I apologize in advance for the quality of some of these photos.
We arrived early, and they didn't seat us until 50 minutes later, 20 minutes past our reservation time. When I asked what was taking so long, I was told "Well, you arrived early." That's not the point -- we had a reservation time of 9 pm and it's now 9:20 -- does everyone who comes here get seated this late? Edited to add that my hubby mentioned something they did not do which should have been done, and that was that the maître d'hôtel should have come over to us while we were sitting at the bar and apologized and/or informed us that it would be a while before our table was ready -- that I should *not* have had to go over to him by myself to inquire about our table's status. Strike #1.
Strike #2 was that it took nearly 5 minutes *after* being seated before we received the menus, and when they brought us the menus, they also brought us the first amuse-bouche. It felt like a weird combination of: (1) we're being rushed and (2) we're being punished.
"Thai soup" -- while it reminded me of tom kha gai and hit all the right flavor notes, I was asking myself why are we eating pseudo-Thai food in this restaurant?
Buckwheat blini, salmon, osetra caviar.
Well-made blini -- perfect, actually. Like butter-flavored clouds.
Seared foie gras, caramelized onion, poached rhubarb.
Plating doesn't inspire confidence, a theme you will see repeatedly throughout. Was prepared well though from what little I tasted.
Figs, arugula, fennel, Gorgonzola cheese.
Average salad, nothing special.
Seared scallops, morels, English peas, Madeira.
Excellent, from the bite or two I stole off of my hubby's plate.
Lamb loin with farroto, Medjool dates, carrots and chermoula.
The lamb was well-cooked. The plating sucked, the sauce was oversalted (basically, if you can taste it, it's too much), and the accompaniments slapdash.
WTF is it with all the square plates?
Cheese cart.
Sauternes.
Louisiana butter cake, peaches, huckleberry compote, vanilla ice cream.
Amateurish plating. Cake itself was "fine". Maybe I ordered wrong.
Flourless chocolate birthday cake.
Mignardises.
Total bill came out to $294 (with a 20% tip).
Based on this initial visit, I found GD underwhelming. It validates my theory that San Francisco is a city of mostly mediocre restaurants. Better luck next time at the restaurant roulette wheel?
