels are flavorful, integrated by tarragon. The fava beans showed some nice contrast
- it’s hard to go really wrong with slow-cooked farm egg (with runny yolk). The star happened to be the ‘buckwheat soup’ and shiitake, not the egg itself

The main course (beef tartare) was rather disappointing. The beef, while containing some fat, was rather sour. When I saw roasted young carrots with radish powder and sprouts, they looked beautiful and interesting. However, the carrots were too soft and not that flavorful (I had imagined tasting similar carrots served by Passard, perhaps it’s an unfair comparison as Arpege probably served the best carrots in the world). The dessert was quite pleasant; we got smooth & sweet white chocolate pudding contrast with sour and ‘crunchy’ blueberries and lemon verbena.

The food served by Chef Daniel Patterson is clearly not for everyone. You need to be able to appreciate the unique ingredients as well as the preparation’s complexity. The chef is probably still fine tuning his cooking and can definitely improve further. The food is in the level of 2-star (90 pts) and I know chef Patterson would work hard to keep these stars. I don’t see him to gain the 3rd one yet in the near future.

Service (and ambiance) – 91/100

The décor at Coi, an intimate restaurant with 30 seats, is minimal and modern. It has no window and not-so-high ceiling, generating calm atmosphere (as the name of “Coi” suggests - tranquil). The service is professional with staffs that are competent and diligent, the napkins were always replaced and the water was filled all the time. But they don’t really ‘connect’ to the diners, just doing their jobs – hardly any meaningful conversation. The overall experience here is 90.5/100 and Michelin got it right with the 2-star

Pictures of the dishes: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7124357@N03/sets/72157628825816947/-COLLAPSE / REPLY (8 Replies) (by Bu Pun Su, created January 11, 2012)

»COI is better than Gary Danko

New to the area from LA. Love the high end restaurants and have eaten at many in LA and NYC. This ranks up there as one of the best! (by dnals, created April 18, 2010)

We had a great experience at Coi on New Year's Eve. Eleven courses plus wine pairing--no problem whatsoever and I have a fairly light appetite. I'm afraid I'm not a serious food connoisseur like most of you here, but I’ll give the menu rundown and our reactions.

Amuse: a shot of caramelized pear root beer. Great start.

Frozen mandarin sour: Satsuma ice, kumquat, angostura bitters. We loved...+READ We had a great experience at Coi on New Year's Eve. Eleven courses plus wine pairing--no problem whatsoever and I have a fairly light appetite. I'm afraid I'm not a serious food connoisseur like most of you here, but I’ll give the menu rundown and our reactions.

Amuse: a shot of caramelized pear root beer. Great start.

Frozen mandarin sour: Satsuma ice, kumquat, angostura bitters. We loved this, quite refreshing.

Oysters under glass: Marin Miyagi oysters, yuzu, rau ram. Very good. I’m not usually crazy about oysters but I really enjoyed this. I could have done without the “glass”—flavor was good but I wasn’t crazy about the pairing of this texture (slick) with oyster texture. Though it was a great flavor combination and indeed very pleasing to the eye.

Beet and goat cheese tart w/rye and dill. Yep, very tasty.

Dungeness crab soup w/ ginger, makrut lime, sea urchin, pea shoots. One of our favorites of the evening. I am a sucker for crab and sea urchin and this did not disappoint, satisfying my expectations and yet somehow surprising me.

Fall, pastoral. Carrots roasted in hay with sprouts and shaved pecorino. For some reason that just didn't work for me at all and I love carrots and pecorino (maybe it was the hay or the sprouts that turned me off?). My least favorite. Same with my dining companion.

Monterey Bay abalone grilled on the plancha w/puntarelle, Meyer lemon, shellfish vinaigrette. Fantastic!

Savory wild mushroom porridge w/brown butter, garlic confit, wood sorrel. My favorite dish I think of the night. Earthy yet light, great textures. I could have eaten and eaten and eaten this until the kitchen ran out.

Chicken/egg. Slow-cooked farm egg, crisp chicken skin, chard and faro. Another winner. Approaching the too-rich territory for me (not for my dining companion, though, who thought this was tops), but incredibly tasty and satisfying.

Minuet w/chicories and medjool date vinaigrette. Just what the doctor ordered at this point in the meal.

Steamed kabocha squash cake with apple, pomegranate and garam masala. Another winner. We were really impressed with this.

Bitter chocolate tart with orange, star anise and yogurt. Again, we loved it. Desserts were excellent here, including the little cookie mignardises.

We were very comfortable in the dining room and thought the service was just right—professional but friendly and gracious. Coi to me seems a terrific value, interesting and fun and *almost* uniformly delicious (darn carrots).

Thanks to all of you for your opinions. And happy New Year!-COLLAPSE / REPLY (18 Replies) (by Leely2, created January 2, 2010)

»final dinner at COI (San Francisco)

This was our final dinner in San Francisco. We'd been in San Francisco, then Napa, then Mendocino for a few relaxing days. This was the last night we'd be on the west coast.

I'd made reservations at Coi (pronounced "quaw" according to the woman who called me to confirm my reservation) and was looking forward to it quite a bit. My husband Tom was not so much in the mood for one more fancy...+READ This was our final dinner in San Francisco. We'd been in San Francisco, then Napa, then Mendocino for a few relaxing days. This was the last night we'd be on the west coast.

I'd made reservations at Coi (pronounced "quaw" according to the woman who called me to confirm my reservation) and was looking forward to it quite a bit. My husband Tom was not so much in the mood for one more fancy dinner and I erroneously thought that one could get food a la carte in addition to the chef's tasting. Apparently, that's only in the front room and therefore he was not so pleased at the start of the meal.

I can't lie, the meal started off on a rocky note. The amuse bouche, a carmelized pear root beer as well as the first course, pink grapefruit with ginger, black pepper, and tarragon were super super salty. It was very weird. Also, the flavor combinations were so... I don't know. We weren't impressed. The Coi aperitif was what was served with the pink grapefruit. (I can't find the ingredients in the cocktail though). The cocktail was pretty tasty.

Second Course: Raw oysters over roasted beets, and glacier lettuce. This was... troublesome. Now, I eat raw oysters a lot. I like them. I have spent some lovely afternoons and evenings in Welfleet sucking down raw oysters on the half shell and drinking beer. Ah, good times. That said, these oysters hit my gag reflex like crazy. It happened with the first one, I kind of gagged. The oyster tasted fine, I just couldn't get it down without serious effort and gagging that I tried to do quietly. I was weirded out. There was no good reason for this to happen, so I figured I'd take the gelee off the second oyster (sort of lemon scented/flavored) and give it a go for the second one. Yeah, not so good. I didn't get sick or anything but my gagging was noticed by our server that came over to ask if there was a problem. So embarrassing. And afterward, I really didn't feel well. I was afraid that the entire meal was going to be a bust.

The wine pairing for the oysters was DOMAINE DE LA FRUITIERE MUSCADET, FRANCE 2008. Um, it was pretty good.

The next three courses continued to be sort of strange for us- we just weren't getting what the chef was trying to tell us with the food. It was confusing to our senses and palates. (speaking of the chef, it was around this time he started presenting some of our courses) They were:

3. Inverted cauliflower tart with bone marrow, rye, and dill (paired with Coenobium Bianco, Italy 2007)

4. Sunchoke-buttermilk soup, hot/cold with asian pear, cocoa nib and mint (paired with the E. Guigal Cote du Rhone Blanc, France 2007, which was wonderful.)

5. Young carrots roasted in hay, sprouts, pecorino (paired with Domaine des Baumard Savennieres, France 2005.)

I was afraid this meal was going to be a bust. On the positive, the sommelier was very nice and explained each wine as he poured it, and I felt very comfortable with him. All the service was really wonderful.

HOWEVER- then at the 6th course, things began to turn around.

6. Monterey Bay abalone grilled on the plancha with nettle salsa verde, spicy breadcrumbs, and lemon zest, paired with William Fevre Chablis, France 2007. At this point, we were wary of the odd ingredients and were kind of apprehensive about the nettle salsa verde. But the abalone was grilled perfectly and flavored and seasoned wonderfully, and the salsa verde was actually quite delicious. The breadcrumbs provided a really nice textural contrast. It was my first abalone and I loved it. Also, French Chablis is one of my favorite style of wines, so I was starting to perk up.

7. Pan-grilled matsutake mushrooms with potato-pineneedle puree, paired with Joseph Swan Pinot Noir "Saralee's Vineyard" California 2005. Again, we were wary about the pineneedle in the puree, it seemed so precious and daring to be daring (as we sort of thought of the first 5 courses). The dish was delicious. A side note, it was the third time Tom had been served these mushrooms (after Cyrus and The French Laundry). The pinot that accompanied the dish was just lovely.

8. Slow roasted lamb with chard leaves and stems, garum, and rosemary, paired with Bonny Doon "Le Cigare Volant" California 2004. OH MY GOD. Oh my god! So good. Oddly enough, the chard stems might have been my favorite ingredient of the night. The lamb was wonderful as well, but those chard stems just melted in your mouth and had the most amazing flavor.

9. Montgomery cheddar from Neil’s Yard in the UK, with sweet and spicy (raw) greens and little sourdough (??) crisps. An amazing cheese course, one of the best cheeses we'd had on our entire trip. (And we had a lot of great cheese) I had a break from the pairing for this course.

Onto the 2 dessert courses:

10. "PB&J" - Orange Blossom Cake, Niabel grape sorbet, pistachio butter, apple, sorrel, paired with Marenco Pineto Brachetto D'Acqui, Italy 2008. Wow- the Niabel grape sorbet was absolutely amazing. The grape flavor was so fruity and intense.

11. Caramelized white chocolate parfait, semi-frozen with huckleberries and anise, paired with Mas Amiel, France 2006. This was a nice way to end the meal. Though, I'd say that the parfait was actually frozen instead of semi-frozen. Heh.

So, certainly a mixed bag. I would go back though, to sample what was on the menu that night. The chef swung for the fences in every dish- and in our opinion, sometimes he struck out, but he hit it out of the park the rest of the time. While we didn't get what he was doing half the time, there were real strokes of brilliance which was... exciting. The lack of complete perfection maybe made the high points even higher, if that makes any sense. We felt like we interacted with our meals more, by discussing what worked and what didn't, instead of sitting back and appreciating an artistic food experience. I was glad it was at the end of the trip, because I think our food vocabulary was further along than it was when we arrived in San Francisco.

To witness an exciting talent (that IMHO is still finding its footing) I would certainly recommend Coi. (FYI, the location is in the North Beach area and be warned, it's on the next block over from all the nudie bars on Broadway Street, which made for an interesting walk.)-COLLAPSE / REPLY (13 Replies) (by noradeirdre, created October 17, 2009)