Benu — Restaurant in San Francisco

I waiver between 2 and 3 stars, but will give 2 stars because while some of the dishes were truly memorable, the service and atmosphere was lacking for a fine dining establishment. My overall experience was not "amazing" and was not even "great". It was "good", and after paying almost $1k per person, including beverage pairing, I expect "amazing". But it was not, and I wont return or recommend Benu. I have had amazing experiences in other high end highly rated restaurants that I have returned to in the past, but Benu fell short primarily in service and atmosphere and secondarily in food/wine.

The two (or 2.5) stars I am giving is because some of the food was truly memorable, and some of the wine served was delicious and incredible well paired. I won't reveal the star dishes in our mind as the surprise is part of the experience, but overall, there was a ton of creativity, a few AMAZING and MEMORABLE dishes, maybe two misses for my wife and one for me and many very good dishes. Most the wine pairings worked really well, and I particularly enjoyed the German whites and the Bordeaux. Also, a big positive was the table setting; there was an incredibly attention to detail from the warm table to the plates, bowls, silverware and glassware provided.

The service was professional and adept, but my wife and I both found the service mostly austere and impersonal. We did not feel special, and felt like most of the services did not care whether we were there or not, or whether we enjoyed the food (I don't recall anyone asking). Even the recognition of my wife's birthday seemed rote or mechanical. Also, while I loved that Benu reached out beforehand to ask about allergies and food preferences, asking detailed questions about my response, overall, I feel that the service is inflexible. This was particularly noted with the beverage pairing where we expressed a strong desire to substitute the beer and avoid sweet wines. They politely declined to sub out the beer pairing and served us a sweet wine with dessert anyway. The beverage director emphasized at one point that personal preference is what determines where pairings work, but then told us we could not sub out the beer pairing. We thought it was strange and counter to any experience at other fine dining restaurants. And by the way, we did not care for the beer pairing, nor the sweet wine that we never wanted. Overall, we feel that the service significantly took away from the experience.

I mentioned before that the value was not there for us. In addition to the high overall cost (about $1k per person with wine pairing), I felt like Benu was trying to increase the overall cost and make as money as possible. While I am a capitalist and don't mind Benu and its owners profiting from their success, I don't like feeling like I am being taken advantage of. For example, the wine list does not have anything in the way of reasonably priced wines, the wine list or wine pairing prices are not disclosed on the website so that you are locked in to the high prices once you arrive (actually the wine pairing price is not listed on the menu either), there is a 20% mandatory service charge even on expensive bottles of wine (which also means that you incur sales tax on the service charge as well because mandatory charges are subject to tax in CA), and we were charged for a serving of sake after my wife asked for more of what was poured for us as part of the pairings. My wife raised this with the staff when we got our bill, and the "body language" of the response was less apologetic for the misunderstanding and more about just explaining that we had asked for it; I actually don't recall the actual words.

My wife found the restaurant atmosphere to be too stark and uninteresting, and taking away from the experience. She didn't sense warmth or any interesting about the surroundings. I didn't feel as strongly, and enjoyed the Coltrane background music. Maybe the unremarkable atmosphere is purposeful to keep the focus on the...

One of the best fine dining experience I've had! In terms of food - both taste and texture - I can confidently say that this was the best fine dining/three Michelin starred food I've had. Ambience and service was great as well. Worth the money!

You can tell that they put a lot of thought to come up with each dish, especially the small delicacies. A lot of other fine dining places only care about the taste, some other places only care about expensive ingredients, some only care about cool technique. I feel like at Benu, they make sure that each dish has the perfect texture as well as flavor combination and then find the right technique and ingredients to achieve that. Every ingredients they put was prepared to perfection and contribute to the overall taste and experience of the dish. Presentation was impeccable. Very impressive!

More details on the course: Small delicacies: Thousand years quail egg: pretty good thousand years egg! Oyster, pork belly, kimchi: The kimchi wrapper was so crispy and gave a kick to the overall dish. Oyster was fresh, and the cream foam thingy right under the oyster gave it a nice savory and smooth feeling. I'm not sure where the pork belly part is. The dish supposed to be cold and hot at the same time but maybe I didn't eat it fast enough when it came (need to take picture first lol) Stuffed mussel: Again, the texture on the mussel was really good! It was tender but still have the perfect chewiness at the same time. Also, so colorful! Jellyfish-wrapped shrimp tempura: the tempura was perfectly crispy without being too oily. Seasoning was perfect. The seaweed on top was very fragrant. Uni marinated in fermented crab sauce on top of some onion or something? So good!!! But then again, how could uni be bad :p Eel pancake with ginkgo nut: The pancake was so thin and they toasted the pancake making it so fragrant. Gingko nut gave it a nice texture as well! Abalone Stuffed chicken wings: THIS ONE SO GOOD! Best chicken wings seasoning I've had. Not to mention that it was so moist, tender, and not too oily. They stuffed abalone in there and the abalone is very tender as well. So good! Shark fin soup: Surely tasted and looked like shark fin soup so they achieved what they wanted to achieve (shark fin soup without actual shark fin). Bread with honeybutter: It was a good warm fluffy sourdough bread

Lobster coral Xiao Long Bao Without a doubt the best xiao long bao I've had in my life. The wrapper very thin but doesn't break at all. You can smell the lobster even before biting into it. The broth is amazing.

Half-dried cod fried rice with spicy caviar and egg yolk Another very fragrant dish. The spicy caviar and egg yolk brought the fried rice to another level

Spring chrysanthemum tofu soup Not really a fan of the broth but it was soothing. The tofu itself was really good and really pretty! The texture was like a super soft fish tofu and they made it in a shape of chrysanthemum flower which surprisingly make the texture even better

Barbequed quail One of the best poultry I've had. It was cooked so perfectly, better than any chicken/duck/turkey (any poultry really) I've had. Apparently the quail itself is fattier than regular quail as it was raised by a farmer that's been working with them forever.

Veal short rib + side dishes This was really good! Really tender and flavorful! The bone-in ribs fell off the bone so easily. I wish they gave more!

Omija sorbet Not a fan of omija but it was a good sorbet

Milk Pudding One of the best dessert I've had! So milky, creamy, and smooth!

Rice cake, rice tea, and toasted mint Nice refreshing...

Ben Overall, we had an excellent meal here to celebrate my birthday. When we arrived ~ 30 min early, we were seated in a little antechamber lounge. Oddly there were no drinks or interaction, which I found a little atypical for a restaurant of this caliber. Taking a look around, we notes a stark minimalist design with exposed beams, white walls, and tasteful art. Seevice was polished and showed a caring touch when the moved is away from an obnoxious lightweight patron. Onto the food. We enjoyed every course of the modern asian menu but there were some highlights. The common theme was good knifework and excellent presentation. Thousand yr old egg. Rich creamy wasabi. Mussel stuffed w noodles and veggies. Delicate beautiful. Prawn wrapped in jellyfish. Crispy. Sea urchin on beef tartare. Delicious. Rich. Balanced w raw onion and faint spice Blooming tofu. Beautiful tofu looks like a camomile. Very delicate. When you spoon the little chili oil spheres the burst. Frog- tender, aromatic Oak taco- iberico ham, truffle, acorn. Earthy. Salty Sourdough w ginseng honey butter. Lobster Xiao long bao. Good not best. Nice thin wrapper. Ginger a little strong. Deconstructed roll. Prawn, seaweed, rice. River eel Steamed sea bass tender Beef rib. So tender and rich. Delicious. Thick reduced beef soup. Omija and olive oil. Well balanced flavors. Refrshing. Milk pudding on caramel. Peaty aftertaste Burthday cake Mint merengue

Benu Overall, we had an excellent meal here to celebrate my birthday. When we arrived ~ 30 min early, we were seated in a little antechamber lounge. Oddly there were no drinks or interaction, which I found a little atypical for a restaurant of this caliber. Taking a look around, we notes a stark minimalist design with exposed beams, white walls, and tasteful art. Seevice was polished and showed a caring touch when the moved is away from an obnoxious lightweight patron. Onto the food. We enjoyed every course of the modern asian menu but there were some highlights. The common theme was good knifework and excellent presentation. We actually enjoyed the off menu starters more than the main courses. Mussel stuffed w noodles and veggies. Beautifully sliced into one millimeter slices. Delicate and beautiful. Sea urchin on beef tartare. Delicious. Rich. Balanced w raw onion and faint spice Blooming tofu. Beautiful tofu looks like a camomile. Very delicate. When you spoon the little chili oil spheres burst. Oak taco- iberico ham, truffle, acorn. Earthy. Salty Sourdough w ginseng honey butter. Lobster Xiao long bao. Good not best. Nice thin wrapper. Ginger a little strong. Deconstructed roll. Prawn, seaweed, rice. Steamed sea bass tender Beef rib. So tender and rich. Delicious. Thick reduced beef soup. Omija and olive oil. Well balanced flavors and nice way to join together all the flavors. Refreshing. Milk pudding on caramel. Peaty aftertaste Surprise delicious birthday treat was...