Six Test Kitchen — Restaurant in Templeton

Highly recommended for those looking for Michelin Star food (think The Laundry in Napa) at a more affordable price. The outside dining is a bit rustic. But the food i world class.

Location: Young, hip , trendy, ultra modern restaurant in an industrial park in the middle of nowhere. In pre-covid times it was conceived being indoors with 12 barstools on a long counter facing the open kitchen where 3 young combination chefs/servers prepared the food in full view of the audience. Similar to a suchi bar.

Covid put a stop to that and there are now 4 tables with bar stools, sitting 8, outside in a narrow driveway between 2 industrial buildings. Rustic but very virus-safe. Recommended for the covid timid and at risk patrons who must have that 9 course gourmet dinner.

The Menu: Varies according to what is fresh and in season. 1-2 new dishes are introduced daily as produce is available. After a week the whole menu has changed.

Ah, the tyranny of choice. No choice here. I loved the fixed menu with a wine pairing. It takes all stress out dining. Relax, and you will eat stuff you never would have chosen or dreamed of existed. And the sommelier chose wines you have never heard of, some very local, some European. All wines fit each dish superbly. Truly a culinary experience. The 6 dish menu (wine pairing in brackets), I had, was more like 9 dishes as follows:

1 Salmon belly, dill, sorrel (Mittnacht cremant Alsace) Smoked eggplant, summer quash, basil Beet, plum vinegar, shiso 2 Tomato, melon, cucumber, goat cheese (sauvignon blanc) 3 Chicken liver pate, nectrine, grilled corn bread (white blend) 4 Roasted salmon, maitake mushrooms, creamed corn (Barbera d'Alba Superiore Brezza) 5 Dry aged pork loin (35 days), shishito, peach polenta (Giornata Aglianico) 6 Frozen water melon over white custard? (Meulenhof Riesling Spatlese) Caramelized white chocolate, pistachio, plum Candy cap

Wow! And the dishware is quite unique made by a local artist. See the photos of each dish with a picture of the accompanying wine . Fine dining has arrived to the Paso Robles industrial...

It's very small, a total of 12 seats. Everyone sits at what is essentially a bar facing the open kitchen. Two seatings a night spaced 30 mins apart. There is no serving staff, the chefs preparing your food are the ones who serve it to you. The only other member of staff is the beverage director. The menu is LONG, so the pacing is quick. The service is ~2.5 hours all told, and they squeeze a lot into that time. Courses are also appropriately portioned to this time frame. The menu is focused on local ingredients and is executed exceptionally well. The wine pairings were thoughtful, though perhaps unconventional. I liked this, but there were several wines that leaned toward the style of natural wines, so you get some crazy profiles hitting you. That said, the wines were paired exceptionally well to the plates.

Personal highlights: Caviar and trout over buttermilk pancotta Duck breast with braised radicchio and cara cara oranges Fishbone custard (Chawan Mushi) I also quite liked the interactions and discussions afforded by the setup, it's very intimate and personal.

Here's the full menu we had:

Oyster, Nuoc Cham, Cilantro Rockfish, Futsu Squash, Shiso, Lime Duck Liver, Quince, Walnut

Kaluga Caviar, Smoked Trout, Buttermilk

Hamachi, Kiwi, Avocado, Chili

Chawan Mushi, Bacon, Turnip, Mushroom

Charred Brassicas, Cheddar Fondue, Beef Fat

Black Cod, Maitake, Cabbage, Cauliflower

Roast Duck, Raddichio, Citrus, Hazelnut

Dry-Aged Beef, Sunchoke, Onion, Black Truffle

White Chocolate, Grapefruit, Olive Oil

Rice Koji Ice Cream, Strawberry, Macadamia

Passion Fruit Pate de Fruit Bayleaf Salted Caramel Peanut Butter and Dark Chocolate Truffle

And the wines: Ponson Extra Brut, Champagne, France, NV Luis Rodriguez Treixadura/Godello, Ribeiro, Spain, 2017 Joy Fantastic Chardonnay, Santa Rita Hills, 2019 Foradori Teroldego, Trentino, Italy, 2019 Bernard Burgaud Syrah, Coe Rotie, France 2018 Pianora Sweet Vermouth,...

My friends and I recently dined at Six Test Kitchen during a weekend trip to Paso Robles, and the experience was not quite what we expected or envisioned.

Pros: The restaurant is closely following social distancing rules, the presentation of each course was beautiful, the vegetarian courses were flavorful, and each of the 3 dessert courses were fantastic.

Cons: For the steep price, we expected at least one seafood course. We were surprised that the majority of the courses were vegetarian, and that there were three dessert courses (instead of another main course). The duck and pork servings in the one non-vegetarian course were very overwhelming and heavy - we would have preferred to have an option of a lighter, white meat or seafood. Several of us had upset stomachs after dinner, which is certainly not something we expected from this meal. We were disappointed to see that there were no cocktail options, and felt pressured by wait staff to do the wine pairing (though we ultimately decided not to).

Additionally, the restaurant is very difficult to contact (no phone number published anywhere). While the wait staff was attentive and responsive, they came off as quite condescending and unfriendly. Overall, would not dine here again as we felt the price did not match...