Restaurant Gish — Restaurant in Santa Clara

We had dinner at Restaurant Gish on Saturday, January 27, our usual Saturday date night out--and were lucky enough to get the last two spots at the chef's counter during their 8:00 pm seating. The restaurant is small (maybe 24 seats or a few more), tucked away in a small building housing a number of small businesses and an Eritrean Community Center, and with an unassuming exterior. So much so, I'd suggest allowing yourself a few extra minutes to find it the first time you go, just so you don't miss your reservation.

The atmosphere inside is wonderful, with a sort of industrial decor (the wall closest to us was concrete) warmed up with some nice lighting, warm colors on the table, and an open kitchen with a counter having a few additional seats. The kitchen is spotless, well-organized and quiet as the team goes about plating each course. If you're lucky enough to sit at the counter, you will have a chance to speak with the chef/owner and his wife, plus other members of the kitchen team, as they all take turns in serving the dishes and pouring the wine.

In case you're unfamiliar with the restaurant, they serve a fixed menu that changes monthly. I'd describe it as heavily Korean influenced haute cuisine.

The January menu included (1) a salad with homemade walnut tofu, thin, freshly fried lotus chips, bitter greens, and a citrus vinaigrette (plus a few drops of a tangerine emulsion, I think -- definitely citrus, not quite sure how it was prepared); (2) a shrimp and zucchini roulade in a sauce made of soy, blue crab stock, accompanied by a couple of thick slices of broiled zucchini topped with a bit of a soy marinated blue crab reduction, with a couple of small pieces of apple as a palate cleanser at the end; (3) duck breast jungsik (grilled duck breast served with seasonal banchan -- the small plates commonly served with many Korean meals -- including a variety of pickled greens, pickled radish and burdock root, plus a Korean chili paste and a tangerine marmalade), accompanied by duck leg confit served over rice with some seaweed and sesame seeds (this was wonderful!); and (4) an assortment of Korean desserts (yaksik, tteok, and sikhye). We also shared a wine pairing (a nice glass of French champagne, a Spanish Albarino (white), and an Italian red blend), which was very reasonably priced at $40.

Everything was excellent! The menu is well-thought out and interesting: my particular favorites were the duck breast with tangerine marmalade and a bit of the Korean chili paste, and the duck confit with seaweed and sesame over rice, but I enjoyed every dish. The entire front-of-the-house team was great, really friendly and helpful -- in fact, I told the chef how much I enjoyed the tangerine marmalade, and he gave me a bit of another jam he made to take home and try. That's the only downside of going at the end of the month, as they are running short of some of the bespoke items made in-house for the January menu, since they only have a couple of days left serving it.

I'm so glad we tried Restaurant Gish yesterday! The food was wonderful, served by nice people in a friendly atmosphere. We'll...

Great service and fun, cozy deco. Thoughtful wine list.

Had the August menu being the Korean American steakhouse theme.

The starter iceberg salad - I understand the concept of quartered whole iceberg but I felt like it was a bit under-presented at this price point. The sauce was flavorful, nicely nutty and seasoned, but was nowhere enough to be sufficient for the serving of iceberg.

The putgochu macaroni was probably the most disappointing. Gochu was good, filling was tasty, skin all crispy and seasoned well. Chorizo was a good touch which I enjoyed. However the macaroni… not sure what the thought was here. The sauce did not integrate with macaroni at all - I had a weird coat of gochujang and smoked paprika in my mouth, at the same time chewing through completely bland macaroni.

Marinated picanha was a good recovery after the macaroni. It was well cooked, good portion size, though I did wish it was slightly more tender. Galbi marinade was very tasty and it was able to make up for the texture.

I might be a bit picky but I really did not appreciate the presentation of banchan, being served on the same plate as the entrée. This is just not a Korean thing to do at all, being borderline rude. Even at American steakhouses, sides are more often than not served on their own plates. I tried to be positive but couldn’t help but feel like being at a dinner where the host didn’t care and wanted to save a few dishes to wash. In Korean, it felt like 소꿉장난 and the delicious picanha didn’t deserve this treatment. Maybe the intention was to fill the void on the plate with banchan, but that could’ve been done with the turnip moose to complement the meat. But I had some fun with the irony of having a whole wall full of plates right behind my back.

The banchan components were good. Doraji pickle and celery kimchi was refreshing. But the others - I didn’t think were very thoughtful. I think the pickled perilla leaves were there to mimic myeongyi namul based on the marinade but it looked more like typical perilla leaf banchan which requires rice - so without any carb on the plate, I was turned off and it was difficult to approach. The turnip moose was delicious and really enhanced the meat, but being presented alongside the other banchans on the same plate - just made the experience very awkward. Was it supposed to be a banchan or sauce for the steak? I’ll never know.

Dessert was delicious, thoroughly enjoyed the peach and the ice cream combination. Presentation was fun and pleasant.

Service was great throughout and I appreciated the general hospitality. However I did have leftovers on 2 out of 4 plates from the items I wasn’t so fond of, and I wish someone had at least checked on us to see if there were...

This restaurant was highly recommended by a close friend who is Korean. She mentioned the authenticity of the place and reasonable pricing of the set menu.

I was able to grab a reservation two months in advance in September, which ended up in November.

Tip: New reservations that are two months ahead come out at midnight. They are closed Sunday and Monday, so calculate accordingly! The reservation get snatched up fast, so make sure you have the page ready to go prior to midnight!

Our set menu at the time features the autumn season. We have the following -

Acorn Pudding with Kimchi and Korean Pear - light and refreshing appetizer

White Shrimp ball with Bori Shrimp on House made Gochujang Sauce - These were so delicious, shrimps were fresh and gochujang sauce added a nice kick!

Jjimdak Style Chicken with Autumn Vegetables - this was so good! they had both white and dark meat and I honestly have never had chicken breast that was as tender and juicy as this.

Chestnut Ice Cream with Horchata Veil - loved the asian flavor ice cream!

Wagyu Rib-eye cab (add-on) - we probably didn’t need to order this add-on as we were pretty full by the end of the meal but this was really good as well. The wagyu was buttery and rich, the amount was perfect for two.

Overall, I had a wonderful experience at Restaurant Gish. I will definitely come back again, just need to stay awake till midnight to make...