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Saison has been around in one form or another since 2009. Even today, it’s considered a once-in-a-lifetime type of meal that you probably really need a reason for, like an engagement, an anniversary, or whatever milestone in your life you’d want to mark with something you may never do again.
The roughly 9-12-course meal here is a long marathon of small, precisely plated dishes, and if that doesn’t make you feel close enough to dining in the court of Louis XIV, the price will. Dinner here costs $328, with an optional $198 wine pairing (there is a shorter tasting menu, too, starting at $218), but it’s an amount worth paying if you want to spend a night pretending to be the heir to the throne of a country no one’s ever heard of.
photo credit: Mary Lagier
When you walk into Saison, it feels like you could be in some sort of modern, royal hunting lodge. There are animals mounted on the walls and firewood stacked so precisely that you wouldn’t be surprised if it was someone’s entire job to do this while wearing white gloves. The ceilings are high, the dining room is sleek and precise, and the open kitchen looks like it could be a lab. It’s the kind of place that a movie about a restaurant would be filmed in, not one you actually get to eat at.
Everything here is presented to you with great ceremony - from the staff showing you to the bathroom like it was a Swiss bank vault, to the food and wine being announced like it was their debutante ball. Each dish is brought out with different plates, flatware, and glasses, and when you’re served meat, you are presented with a tray of knives to choose from like they were yours to keep. Sadly, they’re not.
photo credit: Mary Lagier
The menu here constantly changes, but the food generally focuses on two things - the wood burning stove in the kitchen and using an ingredient to the nth power in one dish. You might see things like a lobster broth served with grilled lobster tail and a lobster dumpling, or a piece of grilled bread soaked in a sauce made of more bread before being topped with uni.
The wine pairings at Saison definitely make the cost of the meal add up, but there’s also nowhere else in the city where you’ll get to try some of these bottles by the glass. Each pour (including a glass of champagne to start) are mostly French and come from some of the most famous producers in their respective regions. If you don’t want to spend the extra $198 for the beverage pairing though, there’s also a 130-page wine list you can spend an entire night looking through.
Dinner at Saison is a meal to anticipate. You may think a few dishes are overly complicated, or that the service can feel a little alien at times, but it’s the entire experience at Saison that makes it one of the most incredible meals in San Francisco.
The menu here constantly changes, but this is a sample of some things you might eat.