This my 4th time dining here (2016, 2021, 2022) and Andrea’s second or third time. The last time we ate here was 2.5 years ago. Since that was before Chef Richard Lee became executive chef at Saison, this would be our first time dining here with his menu.

We had an early seating as us old folks are wont to do and were the first ones seated in the dining/kitchen area (the other area further back is the bar/salon seating area). Aside from the tasting menu, I had added both the uni and the wagyu courses for us because of course I did. We asked about the wine pairings and they still had two, the standard and the reserve so we went with one of each so we could try the greatest variety of wines.

First came their herbal tea which is served cold. It had a variety of floral components and some lemon verbena. This was soon followed by a quartet of first bites/amuse-bouche.

We started with the currant tomato based one which was a sort of gazpacho gelée. Can say I love the texture of gelée, but the flavor was unique and interesting. The second one we tried was the oyster with the husk cherry/tomato and another nice bite.

As we had finished that bite, the bread came out which was a layered brioche with miso. This was fantastic, buttery, with a nice crunch on the outside, moist and rich on the inside with the miso added another layer to it all and I did also find the layering with the black lines visually interesting as well.

We moved back to the third bite which was a tuna with watermelon and sansho pepper and the last bite was a duck liver stroopwafel with huckleberries. I have to admit I love stroopwafels, but I’ve certainly never had a savory one like this and I’m a sucker for duck liver.

The amuses were all amusing and nice start and primed us for the rest of the meal which started off with a bang – caviar (from The Caviar Co. with which we are very familiar), a corn puree, and little tiny slices of geoduck. We don’t normally think of caviar with corn (usually potato or a buttery brioche. I don’t think even Californios who is very masa forward uses corn with their caviar), but it worked beautifully here – starchy, with a bit of sweetness, and the corn flavor. Fantastic.

These were paired with our first wines which also set the tone for how the two wine pairings would compare and contrast. The standard pairing came with a Pinot Meunier based Champagne (Pinot Meunier seems to be so much trendier know having had a Pinot Meunier Champagne and multiple dinners this year) and the Reserve pairing had a 2009 Billecart-Salmon Blanc de Blancs. The Pinot Meunier had a crisp freshness to it and the aged Billecart-Salmon had a richness to it. A great contrast, but we hands down preferred the Billecart-Salmon.

Next course was included spot prawns. If you look at the first picture I have of the kitchen, on the left side of the picture, you’ll see the tank where they keep the prawns. The prawn course came 4-ways – the sort of mini-taco with a perilla leaf, the grilled prawn head with habanada pepper sauce, a vinaigrette made from the heads to be used with the taco and the head, a shellfish broth (not pictured). All were so rich with flavor. Andrea liked the flavor of the prawn head, but didn’t so much enjoy chomping on the chitinous shells (I’m the one usually eating the heads if they’re served).

Next course was the black code with butter bean and fennel all in deliciously rich sauce.

Then came our supplemental course – the uni. I was asking our primary waitperson why this was a supplemental course since it’s previously been one of the signature dishes and she said it was because not everyone likes uni (gasp!) so that makes sense. Uni was from hokkkaido this time (when I ate here in 2021 and 2022, they were using Ft. Bragg uni, supposedly because of supply chain issues(?)) atop a piece of sourdough rich with sauce.

The uni dish was paired with an IWA sake (we did get to choose our sake cups), a sake produced by Richard Geoffrey previously at Dom Perignon for 28 years. This sake was full bodied yet still had so many of the delicate tropical notes. I’m definitely going to have to buy some from True Sake.

Then came a vegetable dish/palate cleanser? made with cucumber, avocado, and epazote and even this was quite flavorful and we quickly consumed it.

Now we started into the poultry in meats. First up was guinea hen served in 2 parts, one piece of white meat and one of dark. There was a piece of garleek (didn’t even know this cross between garlic and leek even existed until now) with some truffle (Perigord from France) and some mustard seeds. Another delicious dish. For the reserve pairing, Andrea actually received two beverages an Edelweiss Pilsner style lager from Hanabi Lager and a Cobb Pinot which the somm claimed to be the best producer of pinot in Sonoma. I had a Arnot Roberts Trousseau, a grape grown in Jura. We weren’t impressed with the Pinot, but we generally prefer a more robust Pinot since (or normal go to is Croix) although I really liked that lager.

Then we were presented the rack of lamb and were able to choose our knives (I do enjoy selecting my knife) before being served our dishes. The lamb was accompanied with some eggplant, pluot, and leaves of anise hyssop. Again, a delicious well prepared dish with some nice sauce and interesting ingredients. This was paired with a DuMol Syrah for Andrea and I had a By Farr Shiraz. I’m not nearly as big a Syrah/Shiraz fan as Andrea is, but I found them both to excellent.

Last meat course was our wagyu supplement. Wagyu was from the Miyazaki prefecture. Wagyu was cooked perfectly and accompanied with a nice sauce and some bok choy. The wine was a 2015 Margaux from Chateau Brane-Castenac (second growth). This wine was delicious and such a perfect embodiment of a Margaux. I think I’m going to have to buy some bottles of this too.

Then came a melon and frozen yogurt dish as a pre-dessert. For dessert it was very tasty presentation of dates with tobacco(!) and a sauce made with the infamous and supposedly banned tonka bean from South America. The dessert wine pairings were so different. Mine was a Vin Santo and Andrea’s was a Ratafia de Champagne which is champagne grape must fortified with brandy. We don’t drink a lot of fortified wines and this made us think of the Marc de Bourgogne we had at Chateau Meursault, but this was definitely smoother than that. But I preferred the comfortable familiarity of the Vin Santo in all of it’s raisinated sweetness.

Then came the last bites/mignardise, our favorite of which was the canelé (ever since we had them in Bordeaux, we’re always on the search for them). The other two were unique and interesting as well – carmelized white chocolate and a saffron and chartreuse gelée – again, not a huge gelée fan for the texture, but the flavor was interesting.

All in all, a fantastic meal. The food was a significant step up from the last two times I had eaten here (no more dehydrated carrot…). Wine pairings were very good. Service was perfunctory and a tad less engaging then some of our best experiences, but all very efficient and professional. I’m guessing that they’re looking to regain that third star and with the quality and flavor of the food and the interesting combinations of ingredients, they’d get my vote.

On our way out to our Waymo, they gave us a little goodie bag that had some tea, butter cookies, and a cookie spread which had for breakfast the next morning with my coffee. Yum!

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