Ever since Dominique Crenn became the first female chef in the US to receive three Michelin stars for her restaurant Atelier Crenn in San Francisco, we have been talking about checking it out. Unfortunately, Atelier Crenn was fully booked in the next couple of months. Therefore, we came to Bar Crenn – a Michelin one star opened by Dominique Crenn. It is located right beside Atelier Crenn, with a 1930’s Paris bar setting. You can find good pictures of the internal setting here.
Bar Crenn offers both a la carte and tasting menu, with a focus on seafood and vegetables. The la carte menu is for the bar tables, which are much lower than the regular dining tables, and much less comfortable for eating in my opinion. The tasting menu is for the counter, so you can comfortably chit chat, and sip wine while enjoying a 9 course dinner. The tasting menu has to be prepaid upon the reservation.
Our dinner started with a creative kir (a classic French cocktail). It was a white chocolate with Breton apple cider inside. When the chilled white chocolate shell was bitten open, the apple cider inside just flowed into your month. It gave a cool and refreshing sensation.
Kir Breton
The second course was oyster and shallot. The dish was very pretty – decorated with grass and flowers. The oyster came with caviar, and pickled shallot in a shell. The fresh oyster was smooth, and slightly sweet. The texture of the oyster went well with the caviar, and the taste was a great pairing with the pickled shallot.
Oyster & Shallot
The third course was toast and truffle custard. The toast was used to mix the custard with the fresh truffle on top of it, and dip in the mixture afterwards. The toast was the best I ever had, crispy outside, and chewy inside. The truffle offered a strong earthy flavor to the toast. I wish I could have this every morning for breakfast.
Truffle custard
The next course was grilled abalone and sauerkraut. I personally think sauerkraut overpowered the delicate abalone, so it wasn’t my favorite dish of the night.
Abalone & Sauerkraut
The carbohydrate of the night was mushroom ravioli. The mushroom added lots of umani to the dish. The inspiration for the dish was that the chef’s father used to forage for mushrooms in the forest, and that she wanted to recreate that taste here. Even though I am not a big fan of ravioli, I really liked this dish.
Mushroom ravioli
The next course was trout mousse. I’ve had trout steamed, baked, smoked, and grilled before. This was the first time I had it as a mousse. The chef transformed a regular fish to a smooth and slightly sweet mousse. The black topping was bread dipped in squid ink, compressed, and toasted in a pan. It added crispy layers on the top and bottom of the trout mousse. The salad didn’t add anything to the dish though. The trout mousse was one of my favorite dishes of the night.
Trout mousse
The soup of the night was made of quince. It didn’t have too much flavor.
Quince
The last apple dessert was my most favorite dish of the night. The pastry was coated with chocolate and shaped into a bowl. Inside it was creamy chocolate ice cream and warm apple sauce. I would go back here just for this dessert!
Apple Dessert
Unlike Atelier Crenn, there was no wine pairing at Bar Crenn. Nevertheless, we still had good recommendations from the server, and really enjoyed them with multiple courses.
Bar Crenn was just a peek of how Atelier Crenn would be if we can ever get a reservation there. We can’t wait to try what chef Crenn offers at her flagship restaurant!
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[…] The first appetizer was fresh oyster and caviar. The disproportionately large glass plate with an irregular shape resembles the shell of a giant oyster. We thought that this dish was not as pretty or as tasty as the oyster dish at Bar Crenn. […]