SF Restaurant Week Review – The Wild 🍽️🌊

It’s been years since I last joined the SF Restaurant Week buzz — my last experience dates back to pre-pandemic times! The Wild, which replaced the acclaimed Gozu, had been on my list ever since the rebrand. When I spotted it on this year’s Restaurant Week lineup, I quickly snagged a reservation for the very first day. The menu offered a four-course meal, but we were also treated to several delightful extras: a one-bite tuna appetizer, warm bread served with garlic honey butter (so good! 🧈🍯), and two bonus petit desserts — sweet little surprises along the way. One thing to note: the price online was listed as $90, but we were charged $95 per person at the venue. In terms of food, I have to say — the starters (and even the complimentary bites) outshone the main courses for me. The salad was a masterpiece of texture and flavor. Every bite brought together different ingredients and dressings in the most exciting way — I finished it in just a few mouthfuls but savored each one. 🥗💫 Then came the crab roe tofu — so rich and delicate, it almost tricked me into thinking I was eating hairy crab! I double-checked the menu: it was Dungeness crab. Okay, my mistake — but it was truly delicious. My only complaint? The portion was way too small 😒. For the main course, I upgraded for +$23 to try the beef, in addition to the original black cod. What puzzled me was — both proteins, though completely different, were served with the same base sauce 🤨. The fish was tender and moist, grilled beautifully over charcoal, but the sauce didn’t elevate it. The beef — despite the extra cost — was just okay, and paired with that same mild sauce, it tasted almost bland. A saving grace was the mushroom side that came with it — deeply umami and sweet, almost good enough to make me forget the chewy beef… The dessert on the menu stood out with a distinct seaweed note — a clear nod to the restaurant’s oceanic theme (I was literally gazing at the menu — The Wild Ocean — as I ate it 🌿). It made for a memorable ending, quite different from my past experiences at Gozu. The final bill came close to $300 for two, and that was with just one main course upgrade and no alcohol. All in all, I’d rate it a 7.1/10. Had the mains been stronger — or the sauces more thoughtfully paired — I’d easily go up to 8.2. Still, for anyone curious about their new direction, The Wild’s regular menu looks promising — featuring uni pasta, lobster, and abalone. It’s clearly aiming to win over seafood lovers. As for this Restaurant Week menu: it was good, but didn’t exceed expectations — though it still lived up to the Michelin sign hanging by the door. #SanFrancisco#BayAreaEats #HiddenRestaurantGems #SFRestaurantWeek #FoodDiary #WhatToEatInSF #MichelinDining