Did we need another fine dining, tasting menu-only restaurant? “Need” is maybe the wrong choice of words. With the arrival of Kiln, just open May 16th, 2023, in Hayes Valley in the former Cala space, we have yet another upscale restaurant that already exemplifies why San Francisco easily offers the U.S.’ best fine dining, but is also a global player.
In our tiny 7x7 miles and surrounding Bay Area and wine countries, we have 51 Michelin-starred restaurants, while NYC, nearly 7 times the size of SF, has 73. The next most Michelin-starred restaurant city in the US is Chicago with 23 restaurants. And again, a far larger city. And many of our great tasting menu restaurants, from Merchant Roots to don’t even have Michelin star (but should).
Along with other newcomers this year already like Aphotic, Copra, Anomaly SF and Akikos, Kiln has laid the groundwork and has the goods for a future Michelin star, starting with tight service from gracious partner/general manager Julianna Yang and team and chef/partner John Wesley (who cooked at 2 Michelin-starred spots like Baumé and Commis), both formerly working together at Michelin-starred Sons & Daughters in San Francisco, as general manager and chef de cuisine respectively. Sons & Daughters recently underwent major changes with a new chef from notable Stockholm and London restaurants (my full review here). It seems many from the former Sons & Daughters’ team landed at Kiln, including chef de cuisine Carlos Andrade.
Kiln is home to a talented team leading the open kitchen in full view at the end of a lofty, 3,400-square-foot industrial space, centered by an olive tree in a custom-designed table. Ten tables are well-spaced out in the dining room alongside bar seating with an abbreviated tasting menu (8 to 10 courses, $135).
My partner Dan (“The Renaissance Man”) and I dined on a recent June weeknight on the 18–20 course extended menu ($225 per person). The menu’s influences are global, the farmers, sustainably sourced meats and wild-caught seafood all seasonal, and preservation, fermentation, curing and open-fire cooking are common touchpoints.
Before the first bite arrived, we noticed the details. In the cement-walled space, bright, warm lighting over the tables cast lovely shadows in between. Gorgeous wooden tableware from Bird & Branch Turnery in London, glass pieces from Zelmer Olsen in Denmark, porcelain from Jacques Pergay in France and Arita Porcelain Lab in Japan, ceramics from KwangJuYo and Newjiii Ceramics, both in Seoul. This changing array of tableware is one of the most artful, standout elements of the Kiln experience. We also noticed the soundtrack, veering from Frank Ocean and Drake to Lana Del Rey and Mos Def.
Then 18 courses began to arrive over 3 hours. Mini-bites initially were appropriately small, a building crescendo that was just right until about 2/3 into the meal when I started to feel it and struggled to finish the remaining courses. Be forewarned: come starving and pace yourself.
As with any place deserving higher accolades, Kiln’s beverage pairings are a big focus, helmed by beverage director Vincent Balao, former lead sommelier at Atelier Crenn, with time at Spruce, Benu and Bar Crenn. Food and drink are intentionally a team effort between kitchen and somm, with non-alcoholic (NA) pairings a heavy focus in tasting ($125) and bar menu ($75) “spirit-free” pairings, or tasting ($165) and bar menu ($105) drink pairings running the gamut from ciders to sake. Naturally, we tried one of each full tasting beverage menu (regular and NA) to sample each intended layer of flavor.
Now about that food. With this many courses, highlights were numerous. Amuse bouche-like initial bites held delights like a tiny, chicharron-like puffed beef tendon of Korean sweet potato flour laced with roasted onion vinegar, dehydrated onion powder and fried chive blossoms, giving off a sour cream and onion dip vibe. Or a dreamy croustade filled with creamy Sacramento smoked sturgeon mousse, bright with acidic kick from verjus, contrasted with the crisp of fried seaweeds.
Luxury ingredients starred often, like spot prawns from Carabineros, Spain. Normally they source spot prawns locally from Half Moon Bay when in season. Raw spot prawns are layered paper thin with grilled cream, chamomile and an emulsion of the prawn heads over kohlrabi root. Paired with Kawatsuru “Olive” Junmai Ginjo sake from Kagawai, Japan, an olive yeast sake I first fell in love with at Michelin-starred Nisei, layers of ultra-ripe honeydew/cantaloupe enhanced the silky bite. On the NA pairing side, a “Verde Side” cocktail of Seedlip Garden 101, cucumber and lime juices goes garden-fresh.
I’m ever a shoo-in for caviar, here Petrossian osetra caviar over Pacific Northwest crab in a creamy sauce of Monterey dried ogo seaweed, horseradish and dill. This course echoed chef Harrison Cheney’s caviar leek dish at Sons & Daughters (S&D), though Wesley only had brief overlap with Cheney. There were just a couple Kiln courses in the same spirit as S&D’s Scandinavian touches. Another is Kiln’s wild Norwegian mackerel with preserved ramps and dried shellfish in a sauce inspired by Chinese XO sauce with an umami kick and a reduction of fish bones and water. Both these dishes were highlights in the menu.
More seafood came in the form of Portuguese blue lobster over roasted tomato miso and broth laced with Pilsner beer and roasted yeast. Like at Sons & Daughters — and, let’s be honest, most SF fine dining restaurants worth anything in SF, long the baking capital of the U.S. — bread is another strength at Kiln. A savory fermented caraway potato bread with beef tallow butter benefits from a bowl of vibrant green-yellow centered by a slow-poached jidori egg yolk nestled in pickled alliums and roasted chicken broth. The bread is subtly savory-sweet, sheer comfort in the yolk broth — I noticed chef Wesley employed a welcome sweet contrast to this bread and to a burnt honey and fennel pollen crust on Modesto squab with Australian winter truffles and braised endive.
Yin-yang pairings that stood out included a mineral 2020 Domaine de la Taille Aux Loups Chenin Blanc from France’s Loire Valley and an NA twist on a classic Paper Plane cocktail. Their Paper Kiln is an interplay between rye and bitter lemon using Lyre’s and Ghia NA spirits.
Maybe my favorite meat course amid thicker cuts of meat was slight but glorious strips of paper-thin, cured wild boar loin from Texas cured in juniper, evoking an almost yuzu-citrus like whisper in its juniper crust. I wish I could order a whole charcuterie board of this one for my next wine and charcuterie spread.
Maui Nui Axis venison arrives cooked four ways, from shanks to strip loin. Some of the dishes’ partnering accents threaten to steal the juicy show from the meat cuts, like a venison shank-laced custard or a tiny but memorable celeriac cracker touched with marrow.
A savvy cheese and bread course spin was a warm cup of smoked pork trotters broth nurturing with koji oil and accompanied by a little rye beignet laced with piccolo cheese. The course benefited from a pairing of Why Yuzu Sour?, an NA yuzu sour cocktail twist graced with nutty whispers of genmaicha tea, kombu and amazake foam.
Dessert is elevated in execution yet blessedly simple as two sorbet/ice cream courses, followed by mignardise (dessert bites, like an anise-heavy caramel in edible wrapper). Think a tea-heavy chamomile sorbet in rhubarb beeswax sauce, then a lush goat butter ice cream in woodruff foam and birch syrup. Drink pairings brought needed acid and bright fruit contrast to both desserts: a fresh apple 2018 Eden Ice Cider from Vermont, made in the style of icewine, and a tart strawberry shrub (vinegar base) herbaceous with tarragon and perilla leaf.
Much as I never tire of any good thing, whether superb taquerias or sandwich shops, bakeries or noodle joints, I still am crazy about and see the “need” for well-executed fine dining. For food as art form (but it should always be delicious). Even when we have dozens of such restaurants at world class levels in SF, I can never complain about more goodness, more creativity. Or about a city where for decades the standard has been so high and the craft challenged at the finest levels in food, that it keeps spawning more excellence in every neighborhood. This is ever confirmed as I dine around the world regularly at many of the most notable, award-winning restaurants globally.
Kiln’s team has a commitment to deliciousness behind their experimentation. Though not yet matured at merely a month in, it hits out of the gate on enough cylinders I could see it growing into yet another of our key fine dining destinations in this small but mighty city of food and drink pioneers.
// 149 Fell Street, www.kilnsf.com
Virginia Miller is a San Francisco-based food & drink writer.
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