Tonight’s dinner was at Marlena. We last ate here in November 2021 just after they received their Michelin star. My recollection was that it was ok and very under-seasoned (just some salt would have helped), but their prix fixe pricing was very value oriented (back then it was $60/pp if I recall correctly). We’ve obviously eaten at so many places since then…some vastly more expensive that we didn’t find worth the money and some more moderately priced places that we did. So I’ve been wanting to come back here for awhile just to see how it was compared to our more recent dining.

Over the summer last year, they had renovated and it looked a bit more elegant and contemporary, albeit a bit monochromatic. Format for dining is the same…a prix fixe menu…now $75pp, but still quite modest by SF standards. For each course there was a choice of one of two dishes in addition to additions to the menu including their milk bread, black truffle on the second course, and A5 wagyu. We, of course, opted for all of the options because that’s the way we roll. We did ask about the truffle before committing because we’ve been burned so many times by dried out truffles. The server knew that the truffles came in two days ago and said they were fresh, so we took him at his word (although we have also taken others at their word and regretted it). Since there was a choice for each course, we ordered one of each so we could try every dish.

I have to admit that we brought some of our own salt because we were concerned that the we might have the same experience as last time, but our fears were wholly unfounded. To start with, the milk bread was very moist and tender and slated (huzzah!). The salt(!) baked beets with pepita pesto was very good as was the cured kampachi. Both were very good, so off to a great start.

For our second course, Andrea had the cavatelli (squash, chantrelles, onion) with truffle and I had the farroto verde (celeriac and egg yolk) with truffle. Truffles as you can see were some of the freshest, most moist we’ve had at any restaurant. Of the two dishes, the cavatelli was tastier.

Next course, Andrea had the seared chicken breast (i think i’m allergic to chicken breast…give me dark meat any time over white meat….) and I had the roasted corvina. Both were very good. The corvina was nicely cooked with a crisp to the skin and the chicken was also very flavorful and delicious. If you look at it, it’s layered which looks like both white meat and dark, but it was seasoned well.

This course was also when the wagyu was served. One of the owner/chef’s came out to serve the jus on the wagyu. He obviously seemed very rushed so his service was very perfunctory. The wagyu was perfectly cooked and was very flavorful which was in contrast to how I remembered our previous dining experience.

Lastly, our desserts…I had the marscapone semifreddo with pistachio crunch and andrea had the chocolate pine which was a chocolate cake with salted caramel and some crumble. The marscapone was very tasty, esp. the pistachio crunch. Interestingly, this dish was new just today. The chocolate pine was good, but not great. the salted caramel was very salty (which of course we kind of liked), but overall the dish was just ok for us.

Service was attentive and was provided by the whole group of servers. Food came out very promptly, if anything perhaps just a tad too quick, given that we were in and out in less than 90 minutes…not rushed, but a bit brisk and we didn’t get to savor and linger as much as we sometimes like to do. Wines (no pairing option, just by the glass) were decent and interesting and wine orders arrived very promptly.

All in all, we came away wholly impressed with this second visit here which is in such huge contrast to the first time when we were so underwhelmed. It’s an easy recommendation for us to give to anyone. And since they change up their menu fairly frequently and more than reasonably priced, we won’t wait so long to come back!