Bouche — Restaurant in San Francisco

4.5 stars

I felt like I was reaching the end of my rope with Contemporary-American-French cuisine. Restaurant after restaurant, it just seemed like the same old dishes -- roasted chicken (or quail), braised short ribs, or grilled pork chop with some kind of tart fruit glaze. It got to the point where I started to never crave anything that was "Contemporary-American-French." In fact, without foie gras, I feel like French food (at least in SF) has become boring in general. Tasty, perhaps, but boring. That is until I came to Bouche.

Now, there were some small misses here and there, but honestly, the food at Bouche breathes so much new creative life into the SF food scene that it's worth those small flaws to enjoy a meal that actually makes Contemporary French exciting again.

FOOD:

Scallops: I loved the intricate and subtly sweet flavor to this dish. The dish is a cold dish, which kind of caught me off guard, but the scallops were insanely tender.

Marinated Salmon: This was one of my favorite dishes of the night. The salmon meshed perfectly with the crunchy (equivalent of a) bird's nest and the creme fraiche. I've never had anything like this before and it was an incredible first.

Lamb Shoulder: I normally don't like lamb due to its sour gaminess, but the lamb shoulder is cooked to absolute perfection. It tastes like a very tender braised beef short rib, which is awesome for those who normally hate lamb. What really makes this dish, though, is the sauce -- a sweet marmalade with crunchy almonds-- that really brings out the flavor of the lamb shoulder. I could've done without the tangy sorbet-like carrot coriander puree, since there was so much sweetness in the marmalade already. Perhaps a more subtle puree, like turnip or potato, would complement the marmalade better.

Veal: The veal had an amazing flavor, but it was a bit too well-done. Whatever flavors they used though, worked very well.

Creme Fraiche Panna Cotta: This dessert was a bit too boring and tasteless for me, except those moments when all you have in your mouth is salt (not enjoyable either). The caramel sauce was a nice touch, but it just needed something else to really make this panna cotta memorable.

Bouche has an intimate, hidden atmosphere that really brings out a rustic, underground Paris ambiance. It's actually pretty cool. Kind of reminds me of the upstairs section of Gitane.

Shane, our server, was on point. Our water was always filled, our wine glasses were never empty.

All in all, what I love most about Bouche is that it really pushes the envelope when it comes to discovering wildly inventive flavors. Most of what I ate tonight brought flavors and textures that I've never had before, and it was incredible to experience. I'm impatiently looking forward to a...

My son and I were in San Francisco for a weekend a few weeks back. Of the various restaurants we dined at during our stay, Bouche was by far our favorite. In fact, the food, service, and atmosphere rival some the best places I have frequented in Europe. It is easily in the top three meals I have out in the last two years.

We were greeted immediately upon entering by a cheerful young man who showed us upstairs to our table. The dining area up stairs is very small -- maybe 5 tables -- but cozy and comfortable.

The young woman who was our server came to the table immediately and explained the prix fixe menu. She also offered an amuse bouche which was a lovely welcoming touch.

The wine list is mainly French wine, which I am not that familiar with, so we took the server's recommendation for a wine and were not disappointed. It complemented all the courses of our dinner.

We started with a cheese platter appetizer that included a brie, a blu, and another cheese and well as grapes, nuts and a delicious quince-based spread.

Both my son and I ordered from the prix fixe menu, which included three amazing course for a very reasonable price ($59 the night we dined there).

The dinner also came with a complementary bread that rivaled any I have had on my European travels. Fabulous!

For the first course, my son had the lobster bisque and I had the beet salad. Both very amazing -- full of flavor without being overly salty. They were an excellent precursor to the second dishes.

For the second course, my son had the lamb dish and I had the scallops. Oh my!! The combinations of flavors in both dishes were fresh, interesting, unexpected, and unique. The work of a true chef.

For dessert we both had the pistachio profiteroles. I would have preferred a more traditional profiterole with a whipped cream or custard filling rather than ice cream, but that is a very small complaint.

This was a dinner to remember -- from the excellent service, to the cozy atmosphere to the amazing...

We went to Bouche based off Google maps reviews expecting a good new American cuisine, i.e. good ingredients prepared well.

We had the surprise starter by the chef which was a chicken liver dish. We did enjoy it and it was the first and last good diding experience of the night.

I ordered the pork chop as main which was disappointing. The composition of the dish was good but unfortunately the pork chop was prepared not well at all. There was no sear whatsoever and it almost felt like a boiled meat dish - the fat was not rendered at all which is not good on a pork chop which is approximately 30% fat.

However, while a pork chop is a pork chop even if it's not correctly prepared my partner's porcini linguine was just bad on so many different levels. First of all, it was overcooked to the point of disintegration. However it seems the pasta dough was either substantially overworked and/or contained some sort of bonding agent that kept the stuff together on the plate. However once in your mouth it would have the texture of really sticky glue with a distinct taste of cardboard. It was quite amazing because the mushroom sauce was really decent but paired with the pasta it was just horrible.

Please check my review history generally I'm not giving poor reviews but this one here is well deserved. We score 2/5 due to the good service and good wine. However the main dishes really would score a 0.5/5 - so we would not recommend dining here based off...