SSAL — Restaurant in San Francisco

The cooking overall was impeccable. Also, I should mention that the ingredients they source are definitely top-notch, probably from extremely exclusive suppliers. I want to shop my groceries where they source their seafood for sure! The king crab, sea urchin, and especially the abalone were to die for. If Michelin judged only based on the quality of cooking and ingredients, this restaurant for sure would have been worth way more than one star. The beef tartare was one of the best I've ever had.

That said, I noticed the sashimi appetizer was a bit of a "stepping-stone dish" that could be a novelty to non-Koreans, but what feels like a placeholder or an afterthought to the native Korean diners / eaters in general. And while each dish was refined and of the best quality it could be, I wondered about the progression / harmony of the course as a whole. And little details. They should definitely ditch the teetering porcelain table plate that was supposed to be a sophisticated substitute for a table mat. It was precariously shaky whenever I tried to cut into anything. I liked the whole Korean dinnerware concept, but either invest in heavier dinnerware, or a table mat that won't turn into a seesaw. Oysters should always be served with a spoon or a fork, even though they can be eaten without one, in a fine dining environment. Not all diners want to slurp oysters from their shells. Same with a quail dish--the authentic feel with the bone in is nice, but you shouldn't expect a diner visiting a Michelin-level restaurant to pick up a whole leg and tear meat from the bone. Unless it's a tiny bone, that is, like a frog leg. I also don't know how the croissant should fit in, although the croissant itself was of top quality. It was too much deviation from the otherwise very Korea-oriented course. As much as I love the fish itself, I must say Galchi is not the best to serve in broth of any kind. The plum should have been better incorporated into the quail dish. The sauce definitely called for the plum’s sweet tartness, and it would have better complemented the whole dish if the plum were part of the sauce rather than a separate element. And the fruits must always be peeled, or let your diners know that they can eat them unpeeled. Serving them only half peeled is rather confusing and unnecessary.

Some other details--they only have one unisex bathroom, with the hook for a bag / coat way too high, with nowhere else to deposit personal belongings. This is rather bizarre for a restaurant of this quality. And staff should not speak to the diners when they're chewing or drinking (which is usually a polite code for 'please don't talk to me'). Of course, efforts for friendly conversation are appreciated, but not when they're trying to swallow some remnants of the previous dish or cleanse their palate for the next course. And if I be really picky—I thought the playlist could have been a bit better. I appreciated the authenticity of the Korean songs playing in the background, but it’s questionable whether or not they were on par with the quality food they were serving.

All in all, this was my favorite contemporary take on Korean food I've tried so far in the U.S.--I think the restaurant only has a few tiny steps from getting another...

A very disappointing experience. Very unaccommodating and lag of skill chef and indifference staff. My wife is lactose intolerance and I mentioned in the reservation in advance. We asked the chef to substitute butter if possible and was told he will. In all but one dish everything was served as is with butter prepared sauce or creamy dessert. My wife repeatedly ask for substitute butter in the cooking and was promised. In fact for the quail dish, even though the chef fully knew the sauce has butter in it, instead of giving an alternative or ask for putting the sauce on the side, he just walked up to my wife and pour the sauce on her plate and walked away. He fully knew my wife will not enjoy it and deliberately do it to spoil the experience. For dessert and petit four, there is no adjustment and everything just drop on the table. When asked, the waiting staff just said, you should not eat it and walked away. This is not what Michelin star restaurant chef or staff should do. It just showed the chef simply doesn't have the skill to adjust and the heart to please customer. And the wait staff is just unprofessional. Bay Area has a lot of Michelin restaurants, I dinned in Single Thread, Madcap and Nisei (one block down the street) during this summer. Everyone of them have skilled and caring chefs that tried to accommodate our request. Only SSAL gave us the attitude and unprofessional experience like this. Very...

We went to Ssal for a special family dinner the night before our wedding. We were excited but also weren't exactly sure what to expect from Korean fine dining and their tasting menu. We enjoyed the fried chicken and kimbap they served during covid though so we knew it had to be good.

As we expected, every single dish was absolutely DELICIOUS! Every dish was familiar since they obviously used Korean ingredients and meal inspirations but still so novel and creative!! We loved them all but the raw beef tart, sweet potato pancake, flounder mul hwe, and juk were my favorite. The only problem we had was that it was so much food that we were so full lol We were so sad we couldn't finish every single bite.

The service was incredible and chef came and explained every dish and checked in throughout to make sure we were enjoying ourselves. Not only that but, to our surprise, the team even printed "congratulations on your wedding" in Korean on our dessert!!! We were so incredibly touched and it made our wedding experience even more special and memorable. Thank you to Chef Junsoo and the Ssal team for curating such a special and tasty experience and celebrating our happy occasion with us. It was...