Commissary — Restaurant in San Francisco

In short - a wonderful fine dinning experience! This place rates up with some of the finest places I have ever had food - including 3 Michelin star restaurants. My wife and I had the best vegetarian dinner of our lives here and plan on going back every time we pass through the area from now on!

Its not that my wife and I never eat meat, but we are flexitarian (semi-vegetarian). We like to eat as if we are vegetarians most of the time, but don't make a fuss if there is no option. This was the first fine dinning establishment we have ever been to that offered a great selection of vegetarian options.

We started with tofu tacos during happy hour for $3. They were so good, we ended up eating about 6 of them! They featured kimchee salsa, kimchee remoulade, warm seasoned rice and were wrapped in toasted seaweed. I couldn't pick up mine very well. so I happily scooped them from the dish into my mouth. The tofu was light and the whole dish was so fresh it just exploded in our mouths with flavor!

Second we had the Farm Vegetable plate. The waitress informed us that the portion was small before we ordered. The reason was, the dish was made from fresh vegetables grown on the owning family's very own acre-size farm! We went through with the order and were glad we did. The main features of the plate were squash blossoms stuffed with an eggplant puree, which my wife and I thought was very smart. The eggplant puree was so robust and tasty, and the blossoms provided a very stunning look and concealed the greyish puree. The rest of the plate had fresh cherry tomatoes, sour gherkins, strips of squash and zucchini with sweet glazes. The dish was an appetizer worth an award! It was plated so beautifully and had so much flavor! Between the fresh, home grown vegetables and glazes we received several stunning and wonderful flavor surprises!

We then tried the Dumplings, which were filled with shiitake mushrooms and served in a rich and savory dashi-type broth. The dish arrived at the table looking like art and tasted so good we almost ordered a second serving, but we wanted to try more things. Let's talk about this broth though. This broth was perfect. If I could make this broth at home, I would probably live the rest of my life on a liquid diet. It was like a dark, delicious dream. We ate every last drop of it.

Lastly we order the Stonepot, which is basically their version of bibimbap. Whereas the other items we ordered were medium in size, this dish was colossally large! Neither of us could imagine trying to eat this dish by ourselves. It was crammed full of fresh vegetables from the local markets from different types of mushrooms, to cucumber and eggplant, and kimchee -- all laying on a bed of koshihikari rice and topped with an egg. It was served in a huge stone pot (as the name implied), served hot and still cooking the rice on the bottom. They gave us a delicious gochujang sauce on the side to pour over the dish. This dish was perfect for a couple of vegetarians out on a romantic dinner to share. It was warm, fresh comfort food. Every item was cooked perfectly and seasoned stunningly. We had no idea the dish was so large and after we had consumed so much before, had to take half of it home with us.

We had such a great time, the staff were very friendly and took the time to explain every item on the dishes to us. You can tell they are very passionate about their restaurant and care deeply about the satisfaction of...

We came to Namu Gaji on their Noodle Night (First and Last Mondays of the month). We had the 8pm seating, unfortunately our party of 4 were not able to sit at a normal table but at a bar (we paid separately online). I think this could have been solved by calling ahead.

$35 for a 3 course menu seemed pretty good. You choose a time slot and prepay for dinner. However one of the main reasons for the low rating, is that we were majorly rushed. They brought our main dish which seemed like a minute after bringing our first dish. And with the bar seating, the dishes and drinks were taking a lot of space.

We had the duck noodle dish, chicken dipping noodle, and the vegetarian noodle dish. The chicken noodle and vegetarian noodle were a bit bland. However I liked the duck noodle dish. Unfortunately the crab tom yum noodle dish was out by our seating time. The dessert was a great save, since we all enjoyed the banana ganache dessert. (Although save some room, Bi-Rite ice cream is next door)

Overall, I felt very rushed throughout dinner, unsure if that has to do with the fact we already pre-paid. There were definitely no other diners coming in after us on a Monday. I won't be...

After a disappointing brunch at Namu Gaji, I was about to write it off, but a friend convinced me to go again for noodle night and I was glad I did.

Overall, I don't think Namu Gaji is a good value. ($5 Korean "tacos" with an itty bitty amount of bulgogi - are you kidding me?) I can appreciate their use of locally grown and organic ingredients, but I think their regular menu is a little overrated and overpriced.

For brunch, I liked their slow cooked egg in dashi with pork belly. I thought it was flavorful, but the portions were tiny.

I would only come back to Namu for Noodle night (first Monday's every month). I really enjoyed the shoyu ramen with duck confit and crispy duck. The miso ramen was also good, but the broth seemed a little thin and not as flavorful to me. Their handmade noodles were delicious and perfectly cooked though..

Service was a bit slow and it was super crowded for noodle night, so arrive early or make...