Title: Michael Mina @St
Author: GCS

Michael Mina @St. Francis
335 Powell St., San Francisco
http://www.michaelmina.net/ 
Review date:  May 2010

Mina has long been one of my favorite chefs even though he left Aqua over a decade ago. His balanced yet creative cooking, especially with fish, left a lasting impression on me. I loved the Aqua interior, the service was excellent, and if it weren’t for the fact that lunch took 2-1/2 hrs, I probably would have gone more often. Unfortunately it was rare I (or anyone else) could take that long for lunch during a working day, so Boulevard and Splendido saw a lot more of my business back then.

The quality bar keeps going up in the Bay Area, amazing as that seems, with more good chefs than ever arriving on the scene. 15 years ago there was little in the East Bay beyond a mere handful of restaurants that could vie with SF. Now there are a couple of dozen name chefs doing business in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, with more starting up all the time. The recession has slowed things down, but not stopped this progress. There are still SF restaurants we think are worth the trek in, but nowadays there’s enough to keep us happy in our own backyard except for special occasions. 

This was one of them. I chose MM for my birthday dinner, so Carlos and I scanned the posted menus on-line. Unfortunately, the seasonal tasting menu on the web was not accurate, which was disappointing when we sat down to read what the waiter handed us. This happens occasionally, but we didn’t care for the day’s tasting menu (everyone at the table has to participate) so we opted instead for the three-course pre-fixes.

This allowed us a wider range of choices anyway. I asked the waiter if the lobster pot pie – Mina’s signature dish – could be added as a fourth course. He checked with the kitchen to be sure they would do the smaller half-size pies which are normally done as bar food selections. They agreed, and we settled in for the next couple of hours.

With all the dining we’ve been doing the last few years, you might be wondering why we never made much effort to dine at any of Mina’s restaurants (he’s now an empire, with some twenty or so restaurants), it’s partially because I held a long-standing grudge. His namesake, the first of his own after he left Aqua, is located in the old Compass Rose bar space at the St. Francis.

Most of you are too young to remember the few classic wood-paneled grand-scale dining rooms the City still had remaining by the 1970’s. Bardelli’s, with its stained glass panels made by the long-gone San Francisco Glassworks company (who also produced the stained glass dome saved from the old City of Paris department store, which now graces the Neiman-Marcus rotunda off Union Square). The inimitable Redwood Room at the Clift, and the Pied Piper/Maxfield’s bar and restaurant (with its Maxfield Parrish mural commissioned for the Palace Hotel’s rebuilding after the 1906 Earthquake). 

In the late ‘70’s, the St. Francis hotel decided to re-open its lobby bar. Amazingly, the bar had been sealed off for decades, untouched. It opened as the Compass Rose, a dark-paneled, private-club-looking space, serving light bar food and drinks. I fell in love with the Compass Rose. One memorable evening with my favorite aunt who was visiting from Seattle, Carlos, Hana and I literally closed them down. We spent the entire evening noshing on Beluga and Sevruga caviar, authentic blini, smoked salmon, and Schramsberg Blanc de Blanc (Carlos settled for Martinelli’s). That evening ranks as one of my favorite foodie memories, right along with the dinners at the old La Bourgogne and the first few Chinese banquets at the Imperial Palace in its heyday.

Sadly, the Rose couldn’t keep going, and the hotel chose to go after Mina as their ‘name’ draw. When Mina reopened the space, I personally loathed what he’d done to it. He tried to make the space lighter and more open – similar to Aqua’s decor – but in the still dark-wooded, classic St. Francis lobby, the white-washed wood paneling and Corinthian columns are an awkward anomaly at best. 

Sitting in the Michael Mina dining room last night, I still don’t like it, and probably never will. Yes, it’s comfortable, and the tables are good-sized, nicely spaced. And I appreciate contemporary design, in fact I prefer to live with it. But classic architectural rooms should be treasured for what they are, the beauty of grand design and the warmth of an expanse of wood far too valuable to duplicate any longer. Painting it is like sticking the Mona Lisa in a hoodie sweatshirt.

Anyway – on to the food! Mina was in the kitchen, the waiter informed us, so we were eager to begin. The amuse-bouches were lovely, a trio (everything at Mina’s is in threes) of lobster foam bisque, salt cod ball with saffron cream, and Laughing Bird shrimp. The shrimp were plump and tasty, if rather cold; the salt cod (brandade) was yummy. The bisque was amazing, all cream, lobster butter, and chopped lobster – foaming it made it much lighter in texture and more pleasing than if it had been left alone.

I chose the Spring Rabbit/Foie Gras starter: Pea tortellini with rabbit leg confit, rabbit terrine layered with asparagus and served with a small heap of asparagus and baby frisee, and a foie gras mousse with two chive biscuits. They were all excellent, although the tiny biscuits were inadequate to handle the richness of the mousse, which was topped with a thin clear layer of rabbit stock consommé. 
 
Carlos chose the Seafood starter: crab-fennel gratin, fried oysters with a fresh vegetable pickle, and abalone sliced and batter-fried. The gratin was really a raw dip served cold, not hot, with thin slices of toasted bread. It was heavy on the fennel, but I like fennel so I enjoyed the bite Carlos shared with me. He didn’t like the fried oysters – he likes them raw, never cooked. He shared one of the two batons of abalone with me, which was delicious.

The lobster pot pies are brought out in a minor production – no carts, thankfully! The puff pastry top is cut off and plated; the lobster chunks in a brandy-tarragon cream sauce then spooned over it. I love tarragon cream sauces – tarragon or savory are my ‘must use’ whenever I do a cream sauce at home. The lobster was divine, cooked (probably by sous vide) just until tender. The half-portions are very generous, with two huge claws and at least a chunk of tail section, along with some baby veggies. 

It’s a mini-production because each pot pie requires a waiter to serve it; however many at the table order one, that’s how many waiters are required to bring each one out to plate the dishes simultaneously. This actually has value; the pastry gets soggy after a few minutes so one gets more of the textural contrast with the first few bites. If you had to wait for one waiter to serve several of these to a table, it wouldn’t work as well. It’s a luxurious, rich dish that no doubt sends the cholesterol levels soaring, but I loved it. Carlos again is the purist here, he prefers his lobster unadorned except for a generous amount of lemon butter. 

I’m surprised few have copied this dish; it’s a simple idea, really. And although the lobster pot pie is normally a $35 addition to the pre-fixe, I honestly think the two half portions are a better deal at $48. The table next to us got the full size pot pies as part of their pre-fixe, and outside of adding two more tail sections and getting the shells, there really wasn’t much difference in the overall size compared to our half-portions.

I got the Fatty Pigs entrée: two slices of tenderloin, a tiny Schnitzel with fried spaetzle and braised red cabbage. Short rib with braised cabbage and a tiny rolled cylinder of poached apple. A square of braised shoulder with potato rósti and apple mustard.

The tenderloin was amazing – rare, tender and delicious. The schnitzel was ordinary and the spaetzle uninteresting, the red cabbage way too sweet. The short rib was good, the braised Savoy shreds giving a nice bitterness to refresh the palate. The braised shoulder was good but quite salty; the raw apple shreds cut it somewhat but the apple mustard was very strong and too salty by itself to enjoy with the shoulder meat. Overall, tasty yet not as remarkable as the suckling pig plate we had at Auberge two weeks ago.

Carlos had the Beef entrée: Filet mignon (two slices) with ramp and potato puree. Grilled ribeye (two larger slices) with crushed fava beans and a potato gaufrette (a potato chip by any other name, IOW). Braised oxtail, morel mushrooms and herb salad. 

The filet was good but Carlos didn’t like the potatoes. He loves butter in general, but he has a hard time with the higher-fat European butters, some of which have a distinctive taste that he doesn’t care for. Unfortunately, the puree tasted very strongly of this type of butter, so he left most of it. The ribeye was also good, not really amazing, but the fava beans were very salty. Since the ribeye had been sprinkled with sea salt this made the combination too salty for either of us, although eating the beef separately was fine. The braised oxtail was tasty, but as Carlos pointed out, he really didn’t come here to eat a beef stew that he can get anywhere.

So we were pleased, but not especially wowed. This continued with dessert. Again, they were in threes – really, Michael, enough already! – especially for Carlos, who chose the dessert trio, very generous portions of everything.

He received: Goat’s cheese cheesecake with rhubarb and pistachio. Buttermilk panna cotta with rhubarb. Chocolate torte with salted caramel ice cream. The cheesecake was the best of the three, it looked dense but was actually quite light. The panna cotta had an unusual flavor – Carlos thought it might be a touch of fresh ginger – but neither of us liked the large chunks of stewed rhubarb with it. The chocolate torte had a lovely intense flavor but only a thin layer of ganache in the middle, which frustrated Carlos as he muttered, “It’s all (supposed to be) about the chocolate whipped cream.” The ice cream was delicious, much less sweet than many versions, but again...many places make great ice cream these days.

The cheese plate I got was vastly inferior in execution and selection to Madrona Manor (the only thing Madrona did really well). None of the three cheeses were remarkable or terribly interesting, and the accompaniments were too similar – sweet stewed fruits and nuts, on each one.

Coffee, astoundingly, was weak and mediocre, both regular and decaf.

So in essence: we were glad we finally tried MM. But the trios became tiresome after a while, a bit too gimmicky. The food is ridiculously rich, really over the top in its use of butter and cream – remember we both picked meat entrees – and some of the sauce reductions bordered on overly salty.

Earlier this year, Mina got the rights to the old Aqua space (not the name) and plans to move this restaurant to the California & Battery location. The St. Francis location is under negotiations with the hotel and will either become a new Mina restaurant, possibly a steakhouse, or close entirely. He promises to keep the look of the Aqua space intact (good idea!) and simplify his menu (even better). 

I’d like to see Mina go back to the more traditional menu setup of the old Aqua. I’m just not in love with the endless trio plates, and the balance of his dishes seems a lot more precarious when executed by numerous chef du cuisines in a dozen-odd locations. Certain dishes were excellent, but nothing except the lobster pot pie was unique. It could be said that there are just so many really good restaurants nowadays, it’s almost impossible to stand out any longer. But Carlos and I recently enjoyed several restaurants much more than Mina, who seems to have fallen victim to the high expectations he helped to create when he first put those pot pies on the Aqua menu.

Two pre-fixes, one extra course ($48 for the two mini-pot pies), two bottles of water, two beverages, with tip was $371.