Sons & Daughters - San Francisco
View from the dining room
Rating: 17/20
Where: San Francisco, CA
When: Dinner for 2 on 21 August 2024
Cost per Person: Tasting menu $295, Wine Pairing $185-$265
Accolades: 2 Michelin Stars
Why: Excellently executed New Nordic cuisine full of bold flavors
“Sons & Daughters” is a restaurant in the Nob Hill neighborhood of San Francisco, a few blocks north-west of Union Square. My only previous dinner here had been in 2012, a few months after it gained its first Michelin star. Fast forward to 2024, and Sons & Daughters finally received a second star. It turns out that a lot had changed since my last visit. A new chef, Harrison Cheney, had taken over the restaurant at the beginning of 2023 and completely revamped the menu. According to an interview with Michelin, he said that “there's nothing [left] from the old Sons & Daughters, apart from the bones of the building.” And that's pretty much what we found: what used to be a “normal” Californian cuisine had become decidedly Scandinavian, but with Californian ingredients. If this restaurant were in Copenhagen, nobody would raise an eyebrow.
From the outside, it looked as if the restaurant’s exterior was made entirely of mirrors. It was only after entering that these mirrors revealed themselves to be one-way: it was possible to look out on to the street, but passing pedestrians weren’t able to look in, giving diners a modicum of privacy. The dining room was split into two areas connected by a short flight of stairs, and the open kitchen faced the restaurant’s entrance.
Sons & Daughters offered a single tasting menu that was adapted for dietary restrictions. An additional course featuring French caviar was also available, for an initially unnamed price that turned out to be $115 when the check arrived. There were also two beverage pairings, consisting of wines and non-alcoholic drinks, respectively. The wine pairing had pretty decent wines that went well with the food. For an additional $80, there was an option to pair the two meat courses with not just one, but two glasses of wine each. That's a neat concept that I've seen surprisingly rarely, for example at three-starred Atelier Moessmer in Italy and at two-starred Mélisse in Santa Monica. Unfortunately, the second glasses didn't really add much to the experience - they were neither notably better nor very different from the standard pairings, so I would skip them next time. The non-alcoholic beverage pairing was pretty good as well. Almost all drinks were made in house, and the majority of them were not too sweet - which is a big plus in my book.
Our dinner started with a series of snacks. In hindsight, we probably should have ordered an aperitif, since the beverage pairings started only much later, but oddly none was offered proactively. First, we were served a broth made of tomatoes, juniper oil and last year's preserved garlic. A nice beginning with good flavors. There was a hint of sweetness, but not too much, and thankfully a restrained use of salt 17.
Next, raw spot prawns, gooseberry garum and salt-baked kohlrabi were served on a knäckebröd cracker (a Swedish crisp bread). This dish was also full of flavors. The prawns were lovely and a bit sweet, and the bread had a soft crunch 17.
The next course looked like a flower bed, and in fact contained more decoration than actual food. In its center sat a buckwheat croustade filled with 35-day-dry-aged dairy cow tartare, elderberries and butter that had been smoked over the previous day's embers. For the most part, this was another lovely bite, nicely smoky and with big flavors. My only complaint would be that the lingering aftertaste came from the berries on top, and they were a bit too sweet compared to the rest of the dish 17. The pescatarian replacement used beets instead of beef, but unfortunately I didn't get to try it.
The last amuse bouche was a cracker topped with sliced raw turnips that had been seasoned with a house-made miso and fresh horseradish. There was a strong fermented taste here, presumably from the miso, that overpowered pretty much everything else in the dish - for example, I couldn't detect the horseradish. The cracker was quite good with a crumbly texture 16.
The next course marked the start of the beverage pairings. The dish contained anchovies, lactic fermented plums, cucumbers, and a brine made from lactic fermented cucumbers, dill and oxalis. Essentially, this tasted like a fresh cucumber and herbs salad. There was barely any fish(y) taste, the anchovies were mostly there for their meaty texture. Quite good 17.
A slice of locally caught halibut was served with Meyer lemons, lactic fermented vegetables and dill. The fish was very tender, almost creamy in texture, and the dish was strongly flavored, acidic and salty. Seemingly simple - fish, vinegar and salt - but very tasty. I only wish that the portion had been larger 18.
Next came the previously mentioned optional caviar course. A generous helping of caviar sat on top of a potato foam that in turn covered some diced pickled vegetables, cucumbers and tomatoes as well as a cracker. The caviar was quite good, consisting of small, creamy roe. There was some acidity and crunch from the pickled vegetables, and a bit of creaminess thanks to the foam. A good dish, but not as compelling as the preceding courses, and not really worth the $115 price tag 17.
Scallops came in two quite different preparations. First, a raw scallop was served with white asparagus granita, geranium oil and rapeseed cream. Second, there was a rye bread that looked like a small taco and was filled with smoked scallops and herbs. The raw scallop was the lighter of the two dishes, and actually tasted mostly of the white asparagus. But there was also a hint of nuttiness and a little acidity. The “taco” was much stronger flavored, quite smoky and almost meaty in texture 17.
The bread for the evening had been made from wheat, spelt, brown butter and dark syrup. It came with a fresh cheese adorned with small chanterelles, herbs and flowers. The bread was pretty simple and a bit crumbly in texture, but the dip was delicious, somewhat similar to an herb quark 16.
Black cod from nearby Half Moon Bay was served with a side of grilled green strawberries, tomatoes, pickled rose petals, and a sauce made from juiced strawberries, celery and butter. Again, a dish that displayed big flavors - the fish was truly excellent, it melted in one's mouth, and the creamy sauce was balanced by the pointed acidity of the sides. An excellent, but admittedly not particularly photogenic, dish 19.
The next course was the second one to look like a flower bed, but this one was fully edible. It contained sprouted and toasted buckwheat, morel mushrooms and a center of broccoli rabe. Thanks to the morels, this dish tasted a bit earthy, and there was some acidity, lots of salt, and a texture that came mostly from the broccoli rabe. The different components had potential, but they didn't quite come together for me. Good, but not as compelling as the other courses 16.
The first meat course of the night featured two cuts of applewood-smoked quail: a breast, and - quite explicitly - a leg. Sides of ramps, rutabaga, and a sauce made from ramp leaves completed the dish. The rolled-up ramps unfortunately didn't taste of much, but the quail was cooked very nicely. Its breast meat was tender, and the leg had been bbq'ed and was a bit sweet thanks to its marinade. Lovely 17. The pescatarian alternative replaced the quail with a piece of lobster that was a tad chewy but was otherwise a delicious match for the sauce. In my mind, it was a little bit better than the quail 17.
Our final savory course centered on thinly sliced saddle of lamb. It was served with a cream of sunflower seeds, berries, kelp, currants, sea kelp pods, and a sauce made from the lamb saddle. The lamb was fine, but not very flavorful, and, weirdly, it was served only at room temperature. The berries also felt a bit too acidic for the meat 16. The pescatarian (or vegetarian, for that matter) replacement for the lamb was a slice of celeriac that had been salted, cooked in its own juices and then grilled. The accompanying sauce was made of onions and celeriac, and the sides were the same as for the lamb. This was by far the better dish of the two. The celeriac was very flavorful: acidic, salty and with a caramelized taste. Its flavor profile also happened to be a much better match for the sides. An excellent final dish 18.
The following palate cleanser consisted of a sorbet of lovage, a blackberry caramel and a pear juice granita. This combination was mostly sweet and had only light savory notes. The flavors of the berries and the ice cream dominated 16.
The main dessert was a sour cream sorbet that came with grilled, chamomile-infused peaches and a jelly made of whey. As desserts go, this one wasn’t too sweet, the peaches in particular were on the tart side. The dish had an intense herbal flavor, making it more acidic and savory than one would expect at this time of the meal 16.
Three small bites concluded our dinner. An acorn miso cake tasted slightly of blue cheese, and had a light crunch 16. Sweet wheat buns made with spruce were served warm and had an interesting aftertaste 15. Finally, a jelly made from kombucha was very sweet - in fact, the sweetness overwhelmed whatever taste one might have expected from the kombucha 15.
A few words about the service. It was nice that many dishes were explained by the chefs themselves. However, several of the staff talked very fast and not too clearly, so that it was hard to understand what exactly we were about to eat. The unusually detailed printed menu (see below) might have helped, but it was handed out only after the meal. We also felt that the service ran a tad too fast - courses seemed to follow each other with barely any gaps, concluding our dinner of 17-ish courses in less than three hours. I didn't see any tables being resat, so I'm not sure where the hurry came from.
Overall: This was excellent Nordic cuisine with lots of fermentation and acidity. It really felt like a piece of Copenhagen transplanted right into San Francisco. With many outstanding dishes, it made for a well-deserved two stars 17.
