Restaurant review > Gary Danko in San Francisco, California

As a result of all our travelling (which of course always involve sampling of different cuisines and flavors), my husband and I've become a little bit of foodies. Every now and then, I encounter some amazing food (like these) that I can't help but brag about.


Last weekend, my husband and I ate at flour + water in the Mission District of San Francisco. It's ranked as the #19 restaurant out of 3,078 in San Francisco on Trip Advisor, and after eating there, I can understand why. The food (especially the pizza!) was good. My only complaint was that they take very few reservations and without a reservation, you're just waiting...and waiting...and waiting. (In our case, for 1.5 hours.) In their defense of this issue, their website DOES give fair warning when it says:

Reservation & Walk-in Policy
Less than half of our tables are available for reservation. Our communal table, seats at the bar, and most of the dining room are saved for walk-ins. All guests are seated from a single wait list at the host stand. The largest party we can accommodate in our restaurant is six. We hope to see you soon!

Thankfully, the food was worth the wait, but if I ever went there again, I'd try to get a reservation. But I digress.

A few months ago, our bestest friends spent the night at our place. The next morning, I was preparing our usual weekend breakfast in massive quantities a breakfast extravaganza when they got a call from one of their other friends about having lunch at the impossible-to-get-reservations-but-amazingly-good-food-restaurant, The French Laundry (yes, that one).

For those who've never eaten there (I sure haven't), according to our friend, French Laundry is a 3 Michelin Star restaurant, the only one of which is in California (at this writing). From what I understand, the food served is a sampling/tasting menu that just goes on for what seems like ad infinitum and is amazing. So much so that patrons think nothing of paying several hundred dollars for a meal.

That day, we rushed through breakfast and then kicked them out so they could go told them to follow their dreams and have an amazing lunch. Later, they told us all about how they enjoyed their meal at The French Laundry. But don't take my word for it, read his blog post about it.

For what seems like forever more months than I can count, my husband has been bugging me to eat at Gary Danko with him. For those who don't know, Gary Danko is an upscale restaurant in San Francisco. My husband had heard about it (multiple times) from friends, and sadly, I'd turned him as many times. So he took to proposing a visit to Gary Danko to our friends (and I was, of course, invited as well). I'm not sure if our friends said yes because they really wanted to eat there or because they felt bad that they ditched us that morning, but I guess it doesn't really matter.

What matters is that a month ago we secured a reservation at the not-as-hard-to-get-reservations-as-The-French-Laundry-but-still-amazing-nonetheless-restaurant, Gary Danko. According to its website, Gary Danko just received its sixth Five Star rating from Mobil as well as a Relais & Chateau designation. Oh, and a little site called Trip Advisor rated it the #1 restaurant out of 3,078 in San Francisco.

So the day of our reservation arrived, and as much as I'd like to say we prepared our stomachs for that meal by fasting the entire day, I gotta admit that about halfway through the day we got hungry and snacked (so????). But we were good and starving by the time our reservation rolled around last night.

Gary Danko offers two choices for eating: a tasting menu or a 3, 4, or 5 course menu of your choosing.

I've tried tasting menus before (my last one was at Wish in Miami, which depending upon your perspective and preference, turned out to be...well, EXTREMELY disappointing OR awesome if you think a tiny main course is a good thing), so I preferred the idea of choosing my own dishes at Gary Danko. As the waiter explained to us how our 3, 4, or 5 course meal items can be chosen from any category on the menu and can even be all from 1 category or 1 from each, he was interrupted by some other waiters and waitresses who were bringing a sample from the chef.

Before I get into the food we ate, I will say that the wait staff was extremely friendly (without being even the least bit overfriendly or creepy) and knowledgeable about the menu items (and cheeses!), and we were given adequate time to finish each flavorful course before moving on to the next one.

Now about that chef's sample. It came in cute, tiny little bowls and was a coconut curry soup. I'm not a big Thai food fan (though I've been known to enjoy it on occasion), but this soup was TO DIE FOR! I liked it so much that my friend James and I ended up casually asking whether that soup could be ordered as one of the courses. (I was on the fence about whether to get 3 or 4 courses.) The waiter said he would check, and returned a few minutes later saying that they COULD make it one of the courses but would I mind if they adjusted it a little bit by adding a few more ingredients to make it more interesting? OK!

So for my soup course, I had that, and my husband had the "Sweet Corn Soup with Dungeness Crab, Red Pepper, Crème Fraîche and Chive Biscuit." Both were tasty, but mine was better.

Next, my husband had the "Roast Maine Lobster with Potato Purée, Chanterelle Mushrooms, Corn and Tarragon." From what I tasted of it, it was good, but I thought the potato were slightly overpowering.

While he ate that, I enjoyed my "Risotto with Lobster, Rock Shrimp, Shimeji Mushrooms, Roasted Tomatoes, Corn and Peas" more. It was amazingly light tasting, of which I was glad since the last time I'd had a lobster risotto (at Marmalade in Puerto Rico), the lobster flavor was a bit overpowering (at least in comparison). But not this one at Gary Danko.

I also tried the "Seared Sea Scallops with Zucchini-Basil Purée, Tomato Fondue, Red Peppers, Haricot Vert and Shimeji Mushrooms." The scallop was HUGE and really tasty. I wasn't a big fan of the purée, but overall the dish was amazingly good.

Photo by S.H. (c) 2010

I ended up ordering 4 courses but didn't order something from the dessert portion. By the time dessert rolled around, I was so stuffed I could hardly move and didn't regret not having dessert. My husband, on the other hand, has a weakness for crème brûlée so he tried their "Trio of Crème Brûlée with Assorted Cookies."

All 4 of us were extremely pleased with our menu choices. I don't think there was a bad item among us. Our friend had the "Crispy Farm Egg with White Polenta, Royal Trumpet Mushrooms, Frisée and Pancetta" and said it was the best thing she ate the entire meal.

While Gary Danko is a little on the pricier side, the food was worth it, and I'd DEFINITELY return again. (I'm sure my husband is glad to hear that, but his wallet might not be so appreciative.)