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1. Spring Radishes with Tarragon Yogurt

This fresh, crisp snack started off the meal. We were presented with crunchy but tender raw baby radishes, and an herbed yogurt sauce in which to dip them. Presentations don't get much more simple than this, and no added complexity was necessary. This simplicity turned out to be a hallmark of the entire meal. My only criticism of this presentation is that, aside from both being French, nothing tied the radishes to the tarragon. It could have been almost any other herb in the yogurt, and the dish wouldn't have changed much. Good.

2. Amberjack Crudo with Smoked Turbot Broth, Olive Oil, Chive, Sea Salt

Another simple presentation, but this one was really outstanding. Extremely fresh fish, just a bit of smokiness in the tiny quantity of broth (just enough to wet it, really), and with the perfect amount of crunchy salt (apparently in oil to keep it from dissolving). Excellent.

3. Diver Scallop, Heart Of Palm, ?Lobster? Roe, Sesame Seed

Before this dish came out, one of the servers came to our table to present the live diver scallop the kitchen was about to prepare for us. It was, at that point, still alive. The shell was enormous, maybe seven inches across. They managed to get two courses for three people out of that one scallop (unless they used other scallops for it as well).

The two scallop dishes came out approximately at the same time. I put this one first because I tried it first. It was just a simple dice of very fresh, raw scallop, with some heart of palm and some unidentifiable other stuff. It was a nice, fresh, bite that went down easy, but nothing about it really made a mark. Like I said, everything in it was unidentifiable but for the quick description we were given, and the combination didn't add up to anything special. Fair.

4. Diver Scallop, Dill-Mustard (and Yogurt?) Sauce

The second of the two scallop dishes more than made up for the forgettable first one. This was absolutely delicious, with the silky scallop as fresh as can be. The coolness of the dill tempered the punch of the mustard, and, to my surprise, they complemented the scallop perfectly. Excellent.

5. "Caesar Salad"

They specifically disallowed picture-taking of this course. Why? I don't know. It didn't look particularly special, and I've had something similar at WD-50. Nevertheless, this was awesome. It was a fried cube, a.k.a. a "crouton," and it was filled with a slighty thickened, very delicious caesar dressing. It was served quite hot, and when you bit into it, the caesar dressing oozed out into your mouth. A mouth full of hot caesar dressing may not sound very good to you, but in this case, it definitely was. Excellent.

6. Oven-Roasted Dates stuffed with Mascarpone, with Fleur de Sel

This is apparently one of Komi's classics, and rightfully so. The fleur de sel tempers the sweetness and makes this a delicious little snack. The whole thing was served hot, so that the mascarpone oozed out into your mouth when you bit down. Excellent.

7. Mini-Gyro with Lamb Sausage, Caramelized Onion, House-Pickled Cucumber, and ?Tsatsiki?

This playful little course had us eating little gyros, with everything obviously house-made. The meat was very juicy and flavorful, and the sauce and pita were also great. The only problem was with the presentation. In a misguided attempt to prevent the diner having to use his fingers, they put these little sandwiches on metal skewers. The problem was that when you picked up the skewer, it simply came out of the bottom of the sandwich, leaving the sandwich gaping open with its contents falling out. Nevertheless, once it made it into my mouth, it was... Very good.

8. "Cheese Steak" Cornets

With this course, also, they disallowed photos. And again, I have no idea why, since they weren't unique. They were just Thomas Keller salmon cornets done slightly differently. These were little cornets, filled with some kind beef tartare, and topped with parmesan foam and some chives. They may have given us a descriptor like "Wagyu," "Kobe," "Ribeye," or something like that, but I can't remember. The idea, I think, was that the parmesan foam would season the meat. It was a good idea, but failed in the execution. Each of us got a very different quantity of foam, and the foam, though slightly parmesan-flavored, was not nearly salty enough to season raw beef. They'd do much better just seasoning the tartare and letting the parmesan foam just be an addition. Bad Okay, but would have been Very Good if salted sufficiently.

9. Foie Gras Slider with Red Onion Confit

The plate contained three little mezzethakia. Yum. First up (and on the right) was whipped, piped foie gras on a little brioche bun, with caramelized red onions (possibly with some red wine vinegar). Because the foie was whipped, it didn't have the proper texture to be put in a bun, and neither was it the tastiest foie ever. When bitten into, it just squished out, without providing any "bite" like a burger does. A small piece of seared foie gras would have been much better in the slider. However, the bun was great, and so were the onions, and... well... it's still foie gras. Good.

10. Espelette Pepper Pâtes de Fruits

Center of the photo. Self-explanatory. Good.

11. Cheese crackers with Goat Cheese Pillow

Left of the photo. Like a fancy Cheez-it. Good.

12. House-made Crackers

We were then served some small crackers, probably more as a palate cleanser than anything else. They were good, but nothing special or unique. We got curry, asiago-fennel, and some kind of wheat crackers. The curry was my favorite. Fair.

13. Homemade Spaghetti with Catalina Sea Urchin, Crab, and Habanero Sauce

This was my favorite dish of the night, maybe of the year so far. Absolutely wonderful. One of the top handful of dishes I've ever had. The uni was nice and fresh (and plentiful), the sauce was extremely flavorful with a bit of heat (but nowhere near as much as you'd expect from "habanero"), and the presentation was stunning, with the beautiful uni laid delicately over the pasta. There was a minimalism to the dish that worked so well. It was a perfect combination. As you ate the dish, the uni kinda got mixed in with the rest of it, marrying the flavors perfectly. This dish was the essence of the sea, and yet was extremely savory. Beautiful in every way. Excellent.

13. Fava Bean Caramella with Charcoal Grilled Octopus

The charred octopus was super tasty and super tender, though perhaps a bit dry. It was well-spiced, and was a perfect compliment to the earthy fava flavor of the caramella. Excellent.

13. Cavatelli with Cockscomb, Pea Puree, Chives

This one was the weakest of the three pasta courses we got, but it was still good. The cockscomb was braised, releasing some of its gelatin but not really ending up with a ton of flavor, while the cavatelli was great. The rest of the stuff in the dish got a bit muddled, but had a nice spring flavor to it. Good.

14. Slow-Roasted Local Iberian Pig with Morcilla, Early Spring Peas and Carrots, Farro

Porky goodness with some spring veggies. Yummy. Slow-roasted Iberian pig shoulder, blood sausage, and medium-rare tenderloin. The shoulder was great, but it would have been better if it were a belly. The blood sausage was great, and heavily spiced. I can't remember now what the spices were, but it was somewhere in the cardamom, cinnamon, coriander flavor profile. The peas were delicious and fresh, as were the carrots (and the carrot sauce). Very good.

14. Spit-Roasted Katsikaki for two, with Pita and Condiments

Translation: Baby goat shoulder! Had we not opted for the tasting menu, we'd never have tried this, because it's "for two," i.e. one fewer delicious entree for us to try. But now I frown at the possibility that we could have gone to Komi and missed out on the experience of what ought to be their flagship item. This was absolutely amazing. The outside was crispy, the fat rendered out, perfectly encasing the interior. The interior was impossibly moist and tender given how crispy the outside was. It was almost flaky like cooked fish, the way the muscle fibers parted so easily at a press of a fork. The flavor was nice and goaty, while still being quite mild. Goat is much milder than, e.g., lamb (sheep) anyway, and this being a baby goat, the flavor was that much more mild. It had a texture almost like that of pork shoulder, but a flavor more like red meat. Awesome.

It was served with a selection of condiments, which, with one exception, were all delicious with the goat, individually or in combination with each other. From front to back in the picture above, the condiments were: Sage salt, Baba Ghanoush, Pickled ?Radish?, something not good with lots of wasabi, and a Habanero pepper sauce. My favorites were the eggplant, the habanero, and the salt. The habanero sauce, especially, was delicious, with all the pepper's flavor and only a bit of the heat. This sauce was actually much more like harissa than anything one would expect from the cuisines that more typically use habanero. Excellent.

15. Feta Ice Cream with Sour Cherry Gastrique, Cashew Crumble

One member of our party has a fake peanut allergy, so we got cashew crumble instead of what would likely have been a peanut crumble. I don't think that would have improved this much. The sour cherry stuff was quite good, and I thought that the feta ice cream was pretty good (though Jeanette and Betty didn't like it). But all of us agreed that the feta ice cream didn't go well with the sour cherry. And although I haven't tried it, regular feta cheese doesn't work very well with sour cherries in my head, either. So I think this dish just suffered from a bad random pairing. But the components were each pretty good. Fair.

16. Mango and ?Yogurt? Shooter, Fortune Cookies

As a transition from the cheese course to the desserts (though the cheese course was quite dessert-like), we were served little shooters of chilled mango juice, cut with a bit of what I assumed to be yogurt. They probably told us what it actually was, but I can't remember. Anyway, it was yummy mango lassi type goodness, which we drank with straws. We also got fortune cookies with it, which, when broken open, had a message of "Congratulations!" You see, we happened to mention something about graduating from law school, and so they decided to to do the customary free-little-something for us. The mango shooter and fortune cookie could've been a fine end to the meal. But they weren't the end. Good.

17. Greek Doughnuts with Chocolate and Mascarpone "Cannoli"

These have been gushed about all over the DC foodie scene. Suffice it to say that this is an excellent dessert that does a good job giving us something familiar while taking it to a new level. "Cannoli" is my label, not theirs, and while it was good, I think we'd all have rather had a couple more doughnuts instead. Still, I feel like after multiple years on the menu, they could really be striving to do more with their Greek doughnut dessert. Don't they get bored? Still, as presented, it was... Very good.

17. Strawberry Shortcake with Aged Balsamic and ?White Chocolate? Ice Cream

This was delicious, and mostly self-explanatory. The aged balsamic drizzled over the ice cream really brought it all together and bumped it up to something at least a little bit special. Without it, it would've just been fine. The shortcake was a bit too dry, and didn't have enough liquid to sop up. But the balsamic went so well with the strawberries. Good.

17. Chocolate, Pistachio, Saffron

This was a pistachio cake with something chocolate inside, and a ganache on the outside. It was then topped with some pistachios, and served with a pistachio sauce and a chocolate sauce. So far, so good. But the saffron sauce completely derailed the train. I love saffron, but this combination was terrible. The only saving grace was that the saffron sauce was easy to avoid, and then eat separately after finishing the other stuff. But this was just a really, really horrible combination. And even if you don't consider the saffron sauce, what you're left with is still a pretty pedestrian dessert. Bad.

18. Rosewater Lollipop

As a final parting shot, we were given rosewater lollipops along with the bill. They were deftly executed, with just the right amount of sweetness to go with the fragrant rosewater without making them too cloying. I mean lollipops are supposed to be a little cloying, but these were exactly right. And this was no ordinary bonus, no mere mignardise. Why? Because these lasted for the next hour! It was a perfect little Mediterranean end, that left us contemplating the meal for the next hour while we finished them. Excellent.

what a meal! did it cost an arm, if i may ask? looking forward to more heavenly dinners since SF is the city with the most no of ppl dining out.

Posted by: terri at June 23, 2008 2:35 AM

Yes, it was a very expensive meal. An arm and a leg? Well, compared to what? Anything approaching the quality of this meal will cost about what this meal cost. In that sense, it's priced appropriately, even if it is still quite expensive. Their normal dinner (selection of mezzethakia, pasta course, entree course, dessert, plus, I imagine, palate cleansers and lollipops and such) is $84. The degustazione (even more mezzethakia, pasta course, entree course, cheese course, dessert) is $105. Wines were quite reasonably priced, and beers were downright cheap, and with a good selection!

Posted by: Barzelay at June 23, 2008 8:11 AM

i find some of your "grading" to be a bit harsh. i would not characterize any of the dishes as "bad," save perhaps the feta ice cream which, cherries or not, was simply unpleasant to eat. a goat cheese ice cream would have been heavenly because it would have provided just the necessary sweetness that makes ice cream palatable. perhaps i'm simply not ready to jump on the 100% savory ice cream train, but so be it.

in particular, i did not find the cornets to be bad. they were plenty tasty, but just contained indistinguishable and poorly balanced flavors. i also don't remember the chocolate, pistachio, saffron dessert being bad. it was not the most successful flavor combination, but nothing about it offended my taste buds immensely.

for me, the highlights of the meal were without a doubt the amberjack, the gyros (excellent, in my opinion), the sea urchin pasta (this considering that i am not usually a huge aficionado of sea urchin), and the goat.

i should also add, since the post does not make mention of it, that the service was excellent. our server was extremely knowledgeable about every dish and also about the wine and beer selection. he appeared to be someone who, like us, lived and breathed food. things like that can really make an experience, and it certainly enhanced ours.

Posted by: jeanette at June 25, 2008 2:48 PM

did you order the degustazione or the regular menu??

Posted by: billy at January 11, 2009 6:44 PM

We got the degustazione. The cheese course wasn't worth it, but the extra mezzethakia were.

Posted by: Barzelay at January 11, 2009 9:25 PM