Nari — Restaurant in San Francisco

We decided to celebrate our anniversary with the Chef's choice menu at Nari. I started with a drink called Nilaka, a delightful blend of agricole rum, mango-lassi, pineapple, pandan, and falernum. The mango-lassi made it easy to drink, masking the alcohol taste.

Our meal began with ma hor to freshen up our palate, followed by the Beef Shank Curry Puff—two curry puffs filled with braised beef shank, served with Curry Dipping Sauce and Ajad Pickles. They were incredibly flavorful and aromatic!

Next, we enjoyed the Scallop Yum Gati, featuring cured scallops with shiko par, chili jam, cashews, celtuce, chili, and herbs like lemongrass. The Yum Tawai salad was a delightful mix of fall vegetables, fruits, and herbs in a curried peanut dressing with sesame seeds. This was my favorite dish!

The Squid and Pork Jowl was a highlight, with grilled squid and sweet, succulent pork jowl topped with peanuts and cilantro, served with sticky rice. The Namtok Moo, grilled pork chop topped with herbs, was equally delicious, accompanied by sticky rice and lettuce wraps. I can see why people really like this dish—the pork jowl is so tender and juicy. The waiter advised eating a bite of squid with a bite of pork jowl together, and it was amazing! However, I have to say it's too salty for me, even though I ate a lot of rice and lettuce trying to balance it off.

The Gaeng Bumbai Aubergine, crispy eggplant in spicy Bumbai curry with basil and crispy shallots, pairs perfectly with their buttery roti. I love their roti! The eggplant is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.

The Namtok Moo, grilled pork chop topped with herbs and served with sticky rice and lettuce to wrap, was delicious!

Prik King Gai is crispy chicken stir-fried in curry paste with beans, dried shrimps, kaffir, and salted duck egg. By this point, my palate was feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the dishes. The intense flavors of spices and herbs like lemongrass and cilantro were becoming a bit much, with the saltiness standing out.

The last dish was caramelized fish sauce cabbage, fried with garlic. I was surprised to see this dish at the end, as I often have fried cabbage in my daily meals. It didn’t stand out among the other dishes.

For dessert, we had Dreaming of Lod Chong, a pandan parfait with salted coconut cream and ice, and Wan Yen, a refreshing mix of strawberry and raspberry, tapioca pearls, and jellies in salted coconut cream under crushed ice.

Overall, it was a fantastic and satisfying experience. At the end, the flavors were a bit overpowering and salty, but I highly recommend these dishes:

Scallop Yum Gati The Squid and Pork Jowl The Gaeng Bumbai Aubergine Dreaming...

some of the best thai food i’ve had! every dish was amazing and exactly what i would imagine a californian-thai fusion place would be like. must get dishes are branzino, aubergine curry and priking gai. save some room for dessert since the dreaming of lod chong is a must try! great for special occasions as an upscale option.

service pretty good but more on the professional side. waitress was attentive and servers explained each dish as it arrived

environment modern decorations with lots of wooden accents and high ceilings. loved the ceramics they served each dish on

drinks vasathi: must get if you like lemongrass, and refreshing cocktails

savitri: delicious! would get again, nari’s take on whiskey sour

orapim: loved the hint of tomato flavor and slight savoryness of this cocktail. not too sweet.

pikul: recommend if you like old fashioned. spirit forward. loved the toasted marshmallow.

food squid and pork jowl: highly recommend! the squid and pork perfectly complement each other and both cooked well. pork was juicy and flavorful and squid had good smoky flavor.

khao yum kluk: fried rice with fried anchovies. love that this dish had a spicy kick to it and also the crunchiness of the rice itself. really flavorful overall

scallop yum gati: dish was good but a little too pricy for what you get. scallops were fresh though.

nom tok moo: the pork was well cooked and juicy but the sauce was too salty. would skip next time.

miang pla: everyone recommends the branzino and it was a well made dish! fish was perfectly fried but still juicy inside and the lemongrass ginger flavor was perfect. i do wish there was more sauce to it since it was a little dry when eaten as a wrap

crispy eggplant curry: some of the best curry sauce ive ever had. had the perfect balance of creaminess, spice, salt, and acidity. however, the eggplant was a little underwhelming. it was well fried but lacked flavor when not eaten with the curry. didn’t really add much to the dish

priking gai: must get! the chicken is so crispy and flavorful.

beef curry: not spicy but so tender and flavorful.

dreaming of lod chong: the best dessert i’ve ever had in a restaurant. i’m a pandan fiend and loved the play on different textures with the chunk of ice to the smooth consistency of the ice cream to the slightly gelatinous coconut cream at the bottom. the ratio of pandan to coconut was perfect and nothing was too...

Nari has powerful flavors. It exemplifies traditional Thai spices and ingredients, a lot more orthodox than I expected, but presented in a modern fusion style. Being newly awarded a Michelin star, we walked in with high expectations.

Let's get done with the amazing aspects. Modern, chic, woody atmosphere at the Kabuki Hotel. Already perfect for a date night to impress. Airy space. Contemporary decor. Soft lighting. Bustling yet not noisy ambience. Good table spacing. All amazing. And the service was fabulous. Again, everything screamed of fine dining without the unnecessary level of snootyness.

The food is punchy. Every single dish can stand on its own and again, tries to scream in your mouth that they are special. Flavor layering is well done especially with the bit-sized appetizers. The sauces also play a very important role, whether they are pre-applied or poured on top of. The spice profile tries to run towards the moderate middleground but again, the chef is not compromising but rather giving you a bit of break. Otherwise, jumping from one dish to another is a powerful but taxing experience.

The food is great and for the tasting menu price of $125, we think it is really well worth it. But Nari's tasting menu also highlights that more is always not necessarily better.

Due to the powerful flavors, your tongue and brains get tired half-way through. There's no breather. No palate cleanser. And many of these dishes in Thai are served with rice or roti. But as a tasting menu, these neutral carbs cannot be the star of the show. Hence you get punches after punches.

And then the quantity. It's just a tad bit too much. When you are trying to down a tasty curry after 6~7 courses of tasting, it just overwhelms. Either make everything bite-sized or reduce the complexity of the main course.

Nari can easily take this to the next level by balancing out their course better. Every dish screams to be special, and they are. But the harmony of them put together in a sequence is where there needs to be tuning. And feel free to remove a dish or two and replace it with neutral flavors like a mild soup, etc.

Finally, I higly recommend ordering a light, netrual and more earthy wine. Without it, you will really have a tough time jumping from one dish to the next. And trust me, you'll feel exhausted after you finish.

It's a great experience overall. There's more that...