Sun Moon Studio is located in Oakland just a couple blocks from Den Sake (we enjoyed their sake maker dinner at Nisei) and less the 0.5 mile from Hyphy Burger and an industrial area. It’s only the second active Michelin starred restaurant in the east bay having just received theirs in the June update to the guide.
It seemed to have a more relaxed vibe than many fine dining restaurants. This may also be due to the fact that there are only seats 12 for dinner and we were the first to arrive for the second seating so we had the restaurant to ourselves for a little bit. We went ahead and went with the wine pairing which was a relatively modest $100 per.
First dish was their house made tofu topped with Santa Barbara uni and some small tomato halves. The tofu was silky and despite the uni having a more muted color it had a bright, fresh ocean flavor. Amazingly, we haven’t had Santa Barbara in what seems like a very long time (Hokkaido is the most common) and it was nice to have it once again and it worked nicely with this dish. Flavors all came together nicely so we were off to a nice start.
After that came the local SF Bay halibut with sliced bits of cucumber, melon, and strips of cabbage. The sauce had a bit of acid and some heat to it. The melon provided a mild amount of sweetness. We both really liked the combination of flavors on the dish.
We were told the next trio of dishes would be finger foods. The first was served by Chef Sarah, the egg custard tart topped with trout roe. She also mentioned there was dashi in there. The crust of the tart was made with many layers and was light and crisp with some butter flavor of course (Chef Sarah was previously a pastry and bread chef at several very highly acclaimed restaurants). This tasted really great with the custard and the roe.
We were soon thereafter served the Taiwanese style sausage served in a brioche bun. The sausage wasn’t very spicy, but either the sausage or a bit of sauce had a slight touch of sweetness. It was a a bit playful and I’m assuming this was mimicking perhaps a street food (but what do I know).
Next came the tempura which included shrimp and squash blossom. The tempura batter was incredibly light and crisp and not greasy. The prawns were sweet and I’m very much a sucker for fried squash blossoms.
Next came the corn pasta dish. We were both looking forward to this since we had a fantastic corn pasta dish at Cotogna. The corn was from Brentwood and there were also smoked mussels and baby tomatoes. It was a good dish, but I certainly wish it had a more prominent flavor of corn and we definitely preferred the one at Cotogna.
Next came the Mt. Lassen trout served to us once again by Chef Sarah. This was accompanied by some squash atop some smoked eggplant (kinda babaganoushy (is that a word?)) with some additional trout jus. The trout was cooked perfectly with the skin cooked to a perfect crisp. Since I love babaganoush, I did like the touch of smoked eggplant. Another solid dish.
Next came the Stemple Creek short rib dish. This was cooked nicely with a good amount of pink in the middle and nice browning on the edge. There was a black garlic sauce that visually matched the coloring of the pattern on the plate. There was a dab of a plum sauce and also a Jimmy Nardello pepper. What really made this dish work was putting a bit of each ingredient in a single bite with the umami and unctuousness of the short rib, with a bit of the sweet and brightness from the plum sauce and a bit of spice from the pepper and the garlic sauce.
The short rib was also accompanied by their parker house rolls and house made cultured butter. Rolls were light and airy. They avoided basting them with an additional bit of butter and were lightly salted. Butter was good. Overall I wish there was just a bit more salt, but it went very well with the short rib.
The first dessert was some ice cream made out of sake lees from nearby Den Sake with a hemisphere of Sierra fig. I liked the unique flavor of the sake lees.
Next dessert was the raspberry cream puff. Andrea loves raspberries so I knew this was right up her alley. The puff was light filled with some raspberry cream and then topped with some deliciously fresh strawberries. This was served along with the Bronx grapes which is part of their tradition of providing some fresh fruit from the market. I don’t think I’ve ever had Bronx grapes before, but I did find the flavor much more interesting than the typical green or red grapes that I grew up eating (i.e. the typical ones you’d put up at a regular grocery store).
Lastly came a red basket of fries at the end of the meal delivered by Chef Alan. He said it was in case you wanted to end the meal on a savory note. The fries were cooked perfectly (would have liked a bit more salt on them). It was an amusing and interesting way to end the meal.
As a parting take-home snack we were also provided some olive oil cake with a bit of orange in it, which we both did end up having with our morning coffee. The cake was incredibly moist and the touch of citrus was nice.
It was a very enjoyable experience. A solid 1* for sure. We liked the relaxed vibe aided by the relatively small low number of diners and good acoustics.
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