By Virginia Miller
Their swoon-worthy fried chicken and uni boxes were a lifeline in pandemic, and their pivot since reopening to modern Korean tasting menu format has swiftly earned them a Michelin star in December 2022. But what is the reinvented SSAL like in its remodeled, more refined, soothing space?
First off, it’s more fine dining, though still relaxed and intimate, a restaurant that would easily fit in with the Michelin-starred restaurants I dined at recently in Seoul, S. Korea.
Secondly, they’re an important part of a San Francisco Korean wave that has long been overdue given LA and NYC’s dense Korean offerings, the largest Korean populations in the U.S. But given the fact that California has the nation’s largest Korean population, SF, San Jose and Oakland are still home to a sizeable demographic. But in the last couple decades, beyond Korean BBQ, the cuisine hasn’t been as dominant locally as Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese or certainly Chinese.
In the last couple years, things really started to change for San Francisco-based Korean restaurant eateries. Hit-and-miss but welcome spots like Bansang opened, while upscale new Sugaran temporarily closed while they look for a new location. 2021 opening San Ho Won — from chef Corey Lee of three Michelin-starred Benu — went on to gain a Michelin star for its next-level Korean barbecue. Casual eateries from Ilcha to The Korner Store turn out Korean drinking food with Korean soju, wines, makgeolli and chungju.
SSAL predated each of these, evolving from where they started, and I’ve believed in Hyunyoung and Junsoo Bae’s restaurant since they opened. The Baes are both Korean-born Culinary Institute of America alums who came from serious fine dining pedigree, including three Michelin Napa legends The French Laundry and The Restaurant at Meadowood, with Junsoo’s complicated past at NYC’s Gramercy Tavern. Visiting on a recent October night, I settled in with a close friend for their tasting menu format.
The cozy dining room is more inviting than before, with custom-made accents from Korean craftspeople, minimal flowers and punctuation of color against the dining room’s white glow.
Beginning with a silky sip of Kimpoyeaju golden Korean rice wine, starting bites included one of my all-time favorite Korean dishes. Sundae is a tender, dark blood sausage, here wrapped in an osmanthus leaf with a layer of walnut hazelnut ssamjang sauce. This is one of the best sundae sausages I’ve ever had, including in Korea, on par with the great sundae at the sadly now-closed, Michelin-starred Maum in Palo Alto.
By the time we’re on to The Caviar Co. Kaluga caviar course, it’s clear there are going to be moments of ecstasy here, this course being the highest.
This is easily won with caviar and Japanese sea urchin, specifically bafun uni from Hokkaido. Bafun uni, the more rare and smaller sea urchin, is harvested from far deeper ocean depths. But bluefin tuna tartare served in a caviar tin with a mother of pearl caviar spoon sets an artful stage for silky caviar atop the raw tuna punctuated with the crisp of puffed rice, accompanied by the umami richness of dark orange uni.
The pièce de résistance, however, is not these luxury items so much as hand-pressed sesame oil made by Junsoo’s dad in Korea. When I tasted “real” Korean sesame oil in Korea last year, it was a revelation, almost like drinking peanut butter if it were the purest extra virgin olive oil. Bae’s sesame oil is the ultimate: nutty and lush, drizzled over the raw tuna, imbuing it with luxurious depth.
While it may be impossible to top this glory, my feast at SSAL held numerous highlights. A hot-and-cold dish centered by a medium-rare Hokkaido scallop is usurped by three types of tomatoes grown in their back garden, including sungold and dry-farmed early girl tomatoes. Northern California tomatoes in season are the most glorious I ever have in the world and they were so here, especially in tomato jam form and cooling, jalapeno-tomato broth. Accents of sea grapes, gooseberry, kombucha skins and basil oil add dimension.
Just as he showed us their fresh, live eel before an opening bite of comforting eel wrapped in gamtae seaweed, chef Junsoo brought a rare beltfish to our table — straight from South Korea’s Jeju Island — to show us its size and shimmering skin. It was served flaky and tender, partnered with pine mushrooms, spicy fish rice cooked in the fish’s bone stock and an array of banchan, or Korean bites. Each banchan was a treat, from one-month-aged kimchi aged a month, to vibrant green chile and lime-marinated Half Moon Bay anchovies.
Another unique, killer course is Hodo Soy silken tofu dotted with octopus, Saltspring Island mussels and crab-laced miso is a play on traditional soondubu doenjang-jjigae, a tofu soybean paste stew. It’s partnered with a “crossando” from beloved SF bakery, Ariscault, made for SSAL and served with injeolmi (roasted soybean powder) butter. This insanely flaky, airy, croissant-like square of bread could start a new baking craze and is hella superior to a cruffin, as far as I’m concerned.
There’s no slouch course here. Even when I weary of meat courses, SSAL surprised with Brennville quail from Wolfe Ranch, a longtime single Vacaville farmer legend who only supplies his superior quail to the best-of-the-best Michelin-starred restaurants that include Benu, The French Laundry, Acquerello, Birdsong, Californios. Bae says he took some convincing — and SSAL’s Michelin-star gain — to start supplying them with his plump, larger quail. It’s cooked to perfection here, smoked with cherry and applewood, accented with pluots, and a squab vinaigrette lively with heat-less habanero, bitter red ginseng and Korean raspberry wine.
Besides a pour of fresh Hamakawa Shoten Tokubetsu ‘The Gentleman’ Bijofu junmai sake, wine pairings lean mostly French, with a crisp Germain Riesling in the mix. Pairings wove from a rounded 2019 Domaine Weinbach Pinot Gris from France’s Germanic region of Alsace, to the acidic minerality of always-blissful Burgundy: 2022 Les Héritiers du Comte Lafon Macon-Village. None of the pairings were surprising, but all were classic, elegant and balanced the menu’s vivid flavors.
Out of three dessert courses, Brentwood sweet corn ice cream sang of the warmth of our always late-summer October weather, enhanced by black truffles and jocheong crispy Sacramento koshihikari rice and gold cream #3 rice. The dessert is toasty, earthy, sweet, comforting. Clean, juicy bites of perfectly ripe Zuckerman Farms canary melon and shinko pears make a Chez Panisse-worthy finish as you pay the pricy-but-worth-it bill.
What the Baes and their smart team have evolved SSAL into post-pandemic is impressive. It’s like an already pleasant young person, who in a short time has matured into a nuanced and more holistic adult, gentle yet more expressive and robustly themselves. Given SF’s current Korean food wave, this is one of the most standout Korean restaurants and I hope it’s around enough years to taste what other realms SSAL can mature to.
// 2226 Polk Street, www.ssalsf.com
Virginia Miller is a San Francisco-based food & drink writer.
The Bold Italic is a non-profit media organization that’s brought to you by GrowSF, and we publish first-person perspectives about San Francisco and the Bay Area. Donate to us today.
